M-Net's identity crisis with video streaming content set to grow in 2022 as it becomes a windowing channel for Showmax with Devilsdorp; MultiChoice double-dipping shows consumers why they don't need to subscribe to Showmax.

by Thinus Ferreira

In one value-destructive go, MultiChoice is damaging both its premium M-Net (DStv 101) channel, and its attempts to try and push consumers to subscribe to its Showmax video streaming service, by scheduling something like the Showmax Original documentary series, Devilsdorp, on the blue ribbon channel.

Devilsdorp - a so-called Showmax" exclusive", is clearly not that exclusive - with M-Net suddenly playing "window channel" curtain-raiser for the local documentary series that will be screened on M-Net from tonight as an also-ran and burnt off in double episodes.

Barely 5 months after it was released on Showmax.

M-Net is supposedly the most premium TV channel on MultiChoice's DStv Premium bouquet but cracks have been starting to show as Hollywood studios have been allocating premium content to their international video streamers and not making it available through their international distributor channels for channels like M-Net to acquire.

M-Net is also making unforced errors by not acquiring content like WarnerMedia's Harry Potter 20th anniversary reunion for HBO Max that is premium and is new (which is available and was acquired by Sky in the United Kingdom, for instance).

Also denting its image is M-Net's inexplicable move to becoming a so-called "windowing channel" for content that has already been seen elsewhere, first.

M-Net has never been a windowing channel, meaning M-Net never used to punch down with content to re-air stuff that's been shown elsewhere already, previously. M-Net has always punched up.

Due to the content shortage because of the Covid-19 pandemic, M-Net did rebroadcast the first Showmax Original series, The Girl from St. Agnes in 2020, but that was supposed to be a one-off. 

But now M-Net is showing Showmax's Devilsdorp like reheat-and-eat Christmas-leftovers from 2021 warmed up and redished in double servings for 2022. 

It's sending several (bad) signals to DStv subscribers and video consumers in general, damaging both the perceived allure of M-Net and Showmax.

Firstly, MultiChoice, M-Net and Showmax are sending the message that you don't have to worry about getting Showmax. 

Apparently, anything that is worth watching on Showmax will eventually be on M-Net - just wait.

Similar to how basically all of MultiChoice and M-Net's premium content for DStv Premium subscribers are cycled down over time to lower-tiered DStv packages, Showmax content will apparently eventually be "windowed" on M-Net.

Secondly, M-Net that used to be the showstopper main act and never before played or accepted supporting actor billing, is now apparently quite willing to take on a supporting role to literally showcase Showmax. It's bizarre and feels as if something is broken. 

Is the M-Net kitty and content cupboard so bare that it's now okay to repurpose Showmax content?

And for Showmax subscribers: Why bother subscribing to Showmax or Showmax Pro and pay for that (or pay extra for that in addition to a DStv subscription) if Showmax is just going to have its content be windowed on M-Net anyway after a few months?

MultiChoice is deliberately inflicting damage on both M-Net (DStv 101) as a DStv channel, as well as Showmax here, diluting the value proposition and premium content proposition of both in one bizarre and badly thought-out move.

Is someone watching Devilsdorp on M-Net (DStv 101) going to think: "Wow, I'm watching a Showmax Original, I need to get Showmax?" No. 

The DStv subscriber is going to think: "I'm watching something on M-Net, I don't need to subscribe to anything else because it will be on M-Net eventually anyway". The DStv subscribers might also think: "Why is M-Net showing old stuff?" This all damages M-Net's brand image.

Why are MultiChoice and M-Net turning the channel into a second child willingly wearing hand-me-downs?

A Showmax subscriber on the other hand who discovers that Devilsdorp is suddenly also on M-Net (DStv 101) might think: "Why am I paying for Showmax for exclusive content if it's all going to be on DStv?" This damages Showmax's brand image.

Devilsdorp that used to be on Showmax starts a rebroadcast run on M-Net on Thursday night at 21:30 with double episodes.

