Great TV promo for M-Net Movies 1, We Tell The Best Stories, wins 10 PromaxDBA awards for M-Net; e.tv wins an award too.

M-Net has scooped 12 awards at this year's 2012 PromaxDBA Promotion, Marketing and Design Awards, and e.tv won as well.

Out of the 12 awards for M-Net, 10 went to the M-Net Movies 1 HD (DStv 175) TV channel in South Africa. Clearwater won two awards - a silver and a bronze for TV promos for the M-Net channel.

South Africa's e.tv won a bronze award for the "e is for everyone" campaign. "We are proud to have a world-class creative team that continues to produce work that gains international recognition," says Monde Twala, e.tv channel head. "The channel is committed to drive content that appeal to all South Africans."

M-Net won gold awards for editing, animation, best directing, best editing, best copywriting and best collaborative effort for the promo We Tell The Best Stories. The same promo won silver awards in the categories for general branding image and art direction & design: program/content.

The promo also won bronze for DMCI Image Spot. Monarchy which produces promos for both M-Net Movies 1 and M-Net Movies 2 also won best creative design team of the year.

FIRST LOOK! New M-Net Movies 1 HD on-air promo set to start today: 'We tell the best stories'.

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Days after absolutely scooping the lion's share of awards at the PromaxBDA Africa Awards for best on-air promos and imaging , a beautiful and brand-new on-air promo for M-Net Movies 1 (DStv 103) and M-Net Movies 1 HD (DStv 175) will start on the various M-Net channels on DStv today.

The imaginative new promo for M-Net Movies 1 is mostly done in sepia coloured tones to fit in with the theme of slightly discoloured and well-worn book pages.

The new promo is built around the premise of stories and the imagination they hold as they literally leap and jump from story books - fairytales if you will - that come to life on screen. The promo will run for the next couple of months.

''Stories make up the pages of your imagination,'' proclaims the voice over, ''You can get lost in a million impossible dreams. They give you wings to journey to impossible dreams.''

The new M-Net Movies 1 promo share some elements with the opening intro sequence of Game of Thrones currently on M-Net - three dimensional objects rising from basically a two dimensional plane and ''coming to life'' illustrated by the way of dynamic movement.

''Stories change the way you think; they alter the way you feel, and they redefine your universe'' says the voiceover. ''M-Net Movies, we tell the best stories.''

BREAKING. M-Net wins big at the sixth annual PromaxBDA Africa Awards with Monarchy making M-Net Movies 1 HD a major winner.

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M-Net won big at the sixth annual PromaxBDA Africa Awards that took place on Friday night as part of the PromaxBDA Africa Conference at the Sandton Convention Centre, scooping the lion's share of awards for promos for its channels that include M-Net, M-Net Movies 1 HD, M-Net Movies 2 HD, Vuzu and music channel mk.

M-Net Movies 1 HD was the major winner of the night - thanks to design company Monarchy - with M-Net Movies 1 HD scooping a massive 7 Silver Muse awards - including silver for channel brand of the year. [Please see the UPDATE at the end of this story.] M-Net Movies 1 HD also scooped 4 Gold Muse awards in total and bagged both the Silver Muse and the Golden Muse in the best on-air ident design category.

SABC2 won a silver and SuperSport a gold for best sport promos - both for the Rugby World Cup 2011, while Monarchy also bagged a gold for M-Net's soap The Wild for best programme title sequence design. Monarchy got another gold in the category for promo directing, also for The Wild.

Nonhle Goes to Hollywood won an award too - yes, in this universe. Birthmark grabbed silver in the category for best entertainment promo. E.tv won a silver in the category ''something for nothing'' for a weather promo, while community TV station, Tshwane Television won gold in the category for its ''I am Tshwane Television promo''.

E.tv also won silver in the category for best news and current affairs promo for the eNews Channel, while DStv scooped the gold in this category for its ''A Right Royal Wedding on DStv'' promo. BBC Worldwide won a silver for best kids promo for the CBeebies channel and The Walt Disney Company won a gold in this category for ''Close Encounters of the Ferb Kind''.

