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.

MultiChoice content boss Aletta Alberts on the ways DStv is reducing TV repeats: 'We are improving our product dramatically'.

MultiChoice says that is has heard DStv subscribers' complaints about too many repeats and that the pay-TV provider is "improving our product dramatically" in terms of reducing repeats and adding new content.

The pay-TV provider that runs the DStv pay-TV service in South Africa and across Africa said that it is in the process of cutting down on the number of rebroadcasts across TV channels, scheduling new content where it works best for viewers and finding ways of helping DStv subscribers to find new content.


ALSO READ: MultiChoice and M-Net executives reveal some of the pop-up channels, new content and scheduling changes coming to DStv in 2017.
ALSO READ: The 101 in 2017: DStv and M-Net boosting efforts around content discovery and 'seasonality' in TV viewing behaviour.
ALSO READ: What MultiChoice learnt from an Appletiser can- and how it will bring a change to DStv decoders.

Speaking during a conference call, Aletta Alberts, the general manager: content for MultiChoice, said that "we want to say to customers we've heard you and we are making changes".

Aletta Alberts told TVwithThinus that "it's not like repeats will go away but in general we are improving our product dramatically".

MultiChoice, together with its third-party channel suppliers as well as M-Net, is working to bring DStv subscribers less repeats and more new content across the various series channels over weekends, to lessen the overall number of repeats seen across TV channels during the week, and to bring down the repeat rate of movies whilst adding more series and limiting series overlap across channels.

Giving background as to what MultiChoice has been doing given the flurry of complaints from DStv subscribers regarding repeats, Aletta Alberts said that "one of the key issues over the years is that repeats have been at the forefront of our challenges".

"When we talk to suppliers and we talk about repeats and we tell them there's very little tolerance in our territory for repeats, they all say 'Oh yes but that's everywhere', but then we say 'We're just warning you that in this territory our consumers are incredibly vocal about this".

"Then shortly after the channels launch they will basically say 'Yes, you are actually right, we haven't seen a market that's this engaged in the detail, and really as vocal anywhere in the world'. The pay-TV business is basically built on repeats because there's not enough content to just have first-run content on any channel."

"We also know that over the years we've had so many more channels on, and because we have so many more bouquets, that there was an overlap of content on channels, and the repeat rate [of content] went higher."

Aletta Alberts said MultiChoice has done very extensive subscriber research into insights especially around the repeats and rebroadcast of content.

"Over the last 6 months we have been slowly but surely started changing stuff and we're now in full momentum."

"Customers have told us there's lots of repeats; we've done channel reviews, we've done audits on the content and we're in the process of addressing all these issues. We want to say to customers we've heard you and we are making changes".

"There's a lot of exciting stuff happening. It's not like repeats will go away but in general we are improving our product dramatically, and there's a lot of new and exciting stuff that we're very excited about."

"We've already terminated the AMC channel, True Movies and two movie channels because we felt the movies are too old, there's too much duplication.We really looked very, very carefully at everything and made sure that on every tier there's enough value," said Aletta Alberts.

"Also the movie curation and selection on the M-Net Movies channels is better and the films are more recent, and we're now seeing ratings spikes."

"In 2017 there's more exciting things coming in the first four months after our budget's been approved."


More new content over weekends
"In terms of TV series and channels doing series, is that for a very long time M-Net basically bought everything and we still buy everything."

"The output of series from 2010 to 2016 has more than doubled. That means that the international channels we acquire, they still buy second-window series [a programme already seen previously on another channel], but 'we're working very hard in conjunction with them to bring and add new titles rather than four channels buying the same NCIS or The Mentalist".

"We're seeing a huge infusion of new content on channels like The Universal Channel (DStv 117) and FOX (Dstv 125)," said Aletta Alberts.

"The Universal Channel still has NCIS exclusively, then they have Rosewood, Law & Order: SVU, The Librarians, and then all their made-for-TV movies and whatever more they're buying".

"FOX has Pitch, Atlanta, the new upcoming Star, The Walking Dead, Empire's new episodes, The Strain, 24: Legacy, Tyrant, Scream Queens, Legion and Outcast to mention just a few of the things that's new."

"We're working very hard with the channels to try and reduce the overlap of titles," said Aletta Alberts.

"In addition to that the M-Net team has done a fantastic job at repositioning M-Net City (DStv 115) and then the launch of M-Net Family (DStv 162)."

"M-Net City specifically is doing a fantastic job at curating a second-window of the content to lower tiers. Even in the DStv Premium market the channel has improved in the ratings dramatically."

"Then we've terminated the CBS Drama and CBS Action channels to eliminate repeats."

"In general we work with all the channels because we know that binge-watching and super-stacking [the broadcast of multiple episodes of a season] is a big thing, but we also find that if everyone is do that, there's very little new content over the weekend."

"Especially in the economic climate, there's a great need for consumers to actually see new content on some of the channels over weekends, so we are doing a big job to make sure that there's enough new content over weekends on the series channels for our consumers".

Growing in-season stacking rights
MultiChoice is also aggressively growing its catalogue of what is known as "in-season stacking rights" where every episode of a current season that's been broadcast becomes available, and remains available, to a subscriber to watch at any time to help them get into and to catch up with a particular show.

"View-on-demand is becoming as important as linear broadcast for us. On DStv Catch Up Plus we are now stacking in-season box sets where we have rights, and where we don't have that we are really acquiring those aggressively if they haven't been bought by other over-the-top (OTT) players," said Aletta Alberts.

