Why did M-Net and MultiChoice really kill off M-Net Edge, was the edgy channel with all the hottest shows on DStv a victim of its own success?

Was the killed-off M-Net Edge (DStv 102) channel on MultiChoice's DStv satellite TV platform that got snuffed out at the end of March this year a victim of its own success?

Why exactly was M-Net Edge abruptly shut down at the end of March 2017 not even 3 years after it launched in late 2014? Did it "overshadow" M-Net (DStv 101) that's supposed to be the most premium, hottest and sought-after channel on DStv?

Why did M-Net in 2017 do a Cersei on M-Net Edge that became DStv's Daenerys channel with all the real must-watch shows like Game of Thrones?

During its almost 3 year existence, M-Net's M-Net Edge channel on DStv quickly became just like that rule-breaking, cool, older uncle with too long hair, that smoked, that would let you sit in the front as a little kid without a seatbelt on, allowed you a small sip of his wine so you know how it tasted and went ahead and bought ice-creams or did a detour through the McDonalds drive-thru on the outing although your parents specifically said no treats.

Sadly, M-Net Edge got a knife in the back 9 months ago - poetic justice similar to its risque, raunchy and edgy TV content where "Express from the US" titles arrived and were shown very quickly at the same time as in America.

Is M-Net Edge's demise due to this on-air Icarus who flew too quickly, too close to MultiChoice's kaleidoscopic sun?

TVwithThinus asked Yolisa Phahle - earlier this year still M-Net CEO and promoted since mid-November to CEO of general entertainment at MultiChoice - if M-Net Edge was shut down because the channel became problematic for M-Net and a victim of its own success.

"The issue is that people don't want to watch repeats. People's viewing habits have changed; linear TV viewing is no longer king. So we've seen, increasingly, that Catch-Up viewing has become as important as linear [viewing]".

"That means that when people go to linear TV, they only want to see fresh content. Historically M-Net Edge as a channel did have fresh content, but also on that channel were repeats."

"When we actually did the analysis, we realised that the content that people were really enjoying was that premium premiere content whether it was the mini-series The Night Of, or The Affair or any of those incredible series. Those are the shows that people wanted to watch," said Yolisa Phahle.

"But when it was a repeat, or when it was a repeat of another piece of content, the ratings weren't there. So the content is hugely successful, but it [repeats] was irritating DStv subscribers in a way."

Yolisa Phahle said although M-Net Edge was taken away, M-Net has been extremely careful not to reduce the number of hours of premium, premiere content.

"There are many great TV series being made now. We just reduced the number of repeats."

"We continue to develop DStv Catch Up to make sure that some content even premiere first on Catch Up as we just want to move away from the repeat sort of historical strategy around pay-TV in South Africa," said Yolisa Phahle.

(M-NET) EDGED OUT. Why MultiChoice and M-Net's decision to shut down M-Net Edge is a big regressive step backwards for DStv subscribers.

In late 2015 M-Net held a fantastic first birthday party for its new M-Net Edge (DStv 102) channel - launched out of the ashes of the failed, try-and-try-again M-Net Series channels, as it second, parallel-premium entertainment channel on MultiChoice's DStv.

Guests at the magnificently macabre celebration spectacle, treated to everything from an American Horror Story clown in a cage, naked derriere waiters and Game of Thrones characters could get permanent tattoos from a tattoo artists if they wished.

Just over two years later, those tattoos has more permanence and will be lasting longer than what M-Net Edge did with MultiChoice and M-Net shutting down M-Net Edge at the end of March 2017 – yet another M-Net series channel extension edged out of existence.

Other DStv channels supplied by M-Net are gonners too.

The shuttering of the M-Net Movies Showcase channel makes sense.

The closure of the M-Net Family channel is neither here nor there. (From a brand perspective it's a bit of a net loss. Instead of repurposing VUZU, MultiChoice and M-Net could rather have worked harder to position M-Net Family as the "best" channel for the DStv Family bouquet.)

The termination of M-Net Edge channel however feels like a very serious regression on the part of MultiChoice and M-Net. 

M-Net Edge isn't a lower regarded H2 standing behind History, or a Discovery Science standing behind Discovery channel, but a FX standing alongside a FOX with its own legitimate content street cred.

The loss of M-Net Edge is bad, although M-Net says the content on M-Net Edge will be moved and packaged to M-Net.

Instead of the green Christmas tree with its themed and fitting ornaments outside, and the white Christmas tree inside with its own custom-fitted trimmings, M-Net says there will now just be one tree – a better decorated tree – with all the ornaments on one M-Net premium conifer on DStv Premium.

TV jingle bells for all, right?

Well, no. 

You've see a heavy-laden Christmas tree before, right?

That one with too much stuff on it - where what it is, doesn't have a real chance to shine, entice and enchant because it's overburdened with a cluttered look?

Get ready for the next new and latest, real-time experiment with M-Net the channel.

