Tuesday, April 14, 2015

Today's interesting TV stories to read from TV with Thinus - 14 April 2015.


A furious open letter to the SABC and VVM.
SABC and legal firm VVM trashed for sending a SMS to someone who doesn't even have a TV, saying the person is in contravention of the Broadcasting Act and that the person must call them.  "Firstly, if you think I owe you money, you can call me, don't send me a 'please call me'. Especially if I have no clue who you are".


SABC's famously matricless Hlaudi Motsoeneng personally undo changes at Lesedi FM.
It's your non-TV story of the day: Hlaudi Motsoeneng brought his "wrecking ball approach" to the SABC's Sesotho radio station Lesedi FM last week; when he was done he had reversed half of the decisions made by Lesedi FM station manager Puleng Thulo who has immediately been removed.


Britain's Sunday Times TV magazine furious at Sky Atlantic over Game of Thrones.
Sky's Sky Atlantic channel didn't invite Sunday Times TV to the media launch event of Game of Thrones and Sunday Times TV is trashing Sky Atlantic.

The SABC is hunting down its own staff who leaks to the media.
Minister of communications Faith Muthambi tells parliament that the SABC staff investigation over leaks is "currently under way".

Spoilers are coming.
HBO is investigating the leak which saw the first 4 episodes of the new 5th season of Game of Thrones end up online and downloaded thousands of times already on torrent sites.
Vanity Fair looks at why the ending of the first episode of the new season is different than in the books. Esquire tells how it was filming that final fiery scene.
Creator George R.R. Martin talks about that flashback scene right at the beginning of the new season.
Some people held their phones in front of their TV's and streamed Game of Thrones as its shown on their TV sets over social media through their cellphones.
And a cool story: A bit of an explanation for what the opening sequence of Game of Thrones really is and illustrates.


BCCSA receives official complaint over SABC News' Eben Jansen.
An official complaint has been received by the Broadcasting Complaints Commission of South Africa (BCCSA) after last week's shocking outburst and rude on-air behaviour of the SABC News (DStv 404) anchor Eben Jansen who has been taken off the SABC air indefinitely.


Musicians out in the cold after M-Net and MultiChoice shut down Channel O.
Artists - especially in East African - now wonder what's next?

China's StarTimes is starting to wrestle away exclusive sport content from MultiChoice's DStv.
The broadcasting of some motorsport, boxing and Germany's Bundesliga soccer is going to StarTimes' satellite pay-TV platform.

No double-barrel dismounts in the unisex toilets. Bygones.
The cast of Ally McBeal (including the Biscuit) reunite at The TV Land Awards to receive the Groundbreaking Award.

The Walking Dead spin-off, Fear The Walking Dead, is going to start on AMC (DStv 140 / StarSat 115) 24-hours after America.
South African viewers will see episodes later this year very quickly after America on "AMC Global" as AMC actually refers to the AMC channel seen in DStv and StarSat in South Africa.