The MultiChoice Group that runs the DStv satellite pay-TV service and includes brands ranging from M-Net, and kykNET to SuperSport to Mzansi Magic is taking South Africa's broadcasting regulator to court over its inquiry into broadcasting sports rights.
MultiChoice has filed papers in the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria against the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa), saying that MultiChoice will go out of business if Icasa goes through with its proposed broadcasting rights regulation changes.
The Star newspaper on Wednesday reported that the court application was filed on Monday and MultiChoice wants the regulator to "provide "all the information, evidence and research" that went into its draft findings that it published on 12 April 2019.
Icasa plans to hold public hearings this week in Pretoria on the controversial draft sports broadcasting services amendment regulations that the regulator published in 14 December 2018 and that many different groups including sporting codes in South Africa have said would severely damage broadcasting in South Africa as well as the ability of different sporting interests to get funding from broadcasting through licensing rights.
In a statement about the public hearings Icasa said that "The review of existing regulations is common within the regulatory environment, and this process is no exception. As developments happen and new information come to the fore, Icasa is required to re-look the relevance of its existing regulations and where necessary initiate a process for the review of such regulations".
"This review is intended to identify and list national sporting events while ensuring that subscription broadcasting service licensees do not acquire exclusive rights that prevent or hinder the free-to-air broadcasting of national sporting events."
Two years after a dramatic schedule change kykNET (DStv 144) is undoing the ratings damage it caused to some shows and will be moving its Afrikaans weekday soap Getroud met Rugby back from 21:00 to early prime time at 18:00 from July.
Getroud met Rugby that has turned a decade old since it started as a drama series in April 2009 and morphed into a soap, will move back to 18:00 on kykNET from 1 July after it was shunted to 21:00 on weekdays from July 2017.
The Overberg Productions soap filmed at Atlas Studios and following the lives of the fictional Stryders rugby team and surrounding community, was previously at 18:30 on the kykNET schedule before the move to 21:00 two years ago. From July it will serve as the lead-in for sister-soap Suidooster.
While previously saying the soap and other content shifted to later timeslots on kykNET "to make room for all our new content", the channel now says its "good news" that its current affairs shows Prontuit and KN Verslag in Gesprek are also moving to earlier timeslots.
The weekly Prontuit on Mondays with presenter Kabous Meiring will move from 22:00 to 21:00 from 8 July, with KN Verslag in Gesprek with presenter Waldimar Pelser on Wednesdays will move earlier from 21:30 to 21:00 from 3 July.
The earlier timeslots for both these shows will likely also help increase their ratings.
kykNET will add a new travelogue series, Elders: Japan, with Erns Grundling as presenter from Tuesday 2 July at 21:00 who previously did Elders: Die Camino. Lui maar op, Belinda, is a new Afrikaans sitcom with Brümilda van Rensburg, Annelisa Weiland and Eric
Nobbs part of the cast that will start on Monday 8 July at 20:30. Alles Malanis a new drama series withNadia Valvekens, Ivan Zimmermann, Albert Maritz and Elsabé Daneel in the cast starting on Tuesday 9 July at 20:00. The food reality show, Kokkedoor will be back for a third season starting on Thursday 18 July at 20:00 with Hetta van Deventer-Teblanche and Nic van Wyk back as the judges, as well as food blogger Sam Woulidge joining them.
Filmed in Cape Town this time for 13 episdes, the show will kick off with 30 contestants.
CNN International (DStv 401) is cutting down on its live programming done from London in the United Kingdom, meaning an hour and a half less programming that's produced from London and with at least 13 staffers getting fired.
TVNewser on Tuesday reported that the TV news channel is making changes to its London operation "in an effort to CNN International" which means cutting 90 minutes of CNN International programming done from London.
CNN International will be simulcasting another 90 minutes from the feed of CNN in the United States. According to TVNewser, some jobs in London will be moved to Atlanta in America.
Going forward, CNN International will broadcast more simulcast feeds from America, as well as more repeats of Christiane Amanpour's programme Amanpour and other programmes originating from CNN International's Abu Dhabi bureau.
The Guardian reports that staffers - including some managers whose shows were affected - were given no advance warning of CNN's announcement that was made on Tuesday in London by Jeff Zucker, CNN boss, at a meeting at CNN's London office.