How the content and sheer number of titles and movies currently cycled through M-Net and through M-Net Edge can possibly be packed/stacked/scheduled on just M-Net (DStv 101) is impossible. 

It simply cannot happen without some shows currently in prime time on both channels, dumped in late or outside of primetime and with a dramatic scale back and regression in the number of shows that M-Net used to have as "Express from the US" titles on the M-Net and M-Net Edge channels.

That is a bad thing.

If the primary motivation for killing off M-Net Edge is to have more content to funnel onto M-Net to reduce repeats, that is the wrong motivation.

The real, right solution to fixing too many repeats and empty holes on M-Net (DStv 101) isn't to cannibalise another great channel but to commission and make, or buy more suitable content for the channel of its own.

M-Net Edge - getting edged out of existence on DStv at the same time as DStv subscribers are made to pay more from April - isn't a throwaway, also-ran, type Cloo, Style Network, Esquire, CBS Drama channel filled with stale, old content that can easily go away without being missed.

Like AMC that's dull at times but actually has premium programming like Fear the Walking, The Night Manager and others, M-Net Edge deserved its legitimate channel spot and position.

Something – a great TV channel – is being shut down and taken away from DStv subscribers when it served as an excellent M-Net content dam "overflow" receptacle and a legitimate place holder channel spot (hence its premium 102 channel position).

Two golden chains melted down to create one "bumper" piece of jewelry doesn't necessarily mean that the sum of the parts are equal to a bigger and better artistic expression.

How many more times will M-Net launch new M-Net channels and then after a few months or years rip them away? It damages channel loyalty. 

The closure of M-Net Edge makes viewers less – not more – inclined to invest emotionally, and in terms of their time, when a new channel brand is launched because every time a new channel comes along that's shut down later, the resistance is higher to really believe and trust in it (that it will last).

If M-Net Edge can get snuffed out, MultiChoice and M-Net are now signalling that basically any channel - not just those low-rated third-tier repeat-filled channels but even prestige channels - are not guaranteed their existence and can be yanked.

Is M-Net really going to find space and timeslots for all the HBO, Showtime, NBCUniversal's cable channel series from Suits to The Magicians, CBS International's large number of series from NCIS Los Angeles to The Big Bang Theory, NBC's Chicago’s and other series, Disney's stuff from Modern Family to The Fixer, Warner Bros. stuff from Ellen to Riverdale and the cooking reality competition shows, the newly introduced art films, the newly introduced foreign and European language series – all on one channel?

Incredibly unlikely. 

What's more likely going to happen is a regression. 

DStv subscribers will once again have to wait longer for more TV series to find a linear playout spot and be broadcast. There simply isn't space and there are only so many hours in a week's TV channel schedule.

Keep in mind that internationally there's more great TV shows being made every single year – not less. 2017 will be another new high-water mark in terms of the sheer number of series. How will M-Net as a channel keep from bursting at the scenes/seams?

The oversupply of content for one channel will also make it less likely for "lesser" series in terms of its niche quality – Deutschland 83 for instance – to be bought. When your basket is full, the threshold for M-Net to "bother" to acquire it goes down, not up.

M-Net had a need and gaps to buy to fill a specific premium content TV destination, a channel that had to set itself apart with its own identity and channel proposition. Now MultiChoice and M-Net have one less. It means less specific, real-world pressure to buy certain stuff and by proxy, less effort.

Mama eagle will fly less turns to bring food for two birds in the nest than if there were three birds. 

And when there's two they won't get the same volume of food that three would have gotten, they will get what's appropriate for two – it's a law of nature.

Why has Sky that has Sky1 and Sky2 (its M-Net) not closed down its Sky Atlantic (on which the M-Net Edge template is based)? Because it has enough content to sustain two real premium general entertainment drama and series channels and the Sky Atlantic channel.

M-Net Edge could have kept running with more than enough series. And with more TV shows that ever before constantly coming, M-Net and DStv could have continued to build and keep South Africa's version of a Sky Atlantic alive.

In a video content sea awash with a lot of ordinary run-of-the-mill TV trash, M-Net Edge stood out as one of the very few premium DStv "destinations". 

It was a reason to get DStv Premium; it was a destination that demanded attention and it was a place and a channel that viewers sought out to get new, exciting, fresh and timeous content with buzz.

The termination of M-Net Edge means that DStv and M-Net will have one less of these, and one less HD channel - and that is a big step backwards, not forward.

Now all that remains is for TV critics, shaking their heads at yet another edgy departure, to find the number of a good tattoo removal artist.

BREAKING. M-Net dumps M-Net Edge, M-Net Family, M-Net Movies Showcase channels on DStv from April as it further contracts it channels offering.

M-Net and MultiChoice are further reducing M-Net's channels offering on DStv with the M-Net Edge (DStv 102), M-Net Family (DStv 162) and M-Net Movies Showcase (DStv 107) channels that are all culled from 1 April - the same date when the new DStv price hike kicks in.

