The gloves are off in the battle for one of television’s most lucrative time slots – weekday soap operas. M-Net is losing its open time window on March 31, but instead of giving up on some 50 percent of its open time viewers, the channel is aggressively pursuing the soon-to-be lost slice of advertising revenue.
The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) last year ruled that it was time for M-Net to bid farewell to its open time window, which was originally allowed as a marketing tool to introduce viewers to the new pay channel when it aired in 1986.
But the television landscape is set for change later this year when Icasa rules on new pay channel licences, and retaining the open time window would have placed M-Net in a position of unfair advantage. Icasa needed to draw a distinct line between free-to-air commercial broadcasters and subscription commercial broadcasters, the reasoning behind the end of the open time slot.
“It is common knowledge that M-Net will lose quite a lot of advertising when it loses the open time window,” says Carl Fischer, the head of M-Net’s original productions.
M-Net’s flagship show in the 5pm – 7pm open time slot is its weekday soap opera Egoli, which has between 45 percent and 50 percent of non-subscribers watching, all of whom will have to find new television alternatives from April. This is unless M-Net succeeds in its plan to convince its higher income audience (with an average household income of R10,000 per month) to buy an M-Net decoder for R762, and to subscribe to the pay channel for R229 per month.
The plan? M-Net has transformed its popular Afrikaans weekly hospital drama called Binnelanders into a weekday show, from 6.30pm to 7pm. Its first weekday show aired on January 29, giving M-Net two months to attract non-subscribers.
The scoop? Already a successful drama boasting some 500,000 viewers per episode when it was aired every Thursday evening, the Binnelanders team has snatched actress Michelle Botes, the queen of South African soap operas, from its SABC 3 rival Isidingo.
“For a long time we felt that we had to come up with a plan as to what to do after Open Time ends,” explains Fischer. “One of the thoughts we came up with was to present our subscribers with a double-bill – Egoli and Binnelanders. That is quite a compelling proposition for fans of the shows.”
It is an ambitious project, considering that Binnelanders is not only taking on Isidingo, with viewership figures of between 1.3-million to 1.8-million per day, but also SABC 2’s Sewende Laan, which boasts an intimidating viewership of nearly two-million.
How will Binnelanders entice Sewende Laan viewers? “We’ve got to accept that there will be strong competition in every slot. We just better be sure we’re making the best,” responds Fischer.
“The decision was not first of all to take on Sewende Laan,” he adds. “It was about what we could do best (after open time ends). We went through the whole gambit of thinking, including putting a movie in that slot (5pm – 7pm), but a strong proposition is a double-bill of a local daily soapie and a local drama.”
This at least puts an end to rumours that Egoli, which averages about 900,000 viewers in the open time slot, will have no choice but to end to make up for lost advertising revenue.
“We’ve decided it is best to keep Egoli where it has always been,” says Fischer. “Our strategy is to convert as many open time viewers into subscribers as possible.”
It is too early to say whether the investment in local productions will pay off for M-Net.
E.tv channel director Bronwyn Keene-Young, whose free-to-air channel does not have local productions in its top 10 shows, says it is more profitable to broadcast international shows.
“Local shows such as dramas generally attract far higher audiences than the equivalent international shows. This enables broadcasters to charge high advertising rates for those shows.
“However, as the local shows are more than seven times the cost of international shows, the profit margins on local shows – regardless of how well they are doing – are much lower than on cheaper international shows,” says Keene-Young.
But she is optimistic that e.tv’s locally-produced Scandal, a Monday to Thursday drama airing at 7.30pm, will soon start featuring in e.tv’s top 10 shows (see graph).
For a channel such as DStv’s Kyknet, local makes lekker money. According to Nielsen Media Research, Kyknet was the most profitable DStv channel between March and September 2006. Its advertising revenue stood at nearly R160-million in the year between December 2005 and November 2006.
SABC 2’s Sewende Laan remains the most profitable soapie, perhaps because of its cross-cultural appeal. According to a document drafted by SABC 2 brand manager Jenny Griesel last November, the Afrikaans show has 18 percent black viewers and 36 percent coloured viewers.
“The channel aims to deliver content that is accessible to all South Africans and promotes its programmes as such,” Griesel wrote.
“Another success story is the glamorous magazine show Pasella of which the audience is 17 percent black, 43 percent coloured, 15 percent Indian and 25 percent white.”
Sewende Laan line producer Colin Howard says its audience has grown every year since its launch in 2000.
“Sewende Laan depicts a close knit community that is almost similar to a village atmosphere. While the community is filled with people from different cultures, they share a common interest in the affairs of the community, its social life and its businesses. This is something that all cultures can relate to,” he says.
The show seems unfazed by the new competition from M-Net’s Binnelanders.
“Competition is always good. It keeps one on your toes. The Sewende Laan audience is very loyal and really enjoy the programme. Binnelanders will also be encoded once M-Net closes the open time window,” says Howard.
The drama has now also introduced Sewende Laan “mobisodes”, the first locally produced and commissioned content for mobile TV. It broadcasts two minute long mobisodes, released daily at the end of the show, providing behind-the-scenes extras – a clever way to reach the technologically advanced youth.
South Africa’s longest running local drama, Generations, produced by Elsa and Friedrich Stark (the Starks also produce Binnelanders) alongside Mfundi Vlundla, is also looking at broadening its audience appeal.
Its line producer Johann Schoeman says the drama had quite a number if Indian and coloured viewers a few years ago but that changed when the SABC’s language mandate giving preference to African languages became stricter.
“Our latest research shows that there has been a definite decrease in coloured and Indian viewers and we are now in the process of changing that. The language mandate has changed again and that will allow us to bring back Indian and coloured actors,” says Schoeman.
“But it is a tall order to accommodate such a wide audience,” he adds.
However, looking at the success of Sewende Laan and Generations, the future of popular broadcasting in South Africa seems to lie in cross-cultural appeal.
After watching Generations at 8pm, many viewers turn to local drama Muvhango at 8.30pm, also on SABC 2 and with viewership numbers similar to that of Sewende Laan, but certainly with not such as diverse audience.
SABC 3’s Isidingo attracts a cross-cultural audience although its storylines are not as light and humorous as that of Sewende Laan.
Isidingo showed us the first inter-racial kiss and wedding on local television, the first HIV-positive character and the first polygamist marriage, as well as the first gay wedding.
Isidingo‘s controversial and gritty storylines are something to be proud of – and is very popular with a large audience – but still, it does not attract more viewers than a production such as Sewende Laan, which provides the nation with pure escapism in storylines revolving around events such as dancing competitions.
New kid on the block Binnelanders has an uphill road ahead. With local viewers already spoilt for choice, it will not be an easy task to convince loyal audiences to subscribe and switch to M-Net.