TV NEWS ROUND-UP. Today's interesting TV stories to read - 30 July 2020.

Here's the latest news about TV that I read and that you should read too:


■ The SABC is once again/still busy with expansions and deviations of contracts.
The Standing Committee on Public Accounts (SCOPA) criticises the South African public broadcaster for its ongoing lack of proper planning in supply chain and contract management.
- South Africa's parliament says the abuse with contracts are central to the SABC's financial woes.

■ TV boss in India arrested over fraud after pretending to be a government official handing out houses.

■ The irony of Netflix that produced Indian Matchmaking that didn't involve Netflix India.


■ Fahmeeda Cassim Surtee, DStv Media Sales CEO, was a child of the 80s, one of her favourite shows was MacGyver with Richard Dean Anderson and because it was appointment viewing she planned her life around every episode.


■ America's 72nd Primetime Emmy Awards will be a virtual event on 20 September because of Covid-19.
M-Net (DStv 101) will basically be broadcasting a glam, star-studded Zoom-event since nobody will actually attend in person at the Microsoft Theatre in Los Angeles.
- Producers looking to "create a moment that is more relaxed, more entertaining, more enjoyable".

■ BBC journalist Fiona Lamdin uses uncensored "N"-word in TV news report.

■ Stripper TV drama P-Valley coming to Showmax shocks viewers with graphic phone sex scene complete with full-frontal nudity.

■ Greek TV channel ANT1 dumps Turkish series in protest over the conversion of Hagia Sophia from museum to mosque.

■ A brief history of Australian television: From black-and-white to video streaming.
- Still in Australia: Fixing TV content rules is one step to help the troubled industry.

■ Judge Dredd TV series written but on hold because of Covid-19 pandemic.

■ The most pirated TV series during the Covid-19 pandemic includes The Mandalorian of Disney+, The 100, Game of Thrones and a sponge.

■ After worldwide protests against police brutality, what does the future of cop TV shows look like?

■ Is the future of video streaming services a more curated experience?

■ Tom Fussell appointed as temporary BBC Studios CEO from September 2020.

■ Tamar Braxton's new reality TV show postponed after overdose.

■ The toxic Ellen DeGeneres controversy explained.
- Her celebrity friends are deserting her.

■ The profound oddness of watching televised Major League Baseball (MLB) on ESPN during Covid-19.

■ We're about to run out of new TV shows and new movies - and I can't wait.
The upcoming content drought caused by Covid-19 might be the best thing to happen to entertainment in ages.

■ The United Kingdom's Boris Johnson now wants to do White House-style TV briefings.

TV NEWS ROUND-UP. Today's interesting TV stories to read - 29 July 2020.

Here's the latest news about TV that I read and that you should read too:

Netflix breaks HBO's record for the most Emmy nominations ever.
HBO's Watchmen earned 26 nominations - the most of any show - and the Television Academy gave newcomers Disney+ and Apple TV + their first nominations.
- Emmy 2020 snubs and surprises: Baby Yoda breaks through.
- TV critics on whether television should be celebrating itself when the Covid-19 pandemic rages on.


■ "Kosher Netflix" launches in Israel.
No dancing to be seen as religious Jewish subscribers can press the "Skip" button to protect their modesty and flick past "problematic" scenes in the new video streaming service, Tov.

■ What is the optimum number of seasons for a TV sitcom before it jumps the shark?
Season 7, episode 3.

■ Television cinematography takes a Quantum Leap.

■ Pay-as-you-go for solar-powered pay-TV in Africa.

■ Convicted paedophile worked on the set of New Zealand children's show.

■ Britain's Sky pay-TV operator embraces the possibilities of showcasing Art on television.

■ How 2020 pressed Fast Forward on the video streaming wars.
- And the early winners and losers: The "What's gone right", What's gone wrong" and the "Verdict".


■ Major League Baseball (MLB) shown on ESPN might get cancelled this season because of Covid-19.
- Slimmed-down baseball on TV has broadcast workers worried about job cuts.
- Major League Baseball pulls the rug out from Amazon Prime Video with shortened season.


■ Apple's Apple TV+ video streaming service is off to a very slow start and isn't generating revenue.


■ "Shame on Big Brother Naija."
Is Edafe Ufoma Holy on drugs or something? In a c-r-a-z-y and hilarious rant over MultiChoice and M-Net's latest 5th season of Big Brother Nigeria, "Ebuka, the presenter got penis erection while interviewing that lady with massive breasts", and "The most handsome of all the male contestants is a yellow skin guy but with little manhood".


