by Thinus Ferreira
South Africa's Primedia primarily dabbling in radio has picked up the rights to The Masked Singer South Africa which will be produced by Anele Mdoda's Rose and Oaks Media for an as-yet-unnamed TV channel, potentially putting a spoke in the wheels of the SABC's SABC3 TV channel which has been trying and looking at producing a localised version of the singing competition show.
Primedia also plans to revive the game show Deal or No Deal South Africa which lasted for two seasons on M-Net (DStv 101) in 2007, together with a version for Southern African countries which was carried by MultiChoice for DStv subscribers outside of South Africa.
At Primedia's Tuesday evening event, Anele Mdoda revealed that Primedia has secured the rights to The Masked Singer SA which Rose and Oaks Media will produce in at least three different South African languages.
SABC3 channel boss Pat van Heerden has been trying to get a local version of The Masked SA off the ground as the channel's big new local variety competition show with the channel which has been carrying the American version of The Masked Singer on its schedule.
It's unclear if SABC3 will be able to or has secured a deal with Primedia to broadcast The Masked Singer SA, or whether the show will go to another channel like e.tv, or one of the M-Net produced channels for MultiChoice's DStv.
Primedia also plans to launch video versions of its Eyewitness News (EWN) news bulletins - an English version done by the former eNCA anchors Jane Dutton and Shahan Ramkissoon now at the Eclipse PR company, and a Zulu version anchored by Kwazi Kwaza.
