by Thinus Ferreira
DStv subscribers who started watching the American drama series This is Us on M-Net will now have to switch to Disney+ to see how it ends, with the series that is jumping to Disney's streamer as more shows on South African television continue to switch from traditional pay-TV to streaming.
Viewers wondering when the 6th and final season of This is Us, which started earlier this year on NBC in the United States, was going to make its way to M-Net (DStv 101) might be disillusioned to hear that they will now have to subscribe to Disney's video streaming service to see the conclusion of the story of the Pearson siblings.
M-Net told TVwithThinus in response to a media query that This is Us will no longer be on the channel that it acquired and started to show from the first season in May 2017.
"M-Net has not licensed This is Us season 6. This means that it will not air on M-Net," the channel said.
The 6th season of This is Us wraps up the storyline of the 20th Television distributed drama series that made viewers cry about the family drama of Randall (Sterling K. Brown), Kate (Chrissy Metz) and Kevin (Justin Hartley), as well as their parents Jack (Milo Ventimiglia) and Rebeca (Mandy Moore) as told through time-jumps and backflashes to fill in the family's history.
Disney South Africa told TVwithThinus that it will now carry the complete This is Us box set, including the latest and final 6th season.
"All 6
seasons of This Is Us will be available on Disney+ from 14 September."
The next TV series likely also leaving M-Net and also jumping to Disney+, although not yet confirmed, is the science fiction series The Orville of which the new third season is now on the Hulu video streaming service in the United States.
The entire series including the new season is now on Disney+ in America and the United Kingdom since 10 August.
"With regards to The Orville, seasons 1 and 2 are currently available to stream now on
Disney+ and we will let you know when season 3 will be available," Disney says.
This is Us and The Orville are just the latest examples of shows jumping from their original broadcast TV home in South Africa to streaming platforms.
In the new trend, shows like The Walking Dead are moving from traditional pay-TV - for instance from MultiChoice's DStv and StarTimes' StarSat - to video streaming.
It's very similar to how American shows that were once on free-to-air TV channels like the SABC and e.tv, started to jump to DStv in the previous two decades as pay-TV became dominant and needed content volume to fill linear pay-TV channel's schedules.
