FIRST LOOK. Showmax releases first official trailer for African fantasy drama series Blood Psalms.

by Thinus Ferreira

Showmax has released the first official trailer for its long-gestating 12-episode African fantasy drama series, Blood Psalms, from Yellowbone Entertainment which will make its debut on Showmax on 28 September with weekly episodes.

Blood Psalms which faced several delays mostly due to a lack of promised funding from the South African government in the country's film rebate scheme, was supposed to debut in October 2021, was then moved to February 2022, missed the February 2022 release date, and is finally being released in September 2022 - a year later than originally planned.

Blood Psalms, a R85 million co-production between MultiChoice's video streaming service and Canal+, is touted as the largest and most expensive TV series ever filmed on South African soil.

Filmed in the Eastern Cape, Gauteng and North West provinces with a massive cast, the Showmax Original from creators Layla Swart and Jahmil X.T. Qubeka will have its world premiere next Wednesday on 24 August in Cape Town as the opening screening at MIP Africa as part of FAME Week Africa.

Here's the trailer:

Blood Psalms is set in "Ancient Africa" 1 000 years after the fall of Atlantis, the five surviving houses of Kemet find themselves beset with fears of a prophesied end of days. 

Bokang Phelane is Princess Zazi, a teenage princess, with Mothusi Magano as her father, the mad king Letsha. Zolisa Xaluva is General Toka, the head of her father's Akachi army.

The rest of the cast includes Bongile Mantsai, Hamilton Dlamini, Hlubi Mboya, S'dumo Mtshali, Siv Ngesi), Thishiwe Ziqubu, Warren Masemola, Enhle Mbali Mlotshwa, Niza Jay, Richard Lukunku, Sello Maake kaNcube, Thando Thabethe, Thembekile Komani, Zikhona Sodlaka, Faniswa Yisa, Faith Baloyi, Lemogang Tsipa and Thabo Rametsi. 

"Blood Psalms is the biggest and most ambitious series we've ever made, completely unlike any other African series you've ever seen," says Nomsa Philiso, MultiChoice's head of programming, in a prepared press release.

Bokang Phelane says "This show was specifically created as a reimagining of ourselves as Africans, as an answer to ‘Who are we?’ It's done in a very entertaining way, with a lot of drama and action." 

Mothusi Magano in the press release says "Blood Psalms is a heck of a ride and it's never been done before".

"For Africans, mostly, our history goes back 200 years. That's what we've been given, and it's from Western perspectives. We really don't know anything much about our own history. So Blood Psalms poses a lot of questions and will give people a lot to think about."

Sello Maake kaNcube says "One thing that was brilliant for us was no use of an English word, whatsoever. That was a big challenge even for a lot of actors, you know, because most of the time we are used to performing and doing a mixture of African languages and English. This time, the dialogue is purely in African languages."

Layla Swart in the Showmax press release says "What we're trying to do is to reclaim the continent's history from an African perspective".

"Blood Psalms draws from elements of a multitude of African mythologies and looks at various different tribes in season 1 - the Akachi, the Uchawi, the Ku’ua, the Chini, and Great Nziwemabwe - as they migrated south from Kemet, which is now Egypt, and formed their cultures".

ALSO READ: As MultiChoice previews Showmax's Blood Psalms with a first-look viewing in Dubai the South African media take umbrage: 'Share the content with journalists who report on TV content'. 

ALSO READ: Blood Psalms to debut on MultiChoice's Showmax in February 2022, 'It was scary and a massive challenge,' says showrunner Layla Swart.

ALSO READ: MultiChoice's expensive Blood Psalms in jeopardy as a Showmax Original as Yellowbone Entertainment producers are forced to go to court over millions due in unpaid South African film rebates to finish their series.

ALSO READ: Blood Psalms drama series co-produced by Showmax and Canal+ and based on Xhosa legend reveals huge black cast.

Canal+ and Showmax behind the wheel for 8-episode Cape Town co-production car racing drama series Spinners.

by Thinus Ferreira

Canal+ and MultiChoice have teamed to film yet another co-production in South Africa, this time an action drama series called Spinners going inside the dangerous world of car spinning in Cape Town with the 8-episode series which will be on MultiChoice's video streaming service Showmax.

In March, speaking as a panellist at kykNET's 10th Silwerskermfees film festival in Camps Bay, Allan Sperling, MultiChoice Group's executive head of physical production, hinted that "an Afrikaans co-production has been signed and we're going into production within the next few months".

"It is possible to do Afrikaans international co-productions. We're in partnership with Canal+ who are taking the French rights and the rest of the world will be up for sales and this is where we're looking to recoup and the producer also gets proceeds from that. So it is also possible for Afrikaans shows to become co-productions," he said a few months ago.

Production on Spinners, which is the show that Allan Sperling referenced, is produced by Empreinte Digitale and Natives at Large with Jaco Bouwer as director and Benjamin Hoffman as co-creator and showrunner.

Filming on Spinners started in the Mother City this week, with the story revolving around Ethan, a 17-year old driver working for a local gang who discovers car spinning in which he excels and where he puts his driving skills to use.

