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- As global pay-TV scales back on local content, M-Net says it is committed to producing South African drama series.
- Last week Sky Deutschland announced it would no longer make local drama series.
- "We stay committed to the development and growth of our local industry," says Waldimar Pelser, M-Net director for premium channels.
As many traditional pay-TV outlets outside the United States are scaling back and ending their efforts and investments in local drama content, M-Net says it remains committed to producing South African drama series for MultiChoice's most premium pay-TV channel on DStv.
Sky Deutschland, the German pay-TV arm of pay-TV player Sky, announced last week that it would no longer make local drama series and is exiting scripted originals from 2024. The media company is behind acclaimed shows like Babylon Berlin, which aired on M-Net (DStv 101).
The ongoing pullback from traditional broadcasters' existing genres like drama and kids content, as well as looking to do less in others – for instance, local news programming like Canada's Bell Media – comes as production budget money is being redirected and funnelled into creating more content and beefing up the catalogues of streaming services.
Traditional pay-TV operators worldwide are focused on injecting content into their adjacent streaming services as they battle global behemoths like Netflix, Disney+, Amazon Prime Video and Apple TV+.
About its decision to no longer do any drama content, Sky Deutschland last week in a memo noted that "the entertainment industry, content landscape and viewer behaviour have rapidly evolved – as has Sky's business".
"Also, during this time, the cost of producing scripted content has continued to rise, in part by the emergence of myriad new streaming providers, making it harder for drama series to cut through."
In South Africa, MultiChoice is not unique or impervious to the global trend of an ongoing decline in top-end subscribers, with a decreasing percentage of premium pay-TV consumers which is putting increasing pressure on production budgets.
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M-Net says it, however, remains committed to producing local drama content in South Africa for the channel. In June, it debuted the local drama series Shaka iLembe on the Mzansi Magic (DStv 161) channel as MultiChoice's most expensive local TV production to date.
Waldimar Pelser, M-Net director for premium channels, tells News24:
"Following the success of Trackers, M-Net is the preferred local partner for international co-productions with a strategic focus to bring viewers high-end locally produced and internationally distributed co-productions, which our audiences have grown to love."
"This year, M-Net ups its game with massive global co-productions of Deon Meyer's Devil's Peak with the BBC in October, season two of the internationally acclaimed Reyka, and White Lies - the captivating eight-part thriller series starring Natalie Dormer and our own Brendon Daniels, set in Bishopscourt."
READ MORE | Shaka iLembe makes history as best-ever performance for a MultiChoice drama series
