Here's the latest news about TV that I read and that you should read too:
■ BBC News finally apologises over its use of the "N"-word racial slur in a report - after 18600 complaints - and after a black BBC radio presenter had to quit.....
- After first defending the decision, outgoing BBC director-general now admits: "We should have taken a different approach". "We are very sorry for that".
■ South Africa's parliament again asks the SABC to stop its retrenchment plan at the South African public broadcaster.
■ Netflix is killing Christianity.
Instead of being out and about missionaries are sitting home binge-watching.
■ SABC foreign editor Sophie Mokoena accused of bribery and taking American money to tarnish Zimbabwe's image.
■ Meet the fund manager who doesn't like Netflix and won't touch it with investments.
"While Netflix can continue to add paying subscribers, they will never be able to deliver a high level of return on investment capital because a lot of that money is going to buy up new content."
■ Nigeria's disastrous and destructive National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) does propaganda for its controversial changes to the country's broadcasting code and banning pay-TV operators from acquiring exclusive content.
- Incompetence will destroy pay-TV in Nigeria.
- Confused director-general Armstrong Idachaba goes on a crazy rant against Iroko.
- Armstrong Idachaba doesn't understand how English Premier League (EPL) rights work and are sold globally; gives non-sensical answer when confronted and told why pay-TV operators like MultiChoice and Supersport buy sports content in the first place.
■ There are 42 Easter eggs hidden in the second season of an Umbrella Academy on Netflix.
- Show creator responds over Umbrella Academy anti-Semitism claims.
■ Kenya DStv subscribers and GOtv subscribers furious at MultiChoice Kenya after shocking DStv price hike.
■ After both The Good Doctor and Grey's Anatomy will prominently address the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic in storylines in their upcoming new seasons, New Amsterdam will now as well.
All three American medical drama series seen on M-Net (DStv 101) will now incorporate Covid-19. The New Amsterdam change comes after the series pulled an unaired flu pandemic episode from broadcast earlier this year.
■ Netflix subscribers complain that there's nothing really worth watching (subscription required).
Video streaming services like Netflix promised near-endless choice. So why are viewers complaining and finding that there's nothing left worth watching?
■ The reality real estate star Ryan Serhant of Million Dollar Listing New York on VUZU (DStv 116 / Lifetime 131) turns to New Zealand after New York's housing market tanks because of Covid-19.
■ "Here's a question you shouldn't be able to answer: Computer, what is the nature of the universe?"
Voice search becomes more conversational.
■ MultiChoice's problem isn't going away as angry DStv Premium subscribers say the offering continues to be diluted and continue to flee DStv in droves.
"I'll soon wave goodbye to DStv."
■ Is Uyajola 9/9 on Moja Love (DStv 157) perpetuating negative stereotypes around black love?
■ Christopher Eccleston returns as BBC's Doctor Who - in radio stories.
■ Pakistan TV is changing: Lesbian lovers and a boxer in a burqa.
■ Disney is making its first Southeast Asia launch of its Disney+ streaming service.
Disney+ will launch on 5 September 2020 in Indonesia as Disney+ Hotstar.
- And: How Netflix went from foe to friend in Indonesia (subscription required).
■ Sundance, sunset: Is it over for independent film festivals?
■ Americans who no longer pay their monthly bills because of Covid-19 say they no longer pay their pay-TV account.
■ Creative TV creators should use the Covid-19 lockdown period as their moment to reinvent.
■ Formula 1 CEO confirms there will be a third season of the F1 reality documentary series Drive to Survive on Netflix.
■ South Africa's disgraced minister of communications, Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams, responds to photo of barefoot man in Eastern Cape kneeling in front of her as she wears Nike.
■ Global media and video streaming giants are putting the squeeze on smaller local media's plans for their own streamers.
As international TV business companies start to keep their library content for themselves and put new content on their own video streaming services, localised country and territory streaming services will have to evolve fast if they want to continue to try and compete against the world’s most powerful technology and entertainment companies.
■ Dan Levy says that his work as a red carpet correspondent was soul-crushing (starts at minute 5:35).
"It takes a very particular person to not be soul-crushed by the experience of interviewing on the red carpet. You're inherently not the person that the person answering questions wants to talk to."