Under the shadow of a looming gang war and with his gang being run by gangster Damien with an iron fist, Ethan tries to support his younger brother while he is increasingly disgusted with his own life, and tries to use car spinning as his exit from gang life.

The cast of Spinners include Cantona James and Chelsea Thomas from the Cape Town based Afrikaans telenovela Arendsvlei on kykNET & Kie (DStv 145), as well as Brendon Daniels and Dillon Windvogel, with the series which will be in English, Afrikaans and Kaaps Afrikaans.

The hip hop star DJ Ready D is the Spinners music supervisor and responsible for composing the show's soundtrack.

Meanwhile post-production is still continuing on Blood Psalms from Jahmil X.T. Qubeka and Layla Swart Najaar's Yellowbone Entertainment, with the African fantasy drama series which is another MultiChoice and Canal+ co-production earmarked for Showmax.

ALSO READ: 2022 10th Silwerskermfees Film Festival - Day 2: With South Africa's global co-productions still in infancy, MultiChoice to announce Afrikaans series with Canal+.

2022 10th Silwerskermfees Film Festival - Day 2: With South Africa's global co-productions still in infancy, MultiChoice to announce Afrikaans series with Canal+.

by Thinus Ferreira 

While South Africa's film and TV co-productions market is still in its infancy, the future for series shot in the country with international partners attached looks promising, with the MultiChoice Group that is set to announce soon that it will be doing a new Afrikaans TV series as a global co-production with France's Canal+.

Nomsa Philiso, the MultiChoice Group's new executive head of programming, who was one of the panellist at 2022's 10th Silwerskermfees in a panel discussion on fostering co-productions, told attendees that while South Africa's film and TV co-productions with other countries are still in its infancy, there is a lot of scope to expand on new partnerships and in new parts of the world.

She said that the idea is to make sure that South Africans go out there and tell their stories as good as anybody else on the world stage.

In terms of what MultiChoice and M-Net are looking for in terms of international co-productions, she says "people tend to bring what they think we like - because it worked last year - but we want to evolve. We don't have all the ideas as the broadcaster - the ideas live in the minds of the people who supply us with content."

"It is them who must take us to the next level in terms of what is out there, what stories are we not telling." 

She said "our stories haven't been told in the manner that we want and we see now that the opportunities exist to leverage on that in a much stronger way."

Kaye Ann Williams, M-Net's head of local content and independent films, said the blue ribbon pay-TV broadcaster is "from a genre perspective definitely looking for crime content but don't get stuck in that - look at sub-genres that could be married to that like comedy, like psychological thrillers, like action".

"The other opportunity for pitching is definitely in the factual space. We know that our premium audience loves documentaries."

"We know that they view them elsewhere and they enjoy it and consume it on our platform as well, so there's definitely an opportunity to go into the high-end factual documentary space, but again it must be very compelling and it must sell."

Allan Sperling, the MultiChoice Group's executive head of physical production, said "an Afrikaans co-production that has been signed and we're going into production within the next few months".

"It is also possible to do Afrikaans international co-productions. We're in partnership with Canal+ who are taking the French rights and the rest of the world will be up for sales and this is where we're looking to recoup and the producer also gets proceeds from that. So it is also possible for Afrikaans shows to become co-productions," he said.

As passionate as possible

Panellist and producer Layla Swart, co-owner of Yellowbone Entertainment producing the fantasy drama series Blood Psalms for MultiChoice's video streaming service Showmax as a co-production with Canal+, said packaging a show for co-production is extremely important.

"Because we're existing in an industry that is in its infancy, we're also trying to figure out what our audiences want, we're trying to figure out what our partners want from us as South African content creators, and often there's an unknown. Everything relies very heavily on how you present yourself and your product."

"It's exhausting and I know it's very difficult at the moment to be a producer. It's a privilege to be able to sit here and to say I've done a co-production," she said.

"I'm acutely aware of how difficult it is to put something together and how difficult also is with co-productions because they take long - bringing partners on, and then aligning a vision, and also aligning finance and business models are not a quick strategy."

"It definitely pays off at the end because your project has scope but it's not an easy process. We can only be as passionate as possible about what we're making, finding the right people to make it, and then package it as well as we can."

With Yellowbone Entertainment which has been struggling with getting the department of trade and industry to pay the promised film rebates for Blood Psalms, Layla Swart said "every producer will say they've been having struggles with the South African government specifically with film rebates and tax incentives".

"Why that is so crucial is because producers are emerging producers."

"Many of us don't have a lot of capital and resources behind us. What the government instruments are there for, is for you as a producer to be able to bring something to the partnership, for you to be able to entice international people to want to work with you, and want to shoot here and want to use our crews and actors and our stories."

"That is the biggest struggle. It's killing our industry to be honest and we're heavily reliant on our broadcasters to such an extent that we feel we can't mobilise anything on our own and I think with the broadcasters being inundated, there's only so much broadcasters can greenlit."

"Our biggest challenge is how do we empower producers and production companies through incentives, that are supposed to be there, to sustain the industry."

ALSO READ: 2022 10th Silwerskermfees - Day 1: Programme director Ricky Human on the growing need to tell authentic local stories.

ALSO READ: 2022 10th Silwerskermfees Film Festival - Day 2: Showcasing the tenacity of South Africa's film industry.

