M-Net (an abbreviation of Electronic Media Network) is a South African pay television channel established by Naspers in 1986. The channel broadcasts both local and international programming, including general entertainment, children's series, sport and movies. While the TV signal is generally encrypted, M-Net showed some programmes 'free to air' in its "Open Time" slot between 5 p.m. and 7 pm, until the slot closed on 1 April 2007.
In the early 1990s, M-Net added a second analogue channel called Community Services Network (CSN),Mass Media, Towards the Millennium: The South African Handbook of Mass Communication, Arrie De Beer, J.L. van Schaik, 1998, page 220 and began digital broadcasting via satellite to the rest of Africa, via its sister company MultiChoice (now owned by Canal+ S.A.). With the introduction of MultiChoice's multi-channel digital satellite TV service, DStv, in 1995, several different channels have been created to complement the original M-Net channel, including the now-defunct M-Net Series and several film/movie channels based on genre and preference.
The channel also had a separate terrestrial feed which, in 2011, still had composite programming from kykNET and SuperSport. Its legacy subscriber base was moved to DStv or GOtv when the analogue terrestrial service was switched off.
History
1980s The idea of a pay-TV network in South Africa came to life as early as 1982, when Nasionale Pers (Naspers) – headed by executive Koos Bekker — started to promote the idea to the country's other three largest media corporations: Times Media Ltd (now Avusa/BDFM), Argus (now the Independent Group) and Perskor (which is now defunct).
The initial project by Ton Vosloo in 1982 suggested that the new channel would restore the revenue of its newspapers."Africa ripe for the satellite harvest", Africa Film & TV Magazine, nº. 1, July–September 1993
The newspapers and magazines published by Naspers had lost a lot of advertising revenue to the SABC after the arrival of television and for this reason, according to some sources, the National Party government wanted Naspers to run its own television network.
Initially, the plan was for M-Net to be jointly owned by the four media corporations, with the Natal Witness also having a small share in the station. However, as time went on, the project became that of Naspers only.
On 27 November 1984, Foreign Affairs minister Pik Botha suggested the creation of a feasibility study for the subscription network, assisted by a working group. On 25 April 1985, the press consortium won the bid, over 39 other applicants. Naspers would hold 26%, the three other groups 23% each and the two independent newspapers 5% each. The new service would have a set of guidelines: no news or political coverage, no exclusive sports screenings, no more than nine hours on air per day and no advertising. The format would emulate that of SABC's TV4, which ran on its black networks (TV2 and TV3) from 9pm to closedown.
In October 1986, they started broadcasting for 12 hours a day – initially to Johannesburg and Pretoria, to about 500 households who had bought decoders. Their aim at that stage was to sell 9,000 decoders per month. The service used the Oak Orion scrambling system, and the decoders were manufactured in South Africa by the local affiliate of Matsushita Electric. That small start finally broke the TV monopoly by SABC.
Although it was subscription-based, the Broadcasting Authority granted them a one-hour time slot each day, in which the channel could broadcast unencrypted, free-to-air content, in order to promote itself and attract potential subscribers. In 1987, the Cabinet also approved an arrangement under which the SABC was required to make its TV4 channel available to M-Net between 6 and 7pm.Communication and Democratic Reform in South Africa, Robert B. Horwitz, Cambridge University Press, 2001, page 125 This time slot became known as Open Time; though it was only meant to be temporary — M-Net was supposed to close Open Time immediately when it had 150,000 subscribers – it remained.
At the end of its first year, they recorded a loss of R37 million. However, it pushed forward and eventually, the public started taking notice. After two years, the loss was turned into a R20 million profit. In 1988, the channel launched Carte Blanche, a multi-award-winning actuality program hosted by Derek Watts and Ruda Landman. In only a few years, Carte Blanche became famous for its investigative journalism. In the process, the show also uncovered many of South Africa's most famous scandals of human rights abuse, corruption and consumer affairs.
1989 saw the launch of M-Net SuperSport, which went on to become South Africa's (and Sub-Saharan Africa's) first dedicated sports channel which spawned into sports-specific channels from 2003 onward. It was the year they adopted a new slogan – We Won't Stop the Magic, backed by a massive ad campaign.
1990s 1990 was the first year that they made a profit and also the year that saw a few major changes for the channel. It launched K-TV, a daily time slot specialising in kids' entertainment, and in July 1991 Open Time was expanded from the initial one hour per day, to two. They applied for a licence to broadcast news and the application was granted in December 1990. (Former State President P.W. Botha once claimed that "M-Net would not broadcast news as long as he was State President.") but during June 1991, they announced that they were putting their plans for news broadcasts aside and that, instead, more money would be invested in local productions, including South Africa's first local soap opera Egoli, which started on 6 April 1992 and ended on 31 March 2010. However, they began re-broadcasting BBC World Service Television (now BBC World News) that same year. In addition to news, the channel started airing sporting events, per a January 1991 amendment.
