by Thinus Ferreira
The Isibaya telenovela on Mzansi Magic (DStv 161) channel has neither been cancelled nor renewed for a 9th season, M-Net tells TVwithThinus.
Isibaya, produced by The Bomb Shelter, is currently in its 8th season on the Mzansi Magic channel on MultiChoice's DStv satellite pay-TV service.
Rumours started swirling that M-Net has cancelled Isibaya because of low-ratings.
However, the truth is that MultiChoice doesn't cancel or renew shows based on ratings since viewership alone matter much less - although it does play somewhat of a role - on pay-TV channels.
Free-to-air channels are dependent on TV commercials with the price of adverts determined by the size of the viewership.
On a pay-TV channel like Mzansi Magic, retaining the subscriber from month to month is what matters since the pay-TV service gets a monthly subscriber fee as the main source of income, irrespective of whether a subscriber watches a specific show on a specific TV channel or not.
Isibaya lured 726 847 viewers in September as the 7th most-watched show on DStv.
"Every year before we
recommission the great shows that are broadcast on Mzansi Magic, we conduct a
review of all shows, using a variety of metrics as standard practice in the
industry, to ensure the decision to renew contacts is well informed, Nomsa Philiso, director of local entertainment channels at M-Net, told TVwithThinus in response to a media enquiry.
"The review
is not exclusive to Isibaya and an announcement will be made in due course."
