DATELINE LAGOS: Biola Alabi, M-Net's managing director in Africa quits; news comes a day before the AfricaMagic Viewers' Choice Awards.

Biola Alabi, M-Net's managing director for Africa has quit according to Nigeria's This Day newspaper - with her resignation news coming on the day before the 2nd AfricaMagic Viewers' Choice Awards 2014 (AMVCA) is to take place in Lagos, Nigeria on Saturday night which she is primarily responsible for.


UPDATE Saturday 8 March 2014 - Biola Alabi tells TV with Thinus she definitely didn't resign and is still very much with M-Net and taking on a new role looking after special projects.


Biola Alabi just underwent a job and title change at M-Net at the beginning of the year from managing director at M-Net for Africa to managing director for special projects in Africa at the pay-TV broadcaster. The reason for the  job change in job title and responsibilities was only given as "personal choices".

In her new role from 2014 Biola Alabi, who joined M-Net in 2008, was to focus on just special projects such as the AfricaMagic Viewers' Choice Awards, reality productions such as Big Brother Africa and the AfricaMagic Original Films project.

In 2010 Biola Alabi helped to launch the AfricaMagic Hausa channel on MultiChoice's DStv platform in Africa, and the AfricaMagic Swahili channel in 2011.

A year later in 2012 Biola Alabi helped with the restructuring of the AfricaMagic TV channels on DStv.

Neither M-Net nor Biola Alabi have so far made a statement or said why Biola Alabi is quitting the pan-African broadcaster. Biola Alabi graced the cover of Hello! magazine in Nigeria in February, talking about "life, love and being the boss".

The news of Biola Alabi who is now quitting M-Net, awkwardly comes on the day before the 2nd AfricaMagic Viewers' Choice Awards 2014 will take place in Lagos - one of the special projects she was responsible for.

It also comes one day after M-Net announced that Yolisa Phahle has been appointed as the new M-Net CEO for South Africa, completing a trifecta appointment of African M-Net executives to oversee the now distinctly separated three regions of the pay-TV broadcasters in South Africa, East Africa and West Africa.

IK Osakioduwa, Osas Ighodaro and Vimbai Mutinhiro the co-hosts of the second AfricaMagic Viewers' Choice Awards 2014 on 8 March.

IK Osakioduwa, Osas Ighodaro and Vimbai Mutinhiri will be the co-hosts of the AfricaMagic Viewers' Choice Awards 2014 which will be held on Saturday 8 March in Lagos, Nigeria.

It will be the second time that the AfricaMagic Viewers' Choice Awards is taking place, and the ceremony will again be broadcast live by AfricaMagic, a division of pay-TV broadcaster M-Net, on MultiChoice's DStv platform across Sub-Saharan Africa.

The ceremony which will be seen in 50 African countries including South Africa, will according to Biola Alabi, M-Net Africa's managing director of special projects, be "bigger and better" than the one in 2013.

The live broadcast of the AMVCA in 2013 was a complete mess.

The bad and embarrassing 2013 AMVCA was marred by extremely shoddy production values, a litany of mistakes, cringe-worthy acceptance speeches and appearances and behaviour by presenters and award-winners throughout the event, a technical on-air blackout during the broadcast of the red carpet coverage, and host IK Osakioduwa joking about and making light about violence against women.

"We are confident that with the addition of Osas Ighodaro to this dynamic team will once more keep this exciting and fast-paced live event running smoothly," says Biola Alabi who promises a new stage.

TEACHABLE MOMENTS. The bad and embarrassing AfricaMagic Viewers' Choice Awards 2013 shows what not to do on television.

"Excuse me one second, Nigeria is too hot." Perhaps you want some aircon or more air-conditioning for your stage area where the Congolese comedian Eddie Kadi - doing a long, non-movie related stand-up act at your awards show about movies - suddenly takes out a white face cloth and wipes the visible sweat from his forehead.

