I can exclusively break the news that the brand-new global science fiction TV drama Defiance which M-Net grabbed the broadcasting rights for, will be going to M-Net Series (DStv 114) and that Defiance will start on M-Net Series on Thursday 4 July at 22:30.
That's the good news.
The bad news is that M-Net - which completely missed the boat and the intention when it didn't broadcast the first season of Touch at the same time as the rest of the world saw it and who "played the show" at the same time on social media (because the show's premise is about how humanity is interlinked) - will impede South African viewers and DStv subscribers' ability to fully enjoy Defiance in the multi-dimensional way it's actually intended.
Defiance actually starts in mid-April as a TV drama in the rest of the world and is set in the town of Defiance - what is left in the future of St Louis and a largely destroyed Earth where mankind and aliens live together (not so harmoniously) after a devastating war.
Defiance also starts as an online video game. And the events, and how a global online community shape the story in the game, will impact in some fashion on the actual TV show.
Sadly South African viewers will remain passive onlookers since M-Net Series viewers on DStv won't be able to see the show, play the show, and then see some of that play actually affect the science fiction drama at the same time as the rest of the world when it really matters.
Defiance will also not be broadcast in high definition (HD).
Perhaps South African television viewers should just actually be grateful and thankful that they are getting to see a new science fiction show.
Don't forget that ours is a sci-fi adverse TV market where MultiChoice dumped The Sci-Fi Channel years ago and never brought it back, where M-Net promised science fiction shows and genre programming on M-Net Action (totally failed and broken promise!) and SABC3 took off Star Trek The Next Generation mid third season with the daft explanation that it's "too old, doesn't have enough viewers and that it has more Zulu than English viewers" who the channel claimed was not its the desirable audience.
At least there's e.tv with Anaconda 9: Hunt for the Blood Orchid's Evil Snake Babies and The Universal Channel's schlock sci-fi movies like The Day the Earth Stood Still because it suddenly filled with too much water - Return of the Sea Dinosaurs 5.
Defiance looks like it's going to be upmarket current sci-fi television to rival Falling Skies on Fox Entertainment (TopTV 180) on TopTV - it's just that South African viewers will get to see it just a tad bit too late.
