In leadership changes at the Broadcast Research Council of South Africa (BRC), eMedia COO Antonio Lee is the new chairperson, with Kagiso Media's Nick Grubb and Primedia's Jonathan Procter who have joined the board.
Antonio Lee, eMedia Investments chief operating officer (COO) is now the new BRC chairperson and replaces Monde Twala, senior vice president & co-general manager
for Paramount Africa & lead for BET International, who has been BRC chairperson since 2018.
Monde Twala will remain a BRC board member.
Nick Grubb, Kagiso Media chief executive for radio, and Jonathan Procter, Primedia group CEO, have joined the BRC board.
The BRC says that the outgoing board members Melissa McNally and Tracy Stafford will move to focus on technical oversight within the BRC's Radio Research Committee.
In 2025 the BRC plans to undertake "comprehensive research
procurement and development processes that will further enhance audience
measurement capabilities".
These include Radio Audience Measurement (RAMS) with a new Request for Proposal
(RFP) which has been launched in the last quarter of this year and a supplier appointment which is expected
by the end of the first quarter of 2025.
In Television Audience Measurement (TAMS) a comprehensive RFP process is scheduled for the first two quarters of 2025 to improve South African television
audience research methodologies further.
Ask Afrika has been appointed
to conduct a comprehensive Establishment Survey that will provide universe updates
for both television and radio sectors in 2025.
"These strategic moves are not just about changes or procuring new
research," says Antonio Lee.
"They represent our commitment to
delivering nuanced, accurate, and timely audience insights that will drive
strategic decision-making across the media, marketing, and advertising
landscapes."
Gary Whitaker, BRC CEO, says "Our ongoing mission
remains the same which is to provide objective, transparent data that empowers
our industry's understanding of audience dynamics."
The Zimbabwe police have confiscated and seized over 70 illegally-activated Openview decoders in the country and over 200 DStv remote controls, once again focusing attention on the massive and growing problem of TV content piracy in Southern Africa fuelled from out of South Africa.
While eMedia Investments continues to tout the strong growth of its Openview free-to-air satellite service, it's an open secret that some of that growth is fuelled by content starved consumers in neighbouring countries around South Africa, buying illegally-activated Openview decoders smuggled out of South Africa and watching content and TV channels like e.tv and SABC channels which are actually only licenced for viewing within South Africa.
Openview decoders are legitimately bought in South Africa, activated once, inside South Africa using South African cellphone numbers, and then taken over the borders to neighbouring countries like Zimbabwe where consumers buy the "bootleg" Openview decoders and DStv equipment from vendors who are illegally selling the already-activated equipment.
This week Zimbabwe's The Herald newspaper reported that the Zimbabwe police seized 72 Openview decoders, 203 DStv remote controls, as well as 95 counterfeit DStv power units, in addition to 5 receipt books from 8 shops in Harare selling these illegally.
Pirate viewers and pirate sellers are a growing problem for video content suppliers doing business in Africa like eMedia and MultiChoice who are seeing the value of their services damaged by pirates who get access and illegally resell what they offer.
Antonio Lee, eMedia COO, in a statement, says "Police are having success in breaking up decoder smuggling operations and arresting their local associates, who are bringing Openview decoders from South Africa into Zimbabwe, in contravention of customs, trademark and copyright laws".
"Raids and seizures are happening across the SADC region, as part of a broader piracy crackdown. Coming on the heels of the earlier busts, it shows that we are turning the tide on the illegal decoder trade and content theft."
"We are grateful to have the Zimbabwe police as our partners in this war on piracy. Anyone purchasing these products in Zimbabwe is robbing the country of customs duties and Zimbabwe's TV professionals suffer when viewers watch foreign content instead of homemade Zimbabwean shows."
eMedia has promoted the Imbewu series producer Lynn Gaines who has been appointed as managing director for Sasani Studios in Johannesburg.
Sasani Studios in Highlands North in Johannesburg, one of the subsidiaries in the eMedia Holdings group, houses several of South Africa's large and multiyear locally-produced weekday soap operas, from SABC1's Skeem Saam, SABC2's 7de Laan and Muvhango, to e.tv's Scandal! and until recently its now-cancelled Rhythm City, with studio space for various other shorter local productions.
Lynn Gaines has served as an executive producer for the past 15 years and as series producer for its locally-produced Imbewu on eMedia Holdings' e.tv channel.