The poorly-produced first AfricaMagic Viewers' Choice Awards 2013 from M-Net in association with MultiChoice and which was broadcast live on the AfricaMagic channels on Saturday night, delivered several teachable moments of what not to do when you're actually doing television and an awards show.

Here's some of the excruciating and embarrassingly bad AfricaMagic Viewers' Choice Awards 2013 on-air gaffes M-Net Africa and the producers should fix, focus on and improve, and eliminate, if they want this new televised awards show to be taken seriously at all:

Don't make it look on television as if you're doing an awards show in a garage with a bad orange carpet.

Four and a half hours for an awards show is too long. Interestingly, no DStv subscribers who recorded the show would see the complete event. All of the AfricaMagic channels which showed the AfricaMagic Viewers' Choice Awards 2013 live, only had it programmed on the DStv EGP until 22:30. In reality the awards show ran way longer and only ended at 23:32.

You need to play music until presenters have reached the microphone and not have dead air and silence as they make their way across the stage.

The main microphone needs to be live and be live in time when presenters speak so that there is sound audible and not just moving mouths.

Presenters need to know not to stand with their hands in their pockets, wear short pants, touch their hair, wear dark glasses, or make inappropriate jokes.

Don't put your arm around your co-presenter as if you're on a date, because you're not, and this is supposed to be a formal event, and you're possibly impacting on a dress.

A small stage with an add-on platform for musicians complete with big Hammond keyboard in front and masking tape and several panning camera shots across it for four hours makes your production look like a Sunday morning third rate televangelist production.

A stage hand constantly seen slithering to put a mic on stage and removing it, boxey monitors, loose wires and cabling visible and production staff in the background scurrying with cables? Shoddy and terribly bad.

Have the stage lights on when presenters are already on the stage and are talking and presenting. Also, don't start playing pre-recorded nominee introductions while presenters are still talking.

If you want a classy awards show, winners shouldn't need to get their trophy from an unfunny presenter flat on the ground. If you incorporate unprofessional people into your show, viewers don't laugh with your show, they laugh at your show.

Why is someone suddenly walking up to the host, interrupting him, and then also thanking someone on behalf of someone else on his hand-held mic while he is already busy with his next segment? Where is your security?

Why is another presenter (whose only purpose was to introduce a winner) suddenly herself returning to the mic, randomly, to launch into a thank you for her own husband?

Do you have an emergency wardrobe area with a seamstress to fix unforeseen wardrobe malfunctions for your awards show when you have one?

Do you have someone who checks all nominees and provide them with emergency jackets, ties, pants or shoes if they've showed up without any and there is the possibility that they might appear on-air and on-stage but are not properly dressed according to the style guide for the image you want to convey for your TV awards show?

To have someone appear on stage with rolled-up sleeves and no tie accepting an award is bad and embarrassing if you want to make it look as if you're doing a serious, formal and upmarket TV awards show and not a Saturday informal get-together.


ALSO READ: Biola Alabi admits: 'A few glitches here and there' with the poorly produced first AfricaMagic Viewers' Choice Awards 2013.
ALSO READ: IK Osakioduwa jokes about violence against women at the AfricaMagic Viewers' Choice Awards 2013; asks co-host in a joke if she dreamt she was beaten by Chris Brown.
ALSO READ: On air blackout hits the live red carpet coverage of the AfricaMagic Viewers' Choice Awards 2013 on the AfricaMagic Movies 1 channel.

BREAKING. Biola Alabi admits: 'A few glitches here and there' with the poorly produced first AfricaMagic Viewers' Choice Awards 2013.

Biola Alabi, M-Net Africa's managing director, admitted to the audience at the first AfricaMagic Viewers' Choice Awards 2013 (AMVCA) held in Lagos, Nigeria on Saturday night, that the inaugural awards show suffered from "a few glitches here and there".

