by Thinus Ferreira
M-Net's kykNET (DStv 144) channel on MultiChoice's DStv suffered yet another bad break in transmission on Wednesday night because of unexplained technical mistakes, wiping the entire second half of the Afrikaans version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire off air.
Sporadic and unexplained broadcast breaks in transmission on kykNET - all attributed to "technical issues" - have started to become more frequent recently on M-Net's premium Afrikaans TV channel on DStv, ranging from shows like eNuus and Binnelanders to Wie Word 'n Miljoener over just the past month alone.
On Wednesday night, kykNET's Wie Word 'n Miljoener, the Sony Pictures Television format game show produced by Red Pepper Productions, abruptly cut off at 20:36, leaving DStv subscribers with a black screen and a kykNET corner logo on screen for multiple minutes - wiping away the entire second half of the episode which never returned to playout.
After several minutes of DStv dead air, MultiChoice's playout centre finally switched to playing some TV commercials and kykNET programme promos. After that, at 20:45, kykNET switched to finally showing its "break in transmission" static card, noting what DStv subscribers who haven't yet switched away from kykNET already knew: "Something is wrong".
After the static card, kykNET switched back to TV commercials and airing kykNET programming promos and then filler programming to pad the hour until 21:00.
kykNET hasn't given any explanation as to what technical problems and mistakes led to Wednesday night's latest on-air blackout of the channel on DStv.