The CNN London staff cuts come after the long-serving CNN International boss, Tony Maddox, earlier this month unexpectedly announced that he was leaving CNN.
London-based shows like the talk show CNN Talk is apparently being cut and cancelled completely as CNN is refocusing its London office to produce for its online offering.
CNN's parent company Time Warner was recently taken over by AT&T and renamed WarnerMedia.
In a statement to The Guardian CNN said "In the coming months, CNN International will be consolidating key parts of its production model centrally in Atlanta, in much the same way as we currently do with large parts of our programming for CNN US. This means that some jobs will shift from London to Atlanta, but overall headcount will be unchanged".
Discovery and MultiChoice will add the HGTV channel to its DStv satellite pay-TV service from mid-July, bringing DStv subscribers a new TV channel with fresh content about home improvement, do-it-yourself house renovations, design, real estate and gardening.
TVwithThinus can reveal that HGTV will launch on 15 July on DStv and will be available to DStv Premium, DStv Compact Plus and DStv Compact subscribers in South Africa.
It's not yet known whether HGTV, that originally stood for "Home and Garden Television" when it started in 1994, will launch as a high-definition (HD) channel on DStv in South Africa.
HGTV ended 2018 as the 4th most watched pay-TV channel in the United States where it is the leading home and lifestyle channel and often gets cited by pay-TV subscribers as one of the "must-keep channels" and one of the reasons why viewers pay for subscription television.
In November 2017 MultiChoice did a 3-week marketing research tryout of HGTV on DStv, when the channel was run as a prime time content block on the Travel Channel during weekdays and over weekends. It led to a hugely favourable response from DStv subscribers.
Besides America, HGTV is already available in Canada, the Caribbean, Asia and Australia and will also launch in Germany in June, marking the channel's first European rollout since Discovery completed its takeover of Scripps Networks Interactive in 2018.
Former Scripps sister channels - now all belonging to Discovery like the Travel Channel (DStv 179 / Cell C black 255), the Food Network (DStv 175) and Fine Living (Cell C black 251 / StarSat 281) - are already available in South Africa and throughout the continent on various pay-TV services.
Yet the addition of HGTV makes it Discovery Inc.'s first channel brand from what was Scripps, to be launched in South Africa and Africa as Discovery realigns and scales its expanded collection of lifestyle channels in the territory.
HGTV's content covers 6 basic pillars, ranging from buying and selling property, home renovation, investing in improving property to sell it for a profit (flipping), home improvement and dream homes.
HGTV will launch in mid-July on DStv with a wide slate of home interest programming, with many of the shows on the schedule during South African prime time that have never been seen here on television before or are first-to-market episodes.
The home improvement and aspirational property programming on HGTV will aim to help DStv subscribers with inspiration, instruction about renovations and the selling and buying of homes, as well as providing entertainment, fresh ideas, the latest trends, and access to celebrity homes and sought-after real estate listings across the globe.
"HGTV shows were placed on the Travel Channel in late-2017 and the content flew. HGTV is now going to launch on 15 July on DStv and we're very, very excited about the content on the channel," says Henry Windridge, the head of brand at Discovery Inc. for the Africa and Middle East region.
"It's very much focused on the genres that we know work very well in the United States. Renovation shows, for instance, are such a core part of HGTV; it's so important. It's not about decorating."
HGTV's programming slate
HGTV's programming launch line-up on DStv during prime time between 20:00 and 22:00 will be stratified according to days of the week that will each have a soft theme.
Viewers will be able to see property buying and selling shows on Mondays, renovation shows on Tuesdays, property seeking shows on Wednesdays, property flipping shows on Thursdays, renovation and flipping shows on Fridays, "tiny" home shows on Saturdays, and ending with aspirational and dream home shows on Sundays.
On Mondays DStv subscribers will be able to watch shows like My Lottery Dream Home and Beachfront Bargain Hunt Renovation; Good Bones and Home Town on Tuesdays; House Hunters USA and House Hunters Renovations on Wednesdays; and Flip or Flop Nashville and Boise Boys on Thursdays.
Flip or Flop Atlanta and Lakefront Bargain Hunt Renovation will be shown on Fridays; Tiny House,Big Living and Tiny Paradise on Saturdays; and with Sundays belonging to Beachfront Bargain Hunt and Mediterranean Life.
