M-Net Press

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)

South Africa’s first ever pay-TV channel M-Net celebrates its 25th birthday this October. Originally a single channel, M-Net now has 19 channels available in South Africa and packages 30 channels for the continent. It broadcasts to over three million subscribers in over 50 countries in Africa. Not bad for a business that began its operations in caravans back in 1986.

M-Net, which forms part of the MultiChoice and MIH group of companies, can boast several industry firsts over the past quarter century.

The channel was the first to broadcast movies uninterrupted by ad breaks. It was also the first to produce local versions of hit international reality formats such as Idols, Big Brother, Survivor and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. Thanks to M-Net South Africa became the first country to launch a 24-hour Big Brother channel. Project Fame was the first reality talent show to feature contestants from across Africa.

The long running Egoli – Place of Gold was the country’s first locally produced daily soap. M-Net was also the first South African broadcaster to shoot a soap entirely on location, The Wild.

“Local content is extremely important to M-Net,’ says M-Net’s Communications director Lani Lombard. “In the past financial year we have commissioned more than 170 local productions for our different channels.

“M-Net continues to boost the local – and African – television industry, providing many job opportunities. A channel such as Mzansi Magic has created new opportunities for a new generation of local directors, producers, writers, cameramen, sound crews, editors and crew.’

Other big M-Net landmarks include the launching in 1989 of M-Net SuperSport, South Africa’s first dedicated sports channel.

The first episode of the multi award-winning investigative magazine show, Carte Blanche, which remains as big a draw card today as ever, was broadcast in 1998.

It was the advent of the DStv satellite bouquet (operated by MultiChoice) in 1995 that triggered the birth of a number of new channels to complement the M-Net terrestrial channel. The first of these was the dedicated movie channel, Movie Magic, now called

M-Net Movies. Channels initially contained mostly international, packaged content. In November 1999 M-Net launched the Afrikaans language channel, kykNET, a huge boost to local content production.

Lombard continues: “It’s M-Net’s mission to provide world-class entertainment to a variety of audiences across the African continent. Our channels either fall in the General Entertainment group of channels or in our more niche, Special Interest group of channels.

“We are also proud to be able to deliver channels to different language groups. Our children’s channel, Koowee, is broadcast in both Afrikaans and Zulu and AfricaMagic Swahili is the latest addition to our bouquet of channels in Africa.’

According to Lombard, the M-Net channel remains the number one channel on DStv with the most viewers. “KykNET, M-Net Series, M-Net Action, M-Net Movies, Channel O and Mzansi Magic are also very popular among their target audiences.’

This is just part of the M-Net success story. When founders Koos Bekker, Cobus Stofberg and Jacques van der Merwe began M-Net, working out of caravans, they surely could not have imagined that it would reach such heights.

SCREENAFRICA Print Magazine – October 2011 (view here)

Multi-channel Pan African content provider M-Net has licensed the North American rights to over 300-hours of its HD content to global television network Africa HD, which launches in the US and the Caribbean in 2012.

The announcement was made by Mike Dearham, head of sales & library, M-Net.

The deal includes two M-Net series produced in South Africa – Cooking with Siba and entertainment magazine All Access Mzanzi – as well as two M-Net series produced in Nigeria – the daily soap Tinsel, and talent competition series Naija Sings. All four series are shot in High Definition.

“This partnership reflects M-Net’s global strategy supporting the expansion of our High Definition programming library into territories worldwide,’ said Dearham. “These shows are a true reflection of the diverse array of programming that is currently being produced on the African continent,’ he added.

“We at Africa HD are honoured to have been chosen by M-Net as the network that will showcase these quality productions,’ commented James Makawa, CEO of Africa HD. “We look forward to a long and mutually rewarding relationship as Africa HD expands its global footprint.’

South African Pay-TV channel M-Net launched a 101 Days of Magic celebration on 22 September with 101 days remaining in the 2011 calendar year. M-Net is also channel 101 on the DStv bouquet.

The 101 Days of Magic celebration includes the launch 10 new shows and 10 new seasons of M-Net favourites.

Another highlight of the campaign is the introduction of The 101 Days of Magic calendar application available on the M-Net website (www.mnet.co.za). The calendar will help viewers set simple reminders which are then automated directly to their Outlook, iPhone, iCal or other calendars.

Pierre Cloete head of channel for M-Net / M-Net HD stated: “The development of the application was an obvious direction to go in order to keep viewers up to date and in the know regarding the Magic.’

 The free, user-friendly application allows users to set reminders for their favourite M-Net shows and email reminders to friends.