By cutting down and doing channel consolidation, M-Net is following hot on the heels of the accelerating trend of international pay-TV services and channel providers dumping under-performing and niche channels from their bouquets and channel line-ups as the pull of the traditional pay-TV bundling offer for consumers starts to fray.

M-Net says the channels are taken away based on DStv subscriber research.

ALSO READ: Edged out: Why MultiChoice and M-Net's decision to shut down M-Net Edge is a big regressive step backwards for DStv subscribers.

M-Net as a linear TV channel supplier to a pay-TV bundle is following Viacom and NBCUniversal that are all killing off niche and under-performing channels in an attempt to strengthen their core channel collections and to refocus their content output energy on big general entertainment channels and desirable brands.

"The entertainment landscape is changing faster than ever - we've made these changes based on what our customers have told us. We know they want to see the best new and returning series, and that is exactly what they will get," says Nkateko Mabaso, M-Net South Africa's group general manager.

The termination of M-Net Edge just three years after it launched in late 2014 to replace the floundering "M-Net Series" brand, means the loss of the additional premium channel for DStv Premium subscribers that promised to provide a cutting-edge second destination for quality, sophisticated and premium programming on DStv.

In July 2016 M-Net dumped channels like M-Net Movies Comedy, M-Net Movies Family and M-Net Movies Romance combining it into M-Net Movies Smile. The downsizing from 9 to 7 is continuing with the loss of a further M-Net Movies channel and 2 M-Net general entertainment channels.

MultiChoice and M-Net abruptly ending M-Net Edge, at the same time as raising DStv subscriptions on 1 April comes as a double blow for DStv Premium subscribers who will have to pay more but see more TV channels taken away.

DStv's reduced M-Net channels offering will also dramatically curtail M-Net's "Express from the US" concept - the rolling out of episodes of American series in South African quickly after its American broadcast.

With the consolidation of two channels' content, there's simply not enough physical timeslots available for the number of series and shows carried by M-Net as a pay-TV broadcaster to do justice to the "Express from the US" concept on a single linear premium channel basis.

There's more HBO and Showtime series as well as from the major Hollywood studios and distributors like Disney-ABC, CBS International and NBCUniversal than what can be packed on a single premium channel like M-Net (DStv 101) without the existence of an "exhaust vent" like the "overflow" channel that M-Net Edge provided for edgier "American cable" shows.

M-Net says it will beef up and incorporate M-Net Edge programming into the M-Net (DStv 101) channel to give DStv Premium subscribers "a supersized channel with bumper-to bumper entertainment".

However - all previous channel integrations in the past by MultiChoice of two TV channels into one (think BET and BET2, think any previous M-Net channels amalgam) have all proved that a temporary bump in bigger TV volume programming eventually peter out to what a single channel can accomodate.

The promises of M-Net to improve the M-Net channel with more content a few years ago also showed that after just a few months, the number of first-run shows and films in given rotation fall back down.

It's therefore highly unlikely that the volume of content that was on M-Net Edge as its own channel will entirely be sustained when the channel brand folds into the M-Net channel from April.

M-Net says it will be extending the M-Net channel's primetime from 18:00 to midnight and that it will mean "fewer repeats on M-Net".  

It's not clear if programming like M-Net's recently started premium foreign TV series from Europe, and quirky, well-received enhanced programming like the Game of Thrones aftershow, After the Thrones companion show will survive.

When M-Net Edge programming is shunted to M-Net is likely that the migration will see casualties like when (the safe) series like Game of Thrones and others are reverting back to the main M-Net channel.

The reality is that one premium TV channel - in this case M-Net (DStv 101) cannot over the longterm sustain more than a certain number of premium programming titles when it comes to series and film, purely due to the finite number of weekly hours and timeslots  available and a repeat ratio that must happen.

Schedule changes are also coming.

With a premium film at 20:05 on M-Net (DStv 101) on Sunday nights, there's no way that a premium foreign art film that was at 21:00 on M-Net Edge (DStv 102) on Sundays will be shown at 21:00 on M-Net - it physically isn't possible.

M-Net will once again be disrupting DStv subscribers' viewing pattern just months after introducing the new M-Net Edge schedule in mid-December 2016.

Another channel casualty is M-Net Movies Showcase (DStv 107) that is also being dumped as M-Net continues to cut down its M-Net Movies channels offering.

M-Net says M-Net Movies Showcase is terminated in favour of doing more limited-run pop-up channels on DStv.

"Our pop-up channels are extremely popular," says Nkateko Mabaso. "Viewers love the fact that they can easily find a collection of their favourite movies packaged under a specific theme on one channel".

The under-performing DStv Family (DStv 162) is also being dumped by M-Net and MultiChoice will replace DStv Family with the VUZU (DStv 116) channel on the DStv Family bouquet with VUZU that will retain its channel number position of 116.

M-Net buys buys Swedish series, Midnight Sun, and thriller series, The Five, from STUDIOCANAL for its new foreign series block on M-Net Edge.

M-Net has bought the broadcasting rights to two beautiful European series - Midnight Sun and The Five - from STUDIOCANAL for the new foreign language TV series block on M-Net Edge (DStv 102).