"At eMedia we believe in nurturing talent and promoting our own from within. Lynn has been with the group for many years, and we are very proud to have her steer Sasani Studios," says Antonio Lee, COO of eMedia Investments.
"She is talented and the appointment was an obvious choice for us. This is a celebration of the exceptional individuals we have in our midst."
Lynn Gaines says "I have always been passionate about producing and love seeing the final product packaged and delivered to millions of viewers on air".
"I am incredibly excited about my new role as managing director at Sasani and look forward to many new projects coming up. I am also very proud to be recognised by my company and in the industry."
eMedia Holdings and the South African public broadcaster failed to keep to a public promise the broadcasters made earlier this year to announce the addition of further SABC channels to eMedia's Openview satellite TV service.
In March this year, eMedia and the SABC added the public broadcaster's SABC Sport channel to eMedia's Openview free-to-air satellite TV service as the first of 3 planned SABC TV channels to be placed on Openview.
Ian Plaatjes, SABC COO, promised the media that "the two other SABC TV channels will be announced within the next 3 months and will leverage extensive SABC content and archived material".
It lead to speculation that the SABC might create and package a general entertainment TV channel like the now-defunct SABC Encore that was created for MultiChoice's DStv service with rebroadcasts of library series from the SABC archives.
By the end of June 2021 after the 3 months had passed, neither eMedia nor the SABC has said a word about the other two promised SABC channels for Openview.
Since June - following eMedia and the SABC's failure to make their promised announcement - readers, Openview viewers, as well as a wide array of people working in South Africa's TV and film industry at various broadcasters, have constantly been asking why eMedia and the SABC didn't make their promised Openview channels announcement.
Following the public announcement that created an expectation, but now led to an information vacuum, people are wondering what went wrong, if the channels' addition to Openview is still happening and are speculating and discussing the issue in an ongoing basis on social media.
eMedia was asked in a media query why eMedia and the SABC failed to make the announcement within the 3 months timeframe since March after it announced publicly that it would do, for any updates on what the channels are, when they would be added, or if the plans had changed.
eMedia didn't give any explanation for why the promise around an announcement about two additional SABC channels was broken and didn't give any new detail as to what's going on or went wrong.
A spokesperson for eMedia did however confirm that that the addition of 2 further SABC channels for Openview is still definitely happening. There is no date update.
UPDATE Friday 10 September 2021: The article above has been updated to attribute the quote in the third paragraph to Ian Plaatjes as SABC COO, not Antonio Lee, eMedia COO.
eMedia Holdings that runs e.tv, the TV news channel eNCA and the Openview satellite service has lost the broadcasting rights to La Liga and isn't telling viewers why, despite the company's chief operating officer who claimed a year ago that eMedia had secured the La Liga rights for the next 4 years.
Angry and upset Openview viewers who bought an Openview set-top box, told TVwithThinus that they did so because e.tv promised La Liga content.
Viewers now say that Openview and e.tv lied to them and that e.tv and Openview continue to lie and deceive people by not removing online "advertising", falsely claiming that Openview has and is showing Spanish football.
This "advertising" that Openview viewers are talking about, is actually a press release that e.tv and Openview issued last year and placed on the Openview website, that hasn't been removed, and with no update or new statement that eMedia made since to say that it no longer has La Liga rights.
SuperSport and MultiChoice's video streaming service Showmax are broadcasting La Liga matches but La Liga it is no longer available on Openview.
In the press release issued in September 2020, Antonio Lee, eMedia COO, claimed that e.tv and Openview had secured the rights for La Liga for the next 4 years.
However, La Liga is gone after just a year, with no explanation as to why La Liga isn't being shown during what is supposed to be the second season of the 4-year contract. The 2020/2021 La Liga season kicked off in mid-August this year.
Asked why Openview is no longer showing La Liga, eMedia confirmed to TVwithThinus in response to a media query that "we no longer have the broadcasting rights". eMedia didn't explain why.
Openview is adding the South African public broadcaster's SABC Sport channel, along with its 19 SABC radio stations, as well as a further two as-yet-unannounced SABC TV channels, to its free-to-air satellite service in a new channel carriage agreement that eMedia Investments and the SABC calls "ground-breaking".