ALSO READ: 2022 10th Silwerskermfees Film Festival - Day 2: Not a white napkin to be found - how South Africa's event industry is starting to bounce back.

ALSO READ: 2022 10th Silwerskermfees Film Festival - Day 3: 'You're not going to work with that hair' - South African women in film share their stories.

ALSO READ: 2022 10th Silwerskermfees Film Festival - Day 4: M-Net boss Jan du Plessis: 'We're fully committed to growing local film.'

ALSO READ: 2022 10th Silwerskermfees Film Festival - Day 4: Number of South Africa's cinema screens to remain flat post-Covid.

ALSO READ: 2022's 10th Silwerskermfees awards: Barakat and Gaia the big winners.  

Blood Psalms misses February debut date on Showmax.

by Thinus Ferreira    

The Showmax series Blood Psalms, hamstrung by financial payment issues behind the scenes with the South African government's film rebate scheme, has been postponed yet again to later in 2022 after it was supposed to debut in February.

Blood Psalms written, produced and directed by Jahmil X.T. Qubeka and Layla Swart Najaar from Yellowbone Entertainment, was originally supposed to start in October 2021 on MultiChoice's video streaming service. 

In the fantasy drama series mostly filmed in the Eastern Cape, as well as in the Gauteng and North West provinces, Zolisa Xaluva plays soldier Toka with Zikhona Sodlaka who plays Sithenjwa and with the two characters who end up marrying each other.

Thando Tabethe plays Heka, a god manifesting as a physical being, with Faith Baloyi as Queen Assilli and the court's advisor with access to magic, while Bokang Pehalane is cast in the role of the teenage Princess Zazi trying to save her people from a world-ending prophecy.

The multi-million rand series that has been in production for over two years - billed as the largest and most expensive series ever filmed in Africa and produced on South African soil - was delayed due to a scandal involving South Africa's department of trade, industry and competition and the country's film rebate scheme.

After missing its planned October 2021 release, Blood Psalms was pushed to February 2022.

Blood Psalms now also missed this February debut date and has been postponed again, with no new premiere date from Showmax.

"Blood Psalm was planned to launch on Showmax in February," Laura Cooke, Showmax head of publicity, told TVwithThinus in response to a media query after people asked why Blood Psalms didn't start in February.

"Even though we know our customers are excited about this show, the launch had to be postponed due to unforeseen circumstances. Once we have a new confirmed date, we will share it."

Following a media presentation in Dubai for Blood Psalms in October 2021 organised by MultiChoice, Jahmil X.T. Qubeka afterwards said that it was "an embarrassment" to be in Dubai, inviting the world to do business in South Africa and to film productions in the country "when we have not put the mechanisms in place for that to happen".

At issue is the department of trade, industry and competition which abruptly cancelled its payments of millions of rand that were approved for the making of Blood Psalms in the country's film rebate scheme that has also been impacting other film productions in the country.

Almost half of the R85 million production cost of Blood Psalms is funded through the film rebate scheme of the department. 

R8 million earmarked to pay for just post-production work on the MultiChoice and Canal+ co-production that has over 300 visual effects artists working on the show, was for instance abruptly cancelled in September 2021. 

Besides this, there was another R16 million payment to be made in a rebate payment by the DTIC once Blood Psalms was a fully completed show.

The government's film rebates are paid out at specific production milestones with producers getting financial support while they're completing their content: At the start of principal photography, when filming wraps, the start of post-production, and then delivery of the completed video production.

The DTIC in a statement in late-2021 said that "It would be inappropriate to continue these discussions in the media as the discussions have not yet been concluded and both parties have undertaken to work diligently to conclude outstanding matters. The Yellowbone matter is sub-judice and it would be unlawful to comment."

Bongani Lukhele, DTIC spokesperson, didn't respond with answers to a media query earlier this month from TVwithThinus seeking comment about the department's film rebate scheme as it pertains to Blood Psalms, which rebates the government decided not to pay and what amount of money is still due to Yellowbone Entertainment from the rebate scheme.

ALSO READ: MultiChoice's expensive Blood Psalms in jeopardy as a Showmax Original as Yellowbone Entertainment producers are forced to go to court over millions due in unpaid South African film rebates to finish their series.

ALSO READ: Blood Psalms to debut on MultiChoice's Showmax in February 2022, 'It was scary and a massive challenge,' says showrunner Layla Swart.

ALSO READ: As MultiChoice previews Showmax's Blood Psalms with a first-look viewing in Dubai the South African media take umbrage: 'Share the content with journalists who report on TV content'.

ALSO READ: TV CRITIC's NOTEBOOK. 'A Dubai Déjà vu': How MultiChoice and the champagne brigade at its Dubai Expo 2020 jaunt evoked a big-on-partying, small-on-substance media look - again.

MultiChoice Showcase 2021: PICTORIAL. A set of new Blood Psalms stills released as MultiChoice's delayed Showmax Original fantasy series from Yellowbone Entertainment waits to be paid its film rebate.

by Thinus Ferreira

MultiChoice has released some further new provocative images - what in the film biz is called "stills" - of the fantasy drama series Blood Psalms that has been shifted to a February 2022 release on its Showmax video streaming service.

