It's with Them: This is Us jumps from M-Net to Disney+ as streaming steals from DStv.

by Thinus Ferreira

DStv subscribers who started watching the American drama series This is Us on M-Net will now have to switch to Disney+ to see how it ends, with the series that is jumping to Disney's streamer as more shows on South African television continue to switch from traditional pay-TV to streaming.

Viewers wondering when the 6th and final season of This is Us, which started earlier this year on NBC in the United States, was going to make its way to M-Net (DStv 101) might be disillusioned to hear that they will now have to subscribe to Disney's video streaming service to see the conclusion of the story of the Pearson siblings.

M-Net told TVwithThinus in response to a media query that This is Us will no longer be on the channel that it acquired and started to show from the first season in May 2017.

"M-Net has not licensed This is Us season 6. This means that it will not air on M-Net," the channel said.

The 6th season of This is Us wraps up the storyline of the 20th Television distributed drama series that made viewers cry about the family drama of Randall (Sterling K. Brown),  Kate (Chrissy Metz) and Kevin (Justin Hartley), as well as their parents Jack (Milo Ventimiglia) and Rebeca (Mandy Moore) as told through time-jumps and backflashes to fill in the family's history.

Disney South Africa told TVwithThinus that it will now carry the complete This is Us box set, including the latest and final 6th season.

"All 6 seasons of This Is Us will be available on Disney+ from 14 September."

The next TV series likely also leaving M-Net and also jumping to Disney+, although not yet confirmed, is the science fiction series The Orville of which the new third season is now on the Hulu video streaming service in the United States.

The entire series including the new season is now on Disney+ in America and the United Kingdom since 10 August.

"With regards to The Orville, seasons 1 and 2 are currently available to stream now on Disney+ and we will let you know when season 3 will be available," Disney says.

This is Us and The Orville are just the latest examples of shows jumping from their original broadcast TV home in South Africa to streaming platforms. 

In the new trend, shows like The Walking Dead are moving from traditional pay-TV - for instance from MultiChoice's DStv and StarTimes' StarSat - to video streaming. 

It's very similar to how American shows that were once on free-to-air TV channels like the SABC and e.tv, started to jump to DStv in the previous two decades as pay-TV became dominant and needed content volume to fill linear pay-TV channel's schedules. 

M-Net is first in the fightback against video streamers, with this latest trend reshaping traditional broadcasters that is now becoming visible on South African television.

Traditional linear TV in the United States as well as in South Africa are fighting back against the rise of video streaming services and MultiChoice's M-Net is visibly in the lead with the first new trend - longer individual episode lengths for both overseas and local shows on broadcast television.

Longer TV episodes form part of changes in strategy taken by American broadcasters and M-Net months ago and which are now becoming evident to the end-consumer, resulting in the viewer at home getting more story time and less TV commercial time per hour.

After decades of slowly shrinking both hour- and half-hour programming to jam in more ad breaks to increase ad revenue, traditional broadcasters are cutting back and improving the viewing experience by making episode durations longer again.

In order to keep viewers watching more and for longer and to prevent them from flipping the channel or tuning out entirely, broadcast TV channels are willingly cutting down on the advertising minutes per hour and are ordering their TV studio producers to increase the episode duration by a few minutes.

In March 2018 TVwithThinus reported on the business strategy decision by NBCUniversal, FOX and others to decrease TV commercial clutter during episodes on broadcast television for the new TV season, meaning less ad breaks and by implication longer individual episodes that keep viewers watching for longer.

Traditional TV wants to closer emulate the viewing experience of video streaming services that don't do any commercial breaks. Although it means a decrease in TV commercial inventory broadcasters have taken a decision to try and keep audiences "immersed" in a story for longer, with less interruption.

Since South African broadcasters acquiring and scheduling overseas programming have to show episodes as received, it means that they have no choice when receiving longer episodes, but to decrease the ad load per hour as well, meaning less volume that will be available on the traditional 30 seconds ad spot.

Last year it was envisioned that the first evidence and impact of this would be felt by October 2018, but it ended up taking a few months longer. By May 2019 the first of these "longer" shows are now here meaning more show and less ads for DStv subscribers.

Since M-Net and DStv as a pay-TV business buy and schedule new shows and new seasons first, the effect of this new trend will still permeate through and impact the SABC as South Africa's public broadcaster and e.tv as a commercial free-to-air broadcaster before long as well.

This trend is set to grow as even more new seasons of existing shows and new shows wash ashore in South Africa.


Seen from The Orville to Survivor SA
The science fiction drama series The Orville on M-Net City (DStv 115) that just started its second season is the first regular American broadcast TV series that now boasts longer individual episodic duration since the new TV season started.

Viewers get more scenes, longer acts, and in total more story per episode. The few minutes more per hour-long episode are making a massive impact on viewing quality although viewers on a superficial level might not realise why a show suddenly feels so much improved and better.

Producers and scriptwriters are able to slightly adjust the pacing and the exposition - there's now literally more time for character scenes and character interaction.

This will happen for a lot of new seasons of American shows like This is Us and a growing number more when they start showing here. It's however not just an American trend. M-Net has also okay'ed a longer duration for certain M-Net Original series.