House Hunters International will remain on the Travel Channel.
Competition for The Home Channel
The addition of HGTV from mid-July to DStv will be direct competition - its first - for the 11-year old The Home Channel that launched on MultiChoice's platform as a stand-alone channel in October 2007.
The Home Channel (DStv 176) from the Tiso Blackstar Group, has ironically been acquiring and showing a broad slate of programming from what was Scripps and produced by its HGTV channel for years, like the popular Property Brothers fronted by the twin brothers Drew and Jonathan Scott.
None of these HGTV shows are available or will be sold to The Home Channel anymore, with existing international licensing broadcasting rights that won't be renewed once they run out.
It means that The Home Channel will have to find new content elsewhere in the months ahead - either through searching and secure new international content for its schedule to replace the gaps, or by ramping up its quota of locally produced shows in South Africa.
TVwithThinus asked Discovery about the change of keeping original HGTV programming back for HGTV, since the channel will now have its own presence and space in the South African TV market.
"Scripps had a very different idea, they were really into content sales, whereas with Discovery our view is that it's our content, it's on our channels and we're quite jealous about it. So all of those deals will have to cease; none of them will be renewed," said Amanda Turnbull, the vice president and general manager for Discovery Inc. in Africa and the Middle East.
"We have and will honour existing deals but as soon as those are finished the content will come to our channels because what we do is build channel brands and for us it's really important."
Staffers and guests who appeared on the cancelled tabloid conflict talk show The Jeremy Kyle Show on ITV in the United Kingdom are speaking out in a new TV documentary about how Jeremy allegedly smoked cannabis with them, how people on the show were riled up to be their angriest and were given alcohol, and drug users even encouraged to go get drugs before the recording of episodes.
The Jeremy Kyle Show was seen in South Africa for a number of years, on the former TopTV's (now StarSat) Top One channel in late-2012 and 2013, and on ITV Choice (DStv 123) in 2016. It wasn't currently broadcast in South Africa.
ITV that denies everything being said in the documentary, Jeremy Kyle: TV on Trial done by Channel 4 in the United Kingdom as part of its Dispatches programme, in a statement about the cancellation of the show said that "now is the right time for the show to end".
Dwayne Davison who appeared twice on The Jeremy Kyle Show told the documentary that that show "is for poor people to go on so we can humiliate them - it ruins lives". He explained how he was invited and locked in a room for 10 hours before going on the show.
"I think that show is for poor people to go on so we can humiliate them - it ruins lives."
This man was branded the Jeremy Kyle Show's most hated guest - he tells Dispatches how the show has affected him since. pic.twitter.com/7HfK0G2kzz
— Channel 4 Dispatches (@C4Dispatches) May 27, 2019
The Daily Mail reports how a former producer on the show said that drug users were encouraged to go get drugs before their show appearance, while other producers explained how guests were given cannabis as well as liquor.
ITV denied the allegations and said alcohol was only given to people who are going to rehab and experienced withdrawal symptoms.
Other staffers described how guests were made angrier before their appearance on the show, a process known as "talking up", saying that "you need people the people that come on the show to be in conflict when you get on, when they're on the show".
Another producer said "the guests were treated like cattle. Behind-the-scenes they created a kind of maze. It's so if the guests run off the stage it's a controlled environment. The cameraman knows where to go. The guests won't be able to find their way out because it all looks the same".
The British government has now launched an investigation into reality television in the United Kingdom following the deaths of people who have appeared on tabloid talk and reality shows there.
UPDATE Tuesday 28 May 2019 13:18 - The second sentence of this article was amended with a new third sentence to indicate and make it clear that The Jeremy Kyle Show was not currently on ITV Choice but was a programme that used to be on the ITV Choice channel in previous years.
Matches from the 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup tournament will be broadcast on the SABC after an agreement was reached between the South African public broadcaster and pay-TV broadcaster SuperSport. In a joint statement on Monday afternoon from the MultiChoice Group and the SABC they said that they have "concluded an agreement for the SABC to broadcast the
2019 ICC Cricket World Cup" and that it "follows extensive negotiations between the
parties". Some of the cricket matches will be live broadcasts, some will be delayed broadcasts, and some will be highlight packages. The SABC didn't announce the details regarding which matches it will be showing when and coverage or its broadcast schedule but said it would do so "shortly".