Monarchy won silver for M-Net Movies 1 HD in the category for best television image campaign, while BBC Worldwide got the gold for BBC Lifestyle.

UPDATE Wednesday 2 November 2011 21:00 - I've just been made aware that M-Net, as in the M-Net channel (DStv 101) is actually a bigger winner than M-Net Movies 1 HD if the total number of awards won by the M-Net channel are added together.

I have now gone back to my document to count the individual wins for the M-Net channel compared to M-Net Movies 1 HD, and it's indeed the case that M-Net in total wins, got more than M-Net Movies 1 HD. It's still as I said, a big win for M-Net (the broadcaster) at the PromaxBDA Africa awards. M-Net (referring to the channel, not the broadcaster) scooped 4 Gold Muse awards by Orijin, and 4 Gold Awards by Clearwater, plus the ones Monarchy won for M-Net's The Wild.

Orijin also won 4 Silver Muse awards for M-Net, Clearwater got 12 Silver Muse awards for M-Net, and there's the Gold Muse award for the excellent Firefly promo that was won by Ogilvy/Black Ginger/Shy the Sun which is also M-Net's promo.

M-Net Movies 1, M-Net Movies 1 HD adapt their schedule; films now only start at the top of the hour; only movies with true HD versions shown.

Two very interesting improvements have been made to the M-Net Movies 1 (DStv 103) and the simulcast M-Net Movies 1 HD (DStv 175) channels. Firstly the schedule of these channels have been modified so that all movies now only start at the top of the hour, making it very easy to know when a new movie will start, and secondly only movies with a true HD film version are shown with no further upscaling for the HD channel.

Once a movie on these two mirror channels ends, the remaining time left until the start of the new hour goes to filler programming - EPK, Hollywood Highlights and behind the scenes footage and interviews. Irrespective of what time of the day, viewers can now automatically assume that a new movie will only start at the top of an hour on the M-Net Movies 1 and M-Net Movies 1 HD channels.

It's now possible to immediately ascertain how much time is left before a new movie is going to start on M-Net Movies 1 and M-Net Movies 1 HD, or how much of a film has been shown already by simply looking at the time and how many minutes of an hour has already passed.

M-Net Movies 2 (DStv 104) does not (yet?) follow this simplified and easier to instantly understand schedule that was quietly introduced for M-Net Movies 1 and M-Net Movies 1 HD since the beginning of September.

Secondly it would seem that only only movies that has a true HD equivalent are now shown on M-Net Movies 1, so that no upscaling is required for M-Net Movies 1 HD. Although no official announcement about this has been made, the administrator of the movie channels that have their own grouping on Facebook, said a ''scheduling tweak from the 1st of September'' is introduced ''to provide all our movie fanatics with true HD content''.

Programming note: M-Net snags the Bafta Awards and will show it in high definition (HD) on M-Net Movies 1 HD.

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M-Net has snagged the broadcasting rights to the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (Bafta) Awards and will broadcast the British ceremony honouring the best in British film and television in high definition (HD) on M-Net Movies 1 HD (DStv 175).

The 2011 Bafta Awards will be shown on both M-Net Movies 1 (DStv 103) and M-Net Movies 1 HD on Monday, 14 February at 03:00. Two weeks after this M-Net Movies 1 HD will broadcast the Oscars live and in HD on 28 February also at 03:00.

ALSO READ: The Oscars LIVE and in HD! A plethora of choices on M-Net channels for watching the 83rd Annual Academy Awards in 2011.

BREAKING. The Oscars: LIVE! HD! Plethora of choices on M-Net channels showing the 83rd Annual Academy Awards live and in HD.

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I can be first to reveal exactly how and on what channels South African TV viewers will be able to watch this year's Oscars - with several choices available to watch the 83rd Annual Academy Awards across various M-Net channels either live; in high definition (HD); live and in HD; or in HD.

The 83rd Annual Academy Awards with James Franco and Anne Hathaway as the hosts this year will go out live on M-Net Movies 1 (DStv 103) on Monday, 28 February at 03:00 (South African time) as well as live and in high definition (HD) on M-Net Movies 1 HD (DStv 175) on the same date and 03:00 starting time.

