SCREEN AFRICA EXCLUSIVE…Newly appointed South African Minister of Communications Dina Pule and her deputy Stella Ndabeni were two of the dignitaries who attended the lavish 25th anniversary celebrations of continental pay-TV broadcaster M-Net in Randburg, Johannesburg on 26 October.
Also in attendance were Johannesburg Mayor Parks Tau and representatives of the parliamentary portfolio committee on communications and the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA). Minister of Sport and Recreation Fikile Mbalula was unable to attend but sent a letter congratulating the broadcaster on its 25th birthday.
Present at the event were sports stars such as cricketer Makhaya Ntini, rugby player Victor Matfield and numerous M-Net on-air personalities and stars from its local productions such as Jacob’s Cross, The Wild and Carte Blanche, to name a few.
The event, which commenced with the playing of the national anthem, gave guests a look back at “an 25 amazing years’.
“TV is such a big part of our lives that we’d shrivel away if we didn’t have it anymore,’ said Nolo Letele, chairman of MultiChoice South Africa, M-Net’s subscriber management division and owner of the DStv bouquet of satellite channels. “TV makes us laugh, it makes us cry, it makes us shout out loud…it’s our lifeblood. M-Net has always been synonymous with magic and I can say that the magic is getting stronger.’
Letele, who joined M-Net 21 years ago, stressed that M-Net’s success is due to the fact that founder Koos Bekker “and his team of pioneers’ realised how hungry people are for good entertainment.
“From our beginnings as a single analogue channel, we now broadcast 30 channels across 48 countries in Africa. M-Net spawned SuperSport, which today has 14 channels, as well as the DStv platform. Tonight we celebrate the spellbinding appeal of the incredible business that is M-Net,’ commented Letele.
Minister Pule led a toast to M-Net, saying: “I’m brand new in my post but I would like to wish the M-Net group a hearty and happy birthday. Here’s to the next 25 years.’
M-Net CEO Patricia van Rooyen thanked the Minister for toasting the broadcaster’s silver jubilee and continued, “Our business is based on premium entertainment and I’m thrilled that our colleagues from big Hollywood studios such as NBC Universal, HBO, Disney, Warner and Paramount are here tonight, along with Fremantle and ITV.
“To all the M-Net personalities and stars here this evening – thank you for being such great ambassadors of the brand. M-Net was the original company in the group and it remains the nexus of the top notch entertainment that we broadcast across the continent.’
Van Rooyen likened M-Net to a character in a TV show saying that back in 1986 everything revolved around a single analogue channel which then grew a large family over the years. “Our youngest child is the local content channel, Mzansi Magic, which is only a year old.’
Imtiaz Patel, CEO of the MultiChoice Group South Africa, added: “It’s hard to imagine that 25 years ago a business that was only the second of its kind in the world was born. Tonight we pay tribute to Koos Bekker and his colleagues for founding such a successful venture. MultiChoice now employs 5,000 people and has one of the broadest black economic empowerment (BEE) bases of any company in South Africa.’
The evening’s festivities were punctuated by performances by an array of musical stars such as Vicky Sampson, Lloyd Cele, Timothy Moloi, Terrence Bridgett and Samantha Peo, accompanied by a plethora of dance numbers, including a piece by the South African Ballet Theatre.
(Report by Joanna Sterkowicz)