In the fantasy drama series mostly filmed in the Eastern Cape, Zolisa Xaluva plays soldier Toka with Zikhona Sodlaka who plays Sithenjwa and with the two characters who end up marrying each other.

Thando Tabethe plays Heka, a god manifesting as a physical being, with Faith Baloyi as Queen Assilli and the court's advisor with access to magic, while Bokang Pehalane is cast in the role of the teenage Princess Zazi trying to save her people from a world-ending prophecy.

With MultiChoice and Showmax that organised no group media set visits during the filming of Blood Psalms - something that is very unusual for an expensive production of this size - the only imagery for the show will be the set of stills that the show itself took while it filmed on location.

Blood Psalms, written, produced and directed by Jahmil X.T. Qubeka and Layla Swart Najaar from Yellowbone Entertainment, was supposed to start in October on Showmax but was delayed due to an ongoing scandal with South Africa's department of trade, industry and competition.

The department abruptly cancelled its payments of millions of rand that were approved for the making of Blood Psalms in the country's shambolic film rebate scheme that is also impacting on other film productions in the country.

Almost half of the R85 million production cost of Blood Psalms is funded through the film rebate scheme of the department of trade, industry and competition. 

R8 million earmarked to pay for just post-production work on the MultiChoice and Canal+ co-production that has over 300 visual effects artists working on the show, was for instance abruptly cancelled in September. 

Besides this there is still another R16 million payment to be made in a rebate payment by the DTIC once Blood Psalms is fully completed.

The government's film rebates are paid out at specific production milestones with producers getting financial support while they're completing their content: At the start of principal photography, when filming wraps, the start of post-production, and then delivery of the completed video production.

After Yellowbone Entertainment took the government department to court, the DTIC agreed to make requisition for payment within three days but failed to respond to the deadline of the court order.

The DTIC in a statement said that "It would be inappropriate to continue these discussions in the media as the discussions have not yet been concluded and both parties have undertaken to work diligently to conclude outstanding matters. The Yellowbone matter is sub-judice and it would be unlawful to comment."

Jahmil X.T. Qubeka says it was "an embarrassment" to be in Dubai in October with MultiChoice, inviting the world to do business in South Africa and to film productions in the country "when we have not put the mechanisms in place for that to happen".

The multi-million rand series that has been in production for almost 2 years as the largest and most expensive series ever filmed in Africa and produced on South African soil, has already been delayed. 

Candice Fangueiro, Showmax head of content, said the Showmax Original would start in October 2021, although the date came and went. 

MultiChoice then announced to the media flown to Dubai for the media junket that Blood Psalms has now been pushed to February 2022 although it's unclear if this target date for release on Showmax will be met with, the future of the R85 million production that hangs in the balance. 

ALSO READ: MultiChoice's expensive Blood Psalms in jeopardy as a Showmax Original as Yellowbone Entertainment producers are forced to go to court over millions due in unpaid South African film rebates to finish their series.

ALSO READ: Blood Psalms to debut on MultiChoice's Showmax in February 2022, 'It was scary and a massive challenge,' says showrunner Layla Swart.

ALSO READ: As MultiChoice previews Showmax's Blood Psalms with a first-look viewing in Dubai the South African media take umbrage: 'Share the content with journalists who report on TV content'.

ALSO READ: TV CRITIC's NOTEBOOK. 'A Dubai Déjà vu': How MultiChoice and the champagne brigade at its Dubai Expo 2020 jaunt evoked a big-on-partying, small-on-substance media look - again.

MultiChoice keeps losing thousands of DStv Premium subscribers - this DStv top-end churn is putting its slate of premium content at risk.

by Thinus Ferreira

MultiChoice keeps losing its most-valuable DStv Premium subscribers who no longer see the expensive offering as providing enough value for money - something that puts pressure on budgets and spells danger for the future existence of the existing slate of premium content and TV channels available to its top-bouquet customers.

Just as MultiChoice and M-Net once grew in top-end DStv subscribers leading to increased budgets - justifying the risk of bigger spending on more expensive shows catering to a more discerning and upmarket audience and in turn attracting more lucrative advertisers willing to pay more for more expensive DStv Media Sales ad spots - there is now the danger of the opposite happening.

As MultiChoice's percentage of DStv Premium and DStv Compact Plus subscribers keep falling as part of the overall subscriber mix due to MultiChoice's shift in focus to rather offer a bigger value proposition to mass-market customers on lower-tiered DStv bouquets, this shift will sooner or later have a knock-on effect and start to impact premium content budgets.

It will likely become increasingly more difficult for MultiChoice content cost centres - specifically M-Net, kykNET, MultiChoice's streaming service Showmax, as well as the division working on acquiring and retaining premium third-party linear TV channels carriage agreements on DStv - to justify spending on big-budget items, shows, projects and expensive TV channels if this premium audience is small and dwindling.

MultiChoice already ran into trouble with Blood Psalms from Yellowbone Entertainment that was supposed to have started last month on Showmax, with the October debut of the most expensive TV series yet filmed in South Africa now delayed by several months to possibly February 2022.

Blood Psalms is due millions of rand in unpaid money it requires to complete post-production work. The due payouts, as part of South Africa's stalled film rebate scheme, ran by the department of trade, industry and competition (DTIC), were abruptly cancelled.

