TV NEWS ROUND-UP. Today's interesting TV stories to read - 27 July 2020.

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


■ Political interference increasing at the South African public broadcaster.
The SABC doesn't have enough money but politicians want to prevent the struggling and bloated SABC from firing staffers. The SABC says "this is a political issue and this is a repeat of what happened in 2018".
- 45% of the SABC's expenditure is on salaries and only 21% on content, compared to eMedia Holdings spending 11% on staff and MultiChoice spending 15% on staffers and 43% on content.


■ Nigeria's minister of information, Lai Mohammed who doesn't like MultiChoice allegedly plots to get the latest season of Big Brother Naija on DStv cancelled and shut down.
Told the Nigerian Broadcasting Commission (NBC) to take Big Brother Nigeria off the air so that it doesn't look as if it's his plan, and using Covid-19 as the excuse.
- Lai Mohammed says he didn't ask the NBC in a memo to suspend Big Brother Naija.

■ The former Disney actress Maitland Ward claims pornography saved her from Hollywood.

■ With almost no other live sports on TV, the start of baseball in America with MLB lifts the ratings of ESPN in the United States by 232%.

■ O, is it Over? After Associated Magazines ended O, The Oprah Magazine in South Africa, is it over for Oprah'sprint magazine in the United States after 20 years as well?
 - Ebony magazine is also forced into bankruptcy.

■ Mangaliso Ngema names himself as the actor who was fired from Quizzical Pictures' set of Lithapo after sexual harassment allegations at the SABC2 drama.
The actor claims he was adjusting himself in front of the actress and touched himself inappropriately because his costume was too tight.

■ Tarek El Moussa of Flip and Flop on HGTV (DStv 177) and Heather Rae Young are engaged.

■ Why so many WWE wrestling stars have lost their last names.

■ Cecil Sunkwa-Mills, MultChoice Ghana managing director, says cinemas in the country must open despite the shutdown of the Covid-19 pandemic.
"I know there’s Covid-19, but I think we need to bring cinemas back; with some hand sanitisers and so on. Cinemas provide the first revenue for filmmakers."

■ How the world turned on celebrities.

■ Trolls, tweets and famous friends: The vicious PR war between Johnny Depp and Amber Heard.

■ A curious Broadcasting Code.
Nigeria is changing that country's broadcasting code with new amendments after having changed it in 2019. Lai Mohammed (who else?) plans to take broadcaster's and pay-TV operator's exclusive content away.

■ Zambia's government has demanded that the private commercial broadcaster in that country, Prime TV, broadcast Covid-19 TV commercials for free.

■ No, Paw Patrol on Nickelodeon (DStv 305) with a police dog isn't cancelled despite the White House publicst Kayleigh McEanany claiming it is.

Confusion and uncertainty growing after reports that Nigeria has cancelled MultiChoice's recently-issued licence to continue with its GOtv digital terrestrial TV service; MultiChoice says its GOtv licence has not been revoked.

Confusion and uncertainty is growing after the Nigerian government has reportedly cancelled the recently-extended pay-TV licence of MultiChoice's GOtv service in the West African country, while MultiChoice says the licence for its service stands and has not been revoked.

Nigerian media are reporting that the GOtv licence that was re-issued in March 2019 granting MultiChoice Nigeria another 3-years to run GOtv, has been withdrawn.

According to Lai Mohammed, Nigeria's minister of information and culture, the GOtv licence has been withdrawn due to irregularities.

MultiChoice in a statement, in response to a media enquiry, told TVwithThinus late on Wednesday however that "The MultiChoice Group can confirm that its GOtvlicense in Nigeria was successfully renewed in March 2019 by the relevant authority. It has not been cancelled, revoked or nullified".

Besides running its DStv Nigeria service targeting higher-income customers, MultiChoice Nigeria also runs GOtv Nigeria, MultiChoice's digital terrestrial television (DTT) aimed at lower-income households - and it's this licence that was apparently revoked.

According to Nigeria's Daily Independent newspaper, MultiChoice's GOtv licence was revoked by Nigeria's federal government because of a growing N2.5 billion scandal (R96 million) that has engulfed Nigeria's National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), headed by Modibbo Ishaq Kawu, and the regulator responsible for issuing the recent 3-year licence to MultiChoice Nigeria.

If the licence has been nullified, it means that MultiChoice Nigeria and GOtv Nigeria have become collateral damage as part of broader Nigerian government infighting and a recent investigation that was done by Nigeria's Independent Corrupt Practices and other related Offences Commission (ICPC) into the NBC.

Lai Mohammed is reportedly locked in an expanding court battle against Modibbo Ishaq Kawu as director-general of the National Broadcasting Commission in Nigeria.

In a letter on 29 March 2019, Lai Mohammed reportedly wrote that "The decision to renew the GOtv licence for 3 years negate the position of the white paper on the DSO (Digital Switch Over), making it not only illegal but a willful disrespect for our laws and national institutions".