Besides these 2 live broadcasts, the 83rd Annual Academy Awards will go out later on Monday, 28 February on M-Net (DStv 101) at 21:30, and in high definition (HD) on the same date and 21:30 starting time on M-Net HD (DStv 170).

MultiChoice on the new M-Net Movies 1 HD channel - and more HD channels to come: ''High definition is the future of broadcasting.''

On Friday, October 1 the new M-Net Movies 1 HD (MM1 HD) channel will become the 5th high definition (HD) TV channel to be added to MultiChoice's pay TV platform DStv on channel 175 at 07:00.

I asked M-Net as well as MultiChoice about the new M-Net Movies 1 HD that was officially announced on Friday and will be an HD mirror channel of M-Net Movies 1 (DStv 103).

For my Q&A, click on READ MORE below.

The on-air look of the new M-Net Movies 1 HD channel will be as different as night and day.

In a novel approach, the new DStv channel addition, M-Net Movies 1 HD (DStv 175) that launches on October 1 will have a different on-air look during the day and night.

M-Net Movies 1 HD just confirmed to me that the channel will be looking different during the daytime and nighttime. A lighter on-air look, channel ident and channel marker will be used, switching over to a darker tone in terms of channel ident and logo when the sun sets. ''Because it's HD more contrast is possible between elements on the screen which M-Net Movies 1 HD is making full use of,'' I'm told.

ALSO READ: MultiChoice adds another high definition (HD) channel, M-Net Movies 1 HD from October 2010.
ALSO READ: M-Net Movies 1 HD (MM 1 HD) will be an exact HD mirror channel of M-Net Movies 1.

BREAKING. MultiChoice adds another high definition (HD) channel, M-Net Movies 1 HD, from October.

Today MultiChoice is officially announcing the addition of another high definition (HD) TV channel, M-Net Movies 1 HD (MM 1 HD) to its DStv bouquet on channel 175 from October 1.

The addition of M-Net Movies 1 HD will bring the total number of HD channels on DStv to five from October, with M-Net HD, Discovery Showcase, SuperSport HD and SuperSport HD2 already existing on the pay TV platform.

''High definition TV channels are the fastest growing product globally and therefore our focus is on rolling out as many HD channels as possible onto the DStv platform, taking into account bandwidth restrictions,'' says Aletta Alberts, general manager for content for MultiChoice Africa.

''Our focus is on giving our viewers a great entertainment experience. HD movies lift that viewing experience to another level.'' M-Net Movies 1 (DStv 103) as well as M-Net Movies 1 HD (DStv 175) will broadcast movies in their première season only. M-Net Movies 1 HD will be a mirror channel of M-Net Movies 1, which means that the schedule and broadcasting times will always be exactly the same.

ALSO READ: MultiChoice confirms the addition of the new M-Net Movies 1 HD as a new channel coming in October.
ALSO READ: MultiChoice, M-Net set to launch M-Net Movies 1 HD (MM 1 HD) in October as a high definition mirror to M-Net Movies 1.

BREAKING. MultiChoice confirms the new M-Net Movies 1 HD (MM1 HD) as a channel starting in October on DStv.

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MultiChoice just confirmed to me that the new high definition TV channel being added to DStv - just as I told you RIGHT HERE will indeed be M-Net Movies 1 HD (MM1 HD).

''MultiChoice would like to confirm that it plans to launch an additional HD channel, M-Net Movies 1 HD (MM1 HD) on 1 October,'' says Jackie Rakitla, MultiChoice's general manager for corporate affairs. ''Details of the channel will be communicated closer to launch.

I told you in the previous story that MM1 HD will be a HD ''mirror channel'' of M-Net Movies 1 (DStv 103), in effect showing a high definition version of the exact same schedule on a new HD channel. I found other sources and verified it and can now also break the new here exclusively that M-Net Movies 1 HD (MM1 HD) will debut on channel 175 on DStv in October.