While eMedia Investments' Openview has carried SABC1, SABC2 and SABC3 for the past few years until now it has been without payment. The new, expanded channel carriage agreement will bring more content to the Openview service whilst creating a new content revenue stream for the SABC.
Notwithstanding this agreement at the platform level, the SABC's TV channels and radio stations will continue to compete for audience and advertising with the various eMedia-owned TV channels and services, similar to the way that eMedia and the SABC are currently competitors on the analogue network.
Through this channel carriage agreement that was announced on Thursday night at a media event in Hyde Park, Johannesburg and broadcast live on the eNCA and SABC News channels, the SABC is officially entering the free-to-air satellite TV market that which will supplement the SABC's channel footprint on digital terrestrial television (DTT), as well as on streaming platforms like Telkom ONE.
The SABC's channels are already carried on satellite pay-TV services like MultiChoice's DStv and StarTimes' StarSat under so-called "must-carry" regulations but in exchange for bigger universal access the broadcaster isn't getting paid for that carriage.
First among the three new SABC TV channels that will be added to Openview is SABC Sport that will launch on Openview soon on channel 124, with eMedia saying it will announce a launch date within the next month.
In a SABC Sport channel sizzle reel shown at the event the public broadcaster teased coverage of the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, as well as international soccer, South African rugby, local cricket and boxing coverage.
SABC Sport will also be distributed simultaneously across Openview, DTT, Telkom ONE and other streaming platforms.
The other two SABC TV channels that will be announced within the next 3 months will leverage extensive SABC content and archived material and might likely include a general entertainment channel like the now-defunct SABC Encore channel that the SABC supplied to DStv as part of a carriage contract that ended.
eMedia and the SABC says in a joint statement that "Openview and the SABC believe that this new agreement will expedite digital migration from analogue-only households to digital broadcasting platforms with more compelling free-to-air channels and content".
"Together with the DTT platform, Openview provides audiences with a free high-definition (HD) alternative to both analogue terrestrial and pay satellite options."
Openview, which has grown its availability to 2.3 million TV households so far, and the SABC, say that the "ground-breaking new distribution agreement will enhance both companies in the free-to-air category of television broadcasting" and that their collaboration "signals a seismic shift in the country's broadcasting landscape".
"With this agreement, the SABC ensures that its content, in all its formats, continues to resonate with the prescripts of its public mandate, and more so in providing universal access to credible content."
"The agreement also guarantees HD broadcast quality and free access to the SABC’s television network wherever you are in South Africa. For Openview, this agreement enhances its strength in the direct-to-home (DTH) space with additional content and a solid binding collaboration with the public broadcaster."
Antonio Lee, eMedia Investments COO, says the carriage agreement "is an exciting development for both the SABC and ourselves. The agreement ushers in a new level of collaboration between a private free-to-air satellite platform and public free-to-air broadcast services".
"There is no doubt it will boost the offering of Openview and will extend the SABC’s audience reach. We can now offer our Openview audience additional quality content and access to digital broadcast radio in the widest variety of languages possible in South Africa. We hope this is the start of a stronger and more fruitful relationship between Openview and the SABC".
Ian Plaatjes, SABC COO, says "This agreement enables the SABC to grow its channel offering and reach into the digital broadcasting space with three additional HD television channels".
"The agreement also enhances the distribution of SABC radio stations to create an increased value proposition for our radio advertising inventory."
A doyenne of South African current affairs television, Devi Sankaree Govender will be making her debut on Friday on e.tv and eNCA (DStv 403) when her new TV show, DEVI, launches on e.tv at 18:30 and on eNCA (DStv 403) at 20:30.
The highly-respected Devi Sankaree Govender left the Sunday night actuality show Carte Blanche on M-Net (DStv 101) in late-January after 18 years to start a new chapter in her life since her kids have grown up.
Since then, Devi had to deal with the devastating impact of Covid-19 as well as the death of her mother to cancer during the national lockdown period, things that led her to somewhat rethink her original show plan she had before this Friday's TV return.
Besides working on DEVI, Devi Sankaree Govender will be working with eMedia Investments on other broadcasting projects as well.
Antonio Lee, eMedia Investments COO, says that they're "delighted to welcome Devi to the eMedia family and look forward to the dynamism she brings. Devi remains one of the country's most accomplished journalists and presenters. She will add great value to an already strong line-up on both e.tv and eNCA".
