Has eExtra Decided To Call It Quits For Bollywood Dramas?

Before Star Life and Zee One, there was eExtra that brought India to South Africa with shows like Madhubala, Yeh Teri Galiyan and Piyaa Albela. But in recent months, it appears that eExtra's Kuiertyd is building up it's airtime on the channel.

By the afternoon, eExtra now has daily repeats of Yosef, Sout Van Die Aarde, Chrysalis and Dokter Ali. This was the timeslot used to accommodate ramp up it's rivalled offering for Star Life now that's been reduced to a one hour slot for Naagin.

Uzozisola - Regrets gave Naagin the weight it needed but after e.tv scrapped further airings. Naagin just became an outsider on eExtra as daily repeats of e.tv soaps take up the morning with Kuiertyd taking up the afternoons and primetime.

Empress In The Palace, a former show on eExtra has since found its way onto eSeries. At this point, I wouldn't be surprised if eMedia Investments decided to move all its Asian stories to eSeries in order to combat with those repeats.

As for Bollywood dramas, I feel like eExtra's story had come to an end I mean it never gained much recognition. For DStv viewers, there was Zee World with Glow TV on Openview and with it's afternoon slot most viewers were probably at work by then.

It could never garner the Zee World recognition it deserved even with Star Life and Zee One only airing repeats by then.

As for Kuiertyd, that's another story as Ouma Sarie and Droomvelore's broadcast on e.tv those shows were able to attract over 3 million viewers. Their continued success led KykNET to ramp up their own portfolio with Dikker As Water and Landman.

For sometime now, several Openview consumers didn't really see the need of having eExtra air these shows. Especially since eMedia Investments had been outsourcing from their competitors who had branded channels (i.e. Zee One) on Openview.

This market as some people recall has been overcrowded on both DStv and Openview. Not that it's a bad thing but in scenarios like this it's hard for a broadcaster like eExtra to offer alternatives if there's bigger prey out there.

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