M-Net (an abbreviation of Electronic Media Network) is a South African pay television channel established by Naspers in 1986.

[1] The channel broadcasts both local and international programming, including general entertainment, children's series, sport and movies.

In the early 1990s, M-Net added a second analogue channel called Community Services Network (CSN),[2] and began digital broadcasting via satellite to the rest of Africa, via its sister company MultiChoice.

The idea of a pay-TV network in South Africa came to life as early as 1982, when Nasionale Pers (Naspers) – headed by executive Koos Bekker — started to promote the idea to the country's other three largest media corporations: Times Media Ltd (now Avusa/BDFM), Argus (now the Independent Group) and Perskor (which is now defunct).

[3] Initially, the plan was for M-Net to be jointly owned by the four media corporations, with the Natal Witness also having a small share in the station.

On 27 November 1984, Foreign Affairs minister Pik Botha suggested the creation of a feasibility study for the subscription network, assisted by a working group.

The new service would have a set of guidelines: no news or political coverage, no exclusive sports screenings, no more than nine hours on air per day and no advertising.

)[3] The service used the Oak Orion scrambling system, and the decoders were manufactured in South Africa by the local affiliate of Matsushita Electric.

[3] In 1988, the channel launched Carte Blanche, a multi-award-winning actuality program hosted by Derek Watts and Ruda Landman.

In the process, the show also uncovered many of South Africa's most famous scandals of human rights abuse, corruption and consumer affairs.

By that time, its sports coverage became very impressive, including the US Masters, the FA Cup Finals, the Indy 500, the US PGA Championship, Wimbledon, the Tour de France, MotoGP and an ever-expanding rugby package.

When rugby became a full professional sport in 1995, most of the broadcasting rights in the Southern Hemisphere were sold to Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation.

In response, they started negotiating with NewsCorp in August 1995 and in February the following year, SuperSport was granted sole broadcasting rights to both the Super 12 and Tri Nations rugby tournaments.

As of 1999, M-Net was one of the three television networks in the world to have agreements with every major American film studio, having signed a contract with Warner Bros., in an exclusive deal that was snatched from upstart terrestrial broadcaster e.tv.

[13] On 1 November that year, M-Net expanded its Open Time slot to other African countries where the channel was relayed on terrestrial television.

[15] The network also secured the rights to the smash hit reality format Big Brother, with the aim of producing a localised version for South Africa.

[17] Following on from the success of Big Brother, the channel secured the rights to another groundbreaking international format, Idols, which premiered on 10 March 2002.

[19] The original M-Net channel broadcasts general entertainment, as well as premiere movies, documentaries, music specials and first-run TV series.

[27] A kykNet International service is now available online to subscribers in selected countries in North America, Europe and Australasia via the Showmax platform.

[28] Vuzu, originally launched as Go in 2003, had a strong focus on Southern African youth, specifically preteens, teens and the 20–49 demographics, similar to some popular American television channels such as Bravo, FX, BET, The CW, NBC, TNT and many others.

Mzansi Magic features original South African series, movies, music, documentaries and reality shows.

[29] Two years later, it was announced that the channel would be replaced by Magic Showcase and CineMagic both tailor made for low tiered bouquets.