ADVISORY. M-Net CEO Patricia Scholtemeyer is now Patricia van Rooyen.

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Update that Contacts folder, TV biz.

Patricia Scholtemeyer, CEO of M-Net will now be known as Patricia van Rooyen.

I'm told the very private M-Net top exec got married a week ago. She was appointed as CEO of the pay broadcaster at the beginning of 2008.
Congratulations!

BREAKING. M-Net's Vuka! Awards honours the best local public service TV adverts; amazing 'Selinah' commercial the outright winner.

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M-Net's annual Vuka! Awards honouring the best in public service TV adverts in South Africa once again bestowed trophies onto deserving commercials with Egg Films and Ogilvy Johannesburg's amazing ''Selinah'' advert about HIV/Aids and the benefit of antiretroviral drugs scooping 6 awards in total including winning the professional category.

The Vuka! Awards held earlier this evening at the Theatre on the Track in Kyalami saw the film and advertising industry gather for the 11th Vuka! Awards to honour the year's best commercials for charities and public causes. ''Thanks for giving a little bit of heart and a lot of love to charities out there,'' said presenter Kabelo ''KB'' Ngakane. ''Thanks for holding up a mirror about all the crazy things we're doing.''

And crazy things this year's Vuka! Awards entries (116 in total and up from 67 last year) did indeed address. Commercials ranged in scope from HIV/Aids, xenophobia, a lack of South Africa history under the youth (to promote the Apartheid Museum), discrimination, drunk driving, animal cruelty, missing children and abuse against women. ''Without M-Net most of the public service announcements (PSA's) you see simply won't exist,''said Kabelo Ngakane.

These commercials will be shown on M-Net and DStv across Africa over the next year. ''The Vuka! Awards is designed to give support to worthy causes,'' said Patricia Scholtemeyer, M-Net CEO. ''It gives all creative souls the opportunity to use the essence of our business and the powerful medium of television.'' Patricia Scholtemeyer said more needs to be done to foster growth in PSA's development and creation. ''Expert mentorship and skills transfer is important and we call on the industry, and we [M-Net] will also do so ourselves to give support.''

e.tv and M-Net doing brilliant work with South Africa's process of digital TV migration; says ''DVB-T is the right choice for South Africa.''

Both e.tv and M-Net are doing simply terrific work (despite huge uncertainty, a tedious government and several regulatory setbacks) in forging ahead with South Africa's process of switching over from analogue TV broadcasts to digital broadcasts, a process known as ''digital migration'' that will result in digital terrestrial television (DTT).

The two commercial broadcasters - the free to air e.tv and pay channel M-Net - are working together for the common good of South Africa's DTT future and will be expanding its current DVB-T trial to the new DVB-T2 - the latest upgraded version of this digital broadcasting standard. While the sadly confused South African government lately made akward noises and seemingly want to backstrack on the already agreed upon DVB-T standard - the most widely used standard worldwide for DTT  that the government already approved in 2008 - e.tv and M-Net are working really very hard on testing, refining, enhancing and putting infrastructure in place for DVB-T broadcasts.

M-Net and e.tv - working together in this, as well as individually - need to be commended for their really stellar work in working towards DTT. This process is costing these broadcasters millions of rands on their balance sheets as they're working to create a better broadcasting technology infrastructure for viewers in the future. Both broadcasters today announced plans to bring the DVB-T2 to a group of Soweto residents who will be trailing the new standard after the broadcasters started lab tests with DVB-T2 at the beginning of this month. Trial participants in Soweto are currently being recruited. DVB-T2 also provides the possibility for high definition services to be provided in DTT broadcasts.

''DVB is the right choice for South Africa,'' says Marcel Golding, group CEO of e.tv. ''T2 is a more efficient version of DVB-T and is available should we choose to use it.''

''We are aiming for these trials to be as inclusive as possible,'' says Patricia Scholtemeyer, M-Net CEO who says that once the trial participants have had time to fully experience the DTT technology ''we will be inviting the industry bodies, academia and the media to share in the trial experiences and results.''

