I know about the upcoming new TV channel F O . (Bigfoot.)
I know about the upcoming new TV channel M T . (Newstalk.)
But not even I knew about the planned new 24-hour South African news channel which Infinity Media plans to launch later this year from The New Age newspaper stable on MultiChoice's DStv platform.
ALSO READ: ANN7 - Africa News Network 7 - will be the new 24-hour South African TV news channel which will start in the middle of 2013 on DStv.
Funny thing is, I haven't heard a single word ever about it until the press statement on Thursday in which Infinity Media - a joint venture between Essel Media, Oakbay Investments (Oakbay Investments is the majority shareholder in The New Age newspaper) and a black economic empowerment group - announced that South African viewers will "soon have further diversity in their news choices" with the launch of a new 24-hour news channel.
Thursday afternoon I reached out to a vast number of people - insiders, contacts, trusted sources and names on my contact list build up over more than a decade covering television and South Africa's TV industry. Both inside South Africa as well as from people overseas came the responses. Zilch. Nada. Nothing.
Nobody I asked, knew anything about it. And because I started out as a hard news journalist, was a news editor at various places and have journalists, reporters and editors as friends and contacts, it's not entry level people who I often reach out to or get news tips from. It's people in news, high people in news, who also work in news.
Our credibility, our pride and professional ego is often tied up to what we know, and what we know first. Who knows what before someone else and who gets to whisper it first? So its very strange that nobody knew anything. Because journalists love to share what they know.
Give it 24 hours; 48 maybe or until next week, and the new leaks, the new gushing torrents of information will start to flow as I and other journalists start to dig at what came as this big surprise to a lot of people - a lot of journalists, reporters and editors - on Thursday.
I usually know when a new TV channel is making its way to South Africa or what TV shows are in the works or on its way, and I will always report on what I know. Thursday's announcement was however news to me.
It will be interesting to see what gets dug up now that this new 24-hour news channel story has been added to the news diary and the news agenda.