SA TV 2021: A shockwave year in television filled with loss, lockdown and an octopus that won an Oscar.

by Thinus Ferreira

During South African television's tumultuous 2021 - bearing witness to shocking unrest and looting, neverending loadshedding and an unfolding Covid-crisis - the one reassuring constant was TV soaps and telenovelas like Uzalo, with the nation's nightly collection of comforting primetime series stretching from Generations to Isono that continued to provide a sense of uninterrupted assurance and "normalcy" in a world seemingly gone mad.

In probably the worst year on record for South Africa's TV and film industry - rocked by a shockwave of thousands of permanent and temporary job losses as work evaporated, hundreds of deaths due to Covid-19, as well as countless and repeated Covid-19 production shutdowns across multiple series under Lockdown Level 4 - 2021's big unrecognised TV miracle is that the TV soap operas endured.

As the industry was upended behind-the-scenes, TV channels kept broadcasting new episodes nightly during 2021 with its escapist local mix of fantasy, conflict, weddings and scandals, that continued to enthral a combined audience of millions of viewers across Southern Africa.

In 2021, South Africans watched Squid Game on Netflix, Devilsdorp on Showmax and welcomed House of Zwide on e.tv. 

Viewers sat transfixed before eNCA, Newzroom Africa and SABC News to see former president Jacob Zuma being arrested and going to jail, and how South Africans ransacked shopping malls. 

They huddled together in front of the soft glow of their TV screens when president Cyril Ramaphosa beckoned for yet another "family meeting".

Love Island South Africa on M-Net flopped but The Bachelorette SA was more successful. The Real Housewives of Durban and Survivor South Africa: Immunity Island (forced to film in South Africa on the Eastern Cape coast) were hits. 

South Africans got their Friday episode of 7de Laan on SABC2 back (that also reached 5000 episodes). 

While kykNET's new on-air rebranding was more successful, SABC3's rebranding to "S3" saw the channel's already anaemic ratings only fall further this year while its Isidingo replacement, The Estate, failed in luring the viewers it should and likely on borrowed time. 

uBettina Wethu (South Africa's Ugly Betty-version) wasn't the success it could have been. Showmax tried Temptation Island SA as both it and Netflix added further local South African content to their catalogues.

MultiChoice's Showmax launched its first South African telenovela, The Wife, but the most expensive South African drama series yet produced, Blood Psalms, missed its October debut and was pushed to February 2022 because the department of trade, industry and competition failed to pay the millions due to the show in the country's broken film rebate scheme.

MultiChoice introduced DStv subscribers to Korean telenovelas ("K-drama") with tvN, kept losing DStv Premium subscribers, while M-Net brought pay-TV subscribers Harry and Meghan sit-down talk with Oprah.

The SABC that turned 85 completed its retrenchment plan getting rid of hundreds of workers after which the public broadcaster once again became embroiled in serious allegations of SABC News editorial interference. 

In 2021 fewer people than ever (down to 21% bothered to still pay a SABC TV Licence with plans to scrap it altogether and replace it with a new type of tax.

The SABC officially launched SABC Sport as a TV channel, while SuperSport did its best to try and bring live sports back this year and branched out into more school sports coverage.

Britbox SA and eMedia's eVOD both launched as two new video streaming services in South Africa in 2021 while ViacomCBS Networks Africa abruptly cancelled its MTV Africa Music Awards it tried to revive this year. 

The M-Net City channel changed to Me, Glow TV was removed from Openview but had to be returned after a court case, and StarSat shed more TV channels this year. 

The long-delayed completion of the switch from analogue to digital terrestrial television (DTT) broadcasting in South Africa was yet again postponed, with new warnings that suddenly switching off TV signals to millions of viewers who don't have set-top boxes to receive the new signals, will damage South Africa's TV ratings system.

Meanwhile worsening Eskom blackouts continued to have a debilitating impact during 2021 on TV ratings, damaging all broadcasters and advertisers with loadshedding that wiped millions of TV households from the national viewership data.