MultiChoice isn't able to simply take over Blood Psalms enormous production costs financed through the film rebate scheme. 

The Blood Psalms scandal has led to warning lights flashing for possible future big-budget local productions for pay-TV that might not be deemed feasible or worth the effort to make in South Africa if top-end subscribers don't exist in big enough numbers to justify the spending and trouble.

While MultiChoice's overall content cost and spending on general entertainment and sports content continue to grow, it also means that MultiChoice is facing increasing internal pressure on the type of content the pay-TV operator will and can spend money on.

The likely outcome, if DStv Premium subscribers continue to decline, is that less money will be allocated for the production of expensive local shows like Survivor SA on M-Net (DStv 101) only accessible for DStv Premium subscribers; with the loss of more premium third-party TV channels like BBC First, and more money allocated for mass-market shows like Uyajola 9/9 on Moja Love (DStv 157).

Showmax growing but DStv Premium under pressure

On Thursday afternoon MultiChoice released its interim financial results for the 6 months until the end of September 2021 that revealed that the pay-TV operator not only continues to bleed top-end DStv subscribers but that mid-tier subscribers are also abandoning its offering.

Overall MultiChoice added 1 million subscribers in the 6 months to the end of September 2021 and now has 21.1 million pay-TV subscribers.

South Africa remains the pay-TV operator's country with the largest subscriber base (12.2 million, 58%) with 8.9 million subscribers (42%) across sub-Saharan Africa (RoA).

In the 6 months under review, MultiChoice however lost over another 100 000 DStv Premium and DStv Compact Plus subscribers decreasing another 5%, and DStv Compact and DStv Commercial customers declining by 1% from 2.9 million to 2.8 million subscribers.

The top-end loss is made up for ongoing lower-tiered subscriber growth, increasing from 8.7 to 8.9 million subscribers. The number of mass-market DStv Family, DStv Access, and DStv EasyView subscribers grew by 6% from 4.4 million to 4.7 million.

The result is that MultiChoice's monthly average revenue per user (ARPU) continues to decline, this time by another 2% from R278 to R273. 

What it means is that although MultiChoice continues to have more subscribers, it makes less money per subscriber since it keeps losing DStv Premium and DStv Compact Plus subscribers who are its most valuable subscriber segment. 

Showmax subscribers are growing, however, with paying Showmax subscribers increasing by 42% and with overall online users increasing 33% from the prior period, "representing a 3% gain in share of the African OTT market since December 2020," MultiChoice says.

Sport is not luring DStv Premium subscribers back or stemming DStv subscriber churn as MultiChoice suggested would be the case earlier this year.

In June, MultiChoice Group CEO Calvo Mawela told investors that rugby broadcasts are one of the biggest drivers of DStv Premium uptake and that the loss of rugby because of the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic was a very big reason behind the ongoing decline in DStv Premium subscribers in the previous financial year.

"What we've seen is that as a result of the lack of rugby, you see people coming down, but as soon as rugby comes back, you see people going up," Calvo Mawela said,.

However, while rugby and other sport did return to SuperSport the past few months, DStv Premium subscribers didn't.

MultiChoice: Local content remains important

About its latest 6-month financial results, MultiChoice says that local content continues to be "a core part of the group's differentiation strategy".

MultiChoice says that it has "stepped up its investment in local content by producing 2 692 additional hours (41% year-on-year growth). As a result, the total local content library is now approaching 66 000 hours and represents 45% of total general entertainment content spend, which was the group's full-year target".

"In South Africa, local documentary Devilsdorp became the most viewed programme of all time on Showmax."

"In Nigeria, Big Brother Naija delivered record viewership and advertising revenues and has become one of Nigeria's most loved reality brands."

"Reyka, a global co-production with Fremantle was broadcast to critical acclaim during Sunday night prime time, while a further four co-productions (Recipes for Love and Murder, Crime and Justice season 2, Pulse and The Fix) are currently in production. Interest in the group's content is at an all-time high, with 121 series sold to international buyers, seven times more than last year."

"In addition to compelling local stories, MultiChoice continues to broadcast the best of sport. The group renewed the rights to Serie A,  the FA Cup, the European Football Championship and the new United Rugby Championship."

Disney+ won't bedevil DStv

Hidden away in the small print of MultiChoice's 6-month financial results is relief for DStv subscribers fearing that they will lose The Disney Channel, Disney Junior or National Geographic when The Walt Disney Company launches its Disney+ video streaming service from around June 2022 in South Africa. 

Disney's channels were culled elsewhere as linear pay-TV channels like in the United Kingdom when Disney+ launched, forcing traditional pay-TV subscribers to switch to streaming, although DStv Premium subscribers won't abruptly lose access to Disney - at least not initially.

"On the international content front, channel agreements with Disney (including the kids and National Geographic channels) were secured to 2024," MultiChoice says.

MultiChoice's expensive Blood Psalms in jeopardy as a Showmax Original as Yellowbone Entertainment producers are forced to go to court over millions due in unpaid South African film rebates to finish their series.

by Thinus Ferreira

In a growing scandal the existence of the most expensive TV show ever produced in Africa is under threat with the producers of Blood Psalms that MultiChoice commissioned as a Showmax Original who have now gone to court after millions of rands they have been promised in South Africa's film rebate scheme has inexplicably been pulled and that they urgently need to complete their series.

