You can see it first.
Now you can be a TV critic and see it first: M-Net is planning a massive public preview of the new tentpole science fiction dramas Defiance and Under the Dome before it starts on the schedules of M-Net (DStv 101) and M-Net Series Showcase (DStv 113) - and the public is invited to watch the first episodes on the big screen in cinemas.
For the first time ever M-Net is going to preview big-buzz TV shows which the pay-TV broadcaster clearly believes in very strongly, not only to the public before it starts on television, but also on the big screen in cinemas in association with Nu Metro Cinemas.
If you're older than 16, you can email M-Net at mnetseries@mnet.co.za for one of the 500 tickets up for grabs to join TV critics and journalists across South Africa to watch the first episode of Defiance and the first episode of Under the Dome on Thursday 27 June at either Monte Casino in Johannesburg, the Galleria in Durban or at Canal Walk in Cape Town.
You need to email your name to mnetseries@mnet.co.za and say where you would like to attend the special preview screening of these upcoming TV shows. Yes, you also get a popcorn and a soft drink for free. The TV shows preview will start at 20:00.
Defiance is a futuristic TV drama - imagine Dr Quinn Medicine Woman meets Bravestarr meets Star Trek: Deep Space Nine in which a guy becomes the new sheriff in a town filled with various space races at the end of a devastating war between mankind and aliens. Defiance starts on M-Net Showcase on 15 July at 20:30.
Under the Dome is likewise a super-new big-buzz TV drama based on the book by Stephen King and is a new TV series about a town suddenly cut off from the rest of the world by an invisible dome-shaped "bubble". Who is responsible and why and what will the townsfolk do now? Under the Dome starts on M-Net on 26 July at 20:30.
Earlier today I got on the phone to ask M-Net about this monumental (masterful marketing) plan.
"M-Net's channels remain the exclusive home of the best first-run TV content and the preview of Defiance and Under the Dome which M-Net and M-Net Series are doing in conjunction with Nu Metro Cinemas will give exclusive access and a preview of great new TV content coming to subscribers in July."
"Just as we did movie screenings and movie previews we are going to show people what they're going to be able to see before it starts. And we're doing it on the big screen because the shows are massive."
"We want to attract people to our big shows and we're sure if they see Defiance and Under the Dome before it starts on television they're going to be drawn in to want to see more," M-Net tells me.
I asked why Defiance and Under the Dome. "They're part of the biggest shows this season," says M-Net. "M-Net Series Showcase launches as a brand-new high-definition TV channel on DStv and Defiance is our diamond of the line-up."
"Our marketing efforts are therefore also aligned behind this show in a big way. Defiance will in a sense be the face of M-Net Series Showcase. Under the Dome is another very big show starting in the United States starting soon there and which M-Net will have very soon. And we're showing it on the big screen and exclusively to people before it starts as a big-buzz TV series."
I wondered how easy or difficult it is for a broadcaster such as M-Net to pull something like this off. This is definitely a first for South Africa, a first for M-Net and to sort out the details of such a deal and permission with studios and distributors must be extremely intricate.
"There's deals we enter into and sign with studios and if those are aligned and everyone agrees, all the parties are happy, and in the end it serves the shows and it serves the viewers."
"Everything is worked out and agreed upon, we change what might need to be changed and everything is done exactly by the book to bring a great experience to the viewers who will be able to see preview the shows and then watch it from week to week on M-Net and M-Net Series Showcase."
"To do something like this isn't something which gets decided two weeks before the time. It's a long process, a meticulously planned process, and something which is planned long in advance."
Do you want to see the first episodes of Defiance and Under the Dome previewed in a cinema on a big screen? If you like science fiction television, you are really going to enjoy this novel experience. Send that email to mnetseries@mnet.co.za now.