In early 1994, M-Net started broadcasting to Nigeria in Lagos."Lagos gets M-Net", Africa Film & TV Magazine, nº. 3, May 1994 By 1995, the channel was also being carried in Uganda over VHF, Namibia over VHF and Lesotho using Lesotho Television's network."Lagos gets M-Net", Africa Film & TV Magazine, nº. 5, February–March 1995
M-Net SuperSport changed its name in 1994 to SuperSport only, to create a more recognizable brand. During that year it broadcast live coverage of South Africa's test cricket series in Australia for the first time. At the same time, Hugh Bladen and Naas Botha – two of the channel's most colourful rugby commentators — joined SuperSport. By that time, its sports coverage became very impressive, including the US Masters, the FA Cup Finals, the Indy 500, the US PGA Championship, Wimbledon, the Tour de France, MotoGP and an ever-expanding rugby package. In 1995, SuperSport started broadcasting 24 hours per day on M-Net's spare channel, the Community Service Network, which paved the way for a 24-hour multi-channel sports network. When rugby became a full professional sport in 1995, most of the broadcasting rights in the Southern Hemisphere were sold to Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. In response, they started negotiating with NewsCorp in August 1995 and in February the following year, SuperSport was granted sole broadcasting rights to both the Super 12 and Tri Nations rugby tournaments. It was a major breakthrough for the channel as well as SuperSport, which had by then expanded to sports-and-leagues-specific TV channels on DStv and GOtv, MultiChoice's satellite TV services.
As of 1999, M-Net was one of the three television networks in the world to have agreements with every major American film studio, having signed a contract with Warner Bros., in an exclusive deal that was snatched from upstart terrestrial broadcaster e.tv. Its content would appear on its channels effective 1 April 1999."Warner/M-Net sign deal", Africa Film & TV Magazine, nº. 20, February–April 1999 On 1 November that year, M-Net expanded its Open Time slot to other African countries where the channel was relayed on terrestrial television."M-Net's open time over Africa", Africa Film & TV Magazine, nº. 24, February–April 2000
2000s The channel rebranded again on 11 February 2001 with the new tagline "We Call it Magic". The new logo incorporated the iconic M symbol inside a square, representing the values of M-Net as a "brave, colourful and exciting channel", while also accommodating it with its sub-brands, and strengthening its ties with the wider network of M-Net sister channels. In addition, M-Net had secured the rights to the American reality show Temptation Island, shot in Belize."M-Net: They call it Magic", Africa Film & TV Magazine, nº. 24, May–July 2001 The network also secured the rights to the smash hit reality format Big Brother, with the aim of producing a localised version for South Africa. The first season alone was set to be the biggest production to date, with a record-breaking number of 120 jobs, the equivalent of three separate productions, created in its making."M-Net scoops Big Brother", Africa Film & TV Magazine, nº. 24, May–July 2001 M-Net had plans to continue its growth strategy in 2002."M-Net boosts its West African subscriptions", Africa Film & TV Magazine, nº. 32, February–April 2002 Following on from the success of Big Brother, the channel secured the rights to another groundbreaking international format, Idols, which premiered on 10 March 2002."M-Net secures top rated reality show for South Africa", Africa Film & TV Magazine, nº. 32, February–April 2002
ICASA ruled in favour of the withdrawal of Open Time on its terrestrial feed on 1 June 2005, seeing it as unfair for a subscription-based network. The new rule was put into effect from 1 April 2007. Ahead of closing, some 550,000 South Africans regularly watched the slot, which consisted largely of local productions. To deal with its loss of revenue, projected to be at R60 million, M-Net unveiled a one-hour block of its original soaps (among them Egoli) from April 2007.
2010s A new line-up was introduced on 1 April 2011, which implied the end of Afrikaans and sports programming on the satellite feed of the channel, as well as the removal of KTV from both terrestrial and satellite feeds. KTV was removed because the target audience migrated to DSTV's dedicated kids channels, while the sports and Afrikaans programming continued on the terrestrial feed because its subscribers did not have sports and language-specific channels. With these changes, the satellite feed would only air English-language entertainment programming all day. On 21 February 2018, Multichoice announced the shutdown of the terrestrial feed with the switch-off of its analogue subscription network, with the migration completing on 31 March. After the shutdown date, its legacy analogue subscribers went to either DStv (in areas without DTT signal) or GOtv.
High definition Delivery of high-definition content started with the launch of DStv's first high definition decoder the HD PVR, XtraView and the first HD channel, M-Net HD. M-Net began broadcasting a 720p high definition channel in 2010, which is available for HD-PVR subscribers; the standard definition channel for non-HD-PVR subscribers is merely downscaled at the provider from the HD feed rather than having a devoted analog channel. In 2012, the original film/movie channels were expanded to 6 channels which grouped films according to genre/preference.
M-Net channels M-Net