MultiChoice held a big presentation for Blood Psalms in Dubai last month as part of the African pay-TV operator's Expo 2020 Dubai media junket to showcase South African productions and to lure investors and producers to the country.

Billed as An "African Game of Thrones" - written, produced and directed by Jahmil X.T. Qubeka and Layla Swart Najaar from Yellowbone Entertainment - almost half of the R85 million production cost of Blood Psalms as a MultiChoice and Canal+ co-production is funded through the film rebate scheme of South Africa's department of trade, industry and competition (DTIC).

But Jahmil X.T. Qubeka says it was "an embarrassment" to be in Dubai, inviting the world to do business in South Africa "when we have not put the mechanisms in place for that to happen".

"The purpose of the Expo Dubai 2020 is to say to the world 'Hey, come to South Africa, work with its creatives, work with its infrastrastructure. Come and build partnerships, make films in this country."

While the DTIC and South Africa's department of sports, arts and culture also attended the Expo 202 Dubai and Blood Psalms presentation, The Devi Show on e.tv on Thursday night revealed that Yellowbone Entertainment has been forced take the department of trade, industry and competition to court to get its promised - then cancelled - rebates for Blood Psalms paid.

The multi-million rand series that has been in production for almost 2 years as the largest and most expensive series ever filmed in Africa and produced on South African soil, has already been delayed.

Candice Fangueiro, Showmax head of content, said the Showmax Original would start in October 2021, although the date came and went. 

MultiChoice then announced to the media flown to Dubai for the media junket that Blood Psalms has now been pushed to February 2022 although it's unclear if this target date for release on Showmax will be met with the future of the R85 million production that now hangs in the balance. 

R8 million earmarked to pay for Blood Psalms' post-production, with over 300 visual effects artists working on the show, was for instance abruptly cancelled in September. Besides this there is still another R16 million payment to be made in a rebate payment by the DTIC once Blood Psalms is fully completed.

Jahmil X.T. Qubeka said that "there are so many people's lives that are being wrecked by this one person's decision". He said that "we are in a situation - not just myself but the entire industry - where we are being held at gunpoint by administrators who refuse to be accountable for their decisions".

Layla Swart Najaar who said that "I am in over R14 million worth of debt. The rest is still piling up", revealed that to produce Blood Psalms, Yellowbone Entertainment had to apply three times for the film rebate before it was approved by the DTIC.

"I applied for it the first time, then it was declined. Then I applied again and then I applied again, and the third time we got approval."

The government's film rebates are paid out at specific production milestones with producers getting financial support while they're completing their content: At the start of principal photography, when filming wraps, the start of post-production, and then delivery of the completed video production.

"Every single [rebate] milestone has been a fight for me. Since March we have been fighting for this third milestone rebate payment," Layla Swart Najaar said. 

Yellowbone Entertainment lodged an urgent application at the High Court in Pretoria before Judge Norman Davis to set aside the department of trade, industry and competition's repudiation of Blood Psalms' R8 million film rebate.

As an order of the court in October, the DTIC committed to make requisition for payment in the period of three days. According to the court order, the DTIC had to inform Yellowbone Entertainment by 19 October if it's going to pay the R8 million rebate for the third production milestone. 

The DTIC failed to respond to the deadline of the court order. According to The Devi Show, the DTIC instead asked Yellowbone Entertainment for more documentation - documentation that the production company had already provided previously on multiple occasions.

Minister Ebrahim Patel of the department of trade, industry and competition declined to be interviewed. 

In a written statement the DTIC said "in response to concerns expressed by the film sector, largely related to new rules governing the disbursement of funds, the minister and officials met with te industry on two occasions recently".

"This has resulted in an ongoing attempt to iron out specific matters related to reporting and disbursement. In would be inappropriate to continue these discussions in the media as the discussions have not yet been concluded and both parties have undertaken to work diligently to conclude outstanding matters".

"The Yellowbone matter is sub-judice and it would be unlawful to comment."

ALSO READ: Blood Psalms to debut on MultiChoice's Showmax in February 2022, 'It was scary and a massive challenge,' says showrunner Layla Swart.

ALSO READ: As MultiChoice previews Showmax's Blood Psalms with a first-look viewing in Dubai the South African media take umbrage: 'Share the content with journalists who report on TV content'.

ALSO READ: TV CRITIC's NOTEBOOK. 'A Dubai Déjà vu': How MultiChoice and the champagne brigade at its Dubai Expo 2020 jaunt evoked a big-on-partying, small-on-substance media look - again. 

TV CRITIC's NOTEBOOK. 'A Dubai Déjà vu': How MultiChoice and the champagne brigade at its Dubai Expo 2020 jaunt evoked a big-on-partying, small-on-substance media look - again.

by Thinus Ferreira

More questions are raised by media - this time about the behaviour of the media themselves - following MultiChoice's Dubai Expo 2020 excursion, where press from South Africa, flown to Dubai business class, were once again apparently more eager to share social media photos of their boat parties, afterparties and snaps from the Burj Khalifa's 148th floor, than working and providing real-time coverage of the TV industry and about MultiChoice's content shared there.

