MultiChoice subsidiary M-Net is launching two new channels on the pay-TV operator’s DStv platform. The new channels, M-Net Edge and Vuzu Amp, will be available to DStv Premium subscribers only.
The channels will go on air for the first time in October and being billed by MultiChoice as “out of the ordinary additions” to the platform.
However, the current M-Net Series Showcase and M-Net Series Reality channels on DStv Premium will be discontinued.
M-Net Edge looks set to be the biggie. Launching on 20 October at 7pm, the channel will occupy channel 102 in the DStv Premium bouquet and will be the companion channel to the flagship M-Net 101. The M-Net channel was MultiChoice parent Naspers’s first entry into the subscription television market in South Africa in the mid-1980s.
The M-Net Edge line-up will feature the kind of risqué shows not meant for children. Emmy award-winning comedy-drama Orange is the New Black is among the debut shows. Other shows will include Masters of Sex and Satisfaction, as well as new seasons of The Americans, Defiance and American Horror Story.
“Due to the age restrictions linked to the programming on M-Net Edge, the channel will be on air for eleven hours only — from 18:00 in the evening until 5:00 the next morning,” M-Net said in a statement.
The Vuzu Amp channel will go live on 13 October at 5pm on channel 114 and will be aimed as “trendy viewers”, providing local and international content. It will broadcast some new American TV shows within days of them airing in the US, starting with The Flash, a show based on the DC Comics character Flash.
Vuzu Amp will show season premieres of popular series such as The Vampire Diaries, Devious Maids, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, So You Think You Can Dance and Pretty Little Liars. South African programmes have also been commissioned for the future.
Both of the new channels will be broadcast in high definition. — (c) 2014 NewsCentral Media