kykNET moves Kwêla to yet another timeslot just 5 months after the last change, adds Oppi Kassie documentary series looking at the history of South Africa's television.

kykNET (DStv 144) is moving its weekly Afrikaans magazine show Kwêla to a new timeslot again from this weekend - now to Sundays at 18:00 - and is adding a new documentary series, Oppi Kassie, looking at the history of South African television.

Just 5 months after inexplicably moving Kwêla in mid-July 2017 from its longtime weekday berth on Wednesdays at 20:00, to Sunday nights at 20:00, kykNET is now moving the show to an earlier timeslot on Sundays from this weekend where it will now be shown at 18:00.

The 20:00 timeslot on Sunday nights have had a negatively impact on Kwêla ratings the past 5 months with kykNET that gave Afrikaans viewers a lot of weekend "viewing homework".

Besides Kwêla that moved to Sunday nights, kykNET also shunted its other weekly entertainment magazine show, Bravo! from Thursdays to Sunday nights in July. Both shows are produced for kykNET by Homebrew Films.

With both interview-heavy shows that moved as part of broader kykNET schedule changes in July, having two Afrikaans entertainment magazine shows both doorstopped on the TV schedule on the same Sunday night, created a lot of "watch work" from the same genre for viewers, coming at the end of a week when viewers want to relax with less taxing fare.

Courting a highly similar audience as M-Net (DStv 101), the kykNET programming also started to directly compete with its sister channel on DStv in terms of viewership overlap, with a lot of viewers who would usually watch Bravo! and Kwêla on kykNET, but also Carte Blanche and the Sunday night 20:00 movie on M-Net, who have been forced to make difficult choices or channel hop from the one to the other during ad breaks.

kykNET now says Kwêla is moving to 18:00 from Sunday evening with "the new 18:00 timeslot giving viewers the opportunity to approach their Sunday evening's more leisurely".

The format of Kwêla remains unchanged with anchor presenter Hannes van Wyk and field presenters Johnny Davids, Therese Benade-Bam, Minki van der Westhuizen, Willem Botha, Pieter Koen and Andre Weideman.

Kwêla will be followed by the Afrikaans eNuus at 19:00 and Bravo! at 19:30.

The Afrikaans film slot shown on kykNET on Sunday nights is also gone but is likely a temporary change.

kykNET ran the fliekNET pop-up channel on MultiChoice's DStv satellite pay-TV platform over December 2017 and January 2018 that saturated Afrikaans viewers' appetite for films and required the acquisition of a lot of film broadcasting rights.

Instead of Sunday night films kykNET is starting a new half-hour documentary series on Sunday at 20:00 entitled Oppi Kassie looking at the history of South African television.

The first season of Oppie Kassie will see double episodes broadcast and filling the 20:00 hour.

The first episode on Sunday will look at how television and TV technology first arrived in South Africa and was finally "allowed" after years of political resistance.

The second episode looks at the big broadcasting challenges that came after the government gave TV in South Africa the go-ahead. How would the SABC find and train enough people in doing TV broadcasts in a very short time, and would the SABC be able to create enough quality material to put on the air?

Programming note: Bravo! starting tonight at 19:30 on kykNET is another attempt at a local entertainment news magazine show.

Bravo!, another new local weekly entertainment news magazine show starts tonight at 19:30 on kykNET (DStv 111) and whilst publications who don't care for facts says Tammy-Anne Fortuin will be a part of the show, I can tell you she won't.

Precious little information about Bravo! exists although it starts today - is the show another rush job in a notoriously difficult TV genre to do and do really well? Henre Pretorius, Hannes van Wyk and Tracey Lange from Good Hope FM are the three main presenters; experience and history indicates that it might change and sooner than viewers might think, as the show evolves.

The Afrikaans half hour Bravo! which I was told a few months ago is basically replacing Glitterati on kykNET as a new attempt to bring some much-needed glam content to the channel, is produced by Homebrew Films also responsible for the similar weekly All Access Mzansi on Mzansi Magic (DStv 107).

It used to be that red carpet interviewers and presenters doing profile pieces had some pedigree - not anymore with Bravo! which just like Flash! on SABC3 and the horrid string of SABC1 also-ran'sseemed to have picked people that makes you shake your head in confusion. Only Henre Pretorius has bona fide experience within this genre as the first co-presenter of the youth magazine show Jip.

Insiders gave me several names of people who auditioned for the presenter role that eventually went to Tracey Lange. Tammy-Anne Fortuin is busy studying and networking in New York and won't do inserts for the show sources tell me.

Also as per usual and although it exists, specific episode information - let alone the latest real actual announcement that Bravo! is starting - isn't/wasn't send to the press. The first episode tonight as far as I can tell will feature inserts of the new magazine launch of Grazia and the recent Fiestas where the Bravo! cameras were seen.