MultiChoice already perplexed swathes of the South African press corps covering television with the pay-TV operator's bizarre exercise last week of doing a "viewing" and panel session in Dubai of the upcoming locally-produced series Blood Psalms.

Blood Psalms will debut on MultiChoice's Showmax video streaming service in February 2022.

Many in the media, meanwhile, have been shaking their heads at MultiChoice's apparently uninformed and opportunistic content land grab.

Members of the media, talking among themselves, continue to discuss MultiChoice odd behaviour and perplexing Dubai modus operandi when it comes to media management.

They are wondering why MultiChoice chose to dilute and deliberately diminish the press value of a piece of presumably premium new content by ripping off the packaging and doing a media debut for Blood Psalms in Dubai - first - without showing its so-called "homegrown content" to South African media before taking it overseas.

"Imagine ITV doing a debut and panel sesh of something like Downton Abbey, in Dubai of all places just because that's what it has in the kitty, before razzmatazzing it in front of UK press first. You want to snicker at MultiChoice's lack of reading the room but it's just sad really. Unforced error," said a longtime South African journalist covering film and TV.

"Obviously MultiChoice can't and won't dazzle Dubai with Moja Love's Uyajola 9/9 as a showcase of South African TV talent so they sacrificed something prematurely they should have kept since Blood Psalms is maybe all that's new they perhaps have." 

Now questions are also swirling inside South Africa's media circles around the media's participation itself and their work there - or lack of - in properly covering the dabblings of MultiChoice at the Dubai Expo 2020 excursion.

Media who went, couldn't bother with creating any substantive number of thought pieces, original articles, interviews and stories that got traction about MultiChoice and its content.

You'd search in vain, for instance, for any interviews with the producers or those behind-the-scenes putting together MultiChoice's 1NightWithMzansi concert in the Dubai Opera House before it aired, to help promote it. 

(The TV variety special on MultiChoice and M-Net's 1Magic (DStv 103) channel then proved to be quite a let-down).

The media were however quick to post photos on social media immediately about the 1NightWithMzansi afterparty, clubbing the night away.

Add in the pool pics, the obligatory flute glass and seafood lunch snappies, and MultiChoice's Dubai Expo 2020 media junket turned into the journalist's life to die for, darling.

It's sadly strongly reminiscent of MultiChoice's disappointing and haphazardly organised Digital Dialogue Conference in Dubai for which MultiChoice also flew an oddly-chosen group of media from across sub-Saharan Africa to Dubai in May 2018.

The results were spectacular. But in a very bad way.

Instead of actually reporting what the experts said at MultiChoice's Digital Dialogue Conference - doing interviews, delivering comprehensive on-the-ground coverage and providing analysis - the invited "media" from Africa were apparently star-struck, lazy and caught up in the moment instead of focusing on doing the work of reporting. 

The media MultiChoice invited to Dubai in 2018, focused almost solely on showing off their temporary new lux-lifestyle lives than of doing and posting any actual work. 

They were much more intent on capturing and sharing the perfect photos of their camel rides in the Dubai desert, posting photos of falcons and falconer show-and-tell interactions, and even walking around in gilded Dubai shopping malls, varnished with faux gold where they would snap garish photos of McDonalds.

Three years later in 2021 - and perhaps having learnt nothing or having lost the institutionalised memory after the exit of its previous publicists' corps - MultiChoice went back to the same playbook, apparently for more of the same media-lame, coverage-tame results.

"If you see media boasting and posting about flying business class to Dubai before they've even started reporting on anything about a company, that's problematic," says an editor who comments anonymously since the person, like other media, have an ongoing media relationship with MultiChoice.

"It speaks to the caliber and what the level of media maturity is of those invited."

The person cautioned that companies generally should do better homework and do the best media planning possible to guard against "the type of unoriginal, pandering content you're probably going to get - if any - from an influencer or media worker from a sponsored trip" if there isn't clearly-defined rules and an agreement on expectations and media coverage from both sides beforehand.

A veteran videographer, journalist and social media raconteur who've long attended MultiChoice's media events in the past, told me this week about MultiChoice's Dubai media jaunt: "Like the crowing of Miss South Africa 2021, very few people realised that MultiChoice hosted a 'content showcase' of the locally-produced and filmed Blood Psalms".

"Social media persons and publications that normally crack the invite and collectively post to 'trend' this type of spectacular, seemed no longer worthy. Sad but true the new brooms did not seem to value their hosts. All they did was post about themselves 'living their best life', not even hashtagging their hosts who had carted them to Dubai. Event? What event? Claps twice!!"

Says a journalist who is also a media and journalism lecturer: "It remains the prerogative of MultiChoice and M-Net as to what media, and who, they invite to cover DStv content activations and media events. One wonders how MultiChoice compiled a likely ROI of earned media coverage and reach".

"Access media should provide more, and much broader, coverage of your media event than media you're just sending the generic press release. Do they [MultiChoice] really get their money's worth?"