The Durban videographer Daryl Kotze (32) is in critical condition in hospital, fighting for his life after his car got hit with a hail of at least 22 bullets and Daryl hit by 4, while he was travelling on the N3 near the Brickfield Road offramp on Thursday night.
Daryl Kotze, a director at Barcode Media in Berea, Durban, flew back from Johannesburg to Durban on Thursday evening after filming a music video for Donald Moatshe and is known as the cameraman behind the music videos of some of South Africa's biggest local hip hop stars.
Driving home from the King Shaka airport, his vehicle, a Toyota Fortuner was ambushed in a hail of gunfire. He was shot in the back, an arm, leg and hip. He also has a broken leg.
Lieutenant Colonel Thulani Zwane, police spokesperson, says Sydenham police are investigating a case of attempted murder.
Daryl Kotze is currently in the intensive care unit of a Durban hospital.
On Facebook Daryl Kotze's friend Janus Horn said Daryl was "gunned down on the N3 just before the Brickfield offramp. Not sure if it was a hijacking gone wrong or a hit with mistaken identity".
"Our country is failing us. Lawlessness has taken over and is out of control. I urge our president to take urgent action to protect the citizens of this country. 20 x bullets! Father of 2 kids."
In April Daryl Kotze filmed Riky Rick's new music video who is currently one of the 4 coaches in the 3rd season of The Voice South Africa on M-Net (DStv 101).
Almost a litre of blood has so far been drained from Daryl's lungs.
On his Twitter account, Daryl Kotze describes himself as a passionate filmmaker, family man and owner of a small production company. Several of the music videos he's been responsible for has received nominations for various awards in the South African music industry.
For the first time, this year's 2019 BET Awards will be shown live on South African television and across sub-Saharan Africa on BET (DStv 129), with the ceremony that will see its red carpet pre-show broadcast on Monday 24 June from midnight, and the awards show airing from 02:00 on the channel.
The 2019 BET Awards will again be broadcast on the same day of 24 June at 20:00 during prime time on BET.
For the 2019 BET Awards the South African hip hop rapper AKA was nominated in the category for Best International Act, alongside Nigeria's Burna Boy and Mr. Eazi, as well as Dave and Giggs from the United Kingdom, and Aya Nakamura and Dosseh from France.
In the Best New International Act category at the 2019 BET Awards, South Africa's Sho Madjozi received a nomination, alongside Nigeria's Teniola Apata, Headie One and Octavian from the United Kingdom and France's Jokair and Nesly. Last year in 2018, for the
first time, Nigeria's Davido emotionally received his BET Best International Act award live on stage during
the global broadcast of the 2018 BET Awards with South Africa's Siya, in
traditional Zulu regalia, who received his Best New International Act award during the live
red carpet pre-show. This year Connie
Orlando, the executive vice president and head of programming at BET will serve as executive producer for the 2019 BET Awards, along
with Jesse Collins, CEO of Jesse Collins Entertainment. "The BET Awards is a powerful platform for celebrating and elevating black excellence from around
the world," says Alex
Okosi, executive vice president and managing director of Viacom International
Media Networks Africa (VIMN Africa) and BET International. "We look forward
to honouring this year's Best International Act and Best New International Act
during the 2019 BET Awards
main and surround programming that will broadcast to a global audience." Connie Orlando says "18 years ago, we launched
the BET Awards and since then we have celebrated cool in ways that can't be
duplicated elsewhere". "From Michael Jackson and James Brown busting dance moves
together to Monique paying homage to Beyoncé in an unforgettable dance number, to BET reuniting the Fugees, we have set the tone for what cool looks like." "This
year we are even more so committed to continuing to create the unforgettable
moments that have made the BET Awards the preeminent celebration of black
culture. From the entire BET family, we congratulate each nominee and look
forward to celebrating their talent and contributions at the 2019 BET Awards." ALSO READ:IN IMAGES. 20 photos of the South African media event for the 2019 BET Awards nominees announcement in the Best International Act category.
