ITV Choice had another upfront. Two weeks ago. But neither I nor the others telling you about Television knew or can actually tell you anything about it.

ITV plc's ITV Choice (DStv 123) recently had a content upfront in South Africa again to showcase its upcoming programming and where ITV executives spoke but, apologies  - the lack of coverage and reporting about it is because TVwithThinus wasn't invited to it, nor told it would be happening.

Neither were other media - so sorry about that, and for not being able to do what we're supposed to, should do, love to do, and could do.

Last week Thursday just after the conclusion of M-Net's (DStv 101) media launch for The Wedding Bashers, a journalist came up to me and asked why TVwithThinus isn't doing any reporting on the ITV Choice upfront showcase.

I was flabbergasted.

Gobsmacked, I said I wasn't aware that something like that took place and that I don't believe that something like that happened.

I explained that I very specifically asked ITV Choice last year when the channel did a similar upfront in Johannesburg and also failed to alert a lot of journalists about it, if it could communicate beforehand if something like that were to take place again and if the press could please just be kept in the loop (and was assured it would be done).

The journalist said she also didn't get any communication from ITV Choice, but thought that I would have, and only knew about it from co-incidentally seeing a tweet on social media on the day - apparently 31 August. The journalist said she won't now be covering ITV Choice.

I really couldn't believe that ITV Choice'c communication to the press would be this non-existent and bad (again) about something like a programming and content upfront after it was something I specifically raised with ITV Choice a year ago and specifically asked to just be kept informed about.

After the journalist asked me, I in turn decided to quickly ask around to get a sense from other journalists and media working in print, online and radio from across South Africa - Cape Town, Johannesburg, Durban, even places like East London - if they're knew of any ITV Choice showcase event.

One by one, each and every single one of them at the event we were attending, said they didn't know about ITV Choice's upfront, and don't care about ITV Choice, with differing levels of total indifference towards the TV channel brand.

A Durban journalist with a radio show and covering television told me he's never gotten any communication from ITV Choice "and I don't care. I don't bother covering ITV Choice. ITV Choice has never invited me to anything".

Another print journalist asked: "What is ITV?" while another journalist said to me: "I never get anything from ITV Choice".

A TV critic told me: "I know and saw nothing. I didn't pick up on any ITV Choice stories about anything the channel had. It probably just shows how non-existent everything is they might be doing. That two weeks went by should tell you."

"Haven't heard anything. Got nothing," said another TV critic.

Of course it's as scientifically unsound a poll as anything to gauge instant sentiment from a group of TV critics, journalists and editors standing around and sipping champagne but it was quite revealing.

On a personal level for me however it's disturbing and disconcerting that ITV Choice would do something like showcasing content at an upfront but not bother to communicate to media, TV critics and journalists covering TV either beforehand and/or afterwards that it did so.

While ITV Choice is definitely the biggest loser, to a degree the media as messengers are losing out too when they're not able to bring the news.

Personally I like ITV Choice and I've kept close track about its programming since the channel launched in South Africa in May 2015 on MultiChoice's DStv satellite pay-TV platform.

Two weeks ago I remarked how I thought ITV Choice actually had the best Princess Diana 20th anniversary of her death documentary from all of the available programming across the various DStv channels.

As background to this sorry saga: Exactly a year ago ITV Choice also held a showcase but similarly didn't bother to communicate to media about it, although some Johannesburg press and one journalist from Port Elizabeth were invited and attended.

MultiChoice that has publicists specifically working in conjunction with channels and who themselves attended, similarly couldn't be bothered beforehand to reach out to media to make sure that they are at or aware of the ITV Choice upfront, or afterwards to get the information that was shared, out to journalists.

At the time, and after thinking a lot about it and out of respect for ITV Choice, I decided not to report on ITV Choice's lack of communication with the press in regard to the ITV Choice upfront.

What I did do a year ago was to take it up with the channel directly, and to make the effort to share the concerns I had with ITV Choice.

After a long conversation, I gave ITV Choice the benefit of the doubt that it was a mistake in the sense that ITV didn't realise or understand why it's important to keep media in the loop.

I explained why it's important to have stakeholder media like the Press Covering Television at your programming upfront, and why it is important to, at the very least, just communicate if you work in media, communications and television that you're going to have an upfront.

Last year I specifically asked ITV Choice, and was assured by ITV Choice, that in future it would communicate beforehand if it did a similar programming upfront to give media a heads-up about what it is busy with and planning, so journalists are not blindsided and caught unaware.

I really thought I was heard. I felt that ITV Choice understood where I and other media covering television, are coming from, and why we are desperate for the baby monitor to be switched on and for the communication to be flowing - even when you have to listen in from another room.

Cue a year later and ITV Choice failed to keep its promise - moving something that I was willing to forgive (although it really irked me at the time) as a genuine "didn't know better" mistake, squarely to the "Oops, I did it again" and don't seem to care box.

If you're wondering as a potential advertiser, as a dedicated or casual viewer of ITV Choice, as somebody generally interested in media, or as a TV executive or producer why there isn't any coverage of ITV Choice's upfront, it's because TVwithThinus genuinely can't and neither can others.

I can't tell you what Katherine Wen, ITV channel director said - or any of the other ITV Choice executives - after all the effort they made to fly to South Africa.

I couldn't hear what she had to say and afterwards there were no speech transcripts; no interview offered. In fact, neither I nor others even knew she was here.

I can't tell you what Paul Ridsdale, ITV's head of marketing said about ITV Choice's successes and possibilities (presumably there are) and his message and insights to South Africa's advertisers and ad buyers. It's a shame and shameful, really.

I can't tell you what ITV Choice executives said about ITV Choice's (sure to be lovely) British programming, or its content and content strategy(ies).

ITV Choice couldn't be bothered to give that information about what ITV Choice thinks about its own programming, either pre- or post its upfront.

There's no ITV Choice 2017 upfront pictures to show, no sense of what upcoming programming highlights or content developments ITV Choice is really excited or proud about - in fact, there's nothing to show.

In South Africa's TV industry where several TV channel operators from Zee TV to e.tv have joined the likes of Discovery Networks International, FOX Networks Group Africa, BBC Worldwide Africa and a growing number of others in doing upfronts to court advertisers and the press and to proudly beam about its programming, it's bizarre that ITV Choice communicates so badly about its own show-and-tell.

While its supposedly a premium pay-TV channel, ITV Choice, in its lack of proper upfront communication is more akin to what one expects from South Africa's struggling public broadcaster, the SABC.

Will ITV Choice get better at keeping the media in the loop when it has what is arguably its biggest event on its own TV calendar? Who knows?

I'm no longer holding thumbs.

And where I once cared a lot, then cared, I'm starting to care less and less. There's too many TV channels and too little time.

As the number of TV channels and programming choices that are available to South African viewers and to pay-TV subscribers keep growing, you'd think that it would be very, very important for ITV Choice to make sure, and to maximise every opportunity to get the word out there - especially with something like an upfront.

You'd think that in the cacophony of content, ITV Choice would do everything it can to communicate as best it could - that ITV Choice would crow about its own content as loudly as it could to get traction within all the noise that surrounds not just ordinary viewers, but the media trying to cover it.

Sadly, it feels as if ITV Choice - as far as South Africa and Africa are concerned - have yet to come to the realisation that in the profusion of choices, ITV Choice's biggest letdown in the content communication race, is itself.