It is not just the M-Net channel (DStv 101) and M-Net HD (DStv 170) which will become basically 100% the same channel on 1 October - according to sources M-Net Action (DStv 106) will be changing its name as well as its logo on 1 October, I can reveal.
The change coming for M-Net Action very likely forms part of the new genre-specific new channels M-Net plans to launch in September or October which I revealed in March. Towards the end of last year several M-Net insider sources spoke to me at length about M-Net's genre specific channel expansion plans which the pay TV broadcaster has been working on. "It's going to be huge," sources said to me at the beginning of this year.
In April this year Pierre Cloete was also appointed in the newly created position of director: M-Net Movie Channels heading up the new genre-specific channels' roll-out.
"The emphasis for new M-Net channels will be squarely on genre. Viewers will know instantly what channels on DStv to tune to to see what,'' insiders told me at the beginning of the year. Sources then told me that plans were underway "for new channels such as "M-Net Premiere, M-Net Comedy, M-Net Drama and M-Net Modern Greats for instance. There will be a strong emphasis on genre from now and into the future for everything M-Net does. Also, some of these movie channels will be in HD.''
It was in November 2010 when sources first told me exclusively about M-Net's new genre-specific channel approach, which would be closely following the Sky model in the United Kingdom, and which now seems to be close to its imminent introduction to pay-TV subscribers in South Africa. The new capacity becoming available on the just-launched Intelsat 20 (IS 20) is now helping to bringing this strategic plan closer to reality.
Asked yesterday whether M-Net Action is indeed changing its name and logo yet again on 1 October, M-Net Action declined comment and directed media enquiries to M-Net's corporate spokesperson. M-Net said in response that "M-Net would not like to comment on any changes to our channels right now".
