etv this past week revealed at their upfronts that their eKasi+ (OpenviewHD 105) channel will be rebranded as eExtra.  

The new channel will focus entirely on international content, only holding reruns of etv's three soap operas as its only local content. No word yet on what will happen to the eNews Izindaba news bulletin that currently airs on the channel

This means that etv's venture to continuously grow their investment in local content is inexplicably over. The reason I describe this change of direction as inexplicable is because the large amount of local content was doing so well in the ratings and continuously generated positive buzz for the channel.

Also, by producing a large amount of local content themselves, they could rerun these shows nonstop on their second tier channels, without having to now pay the license fees for rights of foreign shows they can now only air in limited windows.

The reason for them canceling the local talk shows was acceptable though: the celebrity guests would appear on all talk shows saying the same thing so producing talk shows were no longer producing compelling tv.

The scaling back of local dramas in favour of three-year-old American shows was never explained.

etv does not seem to realise times have changed. People without access to pay tv will now easily pirate foreign content they want to watch rather than wait three years for etv to air a show well after its international (and social media) buzz has died.

When eKasi+ launched, etv were, admittedly, producing local shows for that channel at a loss: They were expensive to produce with a very small audience due to the then small footprint of OpenviewHD. Since then, the satellite platform has grown greatly, meaning producing local shows exclusively for eKasi+ would now have been profitable due to improved economies of scale.

The eExtra channel will however more closely omplement the etv schedule. For example, when etv airs programming targeting a female audience, eExtra will air content targeting males, like the literally ten year old series, Burn Notice.

eKasi+ terminates on March 31st with eExtra going live the next day.
(details courtesy of tvsa)