Moja Love (DStv 157) - which had to suspend Jub Jub on Uyajola 9/9 as its most-watched show after rape allegations - and Mzansi Magic (DStv 161) were the two most-watched pay-TV channels in South Africa in 2021. 

SABC1 remained the most-watched free-to-air TV channel. More South African TV news reporters were attacked and robbed this year than ever before.

South African viewers lost FOX after 11 years, The Bold and the Beautiful (again) and weather presenters on eNCA and eNuus. The ratings for the 17th season of Idols on Mzansi Magic plunged as Somizi Mhlongo exited as a judge after serious allegations of physical abuse.

We lost Africa's most influential woman in television, MultiChoice's content boss Aletta Alberts, to Covid, as well as producer-actor Shona Ferguson in July, and an unending TV treasure chest list of names gone too soon who have enriched and who were deeply woven into the tapestry of South Africa's TV industry. 

We lost icons from Franz Marx to Shaleen Surtie-Richards, with calls that more must be done to support and protect South African artists and performers while the South African government for another year refused to make the Performers' Protection Amendment Bill (PPAB) a law that would ensure that actors are paid residuals for TV rebroadcasts.

We said goodbye to LIVE AMP on SABC1 after 25 seasons, as well as the beloved TV news anchor Noxolo Grootboom who read her final TV news bulletin with even Cyril Ramaphosa moving his national address out of the way so that the nation could watch her swansong first. 

Jeremy Maggs, Jane Dutton and Uveka Rangappa left eNCA with no goodbye. 

South Africa's TV and film industry and film lost at least 18 669 jobs (59%) over the past year due to Covid. 

And in-between the tumult, a little film on TV about a friendly South African octopus won an Oscar.

MultiChoice keeps losing thousands of DStv Premium subscribers - this DStv top-end churn is putting its slate of premium content at risk.

by Thinus Ferreira

MultiChoice keeps losing its most-valuable DStv Premium subscribers who no longer see the expensive offering as providing enough value for money - something that puts pressure on budgets and spells danger for the future existence of the existing slate of premium content and TV channels available to its top-bouquet customers.

Just as MultiChoice and M-Net once grew in top-end DStv subscribers leading to increased budgets - justifying the risk of bigger spending on more expensive shows catering to a more discerning and upmarket audience and in turn attracting more lucrative advertisers willing to pay more for more expensive DStv Media Sales ad spots - there is now the danger of the opposite happening.

As MultiChoice's percentage of DStv Premium and DStv Compact Plus subscribers keep falling as part of the overall subscriber mix due to MultiChoice's shift in focus to rather offer a bigger value proposition to mass-market customers on lower-tiered DStv bouquets, this shift will sooner or later have a knock-on effect and start to impact premium content budgets.

It will likely become increasingly more difficult for MultiChoice content cost centres - specifically M-Net, kykNET, MultiChoice's streaming service Showmax, as well as the division working on acquiring and retaining premium third-party linear TV channels carriage agreements on DStv - to justify spending on big-budget items, shows, projects and expensive TV channels if this premium audience is small and dwindling.

MultiChoice already ran into trouble with Blood Psalms from Yellowbone Entertainment that was supposed to have started last month on Showmax, with the October debut of the most expensive TV series yet filmed in South Africa now delayed by several months to possibly February 2022.

Blood Psalms is due millions of rand in unpaid money it requires to complete post-production work. The due payouts, as part of South Africa's stalled film rebate scheme, ran by the department of trade, industry and competition (DTIC), were abruptly cancelled.

MultiChoice isn't able to simply take over Blood Psalms enormous production costs financed through the film rebate scheme. 

The Blood Psalms scandal has led to warning lights flashing for possible future big-budget local productions for pay-TV that might not be deemed feasible or worth the effort to make in South Africa if top-end subscribers don't exist in big enough numbers to justify the spending and trouble.

While MultiChoice's overall content cost and spending on general entertainment and sports content continue to grow, it also means that MultiChoice is facing increasing internal pressure on the type of content the pay-TV operator will and can spend money on.

