Editing M-Net (section)

===1980s===
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]]&nbsp;— 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).<ref name="early">{{cite web | work=financialmail.co.za | title=How pay-TV in SA was started |url=http://secure.financialmail.co.za/08/0801/cover/coverstoryc.htm| access-date=6 August 2008 }}</ref>

The initial project by Ton Vosloo in 1982 suggested that the new channel would restore the revenue of its newspapers.<ref name="SatelliteHarvest">"Africa ripe for the satellite harvest", ''Africa Film & TV Magazine'', nº. 1, July–September 1993</ref>

The newspapers and magazines published by Naspers had lost a lot of advertising revenue to the [[SABC]] after the [[Television in South Africa#Slow introduction|arrival of television]] and for this reason, according to some sources, the [[National Party (South Africa)|National Party]] government wanted Naspers to run its own television network.<ref name="early"/>

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. However, as time went on, the project became that of Naspers only.

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.<ref name="SatelliteHarvest" /> On 25 April 1985, the press consortium won the bid, over 39 other applicants. Naspers would hold 26%, the three other groups 23% each and the two independent newspapers 5% each. 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. The format would emulate that of SABC's TV4, which ran on its black networks ([[SABC1|TV2 and TV3]]) from 9pm to closedown.<ref name="SatelliteHarvest" />

In October 1986, they started broadcasting for 12 hours a day, to about 500 households who had bought decoders. (Their aim at that stage was to sell 9,000 decoders per month.)<ref name="early"/> The service used the [[Oak Orion]] scrambling system, and the decoders were manufactured in South Africa by the local affiliate of [[Panasonic|Matsushita Electric]].<ref name="green">{{cite thesis |last=Green |first=David Robert |date=1989 |title=M-Net Decoder Production, A Technical Analysis |publisher=Cape Technikon |url=http://etd.cput.ac.za/handle/20.500.11838/1130}}</ref> That small start finally broke the TV monopoly by SABC.

Although it was subscription-based, the Broadcasting Authority granted them a one-hour time slot each day, in which the channel could broadcast unencrypted, free-to-air content, in order to promote itself and attract potential subscribers. In 1987, the Cabinet also approved an arrangement under which the SABC was required to make its TV4 channel available to M-Net between 6 and 7pm.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=NcQZ1D366t8C&dq=%22M-Net%22+%22South+Africa%22&pg=PA125 ''Communication and Democratic Reform in South Africa''], Robert B. Horwitz, Cambridge University Press, 2001, page 125</ref> This time slot became known as ''Open Time''; though it was only meant to be temporary&nbsp;— M-Net was supposed to close ''Open Time'' immediately when it had 150,000 subscribers – it remained.<ref name="Broa940325">{{Cite news|title=South Africa: Viewers fall into the net|work=Broadcast|date=25 March 1994|first=Andy|last=Fry|page=20|id={{pq|1705162805}} }}</ref>

At the end of its first year, they recorded a loss of R37&nbsp;million.<ref name="early"/> However, it pushed forward and eventually, the public started taking notice. After two years, the loss was turned into a R20&nbsp;million profit.<ref name="early"/> In 1988, the channel launched ''[[Carte Blanche (TV series)|Carte Blanche]]'', a multi-award-winning actuality program hosted by Derek Watts and Ruda Landman. In only a few years, ''Carte Blanche'' became famous for its investigative journalism. In the process, the show also uncovered many of South Africa's most famous scandals of human rights abuse, corruption and consumer affairs.

1989 saw the launch of [[SuperSport (South African broadcaster)|M-Net SuperSport]], which went on to become South Africa's (and Sub-Saharan Africa's) first dedicated sports channel which spawned into sports-specific channels from 2003 onward. It was the year they adopted a new slogan – ''We Won't Stop the Magic'', backed by a massive ad campaign.