DirecTV Shuttered Audience Network Channel 101 After 21 Years Of Operation, Could This Be What Awaits M-Net Following The Canal+ Takeover?

Audience was an American based TV channel operated and curated exclusively for DirecTV consumers. For those aren't familiar with the channel, it carried a similar structure as M-Net offering a mix of original and acquired series, specials and feature films.

Some of which had already been made available to South Africa include Kingdom, Rogue and even the former e.tv soap, Passions. 

In 2020, the parent company AT&T announced plans to cease transmission of the channel and to merge all its efforts on Max. This was part of AT&T's to streaming endeavors as more consumers continue to opt out of linear television. 

Some insiders are concerned that M-Net could be subjected to a similar fate once Canal+ acquisition of MultiChoice is complete by April 2025. M-Net has been struggling to maintain consumers following increased competition from Netflix and Disney+.

Earlier in the year, M-Net's secondary offering Me and 1Magic were discontinued as the latter merged with Showmax. With M-Net serving as a premium tier, Me catered to low income households by giving consumers a portal to premium entertainment. 

1Magic was M-Net's BET channel which brought local talent like Sindi Dladu against Hollywood stars like Viola Davis.

Now questions amount to what could Canal+ do once this acquisition is complete and its likely M-Net could be kept in its current position. As for brand names, it wouldn't seem far fetched if it were to get the corporate name, CANAL+ PREMIERE.

M-Net and Canal+ have been working on original shows for a while now Spinners, Blood Psalms and Devil's Peak. Eventually you would anticipate that the Canal+ portion would take up the whole chunk of M-Net similar to how Boomerang folded under Cartoonito. 

This endeavors would be reflected on M-Net Movies seeing as it not only license third party films from Disney, NBCUniversal and Paramount but also distribute local content for which memory served were credited as M-Net.

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