Last week on Friday Viacom International Media Networks Africa (VIMN Africa) held two media press conferences - one in Johannesburg in South Africa at MultiChoice City, and one in Lagos, Nigeria - announcing the African nominees for the BET Awards 2019 taking place on 23 June in Los Angeles in the United States.
South Africa's hip hop rapper AKA was nominated in the category for Best International Act, alongside Nigeria's Burna Boy and Mr. Eazi, as well as Dave and Giggs from the United Kingdom and Aya Nakamura and Dosseh from France.
In the Best New International Act category South Africa's Sho Madjozi received a nomination, alongside Nigeria's Teniola Apata, Headie One and Octavian from the United Kingdom and France's Jokair and Nesly.
BET will broadcast the BET Awards 2019 red carpet pre-show on Monday 24 June on BET (DStv 129) from 00:00, and will broadcast the BET Awards 2019 live at 02:00 - the first time that this awards show is broadcast live for South African and African viewers.
The 2019 BET Awards will also be shown on Monday 24 June from 20:00.
While the channel's name has the word "love" in its title, the bulk of the content on Moja Love (DStv 157) is premised on conflict - it will be interesting to see for how long Moja Love will be able to sustain and build interest and viewership around this, and when or if Siyaya TV eventually moves away from this, how it will make the pivot.
Attending Moja Love's 2019 Content Showcase last week and when watching the sizzle reel, I was stuck by how almost every show was about the physical fighting of people, or tabloid-style trash talking. There's very little at the moment that's truly aspirational or uplifting.
Moja Love might have "love" in its line-up for viewers but clearly focused on showing fighting scenes and verbal put-downs from its various shows to illustrate what its programming strategy revolves around.
When Siyaya TV launched Moja Love on 14 February 2018 it said that the channel would "explain love from the unique perspective of the modern South African woman, using honest, reflective, hopeful and humorous storytelling".
Instead, Moja Love, aimed at reaching a black working class and middle class audience, has clearly taken a heavy tabloid approach to conflict television - an approach with little interest in showing "love" and actual resolution of conflict but more focused on the sensational fighting and lurid confrontations.
To better align with the channel's content proposition on MultiChoice's DStv satellite pay-TV service, perhaps it's better for Moja Love to drop the "love" part and to change the channel's name to Moja Talk, Khuluma, Kunye or some other word more indicative of what the programming actually is.
Moja Love's content offering is currently clashing with its name. It's like calling something Diet Coke while the product you're consuming is actually full of sugar that's bad for you.
What's very interesting and notable is how Moja Love has created a localised version for its black South African audience and successfully adapted what became known as so-called "Trash TV" - the period between the 1980s and first half of the 1990s in the United States where confrontational tabloid television, especially through talk shows, surged in TV production and popularity.
A flurry of highly abrasive tabloid shows and talk shows set up potentially violent confrontations and deliberately focused on showing fighting - physically and verbally - designed for maximum controversy and shock-value - Jerry Springer, Jenny Jones, Maury and many others.
People often appeared on TV after they have been ambushed by the cameras and producers, as shows took a decidedly lowbrow approach to appeal to the lowest common denominator - satisfying its audience thirst for sensational scandal and seeing physical conflict.
It's all fun of course, until somebody gets seriously hurt or killed, which is what happened with Jenny Jones, Jerry Springer and others.
While Moja Love has found big success with confrontational and controversial tabloid shows ranging from Rea Tsotella and Uthando Noxolo to No Excuse Pay Papgeld and the upcoming localised version of Cheaters,Uyajola 9/9,it will be interesting to see for how long Moja Love will be able to sustain viewership and build audience on and out of this specific genre.
TV audiences of course grow and evolve.
After the death of yet another guest after appearing on Britain's The Jeremy Kyle Show, ITV permanently cancelled the show last week after 14 years, noting that "now is the right time for the show to end".
Beyond just for ITV as a channel, it suggested that after America's"Trash TV" era, British audiences' infatuation with this type of programming has now also run its course. South Africa isn't there yet.
At the moment Moja Love is successfully giving the channel's viewers a version of them they haven't seen on television before. It's new, it's novel and it's built on spectacle and sensationalism whilst being short on actual conflict resolution.
One of the big questions is for how long will Moja Love producers and executives be able to sustain it - and safely? So far nobody has been hurt or died.