That was somewhat of an understatement: The AfricaMagic Viewers' Choice Awards 2013 done by M-Net in conjunction with MultiChoice suffered from bad sound, no sound and sound level problems, bad lighting, and multiple sound and lighting production mistakes.

It was marred by bad camera work and sloppy live directing and camera choices, amateur presenters of which several also didn't pitch for the rehearsal and which painfully showed in inept on-stage banter, presenters and winners who appeared on stage inappropriately dressed and the host asking his co-host if she dreamt she was beaten by Chris Brown as part of a joke in the opening moments.

The poorly produced AfricaMagic Viewers' Choice Awards 2013 which was broadcast live and lasted a massive four and a half hours, had too many and too long musical acts and even a Congo comedian doing stand-up wiping sweat from his forehead "because it's hot in Nigeria".

Several presenters remarked on stage that their co-presenters didn't show up for the rehearsals, even Biola Alabi told off her own co-presenter (who also appeared on stage and on television inappropriately with dark glasses on) and said to him: "You didn't come to rehearsal so you can't do a comedy moment".

"Overall it has been out first AfricaMagic Viewers' Choice Awards," said Biola Alabi.

"It has been a dream come true for the M-Net AfricaMagic team - something we have been wanting to do: creating a platform that would be fitting of Africa stars, that would celebrate African television and film, that would join our colleagues in celebrating and collaborating and giving AfricaMagic the showcase and platform that celebrates our stars."


ALSO READ: On-air blackout hits live red carpet coverage of the AfricaMagic Viewers' Choice Awards 2013 on the AfricaMagic Movies 1 channel.
ALSO READ: Teachable moments: The bad and embarrassing AfricaMagic Viewers' Choice Awards 2013 shows what not to do on television.
ALSO READ: IK Osakioduwa asks his co-host at the AfricaMagic Viewers' Choice Awards 2013 in a joke if she dreamt she was beaten by Chris Brown.

BREAKING. IK jokes about violence against women at the AfricaMagic Viewers' Choice Awards 2013; asks co-host if she dreamt she was beaten.

You're reading it here first. 

IK Osakioduwa, host of the AfricaMagic Viewers' Choice Awards 2013 made violence against women a joke in the opening moments of the live broadcast of the awards show from Lagos, Nigeria, asking his female co-host is she dreamt she was hit by Chris Brown.

Within moments of co-host Wimbai Mutinhiri joining him on stage in the opening moments of the show broadcast on AfricaMagic, IK Osakioduwa shocked by incorporating violence against women as part of a joke.

"I'm so nervous, last night I dreamt about Chris Brown," said Wimbai Mutinhiri. "Who does that?"

"What's happening in the dream, was he beating you?" asked IK Osakioduwa.

"No, no, he wasn't beating me. He was actually serenading me," she said, pointing a finger at him.

It wasn't immediately clear whether the inappropriate joke was scripted for the M-Net awards show or whether it was impromptu, or why violence against women as a theme would be included in a joke for television broadcast - either way it was in very bad taste.

Just a day before on Friday night Redi Tlhabi on her African talk show South 2 North on Al Jazeera talked about the global epidemic of violence against women.


ALSO READ: On air blackout hits red carpet coverage of the AfricaMagic Viewers' Choice Awards 2013 on the AfricaMagic Movies 1 channel.

ON AIR BLACKOUT HITS AfricaMagic Viewers' Choice Awards 2013 live red carpet coverage on AfricaMagic Movies 1 channel.

You're reading it here first. 

Instead of actual real live red carpet coverage from the AfricaMagic Viewers' Choice Awards 2013 in Lagos, Nigeria on Saturday night, M-Net and MultiChoice showed DStv viewers this: a total blackout, as the signal was lost for some reason and viewers got only a black screen and no sound on the AfricaMagic Movies1 channel (DStv 153) with only a channel logo and a PG13 advisory in the corners.