"If there isn't a lot of original reporting about your brand from media or influencers at your event, something's wrong. Then you need a recalibration of your strategy. It doesn't seem as if MultiChoice got what it could have if they had corralled and managed the correct access media correctly."

ALSO READ: Blood Psalms to debut on MultiChoice's Showmax in February 2022, 'It was scary and a massive challenge,' says showrunner Layla Swart.

ALSO READ: As MultiChoice previews Showmax's Blood Psalms with a first-look viewing in Dubai the South African media take umbrage: 'Share the content with journalists who report on TV content'.

ALSO READ: TV REVIEW. MultiChoice and M-Net's 1 Night with Mzansi special done from Dubai is little more than boring puffery and yawnful paint-by-numbers programmatic content.

ALSO READ: MultiChoice and M-Net prep a 2-hour 1 Night with Mzansi live variety TV special for DStv subscribers on Sunday 17 October from the Dubai Opera House. 

Blood Psalms to debut on MultiChoice's Showmax in February 2022, 'It was scary and a massive challenge,' says showrunner Layla Swart.

by Thinus Ferreira

MultiChoice, M-Net and Showmax's 10-episode African mythos series from creative duo Layla Swart and Jahmil X.T Qubeka's Yellowbone Entertainment will debut on Showmax in February 2022 with Jahmil X.T Qubeka who revealed that Blood Psalms will make its debut on the streaming service early next year.

MultiChoice did a "viewing" and panel discussion for Blood Psalms on Tuesday evening in Dubai as part of its Expo 2020 Dubai marketing exercise in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

MultiChoice's inexplicable move to do a first viewing and panel session for Blood Psalms in Dubai, inaccessible to local media, stirred anger and resentment under the South African press corps covering television, upset over the way in which MultiChoice is promoting so-called "homegrown TV series" like Reyka and Blood Psalms outside of South Africa's borders first.

Following Reyka, Blood Psalms as a Showmax Original, is now the second series for which MultiChoice is doing foreign cast and crew panel sessions and previews - and first - but without any similar effort or the same access for series given to local press in South Africa.

Reyka made its debut screening at the Monte Carlo TV festival in Monaco in June where a cast and crew panel session for media and buyers was also held. M-Net did nothing similar in South Africa for the local media with no virtual or in-person media session, and requests to interview the showrunner that were ignored.

For Blood Psalms, MultiChoice decided that Dubai - months before the series' debut date - is more important than South Africa as the show's first stop for a viewing and cast and crew media session.

Ironically, although not unexpected, by Thursday afternoon only one of the media flown by MultiChoice to Dubai to cover its various Dubai Expo 2020 activities like the disappointing 1 Night With Mzansi variety special on Sunday night, have managed to file a report about Tuesday evening's Blood Psalms panel session.

Media flown at great cost to Dubai appeared more interested in sharing multiple lifestyle selfies on Instagram and Twitter about their weeklong MultiChoice-sponsored staycation than about what they went to presumably cover, snapping and sharing images from boat parties, hotel rooms, desert excursions and nightclub afterparties but with little to no reporting about MultiChoice, M-Net, DStv and Showmax and their actual content.

Layla Swart and Jahmil X.T Qubeka were joined in Dubai for MultiChoice's Blood Psalms panel session by cast members Zolisa Xaluva playing soldier Toka, and Zikhona Sodlaka who plays Sithenjwa, with the two characters who end up marrying each other.

Thando Tabethe plays Heka, a god manifesting as a physical being, with Faith Baloyi as Queen Assilli and the court's advisor with access to magic, while Bokang Pehalane is cast in the role of the teenage Princess Zazi trying to save her people from a world-ending prophecy.

Speaking about Blood Psalms in Dubai, Layla Swart said "I knew it was ambitious. I knew it was a longshot. And I knew it was going to be very difficult to present to any finance partner something so novel - something so, that has never been done before."

"We really fought to do it in vernac(ular language). The space of such a high-end production is also a space that we hope will be received internationally and globally and that often means that it needs to be in a language that is accessible."

"But I'm proud that we fought for that and I'm proud of the product that we've created. Jahmil and I have this saying of you must never be fearless but you must fear less. I think that really encapsulates what Blood Psalms was to us."

"It was scary, it was a massive challenge. We didn't know how we would do it. And I mean, every step was a challenge but we feared less."

Jahmil X.T Qubeka during Tuesday evening's panel discussion remarked that it's very important to have heroes "but because of our turbulent past, black South Africans don't have that. We don't have archetypes that we can hold onto."

"We've got Shaka. Maybe a few here or there. But you know what I mean. I talk in the contemporary space. It's very important that we see ourselves in projections - not just in our current situation, but in our possibility. And for me really that was the main mission: It's to bring back heroes again."

ALSO READ: As MultiChoice previews Showmax's Blood Psalms with a first-look viewing in Dubai the South African media take umbrage: 'Share the content with journalists who report on TV content'.

ALSO READ: TV REVIEW. MultiChoice and M-Net's 1 Night with Mzansi special done from Dubai is little more than boring puffery and yawnful paint-by-numbers programmatic content.

ALSO READ: MultiChoice and M-Net prep a 2-hour 1 Night with Mzansi live variety TV special for DStv subscribers on Sunday 17 October from the Dubai Opera House.