As important is the question over what Moja Love will transition to and how will it evolve once viewers have had their fill of this type of content - as what eventually happened in America.
Moja Love should be very careful and exercise extreme diligence in its South African programming to avoid the traps, disasters, death and pitfalls that befell America's "Trash TV" era.
It's fine to fight - but not type of television should be stuck on fight-or-flight mode forever.
Shows included Zodwa Wabantu Uncensored, Kukithi La, Uthando Noxolo, Rea Tsotella, Show Me Love, Traditional Wedding, Uyajola 9/9, Bheka Mina Ngedwa, TMI, No Excuse Pay Papgeld and Village Girls.
Last week the Moja Love (DStv 157) TV channel held its first-ever content showcase - and it was ... basically perfect.
The only piece of criticism would be that the Moja Love 2019 Content Showcase started late and after the stipulated time on the invitation, which forced me to get up and leave during the actual presentation to race to the airport to catch a flight.
It wasn't possible to hear and see everything about the Moja Love presentation until the end; I didn't get a USB with the programming material and images, couldn't grab even the slightest bite to eat, and it was impossible to do individual interviews or ask more questions than the one I managed to ask during the presentation.
Besides this single negative, the Moja Love 2019 Content Showcase set-up and execution was exactly correct, precisely how it should be done, and incorporated and had everything it should have.
It perfectly contained, by-the-book, all of the elements that a TV channel's upfront and showcase event for the media should have.
There were banners outside and inside the lounge area of the venue, as well as inside the auditorium, there were snacks and drinks and flowers, a step-and-repeat backdrop banner for on-air talent photo opportunities, and the media got press material on a USB (although I didn't get one due to being forced to leave before the end because of time).
Moja Love found and used a perfect theatre venue with a stage (the Yamaha World of Yamaha Theatre in Sandton, Johannesburg), and worked hard and put in a proper effort to get the relevant media covering television from Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban to the showcase event.
Moja Love had the assembled group of its on-screen talent from its various shows all beautifully dressed up and walking out on-stage to sit and answer questions. The presentation also had a break with a live performance.
While I wish that Moja Love and MultiChoice did just this and exactly this and in this way in the weeks before it launched in February 2018 - something which would have helped the media tremendously and have ensured that the press could do a lot more about Moja Love's programming line-up as it launched on DStv - I'm hugely appreciative that Moja Love did do a content showcase eventually, and did do it now.
Two things surprised me about the Moja Love 2019 Content Showcase, and both are extremely positive. It bodes well for Moja Love, as well as in general for the "future" of South Africa's TV industry and TV channels, and the development of the process of interaction with the press covering them.
Firstly: I'm wondering who knows, who knew, or who at Moja Love either themselves have attended physically an upfront or content showcase in America of a TV channel or of a studio's shows before - or who had studied up about and researched it in detail.
Moja Love, that has been broadcasting for only 14 months, got it too impossibly absolutely right.
If you haven't physically and personally experienced an upfront or showcase event of one of the American TV studios or TV channels - or a set visit - it's very difficult to understand and practically recreate so exactly what it is and what it should be.
What Moja Love did with its 2019 Content Showcase is like going to the Olympics for your first time and winning a gold medal.
It's extremely difficult if not almost impossible to focus, shut out the noise and end in first place the first time - when its a new experience and a new learning experience and where adjusting to everything around you and mastering it, has an impact on the quality of the performance.
It's really great that Siyaya TV has within it the human capital in South Africa to know how to do something like a basic content showcase for the Moja Love TV channel and to do it properly, correctly and exactly like how America's TV biz has perfected doing it, as part of its external communication system.
By saying "America" I also don't mean that Moja Love or anything in South Africa needs to be, or is "American".
What it refers to is a qualitative measure - a benchmark of "best practice" regarding something, with the American TV industry that established long ago how and what the standard for the execution of an upfront or content showcase for a TV channel or a TV studio's content slate is.
Secondly, and somewhat linking to the first, but on a different layer, is that it's surprising (a great, positive surprise!) that this is a black company and a TV channel targeting a predominantly black viewing audience, that is doing something like a content showcase and getting it right - in a much better way than a VIA or a Viu or a kykNET, Openview, TRACE or MYtv.
