Sunday, November 15, 2009

BREAKING. kykNET turns 10.


The Afrikaans satellite channel kykNET (DStv 111) is 10 years old.

kykNET started it's first official broadcast on 15 November 1999. Above is the brand new logo - still a blue chair and yellow star design - just updated and with a new letter font for the channel's name.

Besides a glam party to celebrate the channel's 10 birthday, kykNET is celebrating the decade anniversary with a special program, kykNET 10 this evening at 19:00 op kykNET (DStv 111).

kykNET 10 is an hourlong nostalgia filled clip show featuring brand new interviews as it travels through the ten year old history of the channel. The hour will contain scenes from more than 50 shows and highlights over the past 10 years, as well as insightful new interviews with the channel's most recognized faces over the years.

Over the past four months the producers worked through more than 600 hours of shows from kykNET's archives to compile the special hourlong program.
Old broadcast schedules were consulted to ensure the correct chronology and more than 72 hours' worth of interviews were filmed with the stars and the people who've worked at the channel the past decade.

Kristin Broberg is the producer of kykNET 10 and looks at the channel's weekly magazine show Kwêla that also turns 10, Fiesta that turns 9 as well as where it all started: shows like Mariëtta praat prontuit, the several Ja/Nee talk shows with different themes, the development of kykNET's talk show genre, the first drama shows like Song vir Katryn and reality shows like Zing!, till where kykNET is today: drama shows like Getroud met Rugby and Boer Soek 'n Vrou.

People interviewed for the show and who will appear in kykNET 10 include Mariëtta Kruger, Coenie de Villiers, Elana Afrika and Henre Pretorius.

''I think it's incredible to look back with this special program to where kykNET started and to where the channel is today,'' Haddad Viljoen, kykNET publicist tells me.

''We were literally an infant in the TV industry a decade ago. After 10 years kykNET is a completely transformed TV channel. It's important for us to look back and give people a view and a perspective on how we've grown, and how a part of the local TV industry and specifically Afrikaans television has developed through the creation of kykNET.''