MultiChoice's global co-productions for M-Net are in English, crime stories and in beautiful South African settings.

by Thinus Ferreira

When four upcoming drama series on DStv, all done as co-productions with international partners, unspool in the coming months on M-Net, they'll have three things in common: They're crime stories, they're in English and they're in beautiful South Africa settings.

These three factors are what's in vogue right now for South African co-productions, what works, what viewers in South Africa and worldwide want to see when they watch a South African series, and what MultiChoice and international partners are looking for when doing South African co-prods together.

Devil's Peak, launching on 29 October on M-Net (DStv 101), is a 5-episode crime thriller set in Cape Town - an international co-production from Lookout Point and Expanded Media Productions together with MultiChoice Studios and BBC Studios Distribution distributing it internationally.

Spinners - launching on 8 November on MultiChoice's streamer Showmax and 13 November on Canal+ in Africa - is an 8-episode drama set in the crime-infested Cape Flats resembling Paris' banlieue and Brazil's favelas where a 17-year-old gang getaway-driver dreams of escape through an eclectic motorsport subculture called spinning.

Spinners is a co-production between Showmax and Canal+ with SutdioCanal handling international sales.

Meanwhile filming is underway in KwaZulu-Natal on the second season of the crime drama series Reyka for M-Net - a co-production between Quizzical Pictures and Fremantle - and the two companies are also working together and are filming the crime thriller White Lies also done in scenic Cape Town.

Popular South African co-productions on M-Net and for DStv premium subscribers generally now have three things in common, Nicola van Niekerk, MultiChoice's head of content for premium channels and co-productions, says: "It's crime, it's English and it's in a beautiful setting. We can tell that those work the best".

Nicola van Niekerk was a panellist this week at a MIP Africa session in Cape Town about how TV and film producers in Africa can work with MultiChoice to unlock co-production opportunities with international companies interested in telling and showcasing South African and African stories.

Waldimar Pelser, channel director for premium channels at MultiChoice, was also a panellist and said "The most productive conversations we have are with producers that consume our content and on a visceral level know who our audience is. Our partners have to understand who they're making content for."

He mentioned that content that can only be made locally in South Africa - and that viewers would not be able to find elsewhere - reap the most success.

Tebogo Matlawa, head of scripted content for the middle and mass market for South Africa at MultiChoice, said "producers should also look outside the bubble of their own existence" when working on content but cautioned that while action and dramas have seen success "there isn't much of an appetite for violence".

"Always think, would you watch this with your grandmother?" he advised when considering pitches for scripted content for middle and mass markets.

Victor Sanchez Aghahowa, head of production for MultiChoice West Africa, said "Compelling characters in compelling situations that anybody can relate to – that's what we're looking for. Anything inauthentic will immediately be sniffed out by our younger audience".

Nicola van Niekerk's advice to production companies are for producers to have an in-depth understanding of both the local and the international audience before pitching a project.

"As a producer, you need to assess your story and say, 'Where will this story work?' Will it work in a very specific demographic hyper-locally in South Africa, but where else will it work? Which other broadcaster will like that? And to know that you need to understand all of the broadcaster's strategies on a global level."

Lerato Moruti, senior manager for reality and entertainment for the middle and mass market at M-Net, said that successful reality TV shows provide a sense of "tabloid voyeurism, with family-based reality shows that rate high with viewers".

"South Africans look for meaning in content, and respond well to 'help TV', like the Mzansi Magic reality show Abandoned about orphaned children that seek out family members later in life."

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.

TV REVIEW. Put the light on bright for M-Net’s shaky Reyka local crime drama series.

by Thinus Ferreira

 6 TVs

With perhaps too many shaky-cam close-up shots, Reyka as M-Net's latest broody, hunt-the-killer local drama series tells a greyish-and-blue tinted story within a sugarcane field setting that's fine enough, although not excellent, for 8 weeks of Sunday night whodunnit?-entertainment.

