Instead of actual real live red carpet coverage from the AfricaMagic Viewers' Choice Awards 2013 in Lagos, Nigeria on Saturday night, M-Net and MultiChoice showed DStv viewers this: a total blackout, as the signal was lost for some reason and viewers got only a black screen and no sound on the AfricaMagic Movies1 channel (DStv 153) with only a channel logo and a PG13 advisory in the corners.
Technical mishaps like this lasting for several minutes are fatal for viewers and ratings - viewers don't wait around watching a pitch black screen, they tune away and find something on another channel of interest.
M-Net's red carpet coverage of the AfricaMagic Viewers' Choice Awards 2013 just started at 19:00 on Saturday evening on AfricaMagic Movies 1 when sound problems immediately became evident. Within minutes, the signal mysteriously was dropped on AfricaMagic Movies 1, leaving viewers staring at nothing more than a black screen with two white logos on that channel.
The blackout on the channel endured for longer than 3 and a half excrusiating minutes - an eternity in dead on-air time - before the visuals and sound came back.
The red carpet coverage came back with DJ Case on the red carpet who didn't appear to know where he was, saying he's at the "Africa Music Viewers' Choice Awards". Uhm. No.
The M-Net signal was lost a second time during the red carpet live broadcast with the DStv channel again going black for a minute without sound.
ALSO READ: Host IK Osakioduwa jokes about violence against women at the AfricaMagic Viewers' Choice Awards 2013; asks co-host if she dreamt she was beaten by Chris Brown.
