With M-Net's wonderful new move to not just acquire hit American TV shows but to also try and broadcast it much faster to episodes being shown in America, there will be some implications - and it's time for South African TV viewers to adjust, mature a bit and adapt to how the rest of the world has been watching television for a while now.
M-Net, e.tv and the SABC have over many years conditioned South African TV viewers to think that a TV show starts and ends in one continuous run, over 13 or 26 or 24 or 22 weeks with a new episode every week.
It was possible only because series in South Africa would start so much later than in America. It was like South African broadcaster waited for a DVD "box set" to be available before putting those disks in and pressing play. Either a whole season was already shown and all the episodes available, or there would be enough of a lead time - a buffer so to speak - to have at least a few episodes always to show.
This "certainty" will be gone now, but I salute and congratulate M-Net for the move. It's a move which requires courage, a move which requires more work and strategic thinking, planning and possibly more money because fresh apples at Pick n Pay always cost more than the older ones.
And just like we're not really in control of the world, viewers elsewhere in the world have had to work a little bit harder to follow their favourite shows and to seek out new episodes. South African TV viewers will now have to start do the same. Viewers who really like a specific show will have to do a little bit more homework and invest some time in tracking their favourite TV shows on M-Net to continue to enjoy the stories and characters and series they follow.
A favourite TV show might not be on for one week, because of an interruption in America where a show might be preempted or moved - and it happens for various reasons. Don't despair, it's not that bad. And the net result outweighs the few negatives. And what M-Net is helping with, is to give subscribers the opportunity to see and talk along with the rest of the world when a new show starts or a new season of a TV show returns. And that's a giant leap to make.
M-Net says that when a TV show which M-Net is acquiring very quickly to show in South Africa, takes what is called a "midseason break" (in America a season is sometimes "divided between the first half of a season, then a break, and then the second batch of a season),or if there is suddenly not an episode for a week, or for two, the M-Net channel (DStv 101) and M-Net Series (DStv 114) "will have to go on a break and we will find a filler or special to replace the series until production returns in the United States".
What it means, is that M-Net, scheduling wise, will be following the same "recipe" as America, as Australia, as the United Kingdom and several other comparable countries. After all, M-Net can't show what it doesn't have right?
It might be somewhat jarring, but if you check TV listings and watch out for your show(s) you will always know if there is still another new episode, or when there will be a new episode again if a show gets interrupted. It's really not difficult. And the upside is that you don't have to wait so long anymore. It's exactly how people watch TV elsewhere in the world in progressive TV markets, and the pay-off for seeing episodes super quickly, but while a season is still not completed yet.
"If and when there is a special broadcast in the United States, for instance a presidential address or the Superbowl, and the American TV network decides not to air an episode that week, it means that M-Net and M-Net Series will follow suit and will not air the episode," says M-Net.
"If the distributors decide to stop the production in the middle and write off any additional episodes on the air because the series does not have strong ratings in the United States, the channels will have to do the same," says M-Net.
Once again, this is no problem. At the very least M-Net now gives viewers the choice and freedom to still see shows which they might enjoy, before it might get cancelled and in the past might never even have been shown at all. Because now not even M-Net knows if a show will be hot or not or cancelled (even through the programme buyers are very clever) South African viewers get the chance to see stuff which might not have been shown here.
In hindsight some shows are simply not put on, even though they were great. Now something like Pan Am might make it to the M-Net channel immediately, a show which was cancelled in America (because of a bad timeslot and day), but did very well internationally because it was a high quality show.
"In light of all of the above, please note that NCIS: Los Angeles was originally scheduled to start 'hot off the heels' of the United States on Saturday 13 October at 20:30. Unfortunately, having received the running order from the distributor, the US will be taking numerous breaks in transmission of the show, which we would like to avoid," says M-Net.
"In light of this, the channel has decided to move out the series to start at a later date (February 2013) as opposed to having long breaks in between the episodes. Whilst this will be the norm of playing shows 'hot off the heels' of the US, this particular show would have been riddled with far too many breaks," explains M-Net.
