M-Net: Money and the box
Koos Bekker created what would become the largest emerging-market media company in the world
Not long after M-Net’s 1986 launch, Koos Bekker, its CEO at the time, found himself wondering whether, if the lemon creams were cut from the office coffee supplies, the company could be saved. That’s how dire the situation was, Bekker said at M-Net’s 30th anniversary dinner last week.The first broadcast was the Currie Cup final between Western Province and Transvaal in October 1986. But, Bekker told me later, "by February 1987 our viewing audience was so pathetic we had to give make-good ads to advertisers on the basis of one-paid, two-free."It got worse: "By March 1987 our trading results were: turnover of half a million rand, loss of R3,5m for the month. Since our backers were newspaper groups of small to moderate size, they couldn’t bear that sort of bleeding. We were a few weeks away from the end."Then came the advent of new technology – well-made decoders for single homes – and a change in strategy – from selling to blocks of flats which required 90% sign-up to selling to indiv...
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