Midnight Sun and The Five will be broadcast during 2017 as part of the new foreign language TV series block on M-Net Edge on Saturday nights at 21:00 where DStv Premium subscribers can now watch acclaimed European drama series.

To stay ahead of offerings like BBC Worldwide's BBC First (DStv 119) and even subscription video-on-demand offerings like Netflix and Naspers' ShowMax, M-Net Edge is rapidly evolving into a connoisseur TV channel destination, adapting its channel proposition with an expanded emphasis on the sumptuous best of European, British and American TV dramas.

The critically-acclaimed Midnight Sun is a 2016 Swedish-French noir drama, a CANAL+/SVT/Filmpool Nord co-production, with the Swedish crime thriller that's been described as setting "a new high watermark for TV drama".

Midnight Sun – or Midnattssol, as it's known in Sweden - hails from writers Måns Mårlind and Björn Stein also responsible for The Bridge.

With utterly incredible production values and a stunning visual look, Midnight Sun keeps viewers spellbound with its arrestingly beautiful and haunting story.

Set remote Sweden with stunning cinematography, Midnight Sun tracks a murder investigation in which the French police officer Kahina Zadi (Leïla Bekhti) works with the local Sami policeman Anders Harnesk (Gustaf Hammarsten) to try and solve the horrific crime that divides the local Sami community.

Harlan Coben's The Five, produced by RED Production Company (belonging to STUDIOCANAL) of which its first season of 10 episodes will also be shown on M-Net Edge, is a British crime drama, created by the renowned crime author. It is his first original TV series.

Set in the fictional town of Westbridge, the former childhood friends Mark, Danny, Slade and Pru reunite after DNA evidence left at amurder scene is revealed to be that of Mark's brother Jesse.

Jesse disappeared years ago while playing in the park with the four friends.

A second season has already been commissioned and will be entitled, The Four.

"We're delighted to sign this new deal with M-Net, brokered by STUDIOCANAL sales manager Elise Woolfe, which will see these leading prime time dramas broadcasting throughout Africa," says Katrina Neylon, STUDIOCANAL's executive vice president for sales and marketing.

"Our titles have grabbed the attention of international buyers, offering intelligent, thought-provoking and absorbing content".

Why did M-Net put Emerald City on Vuzu AMP on DStv when this Games of Thrones like show clearly belongs on M-Net Edge?

A woman is shown stabbed and killed from the back, explicitly pierced by a sword. In a whore house soldiers are sexed. A woman (a witch actually) is shown blowing her brains out and toppling over, while three young women are seen jumping to their deaths in a "hanging" suicide.

In another scene a murdered soldier's chopped off pieces (head etc.) is shown, while winter is literally coming and has now arrived as snowflakes sift down because of a problem with magic.

If you think it's the latest new episode from the upcoming 7th season of Game of Thrones on M-Net Edge (DStv 102), guess again.

It's scenes from the inappropriately placed and scheduled new American fantasy drama series Emerald City on Vuzu AMP (DStv 102) on a channel where DStv subscribers in their content discovery process won't expect to find it, and where it doesn't actually belong.

The at times graphic show - now four episodes in and one of M-Net's Express from the US titles - has been placed on the youth-centric Vuzu AMP although its much more similar in nature in look, sense, feel and some graphic depictions, to fantasy dramas like Game of Thrones, Vikings and Beowulf.

Guess on what M-Net channel on MultiChoice's DStv these types of shows are actually shown.

Somebody at M-Net acquired Emerald City and didn't bother to actually watch it. For Emerald City isn't Vuzu AMP's The Vampire Diaries.

If you like more mature fantasy drama series you will like Emerald City, a sort of deconstructed and definitely post-modernist version of the classic story about Dorothy who gets whisked away by tornado to a mystical new land where she meets up with a hodge-potch group all looking for the Wizard of Oz.

The steampunk fantasy series has a lot of unfolding, surprising twists but the problem is that some viewers might not know of its existence on the Pretty Little Liars channel.

If only there were a bit of heart. If only there were a bit of bravery. If only there were a bit of brains.

Watching Emerald City on Vuzu AMP it feels as if M-Net wants viewers to watch content (and yes, Emerald City is good content) that people in the acquisitions and scheduling teams don't watch themselves. Or, if it is pre-watched, and still scheduled wrongly, then it borders on borderline incompetence.

If The Magicians (based on a book) and a series meant for mature audiences was shown on M-Net Edge - in which characters in a magical environment battle themselves, each other and adversaries to find answers and survive - why is Emerald City (based on a book) now a series meant for mature audiences placed on Vuzu AMP as a show in which characters in a magic environment battle themselves, each other and adversaries to find answers and survive?

Another issue: In America Emerald City is an NBC show. Strikingly the new TV season's biggest new hit drama series, This is Us, is nowhere to be seen anywhere in South Africa.

