As Mzansi Magic's ratings of Idols season 18 cratered in 2022 and its DStv viewership tanked so did MultiChoice's promises to improve media relations and communication around the show.

by Thinus Ferreira

In February this year MultiChoice's head of programming, Nomsa Philiso, promised the media ahead of the start of the 18th season of Idols, that MultiChoice and Mzansi Magic's public relations and its communication with the journalists and publications covering the show, will improve.

Nothing came from these promises.

Mzansi Magic had shockingly bad and basically non-existent communications in 2021 around Idols, resulting in less coverage and reporting, fewer articles and much-depleted media engagement. Ratings also tanked.

Nomsa Philiso's promises to improve how MultiChoice and Mzansi Magic communicate with the media about Idols were made at a press briefing held at Urban Brew Studios in Johannesburg in mid-February, where the pay-TV operator and pay-TV channel assured the media that MultiChoice and Mzansi Magic were going to work better when it comes to interacting with the press, and to do more when it comes to communicating about Idols after a bad 2021.

Over the past 8 months, MultiChoice and Mzansi Magic's communication and press relations around the [SIC] Entertainment-produced show however worsened further in 2022.

Mzansi Magic and The Duma Collective PR firm, responsible for publicity and interacting with the press about Idols, engaged even less with the media in 2022 about the show - as viewership for the latest season of Idols on Mzansi Magic nosedived right from its debut, with ratings sinking lower and lower every month.

For the 18th season, the Fremantle-format show fired Randall Abrahams and Unathi Nkayi as judges who were replaced by artist Thembi Seete and rapper-producer JR Bogopa.

Gavin Wratten as director and co-executive producer, along with Anneke de Ridder and ProVerb (Tebogo Thekisho) as co-producers and with ProVerb also being the host, decided as well to bring back Somizi Mhlongo who left after a scandal-engulfed year in 2021.

Idols shed hundreds of thousands of viewers the past few months in an ongoing ratings collapse, with hundreds of thousands of DStv subscribers who have abandoned the Sunday evening show on Mzansi Magic compared to a year ago when ratings also started to plummet from what the show pulled in earlier seasons.

Mzansi Magic didn't respond to a media query made Friday about Idols and questions around the season 18 post-show press conference, if there would be one on Sunday night, and the media's opportunity to pose questions to the winner, runner-up, as well as show and M-Net executives.

Phoned on Sunday, Boitumelo Tsele, a PR specialist at Duma Collective paid by Mzansi Magic to communicate about Idols on behalf of Mzansi Magic and to liaise with media, said she'll call back. She never did.

In February, TVwithThinus at the press briefing asked specifically what happened last year that the media were largely shunned when it came to Idols, about Mzansi Magic's media communications, as well as what the way forward is going to be from M-Net's side following the bad PR and lack of attention to properly communicate with the press around Idols in 2021.

In 2021 Mzansi Magic failed to engage South Africa's national media around the "Hell Week" period as it used to in the past, Mzansi Magic canned the long-running Idols post-show press conference at the end and didn't bother to even do it virtually, while media interaction all through the 17th season was atrociously lacking and was judged the worse it's been in the show's 17th season history.

Making things worse, is that Mzansi Magic couldn't be bothered to tell media that it had decided to dump the communications and press relations interaction that used to happen around Idols in previous years. 

Media were left hanging, having to guess - or constantly having to discover belatedly afterwards - that this and that and the post-show media conference for Idols in 2021 wouldn't be taking place.

Besides getting less coverage for Idols season 17 in the media in 2021, Mzansi Magic also unceremoniously dumped the Mzansi Magic Top 12 contestants in-person media briefings it held in the past, and jettisoned regional radio stations and even community media and radio stations that used to be invited to media briefings in Johannesburg.

All of these interactions that used to signal that Idols was important and mattered were scuppered - either due to Mzansi Magic budget cuts, lack of know-how or lack of interest, with the end result that the eventual Idols winner and runner-up of 2021 got less media attention than their counterparts of previous seasons - something which is one of the overall aims of the show.

Fell through the cracks

"There's no doubt that the partnership with the media is important to us. I think with specific reference to last year, I think there were a lot of things that fell through the cracks in terms of the communication process itself," Nomsa Philiso told journalists at the media briefing in February.

"You'll remember that in 2020 we did have a virtual Idols press conference. But yes, something did go off last year," she said.

"You were one of the people who raised it, to say 'What happened?'. So we are deliberately going to make sure that the media is kept abreast, that we walk the path together with the media as we've always done," Nomsa Philiso said.

"For media who got a raw deal last year we apologise, but it's something that we're going to fix."

From bad to worse

Unfortunately Mzansi Magic didn't fix anything as Nomsa Philiso promised would happen.

In 2022, media got even less communication around Idols for the 18th season, with even less interaction and media engagement happening around the show during this past year than in the already diminished 2021 season.

With the season 18 finale of Idols taking place on Sunday, there's again been an abject lack of media engagement and communication throughout the season with the media trying to cover the show.

Between a smattering of sometimes-sent, often-not, press releases and precious little else from the Mzansi Magic and Duma Collective publicists supposed to engage, interact and communicate with the press about the show, media interest in Idols waned further similar to the show's ratings.

After a new Idols winner is announced on Sunday night there will be an in-person, post-show media briefing. 

It's predominantly for Johannesburg media only, although around 5 journalists from outside of Johannesburg have been flown to the city, further underscoring how Idols has shrunk in its press engagement from what it used to be and used to do, further marginalising the perception in media's minds that Idols - and covering it - mattered.

Are budget cuts to blame? Is a constant turnover of here-this-month-gone-next-month publicists to blame? Is it a lack of institutional history around proper/past media engagement and what Idols used to do before? 