At the same time as The Orville's new and extended episode duration, the 7th season of Survivor South Africa: Island of Secrets now on M-Net (DStv 101) and produced by Afrokaans, also got the green light to deliver longer episodes.

Individual weekly Survivor SA: Island of Secrets episodes with commercial breaks on M-Net now run over an hour where previously it came in at exactly 60 minutes.

DStv subscribers might not realise that why they like watching the latest season of the local reality show is largely due to the more time that the show has to focus on individual character actions and motivations that previously would have remained in the editing suite video archives.

Without commercials, Survivor SA episodes on M-Net now come in at 55 minutes each.

While viewers get more actual show, on the flipside it means that DStv Media Sales, the ad sales division of MultiChoice, as well as shows themselves, will have to work even harder in future to fully monetise the smaller available ad inventory of TV shows to maximum commercial gain, as well as securing things like headline sponsors and in some cases in-show product placement.

TV NEWS ROUND-UP. Today's interesting TV stories to read from TVwithThinus - 12 January 2019.

Here's the latest news about TV that I read and that you should read too:

■ Sherwin Bryce-Pease, the SABC's US and United Nations correspondent, based in New York, is in South Africa.
"At one point George Clooney leans over to me and says..." - Sherwin Bryce-Pease dish about his time as president of the United Nations Correspondents Association.

■ MultiChoice Nigeria again has to emphatically tell Nigerians that DStv won't operate a "pay-as-you-view' system in the West African country.
"We are not going to do it. Our contracts with our suppliers are on a month-to-month basis. The channels do not belong to MultiChoice."

■ The SABC in 2019 - New year, same problems.
Rebecca Sibanda, legal assistant at the Centre for Constitutional Rights, writes that Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams, South Africa's latest minister of communications, has very little time to help turn this sinking ship around or the broadcaster may fail.

■ Seattle TV station fires video editor for doctoring footage of American president Donald Trump given a Cheetos-orange tint, a larger than normal head and his tongue hanging out.

■ Comedy Central (DStv 122) rolls out its first rebrand in 8 years.
No word yet from Viacom International Media Networks Africa (VIMN Africa) on when the new look from US-based studio Loyalkaspar will be seen in South Africa and Africa.

■ Penn Badgley who was Gossip Girl, wants people to stop lusting after his character in You on Netflix who is not just a stalker but a murderer.

■ The showrunner of Star Trek: Discovery seen on Netflix, on the upcoming second season shakeup.
The Spock viewers meet in season 2 is not there yet.

■ Simply bizarre: Why is The Orville, seen on FOX (DStv 125 / StarSat 131 / Cell C black 201) trolling viewers getting rid of its female security chief?
Just like when Tasha Yar left Star Trek The Next Generation abruptly and prematurely, Alara Kitan (Halston Sage) has left the Orville.
■ Is Alara (Halston Sage) gone permanently?

■ The Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) dumps R. Kelly's music from its music playlists while in South Africa the SABC doesn't feel a need arose following the multiple allegations of rape and abuse of the singer.

■ The upcoming new docu-drama Valley of the Boom on National Geographic (DStv 181 / StarSat 221 / Cell C 262) about the rise of Silicon Valley, that like MARS has talking heads experts in-between dramatic story, is too jarring here, awkward, and disjointed in an off-putting fashion.

M-Net warps Seth MacFarlane's new science fiction comedy-drama series, The Orville, for a 13 August star(t)date.

M-Net (DStv 101) has acquired the broadcasting rights to the new series The Orville created by Seth MacFarlane.

M-Net tells TVwithThinus that the science fiction comedy-drama series taking place in the 25th century, is preliminary set to start on M-Net on Monday 13 August at 17:00.

The timeslot of The Orville might likely still change to a later time due to the content and nature of the show.

The first season of The Orville have been well received, with the first season that continues to improve over the course of its 12 episodes and has been a much better show that the revived Star Trek: Discovery from CBS Access that's available on Netflix South Africa.

Seth MacFarlane that created The Orville, and who is a huge Star Trek: The Next Generation fan, also stars in the show as Ed Mercer, who is the captain of The Orville, a ship of the Planetary Union.

His ex-wife, Kelly Grayson (Adrianne Palicki) becomes his first officer, with Penny Johnson Jerald as Doctor Claire Finn, the chief medical officer.

Lieutenant Gordon Malloy (Scott Grimes) is the helmsman and Ed's best friend, Lieutenant Commander Bortus (Peter Macon) is the second officer and an alien from a single-gender race, Lieutenant Alara Kitan (Halston Sage) is the super-strong, young security officer, and Lieutenant John LaMarr (J. Lee) is the navigator.

Isaac (Mark Jackson) is the android and science and engineering officer who is from a non-biological race who is onboard to study humans.

Most of The Orville stories are surprisingly good with viewers who won't be able to guess the outcome in some, although there are somewhat too many episodes dealing with the tension between religion and science.

South Africa's Charlize Theron makes her appearance as a villain in one episode during the first season with The Orville that has already been renewed for a second season.

The Orville is produced by Fuzzy Door Productions and 20th Century Fox Television.