eLocal: Could eMedia Investments Revive The eKasi Concept Onto A New Channel?

eKasi+ (now eExtra) was a general entertainment channel operated by eMedia Investments that distributed various archived alongside first run local productions like eKasi: Our Stories, Backstage, I Love South Africa and Tropika Island Of Treasure.

Part of the reason this brand never worked out had to with viability as Openview wasn't profitable at the time for eMedia Investments. Another would be the lack of new content as eKasi+ local offering was very repetitive to a point where eMedia had to build an international portfolio.

Now serving as eExtra, it had seen a lot of success with consumers particularly for their local infused international dramas which was spun off onto a standalone network ePlesier and folded under a tile for the eVOD streaming service.

In the last years, eMedia Investments had been building their original portfolio to better take on brands like SABC and MultiChoice which had seen success with those endeavours for decades. Before all of this content was consolidated on e.tv now the brand serves as a catch-up platform for part of this offering.

Similar to ePlesier and SABC Encore, eMedia Investments has managed to build as much local content for their brands that the idea of them possibly converting this into a standalone service where you can relive some of these moments wouldn't seem far fetched.

Before they had problems sustaining the lineup but as seen in 2021, e.tv has become a large chunk of SABC that they gave brands like eReality and eXposed the chance to expand on what could have been e.tv should they have kept the offering and that included Botched, Catfish, The Walking Dead and House Of Cards.

On top of eReality running a 2 hour block for local reality shows like Pay Back The Money, Date My Family and Beef with other programming from eExtra such as SterStatus and Die Kontrak could help sustain this brand and not burn it to the ground like eKasi+.

Could eMedia Investments' Local Endeavours Lead To The Recreation Of The eKasi+ Channel?

eMedia Investments has been building their local portfolio with the likes of The Black Door, uMbali, Housewives, Is'phindiselo, Daryn's Gym and Atlantis and I don't know about you but all this kind of leads to the thought of a standalone channel.

eKasi+ was another property of eMedia Investments seen on the Openview platform when it first launched in the market. At the time, eMedia's local endeavours usually hit a bump on the road on top of working under a limited budget which is why it's known to viewers as eExtra.

eExtra has achieved a lot of milestones on eMedia's portfolio following the success of Kuiertyd which has a hub on eVOD and standalone channel on the Openview platform. It even lead MultiChoice to build their own Kuiertyd through kykNET & Kie.

But the fact is eExtra doesn't cater to the same audience as eKasi+. While eExtra is viewed as an alternative to kykNET and the dismal Afrikaans offering on SABC 2 with eKasi+ it was taking on the likes of SABC 1 and Mzansi Magic's Wethu and Bioskop channel.

I'm not saying eMedia had no reasons to throw the channel away as eKasi+ was very much repetitive and struggling to hit the standards seen on SABC 1 which is why there was that existing bulk of eExtra available on the channel alongside WWE.

But with this fresh offering coming to their stable with more expected in the near future. It wouldn't be a bad idea to revive a concept similar to eKasi+.

I'm not expecting any exclusive content to run on the channel but function more like SABC's Encore channel or M-Net's Mzansi Wethu where the channel offers a selection of archived material alongside current shows from e.tv like The Black Door, Scandal and Imbewu.