"Recall that the ministerial task force on the DSO, which I chair, had specifically ruled that all pay digital terrestrial television (DTT) companies would no longer be allowed to self-carry and would have to go to one of the two licenced signal distributors for that function."

"That decision was made based on the government white paper which puts signal distributors in charge of transmission and separates them from content providers."

"No part of the licence fees paid by MultiChoice Nigeria Ltd. should be touched by the NBC until a negotiated agreement has been signed, subject to my approval," wrote Lai Mohammed.

Nigeria's two signal distributors are Integrated Television Services (ITS) and Pinnacle Communications Limited, meaning MultiChoice Nigeria will have to switch to using one of these two for its GOtv pay-TV content. 

Furious TStv dealers, agents and installers in Nigeria stage public protest at shambolic pay-TV start-up's headquarters; demand millions back they've paid over a year ago to sell TStv decoders they never received.

Furious TStv dealers, agents and installers in Nigeria have staged a public protest in Abuja, accusing the Nigeria's TStv satellite pay-TV operator of massive fraud and demanding their money back that they had paid over a year ago for TStv decoders that never arrived.

The shambolic TStv had already been caught out over multiple fake promises to consumers, a litany of false starting dates and even pirating stolen TV channel signals.

Angry TStv dealers on Tuesday held a public protest at TStv's headquarters in Abuja where they were not allowed to enter and with TStv CEO and managing director Bright Echefu refusing to answer their questions.

They are demanding a refund of more than N1 billion ($2.74 million / R39 million) that they had made more than a year ago to Telecom Satellite TV (TStv) in pre-payments for TStv decoders, satellite dishes and other accessories that haven't been delivered as part of the company's false promises to agents, customers and the Nigerian government.

TStv that tried to compete with MultiChoice Africa's DStv and China's StarTimes imploded with lies and fraud, and in April yet again claimed to start selling TStv decoders after multiple postponed dates and a failed launch in October 2017.

The claimed "Sassy" decoder that no longer looked like any of the stolen images TStv earlier used, and that was to be sold without a satellite dish or LNB, is apparently nowhere to be found.

After the failed launch, with TStv first promising multiple TV channels it had no channel carriage contracts for, and blatantly pirating stolen TV signals, also dropped its false claims of  free WiFi - the Sassy isn't capable to provide it.

Dealers and agents who were lured by TStv with fake and false claims to hand over money to sell decoders and do installations are now demanding their money back.

They are accusing Bright Echefu, as well as Nigeria's clueless minister of information, Lai Mohammed who gave TStv a three year tax waiver, of fraud and deceit.

In a statement protesting TStv dealers say "When TStv launched operations last year October with the aid of minister of information Lai Mohammed, a lot of us took up their dealership with N13.6 million each being paid for TStv decoder and accessories with vouchers".

"But as we speak not a single decoder has been given to the dealers, with several failed promises and deceit by CEO Bright Echefu since last year October. We have to speak out and let the whole country knows what we are going through, more so since TStv is still collecting money from innocent Nigeria."

Today at tstv headquarters in Abuja. Dealers demanding for their money. Tstv turns out to be a scam aided by Alhaji Lai Muhammad and malam kawu madibo of NBC pic.twitter.com/eYoYin5DDu

— TstvSuperDealers (@TstvD) October 16, 2018

TStv staffers in Nigeria have allegedly gone unpaid since April and TStv's headquarters has apparently been mostly deserted after 80% of the TStv staff got fired who have also been owed months of unpaid salaries.

My friend works there. Hasnt been paid since April. The went to work one morning to find the whole place deserted after sacking more than 80% of them and still oweing them 4 months salary.

— Emeka Okoro (@lewisemekaokoro) October 16, 2018

The scam we all fell for who will save us now... After paying millions of Naira since last year to @tstvafrica the MD has refused to answer our calls.... We go to their office and they lock us outside.... We are tired of these lies.. Someone pls save us ooooo... @segalink https://t.co/TOyFSiqxzK

— Babajide (@Babajide3) October 16, 2018

The last time Bright Echefu made a public statement was in late August, when he issued a statement saying "From the date we announced TStv, it has been fight all the way".

"I doubt if a week passed without us quenching one fire or the other. We didn’t anticipate that there would be war. We were also not trained to fight in the arena we were pushed into."

"The kinds of weapons our enemies would later contend us with, showed they had stocked their armoury waiting for a time like now."

"We may not have their kind of money, neither their kinds of weapons, ''connections'' and networks but one thing I sure know we had more than them was a determined spirit and a steadfast God. A God who doesn’t fail."

On 20 August Bright Echefu said "Our struggles drained us financially and pitched us against all good meaning Nigerians, subscribers and dealers that believed in us. We were wrestled even down to our satellite providers but our God is ever faithful."