It begs the question: Why has This Is Us not been acquired by M-Net - or e.tv? A show in which American TV bosses have so much confidence that it was just renewed not just for a second but also for a third season?

And if This is Us (soo good!) is eventually seen in South Africa, how much of the entertainment value will be gone because viewers will already have been told, or have read somewhere about the emotional twists and fascinating plot twists that were all well guarded secrets in the first episode and subsequent hours of this terrific new series?

With both Emerald City and This is Us South African TV viewers are not being considered and served as paying TV customers as well as they should be.

If only viewers, like the Wizard of Oz, were able to quickly summon a witch (or a giant) to fix it, when something like this that's clearly a TV mistake, went wrong.

BREAKING. M-Net picks up new Mr. Robot after show, Hacking Robot for M-Net Edge on DStv; will broadcast it right after the second season Mr. Robot premiere tonight.

That future of television you wished you could get to and life in? Well, you're finally actually living in it: I can reveal that M-Net is adding yet another great after show for a popular drama series and will be showing the new Hacking Robot as part of the new second season of Mr. Robot on M-Net Edge (DStv 102).

Dedicated viewers who want more about certain hit shows and critically acclaimed dramas and who will stay tuned to TV longer to find out more about it - as opposed to going online to look for answers and community - can increasingly stay tuned for "after shows".

With Mr. Robot adding a new after show for its second season, M-Net sparked to quickly pick Hacking Robot up for broadcast on M-Net Edge, just like it did a few months ago with the After the Thrones companion show to Game of Thrones.

Hacking Robot with Andy Greenwald, who just recently was a co-presenter of After the Thrones, will provide a behind-the-scenes look at the breakout drama.

Hacking Robot will be broadcast on M-Net Edge (DStv 102) right after the linear broadcast of the first episode of the new second season - just like in America.

It means that Californication will take a break on-air and the next episode of that show will go out next week.

The second season of Mr. Robot about the vigilante cyber hacker Elliot Alderson (Rami Malek) who works with the underground cyber hacking group fsociety is an Express from the US title on M-Net Edge, with episodes broadcast on Fridays at 03:00 for viewers who simply can't wait to see it quickly.

Mr. Robot episodes are then shown again in prime time on Thursday nights.

Also take note that the first and last episodes of Mr. Robot's second season have been scheduled as two-hour long episodes on 15 July and 16 September. The episode order of the second season of Mr Robot has also just been increased from 10 to 12 episodes.

"The first season of Mr. Robot was everything we hoped for – and then some," says Chris McCumber, the president of entertainment networks at NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment in a statement.

"From the first moments of the new season, it'll be clear that audiences are in for something incredibly special and wholly unexpected".

"The extraordinary ride that is Mr. Robot continues with a wild season two. It's a brilliant and immersive journey that demands to be watched again and again," says Jeff Wachtel, the chief content officer of NBCUniversal cable entertainment and the president of Universal Cable Productions and Wilshire Studios.

Game of Thrones 7th season will be delayed as the fantasy drama series is literally waiting for winter weather.

Following the just-concluded 6th season of Game of Thrones on M-Net Edge (DStv 102), the next season set for 2017 will be delayed as the hit global fantasy drama series is literally waiting for winter.

Co-creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss told UFC Unfiltered in a podcast that the show's sprawling production needs real-life bad winter weather for the upcoming seasons.

The 7th and 8th Game of Thrones seasons will also be shorter in episode number (around 7 episodes) than the 10 per season of the previous ones.

"We don't have an air date yet," said David Benioff. "We're starting a bit later because at the end of this season, 'Winter is here' - and that means that sunny weather doesn't really serve our purposes any more."

"So we kind of pushed everything down the line, so we could get some grim, grey weather even in the sunnier places that we shoot."

It means that Game of Thrones won't be starting in April 2017 but later next year. The change to winter weather means that Game of Thrones will literally look darker than before.

Mr. Robot on M-Net Edge is the latest hot TV drama to get a special after show expansion, Hacking Robot; will M-Net Edge add and show it?

Mr. Robot's upcoming second season is the next hot TV drama that is now getting the after show treatment, and since Mr. Robot is on M-Net Edge (DStv 102) the question immediately arises: Will M-Net add and show viewers the new after show explainer Hacking Robot as well?

TV's latest trend - something that actually signals to viewers television's hottest series - is the after show, a special additional, half hour or hour long show that keep viewers glued by discussing, explaining and pondering the latest revelations, plot twists and character developments.

The Walking Dead and Fear the Walking Dead have it, Game of Thrones on M-Net Edge recently got it with After the Thrones, some other shows have it, and now Mr. Robot is also getting an after show, Hacking Robot, to give viewers who like the show even more insight and analysis about it.

Andy Greenwald, who just recently was a co-presenter of After the Thrones, will be the presenter of the Hacking Robot after show.

At this point it's not clear whether Hacking Robot will be a weekly show to accompany and expand on every week's episode of Mr. Robot, or whether it will only be a once-off special.

