Nic’s blog
I write about building businesses, failing and building a life, not a legacy.
Egoli and Binnelanders take over
What is going on with Mnet lately? It seems to me that this major television corporation has no interest in enticing the non-Afrikaans speakers to their television station. Maybe I am misinformed on the Mnet stats but do people really want an entire hour of open-time television dedicated to Afrikaans?Binnelanders and Egoli have now joined forces on Mnet's open time and represent the 18:00 - 19:00 slot. I am super excited that the powers that be are willing to put locally produced viewing on a prime slot, but why, oh why is this viewing in Afrikaans? Could someone please fill in the blanks here because my pea-sized brain cannot compute this move.I personally feel that locally produced television is great. I love the fact that South Africa is moving to a stage where we can produce our own quality television and that people watch it (Isidingo). I am also aware of the fact that locally produced television is more costly than simply purchasing an overseas television show. Everyone has made allowances for the changing face of our country, lets have Mnet do the same. Get some multilingual shows into the mix and slap on a subtitle or eleven.
Mnet and Afrikaans content
I have been meaning to post about this topic for a while now. I have noticed over the last
couple of months that Mnet's content is somewhat restricted. Mnet airs a fair amount of local content, I have studied over the years that local content might be patriotic and all but often it is the foreign shows that pull in the audiences. Thus Mnet and SABC will pay to gain the rights for these shows. Fair.
I have somewhat of an issue with the local content that Mnet chooses to air. I have just clicked on the Mnet channel website and saw not a single black face. I am not making this about race necessarily because there are lots of black American TV shows so that's cool too.
But why are there no shows in other languages with black faces as the forerunners? It has been eons that Egoli had been on the air and then Mnet chooses Binnelanders to take on as another major local production as well as Voetspore. I don't get. Yes Tumi is on the air now too but this show is a very elitist type of show with highfalutin content. Not a run of the mill soapie, series or show that is for the entire family or entire demographic of our country. Snitch is a recent addition to the Mnet family and does a good job, but this is one hour a week of diverse local content that I am not so sure is being watched by the current Mnet audience.
I understand that Mnet is not a free channel or government provided. I get that. But why not cater for an ever growing diverse market? Maybe their subscribers are still majority white but then maybe because the content is majority white the subscribers are too? It's a bit of a chicken and egg issue here isn't it?