ANALYSIS: M-Net shuffles series channels... AGAIN

M-Net today announced it is once again 'streamlining' its content offering. I will provide analysis on this (and before that, a summary of the changes) but first a look at how things are now.


Currently
M-Net runs six series channels currently:
First run (targeting premium subscribers)

• M-Net: The long-running main channel showing general mainstream series, mainly from US broadcast networks (free to air). Also airs limited original domestic programming targeting mainly English-speaking white viewers.
• M-Net Edge: The channel showing more serious and darker shows, mainly from US cable networks (pay tv).
• Vuzu Amp: A mixture of the two but with content targeting more young adults and those part of urban culture. Also features limited original domestic programming targeting mainly a younger black audience.

Second run (Targeting Compact/Extra subscribers)

• M-Net City: A crime-centric channel with content being funneled from mainly from M-Net Edge, but a few shows from M-Net as well.
• Vuzu: A youth-centric series channel funneling feature content from Vuzu Amp and comedic content from M-Net. 

Third run (Targeting Family subscribers)

• M-Net Family: Essentially an everything else channel- It airs talk shows that do not air on other channels, it shows second run content from the first run channels that do not fit on M-Net City or Vuzu (eg Masterchef) and it airs third run content from M-Net City and Vuzu that M-Net still has rights to.

Changes

• M-Net Edge is shutting down completely. (Apparently) All of its content is being shifted to M-Net to once again turn that channel into a super channel basically, with new content being seen on M-Net from 6pm to midnight every day from Monday to Saturday and on Sunday, from 3:30pm to whenever the second movie premiere ends after midnight.
• M-Net Family is shutting down completely with Vuzu being given to Family subscribers to make up for the loss
• [Oh, and the movie channel, M-Net Showcase, is shutting down too]

Analysis

The thing is, no matter how hard M-Net tries to spin this about giving subscribers value, they need to come to a point where they can be open and say that this is a cost-cutting measure. That's it. No value is getting created at all.

Real value

No real value is being created for subscribers. In fact, real value is being cut from subscribers (I use the term 'real value' to describe the cash value M-Net spends on purchasing content). Here's why: Currently M-Net Edge airs new programming from 7pm to 10pm daily. When the new format takes effect, M-Net Edge's content will only air from 9:30pm to midnight on the redeveloped M-Net, a loss of thirty minutes of new content a day, everyday totaling 2.5 hours in the week and a few more hours on weekends when the channel also aired new content.

In addition, the content that aired before 7pm and after 10pm were mainly older 'library content,' which though may have been old, still cost M-net money to air, money they no longer going to need to spend, even though the channel would not call this cost cutting. 

With M-Net Family now eliminated, M-Net now no longer needs to pay license fees to air content in the third window anymore, providing them with more cost cutting opportunities. 

Perceived value

I use this term to refer to the value existing/created in the viewer's head. Firstly the loss of three channels is already considered a loss of value for subscribers, even though the losses will mainly be repeats and reruns. A mere reduction in the number of channels, no matter what channel it was, feels like a loss to someone who will still be paying the same subscription fee.

However, though subscribers complain about repeats, to many, repeats are a convenience. After all, not everyone has a PVR and even those that do might not have the opportunity to record everything they would like to. Try to imagine how someone without a PVR even keeps up with all the nonstop new content for the entire day. Instead of watching sport or going out on a Saturday evening, as most people do, these viewers would now be forced to stay home merely to watch a show they watch now that it airs new episodes on this inconvenient day.

Or consider the inconvenience when the show you have been watching at 7:30pm on M-Net Edge now airs at 10pm on M-Net, forcing you to make changes to your lifestyle if you still want to keep up with the show (This is a real example).

Having so many shows on one channel also leads to viewers overlooking a lot of shows they might have found on an easier schedule. Not finding shows as frequently as they would have reduces their perceived value of what they are paying for. 

Channel drift

"Channel drift or network decay is the gradual shift of a television network away from its original programming, to either target a newer and more profitable audience, or to broaden their viewership by including less niche programming" -Wikipedia

When Vuzu started as a single channel, it aimed to be a youth-centric premium channel with a lot of live and taped domestic original series. Then Mzansi Magic started and M-Net shifted its focus of domestic original series to that channel and Vuzu became a youth-centric premium channel. Then Vuzu Amp started and Vuzu became a youth-centric channel.

Now M-Net Family ends and Vuzu becomes a channel. Shows like The Doctors and Masterchef airs only on M-Net Family in the second window and with Vuzu picking up M-Net Family's load, these shows would have to move to Vuzu. Now imagine the voice of Vuzu, Siabonga Ngwekazi, having to narrate promos for these shows now that they on Vuzu, which in turn now loses any identity it has. 

Impatience? 

What makes M-Net fundamentally different from a tv channel like etv? While etv's life depends on its viewership to bring in ad revenue, M-Net simply needs to keep DStv subscribers paying their subscription (not necessarily watching). So while etv has to constantly adapt or die in order to generate ad revenue, M-Net has the luxury of being able to allow something to grow with time. 

However, M-Net just doesn't seem to be able to keep their hands off their channels. Here's some fundamental channel changes M-Net has made this side of 2010 alone:

• January 2010: 'Refocus' M-Net 101 as the place to be for premium entertainment. This includes yanking shows from M-Net Series like American Idol to bolster its schedule, leaving people on smaller bouquets like Compact without first run shows they have always had access to. This reinvestment in the channel also sees an expanded local content slate including two Carte Blanche spin-offs on the channel. 

• circa 2011: M-Net removes most local content from M-Net 101, keeping only The Wild (soap), Idols and Carte Blanche. English local content will be focussed on Mzansi Magic only.

• July 2013: Split the M-Net Series channel into three series channels: Showcase for premium series, Reality for second run series, Zone for reruns. Remember those few shows Compact subscribers had yanked away? Well, now an entire channel's worth of programming was taken away from them, being given the second rate Zone in return. Also, a lot of first run reality series on Vuzu was taken away to fill the Reality channel.

• October 2014: Realising that they launched tv channels with absolutely no identities, M-Net Showcase and Reality are pulled from the air. Viewers that were invested in shows on those channels were forced to watch seasons end with up to four hour long episodes stuffed down their throats on a single evening so that the channels could close (This is repeating itself now in 2017). In their place, M-Net launched two channels that are actually well branded: M-Net Edge and Vuzu Amp. Residual programming (like talk shows) is shifted to the tv channel, Magicworld. 

• April 2015: M-Net Series Zone is replaced with M-Net City, though content remains largely the same initially (M-Net City goes through countless changes before settling on its current format).

• July 2015: M-Net Family replaces Magicworld, keeping the talk shows and telenovelas, but now becomes M-Net's first third window channel. 

• 2016: M-Net starts to reintroduce local programming to M-Net 101 after discontinuing local programming on the channel, previously only keeping legacy series, Idols and Carte Blanche. 

• April 2017: Like in January 2010, M-Net now plans to refocus on M-Net 101, ending M-Net Edge and M-Net Family. Viewers of certain shows will now once again be forced to watch up to a brutal four hours worth of episodes at a time in order to complete their series. 

As seen here, M-Net never sticks with a programming strategy long enough to see it succeed but restructures in what now seems an annual practice that they blame on channels underperforming. How can a channel perform well if it does not even get enough time to do so? This does not even include the countless changes made to the M-Net Movies bouquet of channels that loses now yet another channel. 

All these changes come into effect April first, which coincides with the date on which the price of DStv Premium rises by R30 per month. So imagine that: Literally paying more and literally getting less.  

If you would like me to do more articles like this analysing the industry, let me know.