TV CRITIC's NOTEBOOK. Talk the Thrones remains the best aftershow for Game of Thrones and is back with weekly episodes for the 8th season; while Showmax weirdly missed the chance to create its own South African video podcast about it.

Talk the Thrones remains the best aftershow for HBO's Game of Thrones seen on M-Net (DStv 101) and Showmax, with the American video podcast that is back to comment on every episode of the 8th and final season of the fantasy drama series.

At the same time it's very odd to note how Showmax as a video streaming service, and with months and months to plan, did absolutely nothing to create and make a weekly South African aftershow video podcast about Game of Thrones available that it could easily have done.

Coming in cheaper than its cheaply-produced and embarrassing Runnin' with Skhumba, a South African Game of Thrones aftershow can easily have high production values and add a lot of content value to a service like Showmax with three or so informed experts around a desk talking about their favourite fantasy show and filming them.

Now Talk the Thrones is back, now on The Ringer, with weekly episodes released right after Game of Thrones episodes in which the panel of experts once again discuss, analyse, dissect and speculate about what they've seen in the latest episode.

The must-watch Talk the Thrones is the renamed After the Thrones aftershow that M-Net brilliantly grabbed and added in 2016 for Game of Thrones' 6th season in 2016 as a companion show that it would broadcast on its then M-Net Edge channel after episodes of Game of Thrones.

Andy Greenwald and Chris Ryan discussed and analysed every Game of Thrones episode and while M-Net dropped it for the 7th season when it moved to Twitter and was renamed Talk the Thrones, it remained additional must-watch television for fans of the fantasy book and TV series.

Personally, I've watched it and have seen every single episode since its aftershow covering the 6th season and now Talk the Thrones is back on The Ringer and can be watched on Twitter or YouTube weekly since this past Monday.

Chris Ryan is back, this time with Mallory Rubin and Jason Concepcion who were guest panellists in previous seasons. If you like Game of Thrones, you will very likely enjoy the very deep and highly-informed Talk the Thrones discussion.

The odd thing however is that MultiChoice's subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) service Showmax that is looking for content and new local content, and is also carrying the 8th season of Game of Thrones, did absolutely nothing to try and secure something like Talk the Thrones - or to create or carry it's own local South African version.

Making episodes available at the same time as M-Net (DStv 101) on Mondays at 22:00, Showmax has come across as seemingly somewhat desperate and over-zealous in efforts to also try and cash in on the big Game of Thrones craze in the run-up to the new 8th season.

Yet, where it matters beyond mere marketing and where something like a cool little local aftershow could have made a real brand differentiation for Showmax, Showmax did ... nothing.

It would have been absolutely great for viewers and fans of Game of Thrones - and for Showmax - to set it apart further from M-Net if it could have said something like: "After watching Games on M-Net on Mondays at 22:00 - or why not just watch it on Showmax from the beginning - stay without switching and watch The Games Show on Showmax where we discuss everything you want to talk about and simply need to know after the latest episode of Game of Thrones".

Or what about getting Talk of Thrones? Although not local content, just like it was on M-Net Edge, it would have been a perfect video streaming add-on addition for Showmax, and perfectly suited for what a video streaming service is and should be.

The aftershow keeps a viewer already watching Game of Thrones engaged and watching even longer, just like what M-Net did.

If you know television, you would know that genre and fantasy show fans who simply can't get enough of this stuff and this specific show, would definitely tune in to an explainer aftershow about Game of Thrones.

Showmax could have easily gotten some really informed and obsessed South African fans, experts and TV critics together around a table with a mic and a video camerar for a unique aftershow for which zero licensing intricacies are required.

Just like what SuperSport does with after-match analysis and experts weighing-in with a separate show that is related, yet unrelated to the visual content of the actual match, aftershow series and video podcasts discussing drama series from The Walking Dead and Star Trek: Discovery to The Orville and whatnot allow fans and viewers to get even more insights, commentary and analysis of what they're already watching and really like to hear and see and find out more of.

What a wasted opportunity for local content by Showmax and a wasted opportunity to cash in on the enthusiasm under South African and African viewers for a hugely popular show.

What happens now is that really committed viewers who want even more content and analysis around Game of Thrones leave M-Net and Showmax as platforms and then go elsewhere to YouTube and Twitter to find great aftershows like Talk the Thrones, where if Showmax offered something more, some very likely would have stayed put for longer.




UPDATE: Wow. Some more context after some more online content discovery.

