PAGES

29 March, 2011

M-Net's signal split: The details

M-Net is splitting its service into a different analogue signal for people receiving M-Net through an M-Net decoder (about 150 000 subscribers) and people receiving M-Net as a DStv signal. As a result, M-Net's daily TV schedule will be changing into two distinctly different line-ups.

The pay broadcaster has now started to release the schedule for the first week in April, and by studying that and the daily line-up of shows, it's now possible to piece together what is happening on M-Net from April.

The following all pertains to what M-Net subscribers who watch M-Net on DStv will be seeing.

Lifestyle and soaps

Firstly, M-Net is doing away with the weekly magazine shows Carte Blanche Extra on Monday nights and All Access on Friday nights.

The new soap The Wild is starting on April 4 and will now be running from Mondays to Thursdays at 18:00. It's set on a game farm with feuding families; it's filmed on location and stars Connie Ferguson, Shona Ferguson, Ian Roberts, Milan Murray, James Alexander and Tumisho Masha, to name a few. The Wild now gets a repeat slot at 11:00 on weekday mornings. The Wild also gets an omnibus repeat slot on Sundays from 07:00 to 09:00.

The channel's reality shows like American Idol and Survivor SA: Maldives remain, as does the stalwart Carte Blanche on Sundays at 19:00.

M-Net is dumping the early afternoon infomercial slot and has in its place its own version of SABC3's The View. A brand-new American talk show titled The Talk started in October in the US and M-Net is adding The Talk as its new weekday talk show at 13:00 from Mondays to Fridays. A group of women including Sharon Osbourne, Holly Robinson Peete, Sara Gilbert, Leah Remini and Julie Chen talk about motherhood and female related topics. The Talk gets a repeat slot on weekdays at 08:00.

Repeat repeat

M-Net will be showing slightly less movies, since the K-TV block during the afternoons and over weekends will now be mostly filled with repeats of the week's drama and comedy series.

Viewers will now have three to four chances to see any given primetime show in a week since the 14:00 to 18:00 timeslot on weekdays are turned over to repeats of primetime shows as well as a new repeat slot on weekday mornings at 07:00.

Confused? Here's an example.

Grey's Anatomy. It remains in its original place on Monday nights at 19:30. If you've missed the drama of the 7th season at the Seattle Grace Mercy West hospital on Monday night, you can see it again Tuesday morning at 07:00. Then it's shown again on Tuesday afternoon at 16:00 and again on Sundays at 12:00.

Reality

M-Net is introducing a new daily reality slot filled with daily new episodes Mondays to Thursdays, until a series is done. This slot kicks off with the second season of MasterChef Australia that will air a new episode every day. It will be repeated the next day at 11:30, and there is also a reality omnibus block of this show on Saturdays between 13:00 and 17:00.

A new third drama hour is added on Monday nights from April stretching primetime to 22:30. The 5th season of Brothers & Sisters will start on Monday April 4 at 21:30, following Grey's Anatomy VII at 19:30 and The Good Wife II at 20:30.

Are you excited about the changes to M-Net's line-up? Or are there far too many repeats? 

1 comment:

  1. M-Net will be splitting its signal on April 1. What does this mean for you, the subscriber? Find out.

    ReplyDelete

Share your Thoughts