■ DStv now charging the same for less, says a subscriber, while DStv Customer Service says "We do not have replacement channels".
"We are left with 20-year old repeats and channels which give us films with excessive violence".

■ If Facebook and social media is the new cigarettes, then this is what we must learn fro the 1970's.

■ Hollywood's lost summer.


■ Adewunmi Ogunsanya, MultiChoice Nigeria chairperson recovers after Covid-19.
Unadulterated joy blossoms in the bosoms of relatives, friends and associates of the successful, beefy lawyer who had coronavirus with the news about Erujeje's healing that has sent his people rejoicing and felicitating with him.

■ Australia's version of Farmer Wants a Wife wants to bring back "wholesome reality TV".

■ Nigeria finally adds sign language to national news briefings on TV.
- While South Africa's SABC puts out a new tender looking for sign language service providers for 3 years.

■ The future of video streaming services is ongoing subscriber churn.
Viewers will subscribe and unsubscribe as new content comes and goes that they might be interested in.

■ SABC chief financial officer Yolande van Biljon says the South African public broadcaster wants to get to a place where it doesn't have to ask for government bailouts again.

2020's Emmys gets a date, Oscars going hostless for a second time.

America's 72nd Annual Primetime Emmy Awards will take place on Sunday 20 September 2020 the Television Academy announced, while this year's Oscars will go hostless for a second year in February.

The 72nd Emmy Awards will once again be broadcast live on M-Net in South Africa and across sub-Saharan Africa on Monday morning 21 September, with a prime time rebroadcast later the same day, with the ceremony that's set to take place inside the Microsoft Theatre in downtown Los Angeles, California.

The Television Academy hasn't yet announced whether the Emmys will have a main host this year which went hostless in September 2019 for the 71st Emmy Awards.

In a separate announcement, this year's 92nd Academy Awards will definitely be hostless for a second year after it had no host in 2019 when Kevin Hart withdrew two days after he was announced as the would-be main host when several of his homophobic tweets from earlier years resurfaced.

The 92nd Academy Awards which will also be broadcast by M-Net, will take place on Sunday 9 February 2020 from inside the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles and shown live in South Africa and across sub-Saharan Africa early on Monday morning 10 February.

At the current two week Winter 2020 Television Critics Association (TCA) tour taking place at the Langham Huntington hotel in Pasadena, California, Karey Burke, entertainment president for America's ABC network, said that the Oscars again won't have a host.

"Together with the Academy, we have decided there will be no traditional host, repeating for us what worked last year. The Oscars will have huge entertainment values, big musical numbers, comedy and star power."

"We expect that we’re going to have a very commercial set of nominations and a lot of incredible elements have come together that make us think we are going to have a very entertaining show again."

BREAKING. 62nd Emmys on M-Net on Monday, 30 August 2010!

You're reading it here first. The 62nd Annual Primetime Emmy Awards should be going out on M-Net on Monday, 30 August 2010.

I just received word from NBC in America that the live Emmys will be broadcast there on Sunday, 29 August 2010. M-Net always have it the very next day, which would make it the Monday.

The nominations will be announced on Thursday, 8 July, 2010.

Programming note: The 61st PrimeTime Emmy Awards!

Programming note: Once again thanks to M-Net, South African TV viewers can catch the The 61st PrimeTime Emmy Awards.

The host this year is funnyman Neil Patrick Harris and it takes place this year in the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles. It takes place this coming Sunday, 20 September.

This year you will again have 2 ways of watching it - and you're reading it here first:

1.The 61st PrimeTime Emmy Awards will once again go out LIVE in South Africa. Catch it at 03:00 this coming Monday morning, 21 September on M-Net Movies (DStv 103).

2.The 61st PrimeTime Emmy Awards will be broadcast as a recorded live show on Monday night, 21 September on M-Net at 21:30.

In addition you can catch:

Live from the Red Carpet: The 61st PrimeTime Emmy Awards, from 00:00 on Monday morning, 21 September on E! Entertainment (it's on until 10:00).

Giuliana Rancic and Ryan Seacrest with the usual red carpet arrival interviews, fashion reviews, and celebrity gossip.

Fashion Police: The 61st PrimeTime Emmy Awards on Tuesday, 22 September on E! Entertainment (DStv 124) at 22:00.

The E! celebrity panelist rewind the hot and the not hot of this year's red carpet styles.

DStv didn't approach me for an interview with Giuliana Rancic who talked to some South African press. Come on, DStv. Don't you know i LOVE Giuliana?