eMedia launches new Openview OV512 decoder.

by Thinus Ferreira

eMedia has launched a new Openview OV512 decoder which is its first with a built-in Wi-Fi receiver, as well as an upgraded remote control.

The Openview OV512 decoder that will retail for R799, has a built-in Wi-Fi receiver.

The upgraded Openview remote control has a dedicated "+MORE"-button to access streaming content directly, an "ON-DEMAND"-button for additional content, and "HOME"-functions.

Openview says that viewers can now "enjoy more local and international shows and movies with the ability to pause, rewind, and fast-forward on-demand content in crystal-clear picture quality and HD compatibility".

Mmatshipi Matebane, executive for retail, says in a statement "Our new, sleek, and stylish decoder continues the trend of cutting-edge technology that Openview is known for. We remain dedicated to providing our customers with the best entertainment experience, and these new changes are a testament to that commitment."

eMedia has activated just over 3.5 million Openview decoders across South Africa and Southern Africa since it launched its free-to-air direct-to-home (DTH) satellite TV service.

SABC+ app relaunched again as it adds advertising and makes user registration compulsory.

by Thinus Ferreira

The South African public broadcaster has relaunched its SABC+ video streaming app for the second time in seven months, but now requiring users to register again, adding back some catch-up content functionality and forcing users to see ads.

The SABC has relaunched its SABC+ over-the-top app again after its last relaunch in December 2023.

SABC+ users have to redownload the app again and register through the creation of a new user account and providing a cellphone number.

With the relaunched SABC+ app, the SABC is once again starting over from scratch to build a user base for the third time. 

The SABC told TVwithThinus in May that SABC+ amassed over a million users. SABC+ originally launched in November 2022 when the SABC took over Telkom's sold-off Telkom ONE streamer.

When the SABC took over the Telkom ONE platform, users had to register to access it. With the relaunch in December 2023 the user registration requirement was dropped. The user account requirement is now back, although users are not required to provide a valid SABC TV Licence number as is the case with the BBC's iPlayer.

The SABC says it "urges" all users to re-register on SABC+ by creating an account "in order to comply with the POPI Act".

To register on SABC+ a user must provide a cellphone number, name and surname, birth date, gender, country, province, and a password. Providing an email address is optional.

The latest SABC+ app will be available on Android, iOS and Huawei stores, Apple TV(TVOS), Google TV and Android boxes (the update will be delayed), as well as LG smartTVs.

The latest SABC+ app returns the catch-up functionality which was removed during the previous relaunch at the beginning of 2024, and adds voice command for content search, a TV schedule electronic programme guide (EPG) and "Radio Now Playing", as well as possible personalised recommendations and updates to the user interface.

Content download features will now be available on the mobile-only SABC+ version.

The latest SABC+ version gives unlimited access on multiple household devices but with the update comes display banner advertising and video adverts. An EPG reminder functionality is now also available.

The SABC has added Channel Africa broadcasting in the languages of Chinyanja, Kiswahili, English, French and Portuguese for the African diaspora worldwide. Other radio stations which are accessible through SABC+ include Springbok Radio, Radio Bantu, 5FM and Radio 2000.

TV channels include SABC1, SABC2, SABC3, SABC Sport, SABC News, SABC Education and SABC Lehae.

Streaming video quality can be selected between 240p, 360p, 720p and 1080p. 

In a prepared statement Nomsa Chabeli, SABC CEO, says "SABC+ will now be accessible across multiple devices, ensuring that our audiences can enjoy their favourite content anywhere, anytime. Our most beloved brands, including our top-rated radio stations as well as exciting new range of podcasts, will now be just a tap away".

The SABC effectively cancelled SABC2's Muvhango that has run out of episodes with no further contract for Word of Mouth Pictures.

by Thinus Ferreira

The SABC has effectively cancelled Muvhango on SABC2 – the channel's most-watched show – after 27 years, after the Venda soap ran out of produced episodes last night and leaves the channel with a gap in the 21:00 timeslot.

According to insiders, Muvhango, created by Duma Ndlovu and produced by Word of Mouth Pictures has completely shut down, with no new or contract extension for further episodes in place. I've learnt from the production compant that 15 June was the final day of work for the cast and crew.

The SABC and SABC2 gave viewers no warning that Tuesday night's Muvhango episode – episode 130 of the 25th season – would be the last. 