Media outside of Johannesburg have once again been left wondering what's happening with Idols on Sunday, as has been the case throughout this season.

While Idols once again became smaller in stature in 2022 journalists across South Africa have been wondering among themselves the past few months about Idols' future.

As the show has an ongoing struggle to properly communicate with media, Idols is once again ending on Sunday without any heads-up as to what's happening regarding a post-show media briefing.

As Idols season 18 concludes its latest season on Sunday - and if there's a season 19 - it would be even more difficult for Mzansi Magic to try and get media buy-in next year from a press contingent wondering why they should still be devoting any time and effort to cover a show that has not just lost half its audience but apparently its willingness to signal that Idols still matters.

ALSO READ: Recording contract of Mzansi Magic's Idols winner reduced from album to just an EP.

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'.

by Thinus Ferreira

For a second time MultiChoice has decided to show and preview a locally-produced drama series to industry insiders and media outside of South Africa first - this time the Yellowbone Entertainment-produced Blood Psalms for its streaming service Showmax - raising concern and stirring further resentment under the surface of South Africa's media covering television.

After MultiChoice and M-Net did an in-person screening of the Fremantle and Quizzical Pictures produced Reyka at the Monte Carlo TV Festival in June this year - complete with a cast and crew panel session - South African media were left out in the cold and got nothing of the sort either at the time or afterwards in the period before the series' TV premiere, with no in-person or virtual media launch.

It lead to barely any South African reviews or interviews for Reyka, scant media attention and very little earned-media press traction for the M-Net (DStv 101) series after South African media by and large directed their energies elsewhere to rather cover other programming.

Last week MultiChoice raised eyebrows yet again when it announced that it will do a so-called "Content Showcase" this week in Dubai - not to be confused with the MultiChoice Content Showcase it has held in South Africa and in various African countries for media in the past - to screen Blood Psalms.

Blood Psalms - a co-production with Canal+ meaning it is dubbed into a French version as well with French subtitling - was filmed in South Africa's Eastern Cape, Gauteng and North West provinces.

In a press statement MultiChoice said that on 18 and 19 October it will do a "Content Showcase where cast and production teams of M-Net's gripping international co-production Reyka and the upcoming international co-production and Showmax Original, Blood Psalms, will be in attendance along with invited guests for the viewings".

South African press covering television or including coverage of TV content in their publications and online sites are baffled that they've been excluded and that they won't get to see Blood Psalms at the same time as the new series is getting previewed outside of the country in what will be the creative duo Layla Swart and Jahmil X.T Qubeka's first preview screening.

Members of the media have been talking for several days, privately expressed unhappiness and frustration with MultiChoice's decision to once again seemingly demote South African media to second-tier status - just like in the case with Reyka.

South African journalists are saying that MultiChoice is signalling that so-called "international attention" is a bigger priority than showing a homegrown South African series to South Africa media first, or at the same time as an international "viewing".

In a media query MultiChoice was asked why the pay-TV service is previewing so-called "homegrown content" from South Africa not in South Africa to South African media first, but premiering and previewing it in other countries first.

MultiChoice was also asked how its marketing and publicity strategy changed when it comes to showcasing and previewing international co-productions like Reyka and Blood Psalms, and why it changed. 

Olwethu Leshabane at the Duma Collective, the PR company representing MultiChoice, said in a response that "Reyka and Blood Psalms are co-productions with international partners which equally qualifies them for international dissemination".

Longtime South African reporters - journalists, TV critics and editors who cover and continue to cover MultiChoice content - immediately took note and umbrage of what one described as "feeling like another slap in the face from DStv saying South African media are important and valued but showing and doing the opposite".

A veteran South African editor who commented anonymously on the issue since all of them have ongoing relationships with MultiChoice, told TVwithThinus that "It's baffling how it is easier for South African media to get access to international screeners than they are to get screeners of locally-produced TV series".

"In an age where TV content is international and the audience has multiple sources of entertainment, it's worrying that our channels still haven't realised that if we do not get the screeners on time, ahead of the show's TX or episode, then it really becomes difficult for us to write about the show in a nuanced way."

"I am certain that M-Net was not happy with the coverage of their original series, Reyka," the person remarked.

"Expecting journalists to watch the show in real-time, alongside the viewers, is short-sighted. Relying on social media engagement is also short-sighted. Surely getting nuanced critique and articles that explore the themes of the shows, is better than tweets of people saying "I love this show?" the person said.

"It's time we take our industry seriously. And that means following the model followed by international TV studios, channels and the streamers: Share the content ahead of time with journalists who report on TV content."

"It will do both your show and our platforms a world of good. It will also serve the audience who always looking for analysis on their favourite shows." 

Another veteran South African journalist covering television and writing about TV shows said "If they feel it's a bigger priority to do a so-called viewing of Blood Psalms in Dubai first, it sends a disrespectful and dismissive message to us".

"It intentionally or unintentionally minimises our role, my work and my publication's readership - some of whom might read about it online elsewhere, on foreign sites, instead of hearing about a South African production from South African media first or at the same time as stories appear there".

Another veteran editor and journalist said that if MultiChoice excludes the bulk of South African press when it does a Reyka or Blood Psalms preview screening internationally, it is damaging to media relationships in general and damaging to the status of the South African press trying to compete in coverage of content from their country.

"MultiChoice doesn't seem to have given any thought, or exhibits an understanding of why it's important that something made in South Africa should be previewed here first, or be seen here by local media at the same time. It's the principle. We need the same access."

"It is feeling like another slap in the face from DStv saying South African media are important and valued but showing and doing the opposite".

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.

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