TV NEWS ROUND-UP. Today's interesting TV reports and articles to read - 25 February 2021.

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

■ Namibian Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) TV sport anchor Sharon Tjimbundu in online nudes share scandal after video and naked photos of her with her exposed breasts are shared on social media.

"I hate myself and my life right now," says the TV personality and influencer who says she needs to make better choices.

■ Video streaming vs pay-TV: Which option is better?

■ Is it time to cancel your DStv subscription? Here are your options.

■ The creator of High School Musical: The Musical on Disney+ about what's coming in season 2.

■ Some of the Marvel shows on Disney+ might run for multiple seasons.

- Falcon & the Winter Soldier on Disney+ will only be 6 episodes because the series is very expensive.

- Disney+ will stay with the set-up of releasing a new episode of a show weekly because it keeps the buzz: "It's like a new opening weekend every week".

■ Riverdale's Archie, KJ Apa seen on M-Net (DStv 101) is turning Shannen Doherty - says it sometimes feel like he's in jail on set: "There are so many restrictions on what I can and can't do".

■ NFL player in America threatens to release ESPN reporter Jamison Henley's strip club photos.

■ How a TV critic turned to podcasts during the Covid-19 pandemic.

■ Why Tiger Woods was driving to a TV series that Discovery Inc. is filming on his own just before his terrible car crash.

■ Who invented the so-called "TV Dinner"?

■ Should straight actors play gay roles? The TV writer Russell T. Davies says no.

■ Former Canadian TV exec convicted on fraud.

■ Issue 6 of IOL Television, covering some of South Africa's latest reality TV.

■ "Getting work has never been harder": TV and film workers in Britain share their stories.

■ The former American talk show host Ricki Lake was naked during her marriage proposal and was enjoying a nude soak in the jacuzzi with her man when he popped the question.

The SABC's retrenchment process is set to be finalised by Friday.

TV NEWS ROUND-UP. Today's interesting TV reports and articles to read - 24 February 2021.

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

■ Netflix has an elite team of 23 insider executives, known as the "L-staff" who make the biggest decisions at the video streaming service.

■  Apple's biggest mistake was not buying Netflix.

■ Independent Media's Debashine Thangevelo will now do a weekly column on Sundays, "Remote Access", in the new Insider supplement, looking at what's happening on TV.

■ The Black News Channel is looking to mark a mark in America's competitive TV news channels landscape while looking at news through the lens of black Americans.

■ Al Jazeera (DStv 406 / StarSat 257) is launching a new rightwing news platform, Rightly, that will be led by a former Fox News journalist.

- Al Jazeera staff dismayed at the Rightly launch.

■ A new Netflix hack understands your TV obsessions even more than you do.

■ The showrunner of The Walking Dead on FOX (DStv 125 / StarSat 131) reveals how the show filled the extra 6 episodes.

■ This is why Star is Disney's next big salvo in its Disney+ streaming war with Netflix.

■ Video streamers are looking outside the lines:

As subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) services have become all the rage in America and are damaging traditional pay-TV services, for many - especially smaller services - the real money is to be made internationally.

■ So-called "cord-cutting" in America - consumers who abandon and cancel their traditional pay-TV subscription - has almost doubled in 2020.

- The worst of cord-cutting is over?

■ How The Bachelor reality show in America missed an opportunity for representation.

- Why Chris Harrison's benching from The Bachelor should be made permanent.

■ Disney, Discovery Inc., WarnerMedia and all of the others are fixated on the subscriber numbers for their new streaming services but the big question is their content spend and whether they're going to keep it up and invest even more to keep pace with the near-bottomless wallets of Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Apple TV+.

■ Ultraviolet television helps us understand how animals see the world.

■ Will Facebook become a revenue stream for TV news?

■ Ireland struggles with the same collection problems as South Africa's SABC TV Licence.

■ TV's tech war: TV-set makers are increasingly pitting the rival technologies of LED and OLED against each other. The result: Better screens for customers.

■ Riverdale seen on M-Net (DStv 101) leaves viewers gasping as Archie and Betty strips naked for steamy shower sex scene.

- Why British TV viewers no longer complain about sex.

■ Study: Too much TV or mobile screen time can trigger suicidal thoughts in teenagers.

■ New Chinese crime drama TV series, Hunting, filming in Nairobi, Kenya.

■ The former South African YO.TV presenter Jeza gets 6 matric distinctions.

■ From Sex and the City, to Succession and all of the new shows and new seasons: Will TV confront Covid-19 or ignore it?

Riverdale, seen on M-Net, dedicates rest of third season to Luke Perry following his death this week after a massive stroke.

