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The general entertainment genre was further
enhanced with the premieres of Chicago
Justice and Man in the Orange Shirt, as well
as My Kitchen Rules South Africa featuring
chefs David Higgs and J’Something.
With numerous shows on production break
in December, we added variety to the holiday
schedule with specials such as Cirque Du
Soleil: La Nouba, Hairspray Live, Phantom
of the Opera, Miss Saigon, Michael Bublé’s
Christmas in Hollywood, Royal Variety
Performance 2016 and M-Net's 30th Birthday
Celebration.
Pop-up channels continued to perform well
and included: M-Net Inspire; M-Net Movies
Bond; M-Net Movies Fast and Furious; M-Net
Binge, an ad-free weekend channel that
featured popular titles such as The Night Of,
Westworld, Grey’s Anatomy and Game of
Thrones; and the M-Net Movies Bucket List
that was a four-week blockbuster countdown
of 100 movies to see before you die.
The 1000 Movies Collection remained a key
driver for Catch Up Plus downloads and
Explora sales during the year.
General entertainment
A key competitive advantage for our group
is providing content that resonates with
our customers. Our general entertainment
channel, M-Net, aims to become the leading
African storyteller in the world. To this end,
the company needs to deliver flagship general
entertainment channels for key markets to
differentiate MultiChoice from its competitors,
increase the focus on local stories in local
languages, and deliver audience growth in
the linear and non-linear environments.
The consolidation of M-Net 101 and M-Net
Edge reduced repeats and delivered cost
savings. Scheduling improvements to
M-Net Movies Zone increased ratings, and
a customer satisfaction survey carried out
in April 2017 recorded a 15% drop in repeat
complaints after introducing the reduced
repeat strategy.
During the year viewers welcomed the
anticipated return of: This Is Us, a number-
one show in the US; the much-anticipated
American Gods, which the critics have
likened to Game of Thrones; America’s Got
Talent (season 12); Ray Donovan (season 5);
American Crime (season 3); Game of Thrones
(season 7), with 55% higher ratings than
season 6; Suits; and the big local reality show
The Voice South Africa.
Friday nights saw the highest increase
in performance with the return of the
MasterChef Australia daily strip at 18:00,
leading into a new season of The Voice
(US) at 19:00. The reality combination has
increased the day’s performance month on
month.
Our operations
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MultiChoice South Africa Holdings Proprietary Limited
Integrated annual report 2018
37
Our material matters
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