So there already actually exist South African produced Game of Thrones aftershow podcasts. Who knew? Well, Showmax knew, and not only that, but has engaged with some of them and sent them stuff.

A podcast called The Night's Watch is done by entertainment content creator Lelo Boyana, with Pearl Boshomane Tsotetsi and Thabang Phetla.

WOW 🥰 Thank YOU so so much The Grand Maesters Of @ShowmaxOnline for this thoughtful gift!
It will certainly comfort me, you’ve made me feel super normal about my #GameOfThrones obsession! Appreciated 😭🧡 #GoT #JoinTheNightsWatch #WinterIsComing #WinterIsHere #LeloOfHouseBoyana pic.twitter.com/EwUoMj8vqd

— Miss Lelo (@MsLeloB) April 18, 2019

Showmax literally took the time and effort and spend money to make and send to some of the media covering Game of Thrones in South Africa, personalised things like this - including to The Night's Watch - that it actually knew about.

Really?

Why didn't Showmax rather partner up and invest properly a bit of money to bring something like The Night's Watch as add-on, local content to its platform and to make it a thing? It would have been great if something like this was actually on Showmax from when the 8th season of Game of Thrones began.

GAME CHANGER. How M-Net and DStv are brilliantly doing right by dragons, expanding the viewer conversation; while the SABC just does draconian measures.

Here be Dragons: M-Net recently did something I didn't think it would (while the SABC now constantly does a lot of stuff it shouldn't): M-Net added the awesome After the Thrones after show to the M-Net Edge (DStv 102) schedule.

To say I was pleasantly surprised is an understatement. I was ecstatic.

Although I loved the idea of seeing an After the Thrones, I thought M-Net wouldn't see the sense and wouldn't bother to really support and build out an existing show's viewership and fan base.

I was completely wrong.

M-Net added After the Thrones to M-Net Edge and I added another must-watch weekly item to my TV viewing list.

The result is that I not only watch Game of Thrones on M-Net Edge (actually on DStv Catch Up where weekly episodes become instantly available), I now watch M-Net Edge more.

By adding more of what what it already had, the Randburg-based pay-TV broadcaster chose to deepen and broaden the television conversation around one of its existing TV properties.

I literally look forward to After the Thrones as much as I do to Game of Thrones.

I simply cannot wait to tune in for every week's new episode and the additional context, explainers, speculation, discussion and analysis from Andy Greenwald and Chris Ryan.

As a TV critic I rarely reveal personal favourites, but on a very personal level, I love this show; what it is, and what it does.

Like what SuperSport has done for sport in terms of pre- and post-game analysis, M-Net is now doing for a TV show as well and a fantasy series at that.

I usually watch TV from behind my laptop, doing notes or writing. Yet, when After the Thrones is on, it's literally as much "event television" for me.

I diligently keep checking and checking until I see that MultiChoice has added the next new After the Thrones episode to DStv Catch Up, I make coffee and get snacks, and go sit in my black Eames lounge chair and I watch, doing nothing else.

M-Net and MultiChoice's dedication to fan service and its conscious effort to support and expand what I would call "geek television" is terrific.

After the Thrones from HBO could easily have been left off of the M-Net Edge schedule.

Yet M-Net decided to enrich, reward and expand the viewer experience. By adding and watching After the Thrones, existing viewers of Game of Thrones get the opportunity to indulge even more - learn more and find out more about a show you already like.

Not only does After the Thrones help to make viewers of Game of Thrones watch M-Net Edge more, it engenders more loyalty (not for the House of Stark) and creates more affinity towards the M-Net Edge brand.

In shark contrast the SABC is doing the exact opposite: By cancelling actuality shows on TV and radio, by banning coverage of newspaper headlines and banning open call-in lines the beleaguered public broadcaster is doing the very opposite of deepening conversations - it's limiting it.

M-Net and MultiChoice are pay-TV brands; commercials brands - pay-TV outlets that, through programming decisions like After the Thrones constantly push the envelope and expand its existing content repertoire.

The sad and ironic thing is that that is what the SABC as a public broadcaster should be doing, but isn't.

Not even remaining stagnant, the SABC is literally sliding backwards.

As an increasingly shallow-caster, the SABC is narrowing the options and types of different editorial viewpoints, closing down on providing public access listeners and viewers with more different views and background and contracting on context and perspective.

While M-Net continues to enrich the multimedia experience of South Africans who can afford pay-TV, the SABC is relentlessly hollowing out an already bare bones offering to public broadcasting consumers.