Many established and/or so-called "white" and/or so-called "old-school" and/or long-running companies and TV channels within the South African TV industry have never even bothered - places that think they're better or best with nothing to learn or to improve on.
By merely doing a content showcase (and then in addition in exactly the right mould), Moja Love - irrespective of audience size, its look, and what you might think of the content, or the quality of programming - is better than channels and services like Newzroom Afrika, CNBC Africa, Netflix South Africa, StarSat, Showmax, Cell C black and several others who couldn't be bothered putting its stars and shows in front of the media at a basic content showcase despite some being in operation for years.
Well done to Moja Love for doing a content showcase for the media and in a proper way.
While there wasn't one when the channel launched, it's hopefully something Moja Love sees or will see as being just as valuable as what the media regards it to be, and something that it hopefully, maybe, feels that it wants to do once a year.
Slowly other South African broadcasters, channels and operators might just awake from their slumber and start to follow in aspects like these where younger black players in South African television are showing them how, and starting to lead the way.
Show Me Love on Moja Love (DStv 157) is undergoing a revamp for its second season that is set to start on Monday 3 June, with the local talk show that is undergoing several changes including new faces, a new studio and new location, adding some political discussions and topics to the mix, and switching to a live broadcast format or recording episodes as close to the broadcast date as possible.
The Show Me Love hosts around the glass table recently changed, with Unathi Msengana and Abigail Visagie who are both gone without explanation.
They have been replaced by Ntsiki Mazwai as well as the doctor and sexual health expert Dr Tlaleng Mofokeng (Dr T) who have joined Nontobeko Sibisi and KG Moeketsi who remain part of the panel.
"The most important thing as a whole production team was saying 'When do we need to go back to the drawing board? What do we need to fix? And in what way do we fix it in a way that it is still relevant and resonates with our audience?" said Nontobeko Sibisi.
Nontobeko Sibisi spoke at Moja Love's 2019 Content Showcase that was held for the media last week at the World of Yamaha Theatre in Sandton, Johannesburg where the new Show Me Love panellists formed part of the on-stage talent who appeared before the press.
"More importantly, in the second season of Show Me Love we will continue to have a real, authentic conversation," she said.
Dr Tlaleng Mofokeng said about Show Me Love "that we have to remind women about the power that they have and give them the space to own and accept that power".
"If you want to talk about sex - one of the episodes that we were shooting the other day, we were talking about self-pleasuring - giving South African women permission to say it's not only boys with the right to play with themselves. As a woman you can do that".
"I think that that's the beauty of Moja Love as a channel - we're having conversations that other people never had the courage to have, and we're opening it as wide as possible. We're daring, we're courageous but we're also fun."
TVwithThinus asked how the new season of Show Me Love will be different.
KG Moeketsi said "Obviously we're beginning a new season, come 3 June. The intention as we sit here now is to go live. Last year we were filming live-to-tape, but we would be airing about a week into the episodes that we shot."
"We want to stay as current as possible, that's why we want to go live - new location, new studio, new panellists, new everything and more daring content."
"The intention is for us to go live. If we're forced to be recorded - forced by circumstances to pre-record, it will probably be a case of 'record today, the episode airs tomorrow'. We want to get as close as possible - particularly this year - to the issues at hand in South Africa as they happen."
"Especially as far as politics are concerned, we are going to add a bit of that."
"South Africa is just a lovely place, and robust, if you're interested in the politics of the country. And it's exciting that Show Me Love will start going live just a week and a half after South Africa's new president has been inaugurated so we're excited, we're very excited," said KG Moeketsi.
With daring, boundary-pushing reality shows about topics previous discussed in "hushed tones", the Moja Love channel on MultiChoice's DStv satellite pay-TV service says that it's aspiring "to innovate, to change and challenge the South African TV landscape".
The channel that launched on 14 February 2018, last week held its first-ever Moja Love 2019 Content Showcase, going through its existing content slate and unveiling new upcoming programming, while trotting out its on-air talent and executives on-stage before the media.
"Our mission is to create content that is authentic, the lived experience of our communities. We want our viewers to see themselves in experiences-in-the-real," said Bokani Moyo, Moja Love's head of unscripted content.
