BREAKING. ASTV off the air as it ''go to black''.

You're reading it here first.

The Afrikaans satellite channel ASTV (still busy with test broadcasts after it initially promised to start broadcasting a few months ago - and postponed its launch to 4 January 2010 the day before it was supposed to start ) - will MOST PROBABLY HAVE TO DELAY IT AGAIN!

ASTV says the channel had to ''go to black'', ''which means we can't broadcast until Telkom completes the laying of the cables''.

ASTV says ''after much asking nicely, pleading and even threats Telkom FINALLY decided to make us a priority. They are busy with laying the fibre optic cables. That's the good news. The bad news is . . . we have no idea how long it will tke.''

ASTV says the Afrikaans channel will ''hopefully be back on air within a week or two. We can't put a date on it, but will keep everyone advised. Therefore we will broadcast ons of these days directly from Rustenburg.''

That means that ASTV will most likely not be ready to broadcast from it's restated launch date of 4 January, 2010.