It could be that the Gringe stole it, but I can exclusively break the news that there won't be any special limited-run, holiday channel from M-Net this year.
DStv that ran a special catch-up encore channel provided by M-Net to MultiChoice in the past with the name M-Net Holiday, which then disappeared for a year and came back renamed as m199 last year, won't be happening this year, sources tell me exclusively.
The reason is somewhat technical but, explains an insider, has mostly to do with the ''runs'' in trade-speak of shows and their seasons. Distributors license and broadcasters buy a set of ''runs'' or a number of times a show can be repeated. M-Net Holiday or m199 was a self-compiled channel that would start in mid-December and essentially be another repeat window of shows already broadcast recently.
Now. Keep in mind all those shows that moved and shifted at the beginning of the year from M-Net Action (DStv 106) to M-Net Series (DStv 110), and from M-Net Series (DStv 110) to Vuzu (DStv 123), and from M-Net (DStv 101) to Vuzu (DStv 123). Keep in mind that there is M-Net HD (DStv 170), shows that's on M-Net and all these other M-Net channels loaded onto DStv's Catch-Up service; shows now available online on the Catch-Up service. All of these technically count towards the overall package of runs of shows, which now also ''eats'' at the runs.
Additionally all the runs are mostly anyway used by M-Net HD and M-Net Series, and several of the shows that moved to Vuzu this year have become part of a very different rotation pattern than before, further complicating matters.
The end result? Not really enough shows that can really be bundled and shown with another run left - unless M-Net spends a lot more money overall, or protracted distributor wrangling takes place.
Also keep in mind MultiChoice's limited satellite broadband capacity for the time being as a separate factor that also has bearing on this issue. Keep in mind that MultiChoice launched several new TV channels this year. MultiChoice will still be launching one more new TV channel before the end of the year. It all took bandwidth. So quite a confluence of reasons as to why there won't be a holiday channel from M-Net this year.
