M-Net's weekly Afrikaans medical drama
Binnelanders will become a half-hour daily drama from the end of January 2007, no doubt as a move to hook viewers before Open Time is done away with on 1 April.
Instead of airing for an hour every Thursday, Binnelanders will be on for half an hour every week night, directly after long-running soapie
Egoli.
From 29 January Binnelanders will air at 18h30 every night of the week, meaning it will have two months of Open Time viewers before the 17h00 - 19h00 timeslot on M-Net becomes encrypted.
The idea is to use the powerful lead-in from Egoli (which averages between 900,000 and 1,000,000 viewers per episode) to give Binnelanders a "sticky" audience - one that will hopefully finally purchase a decoder on 1 April in order to continue watching both shows.
Binnelanders will be broadcast simultaneously on kykNET, where Afrikaans-speaking DStv viewers will be able to watch it without subtitles.
According to Binnelanders producers Elsje and Friedrich Stark the change to a soapie format won't affect the essence of the show.
"The types of story lines and production values will stay exactly the same," they said in a media statement.
Experienced soapie actress
Michelle Botes of
Isidingo will be
joining the Binnelanders cast as of next year.