In short, Reyka is like Prodigal Son and Silence of the Lambs (if done as a TV series), set among the lush yet ominous sugarcane plantations of KwaZulu-Natal where a woman with issues of her own, works to catch a serial killer by mining the mind of the man who abducted her as a child.

Done with a muted palette and a sombering grey-blue tint, Kim Engelbrecht is the current-time, older Reyka, a crime profiler hunting a serial killer. Gabrielle de Gama nimbly portrays the young Reyka.

Reyka strongly reminds of Kate Winslet in the recent Mare of Easttown, tracking down an elusive murderer (that will surely come with the obligatory surprise twist-reveal) whilst battling her own demons, trauma and internal insecurities.

The script, from screenwriter and creator Rohan Dickson also responsible for e.tv's Scandal! and SABC3's High Rollers, is likely inspired by the gruesome real-life story of Thozamile Taki, known as the Sugarcane Killer who was convicted in 2011 of the murder of 13 young women he buried in the sugarcane fields around Umzinto in 2007.

Produced by Quizzical Pictures and Serena Cullen Productions together with Fremantle UK as an M-Net Original crime drama, Reyka is perhaps peppered with too many shaky-cam close-up shots to help craft a claustrophobic, character-in-uncertainty-and-stress atmosphere that never lets up.

Especially Ian Roberts, Anna-Mart van der Merwe and Kenneth Nkosi are disciplined in their understated portrayals of respectively John Tyrone, mom Elsa and Msomi.

The Scottish Iain Glen, cast thanks to Fremantle, is an absolute star as banana farmer Angus Speelman now in an orange jumper who abducted girls with the help of his wife Portia (Nokuthula Mavuso).

Kim Engelbrecht's progression from former Isidingo starlet to meatier roles and gaining valuable experience in international series like the SA-filmed Dominion and recently in The Flash, is very convincing as the emotionally overwrought, obsessive, and filled-with-secrets, Reyka.  

Thando Thabethe imbues her role as Constable Nandi Cele with a resolute earnestness and Gerald Steyn pops up after Trackers, Lioness and his recent doctor-turn in kykNET's Binnelanders. 

Desmond Dube is also back in another dramatic role as if he has to again prove that he can do so much more than Clientele infomercials in his latest role of Zik, the community's spiritual leader.

Broken relationships, difficulty communicating, uncovering hidden secrets under the surface (in sugar cane fields), light and darkness, as well as a "new South Africa" that moved but that never truly did and that remains scared, terrorised, collectively wondering and captured, are all thematic elements and metaphors woven into the story of Reyka.

Be forewarned: Some on-screen gruesomeness are par for the cause in a catch-the-killer crime drama, with Reyka that is possibly best watched with the lights on, and on bright, on a Sunday night.

Reyka is on M-Net (DStv 101) on Sundays at 20:00, and starts on Sunday 25 July

The prolific veteran South Africa actor David Butler - Bob in CTM's 'Bob and Nige' ads - loses his battle against lung cancer at 61.

by Thinus Ferreira

The veteran South African film, stage and television actor David Butler known for a litany of roles and his iconic TV commercial role of Bob in the CTM Bob and Nige ads has died from lung cancer. He was 61.

His TV commercial co-star Peter Terry who played Nige on Thursday said "such desperately sad news of David Butler's death. He was a brilliant actor. Outstanding. We had great fun together as Bob & Nige for over a period of 10 yearss - 1996 to 2006 doing the CTM tile commercials. This makes my heart very sore".

David Butler who leaves a massive on-screen legacy in the form of numerous character roles died on Thursday just a few months after he was diagnosed with lung cancer in December 2020.

David Butler was a veteran South African actor well known for a wide body of work in theatre, television and film.

David Butler who studied drama at the Unversity of Cape Town (UCT) made his theatre debut on-stage at the Baxter and Market theatres in the play Another Country in 1983, and made his South African television debut in the same year in the SABC drama, The Canterville Ghost.