"Our production teams are made up of young, and mainly female content-creators who are driven to deliver stories that were previously not spoken about; everything was spoken about in hushed tones and you don't talk about that in public."
"We believe it's important to speak about these social ills. If we don't raise them to the surface, they are passed on from generation to generation. So Moja Love is here to say, 'Let's start anew. Let's confront our issues and deal with them head-on'," said Bokani Moyo.
"This is reflected in the impactful reality shows such as No Excuse Pay Papgeld, Uthando Noxolo andRea Tsotella."
"As Moja Love we are also very much about celebrating ourselves - our traditions, our cultures, but above all else, celebrating our authentic selves. We have done this with shows such as Traditional Wedding and the very popular Umndeni. We have unearthed new presenter talent and we haven't been afraid to groom young production talent."
"We have invited young, small, black production companies to come with us on this journey and we haven't been disappointed as they come with fresh, different concepts and ideas.
"We really aspire to innovate, to change and challenge the South African TV landscape," said Bokani Moyo. "We ask a lot of these young teams of men and women, who work long hours. But their talent shines through and it's reflected on screen."
"We've now got a weekly reach of 2.7 million viewers, surpassing some of the long-established players, including international TV players."
"We know that we are offering something that our viewers want and we will continue to bring that to them," said Bokani Moyo.
Nwabisa Matyumza, MultiChoice's new head of content for Southern Africa, who also spoke on-stage and addressed the media, gave some background behind the creation of Moja Love and the channel's addition to DStv.
"At MultiChoice we pride ourselves on being Africa's most-loved storyteller. So, when we had the opportunity in 2017 to look for an additional TV channel to add to our local content repertoire, we were very excited".
"It actually was a great experience for us because we had the opportunity to now go outside of the MultiChoice stable, outside of the M-Net stable, to look for something different - to look for additional voices that reflect who South Africans are. So that is how Moja Love came about and on 14 February 2018 we finally launched the channel."
"Moja Love came with a number of brand-new content like No Excuse Pay Papgeld which started off being a bit controversial but Moja Love told stories that a lot of black South Africans wanted to hear and see a reflection of who we are."
"So as MultiChoice we are very proud to see how Moja Love has grown from strength to strength and we see that in the ratings and we also see it in the talent that they've uncovered over the last couple of months."
"It's been 14 months now that Moja Love has been on DStv so we're very proud of Moja Love and we can't wait to see what more they have in store for us."
Touted as South Africa's "most shocking reality show yet", Zodwa Wabantu Uncensored will start on Moja Love (DStv 157) on Saturday 25 May at 20:00.
After several production and scheduling delays, the reality show following the Vosho Queen and kasi socialite, Zodwa Wabantu, will give viewers a glimpse into her surreal life with her fiancé Ntobeko Linda.
Zodwa Wabantu Uncensored will retrace the Mzansi entertainer's journey from her birth to the public Zodwa personality that people know. "People will get to see where I was born and how I grew up. My family allowed me to bring cameras," says Zodwa.
At last week's Moja Love 2019 Content Showcase, one of the producers, when asked what the age restriction will be, said the show is "uncensored" but that it won't carry an age restriction of 18. "It will be 13. It will be 16-ish," he said.
Last week the Moja Love (DStv 157) channel, run by Siyaya TV, held its first-ever Moja Love Content Showcase since the channel launched in February 2018 on MultiChoice's DStv satellite pay-TV platform.
Held at the World of Yamaha Theatre in Sandton, Johannesburg, Penny Lebyane who is the presenter of Kukithi La on the channel, was the moderator of Moja Love's 2019 content upfront.
Bokani Moyo, Moja Love's head of unscripted content, appeared on stage and spoke, as did Nwabisa Matyumza, MultiChoice's new head of content for Southern Africa.
The channel's various on-air talent from several shows were also seated on stage to answer some questions later during the presentation that include a sizzle reel.
Moja Love's current and upcoming weekly programming slate includes shows ranging from Rea Tsotella, Uthando Noxolo, No Excuse Pay Papgeld, Show Me Love, Bheka Mina Ngedwa, Kukithi La and Traditional Wedding, to Village Girls and the new reality shows Zodwa Wabantu: Uncensored and Uyajola 9/9 with presenter Jub Jub starting in May.