Cloete adds: “M-Net aims to bring viewers a little Magic in innovation and the 101 Days of Magic calendar application is another first for any TV channel to our knowledge.”

South African terrestrial pay-television channel M-Net has sub-licensed the rights of its AfricaMagic content to international distributor THEMA TV. This deal will see a selection of AfricaMagic’s Nollywood content dubbed into the French language for the first time for television broadcast in Francophone Africa. 

AfricaMagic is one of M-Net’s most popular entertainment channels, dedicated to broadcasting African content including drama series, documentaries and soaps. The channel also airs a vast selection of Nollywood films – formally known as the Nigerian video feature film industry – and is Africa’s largest movie industry in terms of the number of movies produced per year.

Mike Dearham, head of sales & library, M-Net says: “This deal marks an important milestone in M-Net’s growth in the global television market and supports our dedication to the development of Africa’s content industry. Nollywood is an African institution, which has showcased the continent’s rich pool of talent and creativity since its creation in the 1960s. We look forward to working with THEMA TV to present this content to new audiences, encouraging the expansion of the African production industry across the continent.’

François Thiellet, CEO, THEMA TV adds: “We are very happy to announce our strong partnership with M-Net, reinforcing our strategy for the growth of the African media industry. With this new agreement added to the already existing creation of a SVOD offer entitled Films d’Afrique, THEMA TV is recognised as the provider of TV content for French-speaking Africans.’

Cote Ouest, a leading TV content distributor in Francophone Africa, headquartered in Abidjan, has announced a sub-distribution partnership with South African pay television station M-Net.

According to a press statement from Cote Ouest, the company has traditionally focused on Hollywood and Latin American productions. However, the partnership with M-Net will allow Cote Ouest to expand its catalogue to include cutting-edge African TV content for sale and distribution to the Anglophone market, which provides a unique opportunity for the company to celebrate Africa’s rich axis of cultural excellence.

M-Net’s historic African Film Library (AFL), is the world’s largest archive of award-winning African cinema, and has been more than three-years in the making. The AFL comprises of a vast catalogue of short films, feature films and documentaries from across the continent.

The films are available in a variety of languages and includes films by Senegalese legend Ousmane Sembene (Borom Sarret, La Noire De…), Egypt’s Youssef Chahine (Le Destin, Saladin, The 6th Day, The Land and The Sparrow), Senegal’s Djibril Diop Mambety (Badou Boy, Hyenes, Le Franc and Touki Bouki), Haile Gerima, Kwaw Ansah, Flora Gomes, Jean Rouch and Idrissa Ouedragou.

 M-Net has spent years researching content and has made significant investment in acquiring copyright to key African audio-visual content. The AFL also includes popular TV series such as Changes (originally from Kenya), Tinsel (from Nigeria), Egoli (M-Net’s longest running soapie), African documentaries including Great Africans, TV magazine show Face of Africa, as well as a selection of Nollywood hits.

Bernard Azria, Cote Ouest’s CEO, after having created the first distribution entity in West and North Africa, said: “We are proud to enrich our offer to English-speaking African markets with more than 1,000 hours of first class African TV content’.

Mike Dearham, Head of Sales & Library, M-Net adds: “The African Film Library truly showcases the diverse content being produced on the continent. M-Net is dedicated to the growth and development of the African production industry, and we are excited to be working in partnership with Cote Ouest to take rich African content to the Anglophone market.’

M-Net has secured the rights for Terra Nova, a new series executive produced by Steven Spielberg, from the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is set to reach South African homes on M-Net and M-Net HD in early 2012.

“M-Net is thrilled to have to have secured the rights to one of the hottest series of the season and we know that our subscribers are as excited as we are to be a part of the epic saga that is Terra Nova,” said Tracey Gilchrist, M-Net’s head of international acquisitions.

The series was shot on Australia’s Gold Coast at an average cost of $4million per episode.

The first actor cast was Jason O’Mara, known to M-Net audiences as Lt. Thomas Meehan in the Emmy award-winning and critically acclaimed miniseries Band of Brothers. Thereafter, O’Mara starred in Grey’s Anatomy, followed by Men in Trees and The Closer. Band of Brothers was also the first time audiences got a taste of the powerful relationship shared by O’Mara and film icon Steven Spielberg.

According to IMDB the series centres on the Shannons, an ordinary family from the year 2149 who are transported back 85 million years to prehistoric Earth where they join Terra Nova, a colony of humans with a second chance to build a civilization.

Early ratings of 9.6 on IMDB and 9.1 on TV.com seem to indicate a blockbuster series.