Meanwhile you definitely can't call M-Net an Evil Corp: The second season of Mr. Robot about the vigilante cyber hacker Elliot Alderson (Rami Malek) who works with the underground cyber hacking group fsociety will start on M-Net Edge as an Express from the US title.

That means that Mr. Robot's second season will start with the first episode broadcast on Friday 15 July at 03:00 for viewers who simply can't wait to see it quickly.

Mr. Robot episodes will then be shown again in prime time from Thursday 21 July. (Also take note that the first and last episodes of Mr. Robot's second season have been scheduled as two-hour long episodes on 15 July and 16 September).

The episode order of the second season of Mr Robot has also just been increased from 10 to 12 episodes.

"The first season of Mr. Robot was everything we hoped for – and then some," says Chris McCumber, the president of entertainment networks at NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment in a statement.

"From the first moments of the new season, it'll be clear that audiences are in for something incredibly special and wholly unexpected".

"The extraordinary ride that is Mr. Robot continues with a wild season two. It's a brilliant and immersive journey that demands to be watched again and again," says Jeff Wachtel, the chief content officer of NBCUniversal cable entertainment and the president of Universal Cable Productions and Wilshire Studios.

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.

TV's dragons now going after Game of Thrones pirates as South Africa hits the 9th spot on list of countries with highest illegal torrent downloads for fantasy show.

TV's dragons are now aggressively going after Game of Thrones pirates with South Africa that has cracked the 9th place on the list of countries where the HBO show, broadcast on M-Net Edge, has the highest number of illegal downloads.

In a stark - no pun intended - turnaround, HBO has now started to aggressively go after illegal watchers.

HBO previously said "it is a compliment of sorts," to have its highly popular fantasy drama series eagerly devoured by viewers globally not just through official TV broadcasts but also illegal downloads and file-sharing, has now started to aggressively go after illegal watchers.

HBO previously said illegal torrents and downloads which pop up within hours after a new episode is broadcast "certainly didn't negatively impact the DVD sales" and that TV piracy comes with having a highly successful show on subscription television.

With the new 6th season of Game of Thrones, HBO is apparently done with its relaxed approach to copyright infringement of the hit show by millions of people worldwide.

While NCIS remains the world's most watched TV show on broadcast television, Game of Thrones annually breaks the record for the most illegally downloaded show, and by implicating being the TV show most actively sought out by people worldwide.

According to TorrentFreak, HBO, since the start of the new season, is sending out thousands of copyright infringement warnings to alleged pirates in the United States, encouraging them to get an HBO subscription.

In addition, HBO is company is requesting torrent sites to remove Game of Thrones torrents and is doing so incredibly fast - both old torrents as well as new ones after they spring up.

According to TorrentFreak, hundreds of torrents on torrent search sites like KickassTorrents and Torrentz have been removed already, with most of the most popular Game of Thrones files that's not available and being removed within minutes after being uploaded.

While South African and Africa DStv subscribers can watch Game of Thrones episodes at exactly the same time as it's broadcast in the United States on M-Net Edge (DStv 102) on MultiChoice's DStv satellite pay-TV platform and with episodes made available on the DStv Catch Up, South Africa has now climbed to the 9th place on the list of biggest Game of Thrones pirates.

The 6th season of Game of Thrones instantly lured the pirates,with the top 10 list of countries where the show is downloaded spanning from the United Kingdom and Canada to Australia and South Africa.

According to TorrentFreak the top 10 list of countries downloading and sharing Game of Thrones since the start of the 6th season the most are:

1.Australia
2.India
3.United States
4.United Kingdom
5.Philippines
6.Canada
7.Netherlands
8.Greece
9.South Africa
10.Saudi Arabia

TorrentFreak says another interesting trend is how fast the number of viewers are growing who are no longer satisfied with standard definition (SD) episodes but want to watch Game of Thrones in high definition (HD) although such a file is much bigger and uses more data.

"An interesting trend among pirates is a move from standard definition (480p) to high-definition (720p and 1080p) video. A few years ago roughly 10% downloaded HD copies, which are larger in size, but today this is getting close to 50%," TorrentFreak reports.

"There's little doubt that Game of Thrones is once again the main contender for the title of most pirated show of the year."

M-Net Edge live screens Game of Thrones' 6th season premiere at Ster-Kinekor countrywide in South Africa as fans flock to see what happens to Jon Snow.

Eager fans flocked to Ster-Kinekor cinemas countrywide this morning at 03:00 to find out if Jon Snow remains dead in the 6th season premiere of the popular fantasy drama series Game of Thrones that M-Net Edge broadcast at the same time as the new season made its debut on HBO in America.

White Walkers, Khaleesi's and other characters (sadly, or luckily no dragons) from the hugely popular fantasy drama series made their appearance as throngs of fans queued for seats in the early hours of Monday morning to see the first episode that will be broadcast on M-Net Edge (DStv 102) on Thursday 28 April at 21:00.