The likely outcome, if DStv Premium subscribers continue to decline, is that less money will be allocated for the production of expensive local shows like Survivor SA on M-Net (DStv 101) only accessible for DStv Premium subscribers; with the loss of more premium third-party TV channels like BBC First, and more money allocated for mass-market shows like Uyajola 9/9 on Moja Love (DStv 157).

Showmax growing but DStv Premium under pressure

On Thursday afternoon MultiChoice released its interim financial results for the 6 months until the end of September 2021 that revealed that the pay-TV operator not only continues to bleed top-end DStv subscribers but that mid-tier subscribers are also abandoning its offering.

Overall MultiChoice added 1 million subscribers in the 6 months to the end of September 2021 and now has 21.1 million pay-TV subscribers.

South Africa remains the pay-TV operator's country with the largest subscriber base (12.2 million, 58%) with 8.9 million subscribers (42%) across sub-Saharan Africa (RoA).

In the 6 months under review, MultiChoice however lost over another 100 000 DStv Premium and DStv Compact Plus subscribers decreasing another 5%, and DStv Compact and DStv Commercial customers declining by 1% from 2.9 million to 2.8 million subscribers.

The top-end loss is made up for ongoing lower-tiered subscriber growth, increasing from 8.7 to 8.9 million subscribers. The number of mass-market DStv Family, DStv Access, and DStv EasyView subscribers grew by 6% from 4.4 million to 4.7 million.

The result is that MultiChoice's monthly average revenue per user (ARPU) continues to decline, this time by another 2% from R278 to R273. 

What it means is that although MultiChoice continues to have more subscribers, it makes less money per subscriber since it keeps losing DStv Premium and DStv Compact Plus subscribers who are its most valuable subscriber segment. 

Showmax subscribers are growing, however, with paying Showmax subscribers increasing by 42% and with overall online users increasing 33% from the prior period, "representing a 3% gain in share of the African OTT market since December 2020," MultiChoice says.

Sport is not luring DStv Premium subscribers back or stemming DStv subscriber churn as MultiChoice suggested would be the case earlier this year.

In June, MultiChoice Group CEO Calvo Mawela told investors that rugby broadcasts are one of the biggest drivers of DStv Premium uptake and that the loss of rugby because of the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic was a very big reason behind the ongoing decline in DStv Premium subscribers in the previous financial year.

"What we've seen is that as a result of the lack of rugby, you see people coming down, but as soon as rugby comes back, you see people going up," Calvo Mawela said,.

However, while rugby and other sport did return to SuperSport the past few months, DStv Premium subscribers didn't.

MultiChoice: Local content remains important

About its latest 6-month financial results, MultiChoice says that local content continues to be "a core part of the group's differentiation strategy".

MultiChoice says that it has "stepped up its investment in local content by producing 2 692 additional hours (41% year-on-year growth). As a result, the total local content library is now approaching 66 000 hours and represents 45% of total general entertainment content spend, which was the group's full-year target".

"In South Africa, local documentary Devilsdorp became the most viewed programme of all time on Showmax."

"In Nigeria, Big Brother Naija delivered record viewership and advertising revenues and has become one of Nigeria's most loved reality brands."

"Reyka, a global co-production with Fremantle was broadcast to critical acclaim during Sunday night prime time, while a further four co-productions (Recipes for Love and Murder, Crime and Justice season 2, Pulse and The Fix) are currently in production. Interest in the group's content is at an all-time high, with 121 series sold to international buyers, seven times more than last year."

"In addition to compelling local stories, MultiChoice continues to broadcast the best of sport. The group renewed the rights to Serie A,  the FA Cup, the European Football Championship and the new United Rugby Championship."

Disney+ won't bedevil DStv

Hidden away in the small print of MultiChoice's 6-month financial results is relief for DStv subscribers fearing that they will lose The Disney Channel, Disney Junior or National Geographic when The Walt Disney Company launches its Disney+ video streaming service from around June 2022 in South Africa. 