ALSO READ: Government warned to ''very carefully consider all the implications'' of changing South Africa's DVB-T digital television standard.
ALSO READ: ISDB-Tb instead of DVB-T for South Africa's digital terrestrial television (DTT) will be difficult, impossible, expensive, says Sadiba.
ALSO READ: M-Net and e.tv unite over DVB standard for digital terrestrial television in South Africa.

INTERVIEW. M-Net CEO, Patricia Scholtemeyer: ''We're hoping to take TV soaps to a new level in this country.''

In an exclusive interview I spoke with Patricia Scholtemeyer, M-Net CEO about the exciting developments at the pay broadcaster and how M-Net is weathering the storm as a broadcaster in a very fast changing TV industry rocked by a global recession and a digital revolution.

Amongst the things discussed, Patricia Scholtemeyer talked to me about how M-Net is adapting by further closing the gap between the broadcasting dates of TV shows in America and showing it to South African audiences, the development of an innovative new soapie for the channel, and why Nigeria and the SABC is important to M-Net.

For my complete must-read interview with Patricia Scholtemeyer and her thoughts on M-Net, click on READ MORE below.

M-Net developing a brand-new ''really unique'' soapie.

I can reveal that M-Net is developing and working on creating a brand-new local soapie for South Africa. M-Net's soapie (and South Africa's longest running local weekday soapie) Egoli will sign off with its last new original episode on Tuesday 2 March at 19:30. M-Net is looking at creating a brand-new and unique soapie for South African viewers who can already choose between six local and five international daily soaps.

''We're working on the development of a new local soap which I think will be something really unique that viewers can look forward to in South Africa,'' Patricia Scholtemeyer, CEO of M-Net told me. ''It will have elements that haven't been seen before in this country.''

''I'm told it's not a first in the world, I'm told it's a second,'' she says. ''Apparently there was another soap done in a similar vein in the UK some years back which was very successful. So that's very exciting for us because that's a whole new ball game. And we're hoping to take soaps to a new level in this country. That's a very big project for us which we're very excited about. Of course Idols will also be coming back this year. We're very excited about doing a new season of Idols which is going to be even better than before.''

Guess who I ran into yesterday? M-Net CEO Patricia Scholtemeyer.

I ran into M-Net's CEO, Patricia Scholtemeyer yesterday evening at the O.R. Tambo airport in Johannesburg.

After a flight from hell I arrived back at Johannesburg at 18:00, an hour after I left at 17:00. We had to turn back halfway because all the pilot said was: ''We can not longer maintain cabin pressure, you might have to use the oxygen masks'' before we started dropping rapidly and went back.

We got off the plane, I came around the corner of the C-section gates and ran straight into Patricia Scholtemeyer.

I won't reveal what we talked about, it was a private conversation after all, but we chatted briefly, I related my airline woes and how scared I - and some of the other journalists covering TV who were flying with me - were. We had a good laugh.

And it just shows that you never know what high-flyer you're going to run into at the airport.

BREAKING. M-Net SIMPLY LOVES Carte Blanche.

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M-Net simply loves Carte Blanche. Of course they have many children, but M-Net's top brass is particularly proud of their flagship investigate journalism magazine show Carte Blanche with executive producer George Mazarakis that is still going very strong after more than 2 decades on the air on Sundays at 19:00 on M-Net.

(On Monday I will bring you an EXCLUSIVE in-depth and revealing interview with George Mazarakis right here, so make sure you click back for that!)

Many, many TV productions would wish to get the ringing endorsement that Carte Blanche just got from Patricia Scholtemeyer, CEO of M-Net.

''Thank you very much for Carte Blanche,'' she said earlier this week when the show's Making a Difference campaign helped with yet another medical infrastructure upgrade. You can read my exclusive story on that RIGHT HERE.)

''We're VERY proud of Carte Blanche and everything they're doing,'' said Patricia Scholtemeyer. ''They've been on the air with us for more than 20 years, and we're very much looking forward to at least another 20. George – you might have a few more grey hairs by then,'' she joked.