OPINION. The sad decline: From M-Net Action to M-Net B-grade. How the M-Net Action channel collapsed in the time it takes to make a baby.

Awash with trash, devoid of purpose, the once fantastically flexing M-Net Action (DStv 106) has like some over-the-hill Schwarza-action hero not just lost all its muscle mass in programming, but has become the open laughing stock of viewers as a cheap TV channel that's clearly no longer able to carry any weight.

In the nine months since January, M-Net Action - originally the TV home of quality action films and TV series as well as some genre programming like science fiction shows - has clearly taken its biggest plunge ever in dismantling, breaking and destroying what once made M-Net Action (previously called ActionX) great.

The astounding destruction of the channel as seen from a viewer's perspective - the unceremonious culling of TV series off of M-Net Action and the seeming relentless race to the bottom to fill the schedule with schlocky direct-to-video B-grade movies - is a big slap in the face of subscribers. And the dismantling of a brand that once used to be better, is continuing unabated.

M-Net Action is fast diluting the original brand and the channel's positioning. In effect, M-Net Action has become M-Net Awful. It's almost as if M-Net suddenly decided that there's too many M-Net channels and decided to mangle M-Net Action of the little bit of content that actually did in a sense keep the channel unique - reappropriating and neutering what once made it different and gave it a bit of a distinctive vibe.

I can't remember when in the last 9 months I actively wanted to go, and remain on channel 106 because of something I knew beforehand was coming up that I actually wanted to watch on M-Net Action. I can't remember when last I happen to flip over 106 and felt like I wanted to stay. Everything on it seems old and bad and awful.

As an observer of television, the past 9 months for me has seen a sad decline for M-Net Action, stripped of its titular attractions, hot series, science fiction fun and all its erstwhile edginess - leaving the once literally fire-brand  brand drifting aimlessly, becoming bloated with a growing cache of B-grade, old and terrible TV trash. The once cool street where the party was at is suddenly a largely shuttered-up, deserted and run-down downtown street. It's now one of those places where nobody goes except to buy drugs; filled with homeless direct-to-video beggars and goons peddling hand-me-down heroes. What on earth happened M-Net Action?

Where M-Net Action once had some cache, the channel has in a matter of months completely diluted its channel standing to, in my opinion, become worse than M-Net Stars. The once first-run, up-to-date international content channel (that even did – gasp! – local shows, although we're trying to forget the ill conveived stripper reality show) and kept a flavour for science fiction going, has descended into a dreary brain-dead zombie zone. It's where grainy, terrible B-grade, direct-to-video garbarge now reside. No cool TV shows. No buzz. No more allure.

Remember when MultiChoice took the Sci-Fi Channel away and promised with M-Net that ActionX will show science fiction and keep it alive with an infusion of that genre on this channel? Finally that promise is now clearly also out the door.

What M-Net Action has quickly turned into is the same as a once 5 star luxury hotel that had a great swimming pool, but either through too much deliberate tampering, or uncaring neglect, let it go unkept. Now all that's left is a filthy, green swamp land nobody wants to go near or dip as much as a toe into. Yes. Swimming pools quickly become cestpools, and TV channels are the same. If you stop giving them love, care and attention and withold the daily dose of good chlorine, you end up with something where toads go to breed.

M-Net Action's fire has lost all the heat it once packed, ironically in the same proportion as the small flickering flame in the logo that kept getting smaller and smaller. It's probably just a matter of time before M-Net Action's once white hot fire is completely extinguished.