Disney's channels were culled elsewhere as linear pay-TV channels like in the United Kingdom when Disney+ launched, forcing traditional pay-TV subscribers to switch to streaming, although DStv Premium subscribers won't abruptly lose access to Disney - at least not initially.

"On the international content front, channel agreements with Disney (including the kids and National Geographic channels) were secured to 2024," MultiChoice says.

MultiChoice's Showmax once again make an unsubstantiated viewership record claim, this time for Devilsdorp - here's what Showmax and some other streamers don't want to tell and don't want you to know.

by Thinus Ferreira

On Tuesday, MultiChoice's video streaming service Showmax once again made an unsubstantiated claim about viewership figures in a press release without providing any actual viewership numbers or viewer data, this time about its well-received documentary series Devilsdorp - but the devil's in the details and in this case, a streamer conspiracy that Showmax is part of.

MultiChoice's Showmax made a similar unproven viewership claim in February this year with The Real Housewives of Durban, providing no actual first-day viewing numbers.

Showmax also fake-release ratings about top titles' performance at the end of a year with vague and nebulous claims like "30% increase" and "21% up compared to normal activity" in press statements, without supporting it with any actual numbers.

Some media republish these press releases without any substance or numbers as is, with no critical approach as to what the meaning - and value - of nothing to South Africa's film and TV industry is when hollow press releases don't actually contain any empirical viewership statistics.

This time, in a hyped press release, Showmax is touting how Devilsdorp, commissioned under Showmax head of content Candice Fangueiro and produced by IdeaCandy, has "set a Showmax record for most hours watched in its first four days of launch".

It's more of the same vague viewership nonsense hyped up to sound like a monumental achievement.

Showmax claims that Devilsdorp is "setting a new record for the most hours watched in its first four days of launch of any film or series ever on Showmax, outperforming the likes of Game of Thrones, The Real Housewives of Durban and The River".

The press release contains absolutely no numbers to substantiate anything - nothing about the viewership or views that represent this claimed record, and nothing about the numbers of hours to substantiate the claim of "most hours".

TVwithThinus asked Showmax in response to, and prompted by, the press release, the simple question: What is the record, and the hours watched?"

A Showmax spokesperson replied and said: "Unfortunately we're not able to share stats at this stage".

Yolisa Phahle is the boss of Showmax as the MultiChoice Group CEO for general entertainment and connected video, which is where the decision had been made not to release any actual real viewership statistics about any Showmax content or titles to the press or the media industry.

The reality is that MultiChoice and Showmax are cultivating a cult of video streaming views secrecy.

Make no mistake: It's very deliberately not being transparent about how many customers are watching Showmax because it doesn't want to be.

But why this "devilish conspiracy"?

Last week The Observer published a must-read article explaining why some companies and streaming services, like your MultiChoice and Showmax, don't want to release any actual, real viewership information publicly.

The article quotes Dietrich von Behren, chief business officer at Reelgood that tracks TV shows and films available online, who says that some streamers don't want the public and industry to know its viewership numbers because "It allows the service to control the narrative, and outsiders don't really know the actual wins versus losses around programming".

"With the proliferation of more services in an increasingly competitive space, streamers may believe that's the way to stay ahead."

Media exec Andrew Rosen says "For every streaming service not named Netflix, streaming is neither the only line item nor a significant line item contributing to operating income or EBITDA."

The Observer article notes that "the benefits of accurate viewership statistics would be to inform the industry and drive more informed decision making overall".

"In establishing credibility, audiences and consumers are more likely to trust the brand and any subsequent reveals the company makes public. This is particularly true as the SVOD industry moves out of its infancy and into maturity."

Dietrich von Behren says "Viewership itself is not a secret formula or silver bullet, it's just a measure of success".

"Strong viewership is simply an indicator of popular content and the opposite holds true, so let the market learn from it and not hide from it. Streaming services will benefit and so will consumers."