This was the start of over 100 other roles for David Butler in TV in series and commercials, in film and on the stage who played any character he was offered.

Just some theatre roles include appearing in A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Great Gatsby, Mannetjies Mentz, Cock and Bull Story, Anatomie Titus, Skyf and his highly-acclaimed one-man show, A Touch of Madness about the life of Herman Charles Bosman.

He was a staple in numerous locally-produced South African TV soap operas and telenovelas acting in front of diverse audiences, ranging from SABC1's Generations, Egoli on M-Net (DStv 101) to Gomora on Mzansi Magic (DStv 161) and the Afrikaans Binnelanders on kykNET (DStv 144).

He was seen in roles in South African drama series aired over decades across various TV channels like Shado's, Snitch, Room 9, Soul City, Yizo Yizo, The Game, To The Ends of the Earth, Madiba, Life is Wild, Jacob's Cross, Cape Town, Dead Places, aYeYe, Heartlines, Timber, Uncle Max, Sokhulu & Partners, Sorted, Jozi-H, Zero Tolerance, Scoop Schoombie, The Republic, Triptiek, Justice for All and more.

He also scored numerous roles in co-productions and international series that were filmed in South Africa including American TV series like A&E's Black Sails, ABC's Of Kings and Prophets and HBO's Warrior, the BBC miniseries Rhodes, The Triangle, The Prisoner, The Book of Negroes, and Tropical Heat.

In film he had roles in Cop Land (1997), Operation Delta Force 3: Clear Target (1999), Circles in a Forest, Gums and Noses and Zulu Love Letter.

David Butler's final on-screen appearance will be in the upcoming M-Net (DStv 101) crime drama series Reyka with his youngest daughter Ruby-Rose who also has a role in the show.

M-Net in a statement to TVwithThinus says "M-Net sends their heartfelt condolences to South African actor David Butler's family and friends".

The Quizzical Pictures producers of Reyka in a statement to TVwithThinus say "We are so sad to hear of David Butler's passing. We have been working with him on the drama series Reyka where he gave a brilliant performance as the lawyer Bloom".

"He also helped us during the casting of the series and his daughter Ruby Rose plays the role of Jessica. Despite his illness he performed with great professionalism and focus. He was and will always be a rare talent. We wish his family strength and love."

In a statement, the family said that "Our beloved father, son, brother, grandfather and friend, David passed away peacefully this morning at around 10.30am."

"He was surrounded by family in a room filled with love. Although he had been ill, it is still, as is always the case, a huge shock. Nothing prepares one. We take comfort that David is reunited with his beautiful son."

In January 2021 David Butler in a letter he sent to YOU and Huisgenoot magazines, noted how the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 caused work to dry up as South Africa's film and TV industry stalled and how his income disappeared.

He had to move in with his daughter Liane (28) and join her medical aid fund as well since he was unable to afford his own medical aid payments. Then he was suddenly diagnosed with lung cancer that has spread to his brain.

David Butler said that although he's portrayed characters from Herman Charles Bosman to C. Louis Leipoldt and Bram Fischer, that the biggest role of his life faced him now in fighting cancer.

David Butler leaves behind his ex-wife Kate, three daughters Annie (27), Laine, Ruby Rose and a son John Peter.

M-Net unveils the first character teaser for its new serial killer crime drama series Reyka starting 25 July in the Sunday night 8pm timeslot.

by Thinus Ferreira

On Sunday night M-Net (DStv 101) released the first character teaser for its upcoming new locally-filmed crime drama series Reyka that will start on Sunday 25 July at 20:00 on the channel.

For the second time, M-Net is once again delaying and pushing its Sunday night 20:00 movie timeslot for a locally-produced drama series - something it did first for Trackers in October 2019 that was a co-production with WarnerMedia's HBO.

The 8-episode Reyka, produced by Quizzical Pictures and Serena Cullen Productions as a co-production between M-Net and Fremantle and that is set in the KwaZulu-Natal sugarfields, stars Kim Engelbrecht in the title role as the brilliant-but-flawed criminal profiler Reyka.

