In an increasingly media savvy consumer market in South Africa and on the rest of the continent where audience fragmentation in television is picking up steam and necessitating niche broadcasting, M-Net says the pay broadcaster will in future increasingly focus on creating specific genre TV channels and content for those channels.
''There's going to be some changes to our other channels besides the M-Net channel,'' says Lani Lombard, M-Net's communications manager. ''The big reasoning behind this is that at M-Net going forward, we want to create tailor-made channels for our audiences. We want to make it easy for them to know where to find the specific programming they would like to watch.''
''M-Net Series (DStv 110) in future will offer the best in scripted series and talk shows and the reality will move to some of the other channels like Vuzu (DStv 123). The blockbuster reality shows will remain and move to the M-Net channel (DStv 101) and that will be in the 18:30 timeslot, where analogue viewers will see Binneland. The other reality shows will move to Vuzu.''
''So that we don't upset anybody,'' she says, ''we will play out all the programming to the end of a season where they are. As they end, shows will gradually move to their new homes. It's a very long process, and we actually started with this already a while ago with American Idol. American Idol is already on the M-Net channel.''