While M-Net and MultiChoice are constantly fine-tuning their content offering on DStv and honing in more and becoming more adept at clever narrow-casting to segmented audiences, a flailing SABC keeps telling a frazzled South African public what it won't do, won't show, won't tolerate, won't mention, won't broadcast and will be banning next.

While M-Net and MultiChoice very effectively deliver dragons (and cool dragon discussions afterwards) to viewers, sadly the closest that the struggling SABC comes, is in its delivery of yet more stifling and suffocating draconian measures that make viewers flee.

In the dragon race to truly serve audiences, you don't need to sit on an Iron Throne to guess the broadcasting winner here.

BREAKING. M-Net grabs and adds brand-new After the Thrones companion show to M-Net Edge on DStv as a Game of Thrones after-show.

You're reading it here first.

M-Net is set to make the world of Westeros and the TV world of South African Game of Thrones viewers even better by adding the brand-new after-show, After the Thrones, to M-Net Edge (DStv 102) exactly like in America when the 6th season starts on 25 April.

M-Net will announce later today that it has acquired, and will schedule, the brand-new companion Game of Thrones talk show, After the Thrones.

HBO is starting After the Thrones for the 6th season of its popular fantasy drama series that's enjoying global appeal with a rabid fan base.

After the Thrones will be a weekly half hour show, presented by Andy Greenwald and Chris Ryan.

The show will be taking a lively, humorous and sophisticated look at Game of Thrones, recapping the latest episode, explaining the who, what, when and where, while exploring the complicated politics and history of the story and speculating about upcoming events in future episodes.

Besides adding After the Thrones as a new companion show to Game of Thrones on M-Net Edge, the new weekly show will also be made available by MultiChoice on its DStv Catch Up service for DStv subscribers.

M-Net calls its M-Net Edge channel "the official home of HBO in South Africa" and by adding something like After the Thrones, M-Net signals and accomplishes two things.

Firstly M-Net executives show that they're serious about not just Game of Thrones as a prestige programming title, but also about M-Net Edge and building the channel out as a unique and distinct premium content destination on DStv.

The programming - something that would have been seen as "overkill" for a TV series even 5 years ago - now helps to enhance a channel like M-Net Edge where viewers realise they can go to for a "deep dive" and an extended, more immersive viewing experience around a specific property to dissect the smallest details of a story they're following.

Secondly M-Net executives, through slotting in After the Thrones directly after each week's Game of Thrones episode, are at the same time enhancing the show and the channel's so-called "stickiness" factor.

DStv subscribers who tune in to M-Net Edge for the fantasy drama's weekly episode will likely now stay tuned in for even longer and to the specific channel, resulting in higher ratings for a larger timeslot duration for M-Net Edge and DStv.

The 6th season premiere episode of Game of Thrones will start on Monday 25 April at 03:00 on M-Net Edge (DStv 102) as a simulcast broadcast at the same time as on HBO in America and episodes will then be broadcast during prime time on Thursdays from 28 April at 21:00.

MultiChoice is also making Game of Thrones episodes of the 6th season once again available instantly after broadcast on the DStv Catch Up service, similar to what it did for the 5th season.

Episodes of After the Thrones will start to roll out from 25 April in America, one day after each new Game of Thrones episode.

After the Thrones episodes will not be simulcast in South Africa but M-Net and MultiChoice will make the first episode available on DStv Catch Up from Tuesday 26 April already, just a day later.

After the Thrones will then be broadcast every Thursday night at 22:00, from 28 April, directly following Game of Thrones. 

All other M-Net Edge programming on Thursday nights from 22:00 will move half an hour later.

These so-called "after-shows", like After the Thrones, are rapidly growing as a new TV trend. 

TV channels and producers are realising that dedicated fans of hugely popular TV dramas will stick around to watch even more - especially when the episode that they've just seen is being discussed and analysed by like-minded people on a channel they're already tuned to.

While the Fox Networks Group for Africa failed to bring FOX viewers of The Walking Dead its popular after-show entitled Talking Dead, AMC added it to its own channel line-up for South African viewers from the start of the second season of the spin-off Fear The Walking Dead since Talking Dead covers both zombie dramas.

Other after-shows not seen in South Africa include Talking Saul (for Better Call Saul), Survivor Live following Survivor, Empire B-Side for Empire, After the Black following Orphan Black, and after-shows for The Bachelor, BET's The Wendy Williams Show and The Dirt following the Discovery Channel's Gold Rush.