BREAKING. M-Net rushes Under the Dome's 2nd season to viewers with episodes starting in South Africa less than 24 hours behind America.

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Whooshhh!! That sound you hear is not an invisible domed barrier going up isolating and cutting people off from the rest of the world.

It's an invisible barrier being taken down even further, connecting South African TV viewers as a global viewing community even further, and more closely, to the roll-out and pace of premium American television.

M-Net is rushing the second season of Under the Dome to South African viewers with new episodes of the Stephen King drama which is set to be shown locally extremely close to the American broadcasting date - and I mean extremely close - less than 24 hours by my calculations.

Under the Dome was the most watched TV show in all of 2013 on broadcast television in the United States as far as viewership figures are concerned, and now South African viewers will basically see it (could it be? Exactly the same time) very close here when the story continues.

M-Net has not announced anything officially yet, but a very simple calculation shows that the second season of Under the Dome will very likely be shown in South Africa on M-Net virtually instantaneously with America.

Similar to other big-buzz fantasy and science fiction global TV shows like The Walking Dead on FOX and Game of Thrones on M-Net now rolling out in international markets within a day or days of being shown in the United States, Under the Dome's radical upgrade is the latest TV series added to M-Net's new phenomenal shift to speed up the rolling out of premium TV series.

Under the Dome is now also part of the group of TV shows falling under the dome of the dramatic narrowing of the the broadcasting window gap.

Under the Dome's second season will start on CBS in America on 23 June at 22:00 with a special preview episode entitled "Inside Chester's Mill" and then the rest of the second season's 13 episodes in the weeks after that.

Under the Dome will start on M-Net on Tuesday, 24 June at 20:30 with the same special preview episode and then the 13 episodes following in the weeks after that.

Whether you work on the special preview/recap episode or the start of the "real" reason of Under the Dome, its now clear that Under the Dome's broadcast date and time in South Africa will be less than 24 hours after the United States - about 22 hours later.

Keep in mind that the world turns from East to West. Keep in mind that America falls in a later time zone than South Africa for the same day.

Keep in mind that an episode of an American TV show must be shown on an American TV channel first, before it can be shown elsewhere in the world.

It means that M-Net is basically bringing South Africa, M-Net subscribers and DStv subscribers episodes of Under the Dome at the earliest possible moment - the very earliest and next prime time period in South Africa the day after America had its daily 3 hour prime time block the night before.

BREAKING. M-Net moves Under the Dome from Friday 26 July to Tuesday; dumps Vegas; creates a Last Resort impossible choice with SET.

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With boffo ratings in America coupled with rave reviews for Under the Dome, M-Net is immediately dumping Vegas from its Tuesday schedule at 20:30 and will be moving the hit new drama series from Stephen King and Steven Spielberg from Friday 26 July at 20:30 where it would have started, to Tuesday 23 July at 20:30 on M-Net (DStv 101).

M-Net is throwing the cancelled Vegas away which will now burn off the remaining episodes on Fridays at 20:30. Under the Dome which has been getting great viewership and is beloved by TV critics in America, will now start 3 days earlier than planned in South Africa and on a much better day.

Instead of starting on 26 July, Under the Dome will now start on Tuesday 23 July at 20:30 when more potential viewers are home than on a Friday night.

Under the Dome's new starting date and timeslot on M-Net also instantly creates more drama on another front: an impossible choice for South African viewers.

Tuesday 23 July also happens to be the date when the great drama series Last Resort starts at 20:50 on Sony Entertainment Television (DStv 127) set aboard an American nuclear submarine which defies orders.

With both Under the Dome and Last Resort which are both great must-watch TV series - and with both series' pilot episodes playing out like nailbiting big screen movies in terms of action, plot and special effects - DStv viewers without a PVR face a dilemma.

Viewers will make a tough choice on which high quality drama series to watch or will have to start studying those schedule to find the repeat of one of the shows.

M-Net's planning a massive public preview of pay-TV broadcaster's new science fiction TV dramas Defiance and Under the Dome.

You can see it first.

Now you can be a TV critic and see it first: M-Net is planning a massive public preview of the new tentpole science fiction dramas Defiance and Under the Dome before it starts on the schedules of M-Net (DStv 101) and M-Net Series Showcase (DStv 113) - and the public is invited to watch the first episodes on the big screen in cinemas.