Technical mishaps like this lasting for several minutes are fatal for viewers and ratings - viewers don't wait around watching a pitch black screen, they tune away and find something on another channel of interest.

M-Net's red carpet coverage of the AfricaMagic Viewers' Choice Awards 2013 just started at 19:00 on Saturday evening on AfricaMagic Movies 1 when sound problems immediately became evident. Within minutes, the signal mysteriously was dropped on AfricaMagic Movies 1, leaving viewers staring at nothing more than a black screen with two white logos on that channel.

The blackout on the channel endured for longer than 3 and a half excrusiating minutes - an eternity in dead on-air time - before the visuals and sound came back.

The red carpet coverage came back with DJ Case on the red carpet who didn't appear to know where he was, saying he's at the "Africa Music Viewers' Choice Awards". Uhm. No.

The M-Net signal was lost a second time during the red carpet live broadcast with the DStv channel again going black for a minute without sound.


ALSO READ: Host IK Osakioduwa jokes about violence against women at the AfricaMagic Viewers' Choice Awards 2013; asks co-host if she dreamt she was beaten by Chris Brown.

Two trophies dropped from the upcoming AfricaMagic Viewers' Choice Awards since entries were not good enough.

Two trophies are getting dropped from the overall awards count of 28 and will not be handed out at the upcoming AfricaMagic Viewers' Choice Awards in March - the judges feel nobody was good enough to deserve the bronze and mahogany trophy in the categories for best documentary and best online video.

That means that the count of 28 trophies is down to 26.

According to a statement from M-Net which is holding the first AfricaMagic Viewers' Choice Awards on on 8 and 9 March in Lagos, Nigeria in conjunction with MultiChoice, organisers decided to "not name nominees in two categories, Best Documentary and Best Online Video".

The judges don't feel that any of the entries in these categories were up to scratch and want to ensure that the AfricaMagic Viewers' Choice Awards only recognise "outstanding achievement". Therefore the entrants in these two categories will only get "award certificates of encouragement" instead.

In total the first AfricaMagic Viewers' Choice Awards lured 110 nominees from 43 different African countries ranging from South Africa, Zmabia and Uganda to Cameroon, Ghana, Kenya and Nigeria.

"We are truly delighted with the list of nominees and we wish them all well," says Biola Alabi, the managing director of M-Net Africa in a statement.

"Well done to all the selected nominees," says Nico Meyer, MultiChoice Africa CEO in the statement. "The contribution you have made to the development of the African film and television industry is very significant."

FIRST LOOK. The trophy of bronze and mahogany wood for the AfricaMagic Viewers' Choice Awards.

Here's a first look at the trophy which will be awarded to winners of the AfricaMagic Viewers' Choice Awards (AMVCA's) which will be taking place for the first time this year and in Lagos, Nigeria with 28 awards which will be handed out during a two-night event with gala ceremonies on 8 and 9 March.

The nominees for the AfricaMagic Viewers' Choice Awards will be announced tonight at 21:30 in a special edition of the entertainment news magazine show 53 Extra across various AfricaMagic TV channels on DStv across the African continent.

The trophy made of bronze and wood has a cut-out silhouette of an African woman formed by three bronze blades, mounted on a glossy mahogany base.

"As an original creation, it is hoped that the AfricaMagic Viewers' Choice Awards trophy will speak to both industry professionals and television audiences," says Biola Alabi, the managing director of M-Net Africa.

"Internationally there are certain iconic entertainment trophies that carry the same weight with winners and audiences, loved both for its physical form and its emotional meaning."

"We hope that our trophy will do the same – be a statuette that motivates filmmakers and TV professionals while also inspiring those still to join their ranks and captivating those who watch at home."

Programming note: Nominees for the first AfricaMagic Viewers' Choice Awards to be announced on 53 Extra on 28 January at 21:30.

The names of the nominees of the first AfricaMagic Viewers' Choice Awards will be announced on Monday 28 January at 21:30  in a special edition of the show 53 Extra.