"Using her trademark unique sense of humour and straight-talking approach, Devi will continue to "fight the good fight while taking viewers into the lives of extraordinary guests".
She says that "the Covid-19 pandemic has created panic and negativity. This show isn't going to add to the gloom. Instead my team and I are creating 30 minutes of in your face Friday night television. You will be outraged. You will laugh. You will be inspired while we keep it very real."
"I'm looking forward to getting back on the road chasing crooks. I'm really looking forward to that. I'm also looking forward to shaping something in a way that I see it for myself," Devi tells TVwithThinus.
About the past two months and spending more time with her kids at home, Devi says "it's been fantastic but it's also been really challenging. There are 4 of us in our family, and my daughter plays golf and she finished matric last year, so we've always had a system - a system we've all worked with for the last 15 years. But we were never all always at home at the same time."
"So what's really nice for me is that over the past couple of months I am not complaining that I have my immediate children under my roof. It's been challenging though in trying to keep the kids motivated because if you don't leave the house, it's quite easy to become stuck in some kind of a rut."
"The challenging part is all of us learning to navigate and to learn to live with each other all of the time and then my mom passed away and to have that happen to you in the middle of a pandemic and to also deal with that - and her funeral was a whole other story because it was in another province - it was really hard."
'The dream my mother had for me keeps me going'
"When someone becomes ill, you've got to deal with it as family members as part of a support structure, especially with ageing parents. You are responsible for absolutely everything and then add distance to the equation and then you've got a really difficult thing to deal with," says Devi Sankaree Govender.
"For me, it was a case of my mom's illness, combined with the fact that I'm on a new TV channel, my original show idea isn't going to work because of Covid-19 and social distancing, I need to keep agile and adapt, my kids need mentoring and I need to keep them motivated."
"You know what you do? I think there's a part of you that just keeps the focus on what needs to be done. And my mother was always so supportive of what I did. I just keep reminding myself that there's no way that I can just collapse into a heap. I can't do that."
"People always say 'be strong, be strong'. People don't know what 'be strong' means until you have to go through something like this," says Devi.
"It was really, really tough. It's only a month since my mom's death but it's also so important for me the dream that my mother had, and the dream she supported, and that's what has kept me focused and keeps me going".
About caring for someone with cancer, Devi says if there is something she's learnt, it is to "put your own oxygen mask on first" - the analogy of airlines telling adults to put on their oxygen masks first in case of an emergency and to take care of themselves before they help children or other people, since the other way around might lead to both going unconscious with neither available to help each other.
"With cancer and dealing with a loved one, there will be nothing left of you if you don't ensure that you look after yourself."
Jeremy Maggs is out with immediate effect as acting editor-in-chief at the scandal-hit TV news channel eNCA (DStv 403), saying he's stepping down because of stress, a month and a half after the firing of the politician-made-news-boss Kanthan Pillay in mid-December 2019.
Jeremy Maggs, who is also an anchor on eNCA, has been acting editor-in-chief at eNCA for the past 12 months but asked to step down because he couldn't cope with the stress-load anymore which was having a negative impact on his.
Norman Munzhelele is taking over as acting managing director of eNCA. Norman Munzhelele has been with the eMedia Investments group for 3 years.
Jeremy Maggs will continue to co-anchor the SA Tonight timeslot - the prime time timeslot he originally anchored, then left for the afternoons and then returned to.
"This has not been an easy decision, but for the past few
months the stressful nature of the job has caused me to re-evaluate both my
position at the station and my life choices. I've been stressed and
unwell for some time and I’ve made this decision in my own best interests and
that of the station," Jeremy Maggs says in a prepared statement released on Tuesday morning.
Antonio Lee, eMedia Investments COO, says in the statement "We acknowledge Jeremy’s
contribution during his tenure as acting editor-in-chief, and accept his wish
to step down".
"Jeremy remains one of our top-rated presenters and is
inextricably linked to the eNCA brand. We are exploring other programing
opportunities with him. We thank Jeremy for the job he has done as acting editor-in-chief, and we look forward to continuing our working relationship
with him."
The Fight Sports channel that e.tv has added to its Openview satellite service has finally come back on and started to broadcast on Tuesday 26 November 2019 without any explanation from e.tv about why the channel failed to start on Monday 18 as it was supposed to according to e.tv's announcement, with e.tv that didn't respond with any answers to media enquiries made about it.
e.tv announced on 11 November that it would launch the Fight Sports channel on Openview in South Africa and across Southern Africa where its Openview decoders are being sold, as a so-called "premium fight content" channel that would include championship live events, original programming, reality content, documentaries and unspecified "classics".
