BREAKING. Bloomberg Television set to return to MultiChoice's DStv as its own stand-alone TV channel from Monday.

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I'm told that Bloomberg Television is set to return to MultiChoice's DStv satellite pay-TV platform as its own stand-alone TV channel less than three weeks after Bloomberg Television was ended on DStv and folded into the newly relaunched Business Day TV with daily programming blocks on that channel.

According to various sources who spoke on the condition of anonymity since none want to negatively impact ongoing dealings between various parties, Bloomberg Television (DStv 411) will return on Monday as its own stand-alone TV channel to DStv's channel line-up.

According to sources who spoke to TV with Thinus Bloomberg Television will no longer be shown as programming blocks on BDFM's Business Day TV (DStv 412) as it has been the past three weeks.

The backtracking and restoration of Bloomberg Television follows negative reaction the past three weeks since the announcement and the sudden disappearance of the global business news channel.

The loss of Bloomberg Television on DStv angered the South African's business community who were very vocal in their displeasure about the change and the disappearance of Bloomberg Television as a separate TV channel. MultiChoice ended Bloomberg Television as its own TV channel as part of a process of "reallocating capacity" on the DStv platform according to sources.

Business leaders, viewers and day traders said they like Business Day Television as a local business TV channel and its offering but need and want the ongoing availability of ongoing, international business news on television with the global reach like Bloomberg Television.

Displeased viewers and business said that competitor CNBC Africa's (DStv 410) business news scope is too limited to get a constant global business view and that they require the ongoing global financial markets news Bloomberg provided to South African viewers on television.

"South African business decision makers and leaders have come to rely on Bloomberg Television for trusted, accurate and up-to-date international business and financial news," said Malcolm Fried, the managing editor for Bloomberg Television Europe, the Middle East and Africa last month when Bloomberg Television was ended as its own TV channel on DStv.

I asked MultiChoice who says that the satellite pay-TV provider will "reinstate Bloomberg as a 24-hour channel on DStv channel 411 from Monday 15 July".

MultiChoice says "following feedback from DStv customers – that they prefer to have local and international business news on separate channels – the decision to include Bloomberg content on Business Day TV was reviewed."

"DStv customers told us that they need to have a 24-hour international business news channel and a separate local business news channel. We are pleased that we are able to accommodate this need," says Collins Khumalo, CEO for MultiChoice South Africa.

"We stepped in to keep Bloomberg on air over South Africa," says Vernon Matzopoulos, Business Day TV head.

"Now that they are back with their own channel, Business Day TV viewers can look forward to an uninterrupted schedule of the best of local business news, markets and investment programmes."

"DStv Premium customers will now benefit again from our extensive coverage of leading business, economic and market-moving stories, says Malcolm Fried.

The Business Day TV breakfast launch broadcast on DStv is mostly white men sitting in white chairs on a white stage.

Pravin Gordham, the minister of finance, seated second from the left, is holding up his hand looking out into the breakfast tabled audience - is he maybe looking to find black men or black women? Why, any women for that matter would do.

The staged panel for the television launch breakfast briefing of Business Day TV (DStv 412) - the rebranded Summit TV on MultiChoice's DStv satellite pay-TV service now with stripped daily content blocks from Bloomberg Television - oddly only featured men, no women. And mostly white men. Even Bloomberg Television's moderator this morning was a white man - Guy Johnson.

During the broadcast of the event which took place on Wednesday morning, Business Day TV also inexplicably placed a red "R" for repeat in the screen corner. But it wasn't a rebroadcast. It was a live event.

In television image is (almost) everything. It's strange why Business Day TV with the brands of Bloomberg and DStv seen on the white backdrop, didn't have a more representative panel in terms of Africa or South Africa's economically empowered demographics on the white stage and in the white chairs, especially since Business Day TV purports to cover South African and African financial and economic news.

As a media outlet you want to look a bit like what you cover, especially in something like a relaunch or launch event broadcast. You want to reflect your audience and subject matter, and African and South African  business isn't a predominantly white business executive affair.