MultiChoice already has deals in place with HBO, Disney BBC Worldwide and ITV Studios Global Entertainment for in-season stacking rights for DStv.


Less repeat stacking on doc and lifestyle channels
Aletta Alberts said documentary and lifestyle channels have been ahead of the curve in terms of the "binge-viewing" phenomena, where these channels offer up multiple repeat episodes of a season or seasons on certain days - mostly over weekends.

 "We have done full reviews on all the channels that do stacking over weekends. There's been these very, very large stacks. So it might be one show in the morning, one show in the afternoon and one show at night."

"It basically means that if you don't like Pawn Stars or you don't like Gold Diggers, then basically you can't watch that channel. So we're working with those channels and since December you'll see improvements on the stacking."

"Where it works the channels will retain it but maybe in smaller blocks and other channels might stack but it might not be the same episodes or titles, it might be a slot to give more variety."


Less Ancient Aliens and old Top Gear
Aletta Alberts said MultiChoice is also aware that some channels have scheduled some TV shows too excessively and that the pay-TV platform is working with channels to ensure a better balance of titles.

"We know that some titles on some channels have been scheduled excessively, like Top Gear [on BBC Brit], which obviously still delivers for BBC Worldwide huge ratings but customers do get very disgruntled because they see these titles that just don't go away."

"It's really to trying to find a balance and introducing new content or repeating it in such a way for customers that it's not in 20 places on the schedule."

"Consumers are very vocal about the History (DStv 186) channel and the fact that it's playing less and less what we call 'real history' and titles that don't work."

"Their strategy in the United States - we've seen push-back - so they haven't recommissioned things like Duck Dynasty and those kinds of things because Duck Dynasty simply doesn't not make sense on a History channel."

"So you're going to see the introduction of a block of history at 19:20 on the History schedule and then over weekend they're going to start doing event history which we're very excited about".

"National Geographic (DStv 181) is currently doing MARS, in 2017 BBC Earth (DStv 184) is doing Planet Earth II, and then the return of Strictly Come Dancing UK and local content like The Great South African Bake Off [on BBC Lifestyle, DStv 174] scheduled over weekends."


Marked 'NEW'
"We're working on indicators on the DStv electronic programme guide (EPG) where we're going to say 'new' when an episode or a show is new to the territory," said Aletta Alberts which is another thing MultiChoice is doing to help subscribers to discover new content.

"So it's won't be things like when NCIS: Los Angeles [that is first-run on M-Net] is the first time on The Universal Channel, we won't brand it as 'new', but when it is on M-Net we will will brand it as new."

"But when The Universal Channel has Rosewood then that will be branded as new. So new to the territory."

"Channels like The Universal Channel and FOX and TLC Entertainment and the documentary channels they now do on-screen an indicator saying 'new episode' or 'brand new' all to help our customers," said Aletta Alberts.

The underperforming MagicWorld channel on MultiChoice's DStv shut down, rebranded and replaced by M-Net Family from 1 July.

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Another M-Net produced TV channel which has been under performing for years is getting the chop with MagicWorld (DStv 162) which is getting axed and replaced by the new M-Net Family on channel 162 on DStv from 17:00 on 1 July.

The mostly non-descript channel and its schedule of mostly rerun content, languished in a type of brand limbo - caught on the border between M-Net's South African identity and the M-Net content produced in and for the rest of Africa.

As such MagicWorld struggled to draw DStv subscribers who had a hard time grasping the channel's exact positioning and what they could possibly find there in terms of shows.

The MagicWorld channel logo changed several times over just the past four years, with confusing information to subscribers as to how the channel line-up and its schedule changed and got tweaked - an indication of how executives themselves struggled to define the channel and couldn't quite figure out what to do with it and how to more precisely focus and define it position.

Now MagicWorld will be a family channel with family viewing as its focus under the stronger M-Net Family name.

"MagicWorld has been discontinued. It has undergone a rebranding. As from 1 July the channel will no longer exist," an M-Net insider told TV with Thinus earlier the week.

Yolisa Phahle, M-Net CEO for Southern African confirmed it on Thursday, saying in a statement that "M-Net Family will feature carefully curated content that has proved to be popular family entertainment or that has never been seen on the DStv Family package before".

Alluding to MagicWorld not making the grade and hence the rebranding to M-Net Family, Yolisa Phahle says "It's our mission to craft top-notch M-Net channels that excite our kaleidoscope of audiences and M-Net Family is the perfect compliment for the array of M-Net general entertainment channels that currently includes M-Net 101, M-Net Edge and M-Net City."

Asked why MagicWorld has been scrapped, M-Net says "the pay-TV environment across sub-Saharan Africa has evolved rapidly over the past year or so. M-Net is always looking at different ways to enhance their offerings."

The revamped M-Net Family channel will be available to DStv Premium, DStv Compact, DStv Extra and DStv Family subscribers.

Reruns of the cancelled M-Net soap The Wild is currently running on MagicWorld and will continue on M-Net Family, but M-Net says the channel will continue with international content, like the current American talk show The Talk and the telenovela Champs.

M-Net says M-Net Family will have "a variety of high quality international content - from drama and reality series to movies - while some hit local shows and a kiddies programming block will also form part of the great family buffet of entertainment".

On Saturdays and Sundays at 18:00 M-Net Family will have a family movie, as well as series omnibuses throughout the day.