Viewers saw Kgosi and Reneilwe's wedding that ended the episode on a cliffhanger - very similar to Dynasty's "Moldavian Massacre" fifth season finale - where a sniper shot on the wedding guests with both Kgosi and Reneilwe falling down, while shocked wedding guests tried to call an ambulance and viewers were left wondering who is dead.

The SABC is now going to pad the Muvhango timeslot with old rebroadcasts from tonight at 21:00, starting from the first episode of the first season.

The long-running show was the South African public broadcaster's first Tshivenda language drama, which started in April 1997 with one episode per week, after which Muvhango over time expanded to become a 5-day per week soap.

Just before its cancellation notification, Danie Odendaal Productions which made 7de Laan for SABC2, also stopped production, withheld episode delivery and forced the SABC to pay outstanding debts in the millions of rand before further episodes were given to SABC2. 

It happened again after 7de Laan was cancelled when the producers demanded payment from the SABC before the last remaining episodes were filmed and delivered in the latter part of 2023.

Something similar has now happened with Muvhango.

Thanduxolo Jindela, a spokesperson for Word of Mouth Pictures, told TVwithThinus "the latest final episode aired last night. There are ongoing conversations with SABC. No contract has been signed yet. We are not shooting".

The production referred all other questions to the SABC and said the broadcaster should answer "content-related matters". 

The SABC was asked in media queries about Muvhango early on Wednesday and spokesperson Mmoni Seapolelo was also phoned and asked about the show's apparent cancellation. 

The SABC failed to respond with answers to the questions asked about why the broadcaster ended Muvhango's contract which cancelled the long-running show.

What makes this Muvhango production shutdown different from any of the others before is that despite the SABC's non-payment in some cases and the production company's non-payment to cast and crew, there had always been a contract in place in all of those instances between the broadcaster and Word of Mouth Pictures for further episodes.

This time, the entire last contract with Word of Mouth Pictures ran out with the SABC commissioning editors who did nothing in the final few months of 2024 before yesterday's final episode aired to set up and sign a new contract for another Muvhango season.

There is nothing further for Word of Mouth Pictures to still produce or deliver to the SABC in terms of Muvhango episodes, with cast and crew who are effectively free to jump to new projects and effectively making them unavailable if there were to be new, future Muvhango episodes ordered.

Muvhango, currently in the 21:00 timeslot on SABC2 and the channel's only show pulling above a million viewers on weeknights, made household names of actors like Gabriel Temudzani, Dingaan Khumalo, Lindiwe Chibi, Khabonina Qubeka and others.

The apparent cancellation of Muvhango after almost three decades comes after the SABC's acing of its only Afrikaans soap 7de Laan which ended in December 2023 after 24 years, and the cancellation of The Estate on SABC3 after three seasons in May 2023 with the SABC that at the time only said production was "on hold".

After 7de Laan's cancellation ordersin July 2023, SABC insiders told TVwithThinus that Muvhango on SABC2 and Generations - The Legacy on SABC1 were the next two big-budget scripted shows on the chopping block since there simply are no money to keep them going. 

The public broadcaster is technically insolvent and can simply can no longer afford large ensemble cast shows, with the SABC now incapable of sustaining these type of multi-cam productions that are created to run for multiple years.

While Muvhango saw massive SABC audience erosion and has shed several millions of viewers since the show's heyday on SABC2 as it battled multiple timeslot changes across the SABC2 programming schedule over years, it remained the most-wached show on the channel with 1.29 million viewers in May with a 13.4% share.

Muvhango's shutdown comes after recent years of continuous non-payments and late payments of the cast and crew, with staff who decided several times over the last few years not to show up for work demanding payments, as well as work-stoppage from the production side due to lacks of funds. 

Following 7de Laan's axing and nothing which came of a promise to replace it with a new drama series following a pitch that was put out to the production industry at large, Muvhango has been SABC2's last scripted original drama series in production with new episodes. 

After Muvhango's exit last night, SABC2 has no original soap left that runs on the channel with new nightly episodes.

SABC future: SABC3 getting sold, SABC1 and SABC2 broken up in regional channels?

by Thinus Ferreira

Is the South African public broadcaster's SABC3 finally getting sold off with SABC1 and SABC2 broken up into several smaller provincial TV channels that have to work together and share provincial news and content as a network?

That could be in the future for the technically insolvent SABC which is once again experiencing dire financial problems after the Democratic Alliance political party's Solly Malatsi has been appointed by president Cyril Ramaphosa as South Africa's 15th minister of communication and digital technologies in the past 30 years.