Or maybe it is exactly reflective of part of the problematic challenge still facing South Africa - that what is shown, ironically, on the Business Day TV white stage is what the upper echelons of South African business in this country, almost 20 years since 1994, still largely is.

BREAKING. Business Day TV replaces Summit TV on MultiChoice's DStv; Bloomberg Television content blocks added to the schedule.

The business television channel Summit TV (DStv 412) on MultiChoice's DStv satellite pay-TV platform relaunched as Business Day TV this morning at 08:00 as was reported earlier in the year would happen, with  Bloomberg Television (DStv 411) which will end as a separate TV channel on DStv in South Africa at the end of June and programming from that channel which will now be folded into Business Day Television in the form of programming blocks on the realigned and rebranded TV channel.

Business Day TV is operated by the media group DBFM which also publishes the Business Day newspaper and is also responsible for The Home Channel (DStv 182) and Ignition (DStv 265) through the Africa Business Channel division.

The rebranded Business Day TV and Bloomberg Television content collaboration is the biggest change for Summit TV since the channel launched on MultiChoice in 2000. Summit TV is available to 6 million viewers in 9 countries.

Bloomberg Television will remain available as its own TV channel in the rest of Africa outside South Africa and can be watched online and that channel's most important programming blocks will be kept on television in daily stripped broadcasting strands on Business Day TV.

The newly conceived business channel - an amalgam of the resources of Bloomberg Television, Summit TV and BDFM - kicked off with a televised business breakfast briefing with Pravin Gordhan, the minister of finance.

The breakfast briefing broadcast on Business Day TV moderated by Guy Johnson of Bloomberg Television - with no women included in the staged presentation and the only real black seen that of the men's business suits - in presentation was interestingly similar in style to the now-controversial breakfast briefings held by The New Age newspaper in conjunction with the SABC. (That newspaper group is starting its own 24-hour television news operation, Africa News Network 7 (ANN7), as a new channel on DStv later in the year.)

"We are truly excited about Business Day TV becoming an extended platform for the strong, independent editorial content we already produce in Business Day," says Peter Bruce, the publisher and editor-in-chief of BDFM in a statement announcing the TV channel's rebrand and Bloomberg Television content fold-in.

"With a daily selection of original Bloomberg Television programming, interviews and reports on the newly branded Business Day TV channel, viewers will now benefit from our extensive coverage of the global markets and economies in addition to leading domestic insight from the BDFM group," says Malcolm Fried, the managing editor for Bloomberg Television in Europe, the Middle East and Africa in the same statement.

Business Day TV which replaces Summit TV promises beefed up financial news coverage with "international and financial news" in the form of Bloomberg Television, with live market coverage and analysis from Europe and the United States for 10 hours a day, in addition to coverage of local markets and news being done by Business Day and the staff of Business Day TV.

Summit TV which didn't run for the extended number of hours as CNBC Africa (DStv 410) did, will now become a more direct competitor in the form of Business Day TV.

"We are proud to be hosting this channel on DStv and believe it will complement and enhance our business news offering on our platform," says Collins Khumalo, the CEO of MultiChoice South Africa.


ALSO READ: The Business Day TV breakfast launch broadcast on DStv is mostly white men sitting in white chairs on a white stage.

BREAKING. DStv ending two stand-alone TV channels: Bloomberg Television folded into Business Day TV with blocks, mk to live on online.

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MultiChoice is ending two TV channels on its bouquet, with the business channel Bloomberg Television (DStv 411) and the mk (DStv 324) music channel which are both being discontinued in their current form as separate TV channels on the DStv pay-TV platform in South Africa.

South Africans will still be able to see both Bloomberg Television content and mk content but not as stand-alone TV channels on DStv, with Bloomberg Television which will continue on television in the form of programming blocks on another business TV channel run by BDFM, and mk which will be streamed online as it relocates to primarily inhabit a cyber presence.

Bloomberg Television programming blocks of the most important market day coverage are being added on Summit TV exactly as TV with Thinus reported back in March, together with Summit TV changing its channel name to Business Day TV on channel 412 from today.

mk meanwhile will continue as an online channel at www.mktv.co.za where it will exist as a cyber platform streaming music videos and songs. mk will also live on as an audio channel on channel 886 on the DStv audio bouquet.

