A compilation of continuity and promotional elements used between 1987/1988 and 1997/1998 by South African subscription broadcaster M-Net:
M-Net (short for Electronic Media Network) was born for a political and business need rather than any justification to license another TV channel: it was partly the brainchild of a Naspers executive, Koos Bekker, and partly the pressure of the apartheid government, which wanted the preeminent newspaper chain (a staunch supporter of the NP regime) to operate a TV channel to offset the losses incurred in revenue from advertising and distribution after the SABC launched its television service. Bekker offered the idea to Times Media (currently Avusa), Argus (currently The Independent) and Perskor (now-defunct), its rival chains, and the idea was to make the service be jointly owned by the four newspaper chains and the then-independent Kwa-Zulu Natal newspaper The Witness (an increasingly anti-apartheid paper which defied the censorship rules of the time). However, the other chains weren’t fully interested in the plan, leading to Naspers launching it as a single act.
The channel launched in October 1986, as a subscription TV channel operating using the over-the-air TV spectrum. Most of the 12 hours of broadcast at the time were encrypted, and alternated (as with TV1 at the time) between English and Afrikaans programming. Additionally, the Broadcasting Authority allocated them a FTA one-hour slot every day to promote itself; this became known as Open Time, and was supposed to be temporary (dropping it after reaching 150k subscribers), but it lasted into 2007. The slot not only aired M-Net promotional material, but also popular American TV shows and previews of exclusive premium content.
M-Net became the responsible for a number of firsts in the local TV industry: it began slowly and cautiously, but steadily including Cape Coloureds and Nguni (Xhosa/Zulu) presenters as part of their on-air team, including Gerry Rantseli-Elsdon, and was the first to strand its programming into fixed blocks like Movie Magic (new movies), M-Net SuperSport (sport), Soundcheck (music), Explore! (documentaries), and K-TV (kids programming). It also broke new ground in current affairs programming with Carte Blanche, which would become Sub-Saharan Africa’s preeminent investigative newsmagazine and a symbol of the (at the time) slow democratic opening in the country.
Additionally, M-Net targeted the small South Asian and Portuguese communities in the country, launching separately-sold offerings under the EastNet and TV Portuguesa, offering programmes from India, Pakistan, Portugal and Brazil. These were originally aired on the main M-Net channel and were soon moved to a second spare channel, the Community Service Network, until 1995; these services were dropped with the advent of satellite channels targeting both communities.
With the end of apartheid and the start of democratic transition in the country, President De Klerk allowed M-Net to invest in a news department and local programmings; due to budget considerations, the news plans were dropped (although a deal was reached with BBC World to rebroadcast some programming), but the investment on local programming was to be reflected on South Africa’s first soap, Egoli, which was the first local drama series to have a multi-racial cast (including guest actors from the US and UK) and to be alternately spoken in English and Afrikaans (an English-only International version was also produced).
It also invested massively in sporting rights, including soccer, cricket, cycling and motorsport rights, as well as its core rugby rights (M-Net, alongside Foxtel and Sky, played a massive role on the professionalization of rugby league and rugby union). To allow the network air many of these rights, it moved SuperSport into its own 24-hour channel in 1995, paving the way to the launch of its digital satellite service DStv, launched in partnership with Canal+, which allowed both services to go digital. It also reorganised its media brands into a new division, MultiChoice, which was spun off by Naspers in 2018.
With that division, the company greatly expanded by buying the Filmnet channels in Scandinavia and the Benelux, through a partnership with Swiss luxury brand holding Richemont, which expanded it to Greece and Poland; it also bought an equity stake in Italian subscription broadcaster Telepiù, at a degree it briefly expanded the DStv brand for a new digital satellite offering for Italy. By 1997, the expansion into Europe was deemed a financial failure, and sold most of these ventures to Canal+, whilst retaining its more profitable Greek business, which greatly expanded after launching its DTH platform Nova in 1999 (the operator and the channels were later sold to business telco company Forthnet and the merged company is currently operated by Balkans cable operator United Group).
During these years, M-Net and SuperSport massively expanded its channel offerings: two movies and one series channel were launched between 1995 and 1998, and Afrikaans content was separated into its own service, kykNET. From 2000, more original channels targeting multi-racial audiences and specific countries (Nigeria, Kenya, Tanzania…) were launched, and the movies and series channels were multiplexed. Over time, M-Net became DStv’s premium channel, with its programming offering being now exclusively English-spoken and focusing on big-ticket entertainment and reality formats, and multi-racial dramas, as well as being the home of HBO content, and big-ticket American scripted and unscripted programming, plus first-run movies.
On SuperSport’s side, it began increasingly turning its offering more complete, by taking on a multi-channel offering, featuring specific programming targeting South African, Nigerian and Lusophone audiences, plus pan-African feeds. It has greatly expanded the number of rights by also targeting more niche sports and even high school athletics coverage. However, some antisiphoning rights valid in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya and some other nations, force SuperSport to sublicense rights to PSBs like the SABC. In 2020, its channel offering was organized by specific-sport-focused TV channels, including exclusive channels for South African soccer, Premier League, LaLiga, Rugby and WWE.