M-Net and Ster-Kinekor created a great fan experience with flame artists, cosplay characters and even a harpist as attendees indulged in free snacks, coffee and Play energy drinks.

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. M-Net also added the new companion talk show, After the Thrones to the M-Net Edge schedule.

While fans enjoyed the live Game of Thrones screening, Capetonians were ready to get their swords out when the DStv decoder decided to hibernate a few minutes after 03:00 and shut down with groans from the cinema audience.

The episode resumed within a few minutes when the DStv decoder was switched back on (and a "White Walker" won a DStv Explora as Best Dressed character).

Viewers left out a collective gasp at the end of the first new episode with a shocking and unexpected revelation about the Melisandre character.

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.

M-Net quiet over whether it will be showing the new HBO Game of Thrones Aftershow companion show on M-Net Edge or have it on DStv Catch Up.

M-Net has been quiet for over a week over whether the Game of Thrones Aftershow - a new companion show starting with the upcoming 6th season of Game of Thrones on M-Net Edge (DStv 102) - will be broadcast for South African viewers on DStv.

M-Net calls its M-Net Edge channel "the official home of HBO in South Africa".

With it M-Net creates the perception under M-Net viewers and DStv subscribers that what the HBO pay-TV channel in America creates, will be shown on M-Net Edge in South Africa and across Africa where the M-Net Edge channel is available.

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

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.

There is however now doubt that M-Net will bring South African viewers the companion Game of Thrones Aftershow talk show series that would be the perfect schedule complement for viewers - or that MultiChoice would make the Game of Thrones Aftershow series available as an on-demand DStv Catch Up offering to subscribers, despite M-Net Edge being "the home of HBO".

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

The show will be presented by Andy Greenwald and Chris Ryan who will discuss the show and the events and interesting developments of each new episode.

While M-Net Edge and MultiChoice don't seem to have any plans to enhance the viewing experience of M-Net Edge viewers and DStv Catch Up users with more HBO generated content around this hugely popular fantasy drama series, it might leave Naspers' ShowMax video-on-demand (VOD) service to swoop in and secure the rights if M-Net doesn't actually have the rights to this new HBO content.

Game of Thrones already holds the global record as the most illegally downloaded show for the 4th consecutive year.

With the addition of the new Game of Thrones Aftershow from HBO and its possible unavailability in territories like South Africa and Africa when the 6th season of Game of Thrones starts, it's likely that the additional further new content around the show will ironically fuel, instead of lessen, illegal downloads.

Obsessed South African viewers want to see HBO's additional Game of Thrones Aftershow companion show and who don't get it from M-Net Edge, DStv Catch Up or ShowMax, will likely find some alternative way to see the content at the same time as it's being made available in America.

The 6th season of Game of Thrones will start Monday 25 April on M-Net Edge at same time as in the United States; will be on Thursdays in prime time at 21:00.

A month ago I reported that the upcoming 6th season of Game of Thrones for South Africa will once again be an "Express from the US" title for M-Net for DStv subscribers and will be shown on 25 April.

Now I can report that South African viewers will once again see episodes at exactly the same time as in America.

DStv Premium subscribers who can't wait, can watch episodes of the 6th season of Game of Thrones from Monday morning 03:00 on M-Net Edge (DStv 102), after which episodes will be broadcast in prime time on the same channel on Thursdays at 21:00.

The timeslots of 03:00 on Monday mornings and Thursdays at 21:00 for Game of Thrones are exactly the same as what M-Net Edge did in 2015 for the 5th season.

It will definitely ... Snow ... if you get what I mean, and in contract to the previous seasons, the 6th season of Game of Thrones will be unpredictable and new for everybody.

The story and episodes don't exist in bookform (yet), since the TV version has caught up and passed creator and writer George R.R. Martin's published book series.

George R.R. Martin is now writing the TV show before the books and the new season will consist largely of events for the 6th novel The Winds of Winter that's not published yet, and a bit of content from the 4th and 5th novels.

The 6th season of Game of Thrones will once again have 10 episodes similar to each of the previous 5 seasons.

TV critic's notebook: M-Net's 'devil-may-care' problem with Lucifer and why the hot blowback to the M-Net hell's kitchen could have been a lot less heated.

A lot of South African viewers and DStv subscribers are, rightly or wrongly, upset and angry with M-Net over the broadcast of a now very controversial new drama series Lucifer.

The irony is that M-Net could have prevented it all, should have pre-empted possible problems and had the power to prevent it, but didn't.

Now M-Net and DStv are incurring brand damage and negative sentiment with the most complaints about just one show - 89 - to the Broadcasting Complaints Commission of South Africa (BCCSA) that I've seen in a very long time (and I go through them all) and threats that people are going to cancel their DStv subscriptions if M-Net doesn't remove Lucifer from the M-Net Edge (DStv 102) schedule.

This TV critic's notebook isn't about whether Lucifer should be broadcast or not - I'm against censorship and South Africa is a free country and broadcasters and brands like M-Net and DStv are commercial entities delivering a commercial TV service people can take or leave as they want and can, or can't, afford to.