Various separate sources connected to Summit TV as well as sources connected to mk told TV with Thinus back in March about the changes and said the same thing: that Bloomberg Television and mk will no longer be separate TV channels on DStv from later in the year.

MultiChoice has apparently started a process of "reallocating capacity" on the DStv platform. There was no official confirmation though at the time from MultiChoice, which - when asked about mk ending as a separate stand-alone TV channel and Bloomberg Television ending as a stand-alone TV channel - said at the time that there is no news to share in this regard and that DStv doesn't share information on developments until the pay-TV operator is ready to make the necessary announcements.

Now the news about Bloomberg Television and mk are official and here is what is happening:

Besides South Africa, Bloomberg Television will remain available throughout the rest of Africa for 24 hours a day as the Bloomberg Television channel.

Bloomberg Television will continue until the end of June in South Africa on channel 411. Bloomberg Television content will continue to be available to viewers on Business Day Television from Wednesday 19 June to DStv Premium, DStv Compact and DStv Family subscribers for 10 hours per day.

Bloomberg Television content will be shown in programming blocks from 07:00 to 12:00, 16:00 to 18:00 and 23:00 to 03:00 (South African times) on Business Day TV.

ALSO READ: Business Day TV replaces Summit TV on MultiChoice's DStv; Bloomberg Television programming blocks added to the schedule.

Business decision makers and financiers who watch Bloomberg Television will still be able to access the European markets opening and closing, the United States market opening and closing, and other feature programming such as Bloomberg West and Charlie Rose's talk show within these programming blocks.

Clients of Bloomberg Professional service can also watch Bloomberg Television on their terminals, the channel is streamed online at bloomberg.com as well as clips which can also be watched there, and the channel can also be viewed free on the app for Apple iPad (Bloomberg TV+).

mk meanwhile will be discontinued as a TV channel on DStv from the end of July.

mk started in mid-2005 with big fanfare as mk89 as a music video channel aiming to serve the youth music market and supplied to DStv by the pay-TV broadcaster M-Net. The channel later dropped the "89" from its moniker after a DStv channel number shuffle.

After 8 years mk which served as a driver of the local production of especially Afrikaans rock music videos to be produced, will now be transformed into South Africa's first online music video streaming channel.

"The mk audience is an online generation and in due course these free-spirited, on-the-go world citizens will be able to enjoy mk wherever and whenever they have internet access," says M-Net.

M-Net says "this move will open up countless exciting possibilities for both the brand and the music featured on mk".

"It's mindblowing to think that internet users across the globe would be able to enjoy mk's content and that you only need a smart phone, tablet or PC with an internet connection to be exposed to the great South African bands and musos that rock mk."

Business channel Summit Television on DStv changing its name later in the year to Business Day Television.

Summit Television (DStv 411) is set to change the name of the South African business news channel to Business Day Television later in the year.

Summit, run by BDFM, will be renamed Business Day Television. A date for Summit Television's name change is not known.

Insider sources at BDFM told TV with Thinus that Bloomberg Television (DStv 411) is going to start contributing to Summit Television, but stressed that it would be incorrect to say that Bloomberg Television is going to be "sharing" TV channel space with what will be known as Business Day Television.

"Bloomberg Television will only be getting some regular slots or windows on Summit Television, or Business Day Television, it won't be 'sharing'. Summit Television and the channel's own content will still form the bulk of the programming. Bloomberg will only be getting some windows for selected Bloomberg content on the channel during the day."

"Summit will still remain one TV channel devoted to covering business news that's relevant and current for the audience and Bloomberg Television will supplement it by getting some timeslots where Bloomberg Television is shown".

Asked about the looming Summit Television name change to Business Day Television, MultiChoice which carries the channel on the DStv platform, says "we don't have a comment as any channel naming is the prerogative of the channel provider".


ALSO READ: Bloomberg Television is expanding its business coverage of Africa soon with new news bureaux and correspondents in Africa.