For the first time ever M-Net is going to preview big-buzz TV shows which the pay-TV broadcaster clearly believes in very strongly, not only to the public before it starts on television, but also on the big screen in cinemas in association with Nu Metro Cinemas.

If you're older than 16, you can email M-Net at mnetseries@mnet.co.za for one of the 500 tickets up for grabs to join TV critics and journalists across South Africa to watch the first episode of Defiance and the first episode of Under the Dome on Thursday 27 June at either Monte Casino in Johannesburg, the Galleria in Durban or at Canal Walk in Cape Town.

You need to email your name to mnetseries@mnet.co.za and say where you would like to attend the special preview screening of these upcoming TV shows. Yes, you also get a popcorn and a soft drink for free. The TV shows preview will start at 20:00.

Defiance is a futuristic TV drama - imagine Dr Quinn Medicine Woman meets Bravestarr meets Star Trek: Deep Space Nine in which a guy becomes the new sheriff in a town filled with various space races at the end of a devastating war between mankind and aliens. Defiance starts on M-Net Showcase on 15 July at 20:30.

Under the Dome is likewise a super-new big-buzz TV drama based on the book by Stephen King and is a new TV series about a town suddenly cut off from the rest of the world by an invisible dome-shaped "bubble". Who is responsible and why and what will the townsfolk do now? Under the Dome starts on M-Net on 26 July at 20:30.

Earlier today I got on the phone to ask M-Net about this monumental (masterful marketing) plan.

"M-Net's channels remain the exclusive home of the best first-run TV content and the preview of Defiance and Under the Dome which M-Net and M-Net Series are doing in conjunction with Nu Metro Cinemas will give exclusive access and a preview of great new TV content coming to subscribers in July."

"Just as we did movie screenings and movie previews we are going to show people what they're going to be able to see before it starts. And we're doing it on the big screen because the shows are massive."

"We want to attract people to our big shows and we're sure if they see Defiance and Under the Dome before it starts on television they're going to be drawn in to want to see more," M-Net tells me.

I asked why Defiance and Under the Dome. "They're part of the biggest shows this season," says M-Net. "M-Net Series Showcase launches as a brand-new high-definition TV channel on DStv and Defiance is our diamond of the line-up."

"Our marketing efforts are therefore also aligned behind this show in a big way. Defiance will in a sense be the face of M-Net Series Showcase. Under the Dome is another very big show starting in the United States starting soon there and which M-Net will have very soon. And we're showing it on the big screen and exclusively to people before it starts as a big-buzz TV series."

I wondered how easy or difficult it is for a broadcaster such as M-Net to pull something like this off. This is definitely a first for South Africa, a first for M-Net and to sort out the details of such a deal and permission with studios and distributors must be extremely intricate.

"There's deals we enter into and sign with studios and if those are aligned and everyone agrees, all the parties are happy, and in the end it serves the shows and it serves the viewers."

"Everything is worked out and agreed upon, we change what might need to be changed and everything is done exactly by the book to bring a great experience to the viewers who will be able to see preview the shows and then watch it from week to week on M-Net and M-Net Series Showcase."

"To do something like this  isn't something which gets decided two weeks before the time. It's a long process, a meticulously planned process, and something which is planned long in advance."

Do you want to see the first episodes of Defiance and Under the Dome previewed in a cinema on a big screen? If you like science fiction television, you are really going to enjoy this novel experience. Send that email to mnetseries@mnet.co.za now.

BREAKING. Under the Dome coming to M-Net; new sci fi horror series from Stephen King starting on Friday 26 July at 20:30.

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I can break the news and reveal that M-Net has picked up the new Stephen King science fiction drama Under the Dome and I can reveal that M-Net plans to start showing the new American drama series from Friday 26 July at 20:30 on the M-Net channel DStv 101).

In January 2013 I reported on Under the Dome coming to TV this year as one of a new avalanche of science fiction series - this one based on Stephen King's book and produced by Steven Spielberg and Dreamworks Television.

In Under the Dome a small town called Chester's Mill is suddenly cut off from the rest of the world (some actually gory as the transparent "shield" went up right as people crossed the line).

The residents inside the town in Maine and the people outside has to figure out what is going on and why it happened and how - and then try to figure out how to escape.

Under the Dome will start on 24 June in America, meaning that South Africa will be exactly a month (or 4 episodes) behind the broadcasting dates in the United States. Under the Dome will definitely have a full 13 episodes as part of the first season.