by Thinus Ferreira
M-Net and MultiChoice will be adding an M-Net Binge - The Home of HBO pop-up TV channel to DStv from Friday with the binge-watch TV channel that will be super-stacked with multiple premium old and new American series, miniseries and films, ranging from Game of Thrones and His Dark Materials to Band of Brothers and Sex and the City.
M-Net this week rushed to compile and uplink the channel and okay the licensing rights before South Africa starts its 21-day national lockdown period with to try and curb the rapid spread of the Covid-19 novel coronavirus in the country.
Earlier this week M-Net's top programming executives scrambled after president Cyril Ramaphosa announced a 21-day national lockdown period for the country after hatching the plan to source and put together a premium "box sets" TV channel for top-tier DStv subscribers.
South African TV ratings in both daytime and prime time - similar to what has been happening in the United States - have shown a steady surge, in some cases up double digits up to 30% in some timeslots since last week as schoolkids and adults are staying and working from home and turning on their TV sets more and for longer.
This week M-Net decided to temporarily revive its M-Net Binge channel that was shuttered in October 2018. The new M-Net Binge - The Home of HBO will run on DStv channel 114 from Friday 27 March at 19:00 and will have multiple classic and brand-new HBO series and films.
M-Net Binge - The Home of HBO will be available to DStv Premium and DStv Compact Plus subscribers in high definition although some shows like Sex and the City won't be in HD.
The channel will broadcast full seasons of edgy, award-winning series, as well as a selection of HBO Original films and will run between 18:00 and 06:00 for seven days a week. The channel's 12-hour block is due to the racy nature of the channel's content that makes a lot of the age-restricted material not suitable for daytime broadcast and viewing.
Specially curated super-stacks of shows
M-Net says it carefully curated the M-Net Binge - The Home of HBO channel "to create appointment viewing" and that DStv subscribers will find the same series in the same timeslot, on the hour, with a new episode, from Mondays to Fridays.
The channel will have some brand-new HBO drama series on Sunday nights that until now has only been available on MultiChoice's Showmax video streaming service, like the brand-new British fantasy series His Dark Materials and the contemporary American business dynasty drama, Succession.
The schedule will contain shows like The Newsroom with Jeff Daniels, the fantasy drama series Game of Thrones, The Night Of, Banshee, The Leftovers and Girls, as well as the classic funeral home family drama Six Feet Under.
Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg's epic war drama, the 10-episode World War II miniseries Band of Brothers will be showcased on M-Net Binge - The Home of HBO, while Saturday nights will have thought-provoking documentaries that have not been readily available to DStv viewers.
A super-stack of 6 episodes of the classic New York sex dramedy series Sex and the City with Carrie Bradshaw and her friends will be broadcast every Sunday night from 22:00.
On Saturdays up until 21:00 the line-up is packed with thought-provoking documentaries. The documentary this Saturday 27 March is Ice and Fire. Narrated by Leonardo DiCaprio, it investigates solutions to try and reverse the effects of climate change while time is ticking.
The film this Sunday is Deadwood, the special made-for-TV that HBO created to conclude the hit series from the 1990s.
M-Net Binge - The Home of HBO will also be available on DStv Catch Up with a connected decoder and on the DStv Now streaming service.
Here is the schedule of how some of the shows on M-Net Binge - The Home of HBO will broadcast:
The Newsroom
Mondays to Fridays at 19:00, repeats the next day at 18:00.
From
the imagination of Aaron Sorkin, creator of The West Wing, comes another
riveting political drama series, set in the newsroom of the fictional Atlantis
Cable News television channel. The Newsroom won a Critics' Choice
Television Award for Most Exciting New Series, along with Golden Globe
nominations and a string of other accolades. These include a Primetime Emmy for
Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series (Jeff Daniels) and Outstanding Guest
Actress in a Drama Series (Jane Fonda).
Mondays to Fridays at 20:00.
Hollywood
legends Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks, who collaborated on one of the greatest
war movies of all time, Saving Private Ryan, teamed up again and
revisited World War II as executive producers on a project that won high praise
from viewers, and Emmy and Golden Globe awards for Best Miniseries. Based on a
non-fiction bestselling book by historian Stephen E Ambrose, it follows the
history of a parachute battalion from jump training in the United States
through its participation in major actions in Europe.
Game of Thrones
Mondays to Saturdays at 21:00 and 22:00 (two episodes)
The
most talked about television series of the new millennium, bar none, took the
fantasy genre to a new level. Game of Thrones won a record 58 Emmy
Awards, and has a global fan base that long ago surpassed the one billion mark
– and keeps growing. If you’ve just returned from another planet and missed it
first time around, you’ve got some catching up to do. There are 72 episodes,
all told. Set on the fictional continents of Westeros and Essos, it has several
plot arcs and a huge ensemble cast. Please remember that the series contains
scenes of nudity and violence.
Six Feet Under
Mondays to Fridays at 23:00
A
funeral parlour may not sound like the ideal setting for a long-running drama
series, but Six Feet Under was a smashing success, named by Time Magazine, The
Guardian and Empire as one of the best television series of all time. Nine Emmy
Awards, three Screen Actors Guild Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, and a
Peabody Award back up those assessments. The story revolves around the trials
and tribulations of the Fisher clan, owners of Fisher & Sons Funeral Home.
Besides the usual themes of interpersonal relationships, love and loss, it
fearlessly tackles the most important philosophical question of our time: the
meaning of life.
The Night Of
Saturdays at 23:00
Following
a wild night of sex and drugs, Nasir “Naz” Kahn, a Pakistani-American student,
wakes up to find that the woman he’d spent the night with has been stabbed to
death. He has no recollection of the events of the night. This is the premise
of a multiple award-winning crime miniseries starring John Terturro as John
Stone, the lawyer who represents the murder suspect. It won four Primetime Emmy
Awards and a Directors’ Guild of America Award among a slew of accolades. It
has a score of 90 on Metacritic, based on 40 reviews, and 95% on Rotten
Tomatoes, indicating universal acclaim.
His Dark Materials
Sundays at 19:00
Strangeness
and wonder mark this fantasy drama based on the cult novel series of the same
name by Philip Pullman. The action takes place in a multi-world reality,
switching from one to the other in an absorbing, unusual narrative. In an
alternate world, all humans have animal companions called daemons. As it turns
out, they are manifestations of the human soul. The main character is a girl named
Lyra, an orphan who discovers a dangerous secret. And then her path crosses
with a boy named Will. The series combines live-action and
animation and won an Annie, America’s top animation award.
Succession
Sundays at 20:00 and 21:00 (two episodes)
An American satirical comedy-drama television series that won the British Academy Television Award for Best International Programme and the Golden Globe Award for Best Television Series – Drama. In addition to that, Brian Cox, one of the lead actors, won the Golden Globe for Best Actor – Television Series Drama. A dysfunctional family battles for control of a global media and hospitality conglomerate – and the patriarch’s health is in steep decline. Who will inherit the throne?