Rather I want to give some insight and perspective on why I think M-Net failed to see and anticipate the devil drama and offense the show could cause and why M-Net could have prevented the current viewer uproar.

Even before Lucifer started at the end of January on M-Net Edge, as a TV critic I was already well-aware of the show.

I therefore absolutely raised an eyebrow when M-Net issued their programming updates and advisories and I noticed that Lucifer was scheduled for 19:00 on M-Net Edge at the end of January.

By that time I've watched Lucifer trailers on YouTube and elsewhere, have read about the show, and I knew that even in America on FOX Lucifer would be shown at 21:00 - two hours later than in South Africa.

Really, what were M-Net's executives thinking? Were M-Net's executives not checking and why did the checks and balances regarding scheduling once again apparently failed?

M-Net is extremely well-aware about the risks and more conservative viewer attitudes of audiences in African countries as well as South Africa.

A show entitled Lucifer should have given M-Net pause and at the least have raised red flags. Something like this should at the very least have been seen and screened by M-Net executives who should have been watching the show before it goes to air. M-Net apparently didn't.

Nor did M-Net make the effort to communicate to the South African press and TV critics what exactly the show was about, and to educate viewers through educating the press.

I deliberately didn't write or report anything about Lucifer's obvious South African possible problems because I didn't want to stir up viewer response pre-emptively.

I deliberately didn't want to go into agenda-setting mode as news media sometimes do and to negatively or positively influence viewers about a show that at that stage hasn't been shown yet.

I did however think that M-Net was going to realise on their own certain sensitivities and the "mistake" and move the show later or come up with another plan of showing it.

What I definitely did do however was to start going through my contact list for people I would like to call, to get and verify their cellphone numbers and contact details - in case Lucifer exploded into a viewership issue.

To add more context, I must also tell you that over the December holiday I watched the new science fiction mini-series Childhood's End - not yet scheduled for any South Africa channel.

(Now I don't and won't spoil it but if you watch that, or read about that and what happens in that show and what is seen and revealed wonderfully-shockingly, and how mankind reacts over something in that story, you will instantly understand why the moment I saw Lucifer on the schedule I knew it could be a problem for viewers.)

Then, two weeks ago I sat in an auditorium inside MultiChoice City, MultiChoice's headquarters in Randburg when M-Net unspooled at the DStv Showcase, a trailer for Lucifer to media covering television just before the on-air debut of the first episode.

It was the same once I've seen weeks before on YouTube.

Immediately on my left sat another longtime stage and screen TV writer and critic. On my right sat Yolisa Phahle, M-Net's CEO.

During the Lucifer promo, the journalist on my left leaned over to me in the darkness and asked exactly this: "Is this show sacrilegious?"

At that very moment I realised that M-Net is very likely going to have a very big problem.

When a print journalist covering television struggles to make a fairly accurate assessment of what a TV show is about, its narrative, its characters, and those characters' intent, then you have a problem.

The journalist also confused Lucifer, the devil character played by Tom Ellis as the "good angel". He also thought that the black angel standing in the street - actually the "good character" sent to take the devil back to hell - to be the devil.

I had to explain to him that no, the well-dressed one is the devil; the creature with wings is the angel sent to capture him.

I think M-Net could have prevented the devil drama if it actually watched the show before it scheduled it and broadcast it. Or perhaps M-Net executives did watch a show called Lucifer, but was out of touch with local South African sensitivities.

Working in television and running TV channels doesn't mean just buying TV. It also actually means watching TV.

M-Net buys an incredible amount of telly for South Africa and Africa. In that sense it actually sits with the opposite problem from the SABC that struggles with dated, old and too little exciting content.

With this bigger inflow of content however comes the burden and responsibility of keeping track of what it is, and actually watching it - not just programming it.

M-Net bought Flesh and Bone - completely inappropriate for the M-Net channel - and luckily somehow noticed and took it off. M-Net realised content sensitivities regarding the second season of The Affair and altered the times.

But these incidents are become more and more regular and obvious. As a TV critic I always notice them since it always pops up as glaring issues - because I read beforehand and try to watch as much as I can of new shows.

If M-Net wants to prevent and limit future brand damage that arise through certain sensitive content, it will be better if those watching before all the rest of us are watching, to actually start watching - or to appoint more people to actually watch and screen content.

You can't show a trailer for a show named Lucifer to the press and then it's also the first time that a lot of the people working for a TV company and who deals with the media, sees it for the first time and also let out surprised gasps and "oohs" and "aahs".

Lucifer was/is one of M-Net's Express from the US titles, but that doesn't mean that M-Net executives with a lot more resources, connections and direct content contact than TV critics couldn't have already known and seen more than what was available publicly on the internet.

Good chefs personally oversee and do a personal taste-test in the kitchen of every single thing before it leaves the kitchen to go to the front of house.

The hot blowback to hell's kitchen will be a lot less heated if South Africa's TV bosses can perhaps start to do the same.