The ANC's appointment of Solly Malatsi could spell significant policy changes for South Africa's communications sector, including massive changes to various communications parastatals like the beleaguered South African public broadcaster.

With South Africa long-delayed and still not completed switch from analogue to digital terrestrial television (DTT), as well as the forever-limping SABC, the department of communications - now spearheaded by Malatsi - will have to make decisions on the way forward with the DTT process and the future of the struggling broadcaster.

The DA's recently published policy document for South Africa's information and communication technology (ICT) sector hints at what some of the DA's proposed plans for the SABC are, including the possibilities of selling off and breaking up the South African public broadcaster.

According to the DA's policy document, "There is no doubt that the SABC is in crisis" with 40% of its revenue just going to pay salaries, with the party saying "it is clear that the SABC is a bloated organisation in dire need of fixing".

The DA wants to hold public hearings to determine whether South Africa needs a public broadcaster and then "call for the SABC to be broken up into various commercial entities and sold to the highest bidder".

Under such a scenario the loss-making SABC3 as the broadcaster's only commercial TV channel will definitely go on the block as a long-struggling TV channel that lost half of its entire viewership between 2017 and 2021.

The other part of the plan is to "Consider the option of decentralising the SABC into provincial broadcasting stations to be independently run by and managed by the relevant provinces".

According to the DA's policy document, this decentralisation "will encompass a resource sharing model (similar to the broadcasting model of the United States). This model will increase cooperation between provincial broadcasters in the sharing of content to illuminate duplication of content production, which can reduce the subsequent costs".

There is also the suggestion to "Conduct a nationwide customer survey to identify the causes of viewership losses and implement relevant remedies".

The DA says that if the SABC remains as a public broadcaster in South Africa, it would be important to "Ensure that the public interest always comes first and that the SABC remains an independent public

broadcaster and institution as per the Broadcasting Act, and not a platform for political interference

and corruption".

"We will do this by removing all political appointees through ensuring that a skills audit is completed for all employees and then conduct a restructure of the entity where necessary."

Other plans and suggestions in the policy document include the implementation of "strict financial measures to turn around the SABC's dire financial situation" through cost-cutting, increasing support for making local productions, and increasing spending on more local content productions - but without any local content quotas mandated for SABC TV and radio.

The DA's policy document states that it is important for the SABC to "Seek new and increased revenue streams to fund the operation of the SABC and make it as independent as possible from public financing".

"One such a step will be a new agreement regarding the 'must carry' regulation which does not allow for the SABC to sell its content to other broadcasters."

"The broadcaster must however stay clear of controversial plans such those proposed in the draft white paper on audio and audio-visual content which would see consumers streaming a Netflix of Amazon production on their phone, having to pay a license fee to the SABC."

The policy document notes that the government "must engage with international and local streaming providers and consider a possible mutually beneficial relationship through content sharing. Users will then be able to access local and international content on SABC and other online streaming networks. In this instance, SABC will be able to generate demand by also including trendy, international

shows."

Warren Masemola as Giraffe the winner of season 2 of The Masked Singer SA on SABC3.

by Thinus Ferreira

Giraffe won the second season of The Masked Singer South Africa on SABC3 on Saturday night when the Sama and Safta winning actor Warren Masemola took off the costume to reveal that it was home behind the long-necked mask.

Throughout the second season of The Masked Singer SA, produced by Rose and Oaks for Primedia Studios, Giraffe was the favourite frontrunner.

With as much on-stage charisma and acrobatics as the limited lanky costume allowed, Giraffe belted out singalong tune after tune to the delight of both the in-studio audience and viewers watching from home.

In the second season finalé, Giraffe, Blue Crane, Owl and Gold all got a last chance in two sing-offs to perform for the detectives - J’Something, Sithelo Shozi, Somizi Mhlongo and Skhumba.

Up first in Saturday's episode were Blue Crane and Gold, with Gold who was unmasked as the gospel singer and medical practitioner Sbu Noah.

That was followed by a sing-off between Giraffe and Owl, with Owl who lost and was unmasked as actor Aubrey Poo.

In the final round between Giraffe and Blue Crane, Blue Cane had to remove her mask to reveal that it was the beautiful former Miss South Africa and author Shudufhadzo Musida.

Warren Masemola won the season 2 golden trophy with The Masked Singer SA that will see at least a third season as well since it was renewed for a second and third season in 2023.