Days before Christmas I can reveal that SABC3's programming division is in a flat spin and in emergency overdrive, desperate to get the first episode of Survivor Gabon for Monday night's broadcast. That comes after the channel failed to premiere the new season this past Monday due to the video cassettes that haven't arrived from a snowed-in Europe.
In this very fast developing story, I can now exclusively reveal that SABC3 out of sheer desperation, will now try a satellite uplink to beam the episode in to Auckland Park over the weekend from Amsterdam in the Netherlands in a tricky logistical manuevre. After I broke the news on Monday about the tape delay, I told you RIGHT HERE why broadcasters still find satellite downloads of shows difficult and prefer not to do it.
A short while ago I broke the latest news RIGHT HERE that SABC3 is now looking at broadcasting an EPK of Survivor Gabon castaway interviews in the ''repeat'' timeslot of the show this Sunday morning. That has just changed. In Sunday morning's 07:00 repeat slot of Survivor Gabon, viewers are going to see the music documentary The Parlotones: The Road to the Dome.
Insider sources now tell me exclusively that SABC3 is readying an attempt and is furiously organizing a digital uplink to try and take a feed from Amsterdam. SABC3 will then try and make a tape of it to broadcast the first episode of Survivor Gabon this Monday night. ''They're not sure if its going to work or not,'' I'm told by a source. ''They're also hoping the tape arrives by Sunday,'' says another well-connected source.