In the drama series, Reyka investigates a string of brutal murders committed by a serial killer but viewers will first meet Reyka on voting day in South Africa in 1994 - the day of her abduction.

The Reyka cast is rounded out by the British actor Iain Glen as farmer Speelman, as well as Thando Thabethe as the by-the-book detective Nandi Cele.

Leeanda Reddy plays the forensic detective Alia Sewsunker, Hamilton Dhlamini is the policeman Hector Zwane, with Mavuso Simelane as his son Samuel Zwane.

Anna-Mart van der Merwe is seen as Reyka's mother Elsa Meyer, Nokuthula Mavuso is Portia, and Rashaan Stackling as Thuli Gama plays Reyka's daughter.

Gabrielle De Gama portrays the young version of Reyka in flashbacks who was abducted as a child by Speelman who, 20 years later, still has a mysteriously manipulative and charming hold on her as part of the backbone of the story - as does Reyka's relationship wth her mother Elsa.

Reyka is traumatised by her abduction experience but this also helps her to enter the minds of Africa's most notorious criminals.

ALSO READ: M-Net and Fremantle partner up with new 8-episode KZN sugarfields set crime drama thriller, Reyka, produced by Quizzical Pictures and Serena Cullen Productions.

M-Net and Fremantle partner up with new 8-episode KZN sugarfields set crime drama thriller, Reyka, produced by Quizzical Pictures and Serena Cullen Productions.

M-Net and Fremantle have announced a new jointly done crime drama series, Reyka, that will be filmed in South Africa and distributed internationally, and that will be co-produced by Serena Cullen Productions in the United Kingdom and South Africa's Quizzical Pictures.

Reyka as a contemporary crime thriller in 8 episodes, will be shown on M-Net (DStv 101) will be distributed globally by Fremantle.

M-Net tells TVwithThinus that production of Reyka will start in early-2019, with a local broadcast date on the M-Net 101 channel that has to be confirmed. 

Reyka, titled after the lead character Reyka Gama, is set against the tropical coastline and vast sugarcane fields of KwaZulu-Natal, and will follow the story of a flawed by brilliant female detective, haunted by her past.

Reyka will start in 1994 at the end of apartheid and a new dawn in South Africa as Reyka, the 11-year old daughter of African and British parents is abducted. Having escaped her tormentor, she now lives her life as a mother and investigative detective.

Reyka returns to her home town to lead the investigation into a serial killer who is behind a string of brutal murders where victims' burnt bodies are being found in sugarcane fields. 

"Caught between hope for new beginnings and living with the horrors of the past, Reyka's worlds collide and reveal a dark secret of her own," says M-Net and Fremantle in a statement.

Reyka is created by screenwriter and showrunner Rohan Dickson, with the UK-based Jake Riddell as story consultant and writer.

Reyka will be jointly produced by Serena Cullen for Serena Cullen Productions in the United Kingdom and Harriet Gavshon of Quizzical Pictures in South Africa. 

The executive producers are Serena Cullen, Harriet Gavshon and Rohan Dickson. Jan du Plessis will executive produce for M-Net and Sarah Doole for Fremantle.

Yolisa Phahle, CEO of general entertainment at the MultiChoice Group, says "This partnership with Fremantle is the perfect way to shine the spotlight on the African film and television industry and provides compelling new stories for global audiences beyond African shores".

"With more than 13.5 million subscribers in Africa and several international awards for our scripted content, we are already the leading African storyteller on the continent. With an esteemed distributor like Fremantle at our side, we can now share our talent and unique content globally."

Sarah Doole, Fremantle's director of global drama, says "We are proud to partner with MultiChoice Group for our first South African drama. A compelling story, Reyka brings modern day South Africa and its rainbow nation of different communities and cultures to the global stage".

"Reyka is a very distinctive lead and watching her complex life unfold in this diverse landscape adds a new dimension to the crime drama genre."