Antonio Lee, eMedia Investments COO, said in a statement that "Fight Sports adds to our endeavour to bring a variety of sports to the South African public for free. As our platform continues to grow, we trust that the Fight Sport channel will add further entertainment value".
On 11 November in response to e.tv and Openview's press statement, Lerato Maleto, e.tv publicist, was asked what the programming and show titles on Fight Sports would be, and who the channel has been acquired from and runs it. There was no response.
The TV channel's website says that the channel broadcasts MMA, boxing, kickboxing and martial arts. Fight Sports is distributed by Wide Media which is based in Estonia.
On 18 November when Fight Sports was supposed to go live, the channel launched on Openview but abruptly went off after about three hours and remained unavailable.
TVwithThinus asked e.tv in an emailed media enquiry for the first time about what happened with the failure of the Fight Sports channel on Openview on Wednesday 20 November. Lerato Maleto didn't respond.
On 21 November TVwithThinus again asked Lerato Maleto, as well as Lynn Adams, e.tv's group general manager for marketing, about what happened with Fight Sports and for help, with no response.
Both Lerato Maleto and Lynn Adams were asked again on 25 November what happened with Fight Sports and for help with the media enquiries.
On the morning of 26 November Fight Sports flickered back on on Openview for the first time since 18 November when it was on for only a few hours.
TVwithThinus phoned e.tv and Lerato Maleto confirmed that she and Lynn Adams are responsible for handling media enquiries about the Fight Sports channel as it pertains to Openview. e.tv was again asked to help with an explanation as to why Fight Sports didn't launch and what the technical problems were.
As of the publishing of this article on 28 November 2019 there has still been no answer from e.tv or any response to the multiple media enquiries that were made about the Fight Sports channel.
The free-to-air satellite TV service Openview from eMedia Investments has acquired English Premier League (EPL) matches of the current season and will be showing one live match broadcast weekly on its just-renamed News&Sports channel.
While EPL rights reside with the SuperSport channels on MultiChoice's DStv satellite pay-TV service, eMedia Investments acquired some free-to-air rights for Openview in a deal with Infront, the sports marketing company headquartered in Zug, Switzerland.
The one EPL match per week on the News&Sports (Openview 120) channel will mostly include one of the top 6 Premier League football clubs, meaning Manchester City, Liverpool, Chelsea, Tottenham Hotspur, Arsenal and Manchester United.
Besides the one weekly live EPL match, eMedia Investments also has the rights to schedule other football-related magazine programmes produced by the Premier League, depending on whether it's suitable and deemed workable and e.tv has programming space.
The first live EPL match will be shown on News&Sports on Saturday 10 August 2019 and continue until the end of the football season.
"A leading brand of sport continues in the
free-to-air domain and we, at OpenView, are excited to host it. eMedia will add its very own touch to this broadcast, and
hopefully in time, will be able to add more sports offerings on to our bouquet."
Jean-François Jeanne, Infront
France managing director, says "We are delighted to
reach this agreement, which guarantees some of the best Premier League action
for South African fans. We are confident that Openview will deliver the high-intensity of one of the world's most recognisable
and popular leagues to supporters across the country".
Antonio Lee has replaced Mark Rosin as the chief operating officer (COO) of eMedia Investments.
It's not yet known when Antonio Lee took over as new COO. TVwithThinusreported at the beginning of April 2019 that Mark Rosin has resigned as COO and was stepping down at the end of April 2019.
eMedia Investments with Khalik Sheriffas CEO is the owner of the commercial free-to-air TV channel e.tv, the TV news channel eNCA supplied to MultiChoice's DStv satellite pay-TV service, and the Openview free-to-air satellite service.
In April regarding a COO replacement eMedia Investments told TVwithThinus that "an announcement regarding the COO position will be made in due course". eMedia Investments failed to do so. Antonio Lee was previously the chief financial officer (CFO) at eMedia Investments since December 2014. e.tv was asked in a media enquiry when Antonio Lee took up the COO position. There's not been a response by the time of publication of this article on Thursday but the information will be included once received from e.tv.