The special edition of 53 Extra which will be broadcast on 4 TV channel simultaneously: AfricaMagic Entertainment, AfricaMagic, AfricaMagic Movies, AfricaMagic Movies 1 and AfricaMagic World/Magic World in order to give subscribers on different DStv bouquets from MultiChoice the ability to see the nominee announcement.

Eku Edewor and Dolapo Oni of 53 Extra will read out the nominees list along with Jara presenters Uti Nwachukwu and Helen Paul. The nominees were chosen in Johannesburg earlier this month, led by head judge Femi Odugbemi.

M-Net, AfricaMagic and MultiChoice will be holding the first AfricaMagic Viewers' Choice Awards (AMVCA's) as a two night ceremony on 8 and 9 March in Lagos, Nigeria.

In similar fashion to the South African Film and Television Awards (Saftas) in South Africa which is also taking place in March, the AMVCA's will hand out technical awards on the first evening of 8 March, followed by on-air talent categories the second evening on 9 March.

There will be 26 categories and 28 awards in total. The award ceremony's two special prizes will be the Industry Merit Award and the TrailBlazer of the Year Award.

The AfricaMagic Viewers' Choice Awards received 350 entries.

"Whether you're named a nominee or not, we're very grateful for your participation," says Biola Alabi, M-net managing director for Africa. "In doing so you've made an impressive statement that the African film and TV industry is making significant strides forward."

"The investment made by MultiChoice is a show of commitment to the development of skills and talent in the continent," says Nico Meyer, MultiChoice Africa CEO.

M-Net, AfricaMagic and MultiChoice launch The AfricaMagic Viewers' Choice Awards as a new TV and film talent award show for Africa.

As if South Africa is somehow separate from Africa and the rest of the continent, there hasn't been a single word of it to or within South Africa, but M-Net's AfricaMagic and MultiChoice Africa is launching The AfricaMagic Viewers' Choice Awards to celebrate African film and television talent.

The AfricaMagic Viewers' Choice Awards 2013 will be a two night event taking place in March 2013 in Lagos, Nigeria and will - in similar fashion to the South African Film and Television Awards (Saftas) in South Aouth Africa - hand out technical awards on the first evening, followed by on-air talent categories the second evening. There willbe 26 categories and 28 awards in total. The award ceremony's two special prizes will be the Industry Merit Award and the TrailBlazer of the Year Award.

Two further AfricaMagic TV channels are becoming available from October in South Africa on MultiChoice's DStv platform joining the current two AfricaMagic TV channels which indicates a growing importance from M-Net, its AfricaMagic channels division, as well as MultiChoice, to show African content inside South Africa..

Since it's called The AfricaMagic Viewers' Choice Awards, viewers will get to decide the winners directly in several categories.

In a press statement (which was curiously again not issued within South Africa but only to the rest of the continent) Biola Alabi, M-Net Africa's managing director, says The AfricaMagic Viewers' Choice Awards is an opportunity to build a pan-African event that is both relevant to industry professionals and vastly entertaining to fans.

"It has been part of our plan to create a specific event that honours, celebrates and recognizes those people who are giving so much of their talent and creativity to ensuring the popularity and evolution of African film and TV. And to do this in partnership with MultiChoice illustrates the level to which both companies value this industry and are willing to invest in its future," said Biola Alabi.

"The creation and success of the AfricaMagic channels are a reflection of the popularity of this strategy of providing channels made for Africa in Africa," says Nico Meyer, the CEO of MultiChoice Africa, in the same press statement. "Thus, celebrating the best talent in this industry, we believe will encourage further development and investment. We are truly proud of this event which will showcase the best that Africa has to offer," Nico Meyer says.

Producers across the continent [Ed: is South Africa welcome?] can now enter for free and details of where and how to do it is available at www.africamagic.tv - the deadline for allsubmissions to be received is Wednesday 31 October at 21:00.