Riverdale seen on M-Net (DStv 101) is dedicating the remainder of the third season of the series to Luke Perry (52) who died on Monday after suffering a massive stroke, with the latest episode that was broadcast on Wednesday in the United States that added an "In Memoriam" card to the end-credits, and with M-Net also adding its own full-screen slides on the M-Net and M-Net City (DStv 115) channels before and after the episode it showed.

Production on Riverdale shut down for a few days to give the cast and crew time to grieve.

Riverdale showrunner Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa announced that the remainder of Riverdale's latest season will be dedicated to Luke Perry.

It's not yet clear what will happen to the character or how Luke Perry's abrupt death will impact the storyline and whether the character of Fred will be written out, killed off or recast. 

In Wednesday's episode - the 14th episode of the third season - Fred saved his son Archie's life after another bot Ricky tried to kill him with a knife.

"Tonight's episode of Riverdale finds Fred doing what he does best - helping Archie. It is dedicated to Luke, as all episodes will be for the rest of our run," wrote Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa.

Going through pictures on my way to set. From the early days. With Luke in the middle. Our heart, always. Tonight’s episode of #Riverdale finds Fred doing what he does best--helping Archie. It is dedicated to Luke, as all episodes will be for the rest of our run. 💔❤️🏆 pic.twitter.com/Nx8iCFBoMe

— RobertoAguirreSacasa (@WriterRAS) March 6, 2019

The second season of Riverdale is currently broadcast on M-Net City (DStv 115) with the third season that is on M-Net (DStv 101).

South Africa and M-Net are 7 episodes behind the United States on Riverdale, meaning the episode with the "In Memoriam" card attached to the episode will be broadcast in Africa on M-Net at the end of April.

Meanwhile M-Net added its own In Memoriam slide before and after the current episodes of Riverdale shown on M-Net and M-Net City.

TV NEWS ROUND-UP. Today's interesting TV stories to read from TVwithThinus - 11 January 2019.

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

■ The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) admits it has underpaid thousands of temporary staffers for years.
"This error should not have occurred, and we apologise to any casual employee who has been underpaid."

■ MultiChoice's DStv Now is broken - and things don't look good.
Problems in Kenya and MultiChoice tells a customer: "We do not have the turnaround time yet for when the services will be back on."

■ Netflix interested in opening a production hub in Toronto, Canada.

■ People from Cameroon picket outside the SABC in Cape Town.

■ British pay-TV customers actually pay a "loyalty penalty" for staying with one company too long instead of switching.

■ German viewers are different: They continue to pay for traditional pay-TV while the country is also seeing massive growth in the use of video streaming services.
Germany also has one of the highest levels of smart TV ownership in Europe.

■ As Anson Mount takes over as Captain Pike and hopefully brings more stability to Star Trek: Discovery's second season, his command style will hopefully mark a return to classic Trek storytelling.


■ Mozambique arrests another journalist.
Amade Abubacar, working for the state-owned Radio e Televisao Comunitaria Nacedje de Macomia in Mozambique's northern Cabo Delgado province, was grabbed by police at a bus stop while conducting interviews.


■ A 1950s TV show had a fear-mongering conman named Trump who wanted to build a wall.

■ A fishing boat from Deadliest Catch on Discovery Channel (DStv 121) capsizes, killing 3 in notoriously violent waters.

■ Turkey in shock as horrifying family secrets unfold on live television - ending with the police showing up and arresting an entire family as the audience and presenter applause.

■ Has Netflix won the battle for your TV screen?

■ The abusive has-been Jeremy Clarkson formerly of Top Gear on the BBC, slams the BBC for "suffocating the life out of everything".
Forgetting that he tried to suffocate the life out of the Top Gear producer Oisin Tymon who he physically and verbally attacked in 2015.

■ beIN resumes transmission in Egypt two days after the pay-TV operator started a blackout over a carriage dispute with Egypt's CNE over the commercial terms of providing sports content.

■ Kevin Hunter, husband of Wendy of The Wendy Williams Show on BET (DStv 129) tore into talk show's staffers blaming them for the stories about his alleged philandering.
Staffers thought he was going to give them an update about Wendy's bad health. Instead Kevin ranted for almost an hour about the leaks coming out of the show to the press.

■ A shirtless AJ Kapa and Cole Sprouse of Riverdale seen on M-Net (DStv 101) get wet and wild during a male bonding vacation in New Zealand as they frolick in Lake Wakatipu.

■ The best future-focused science fiction film and TV coming in 2019.

■ Kit Harington of Game of Thrones seen on M-Net (DStv 101) tells GQ Australia that "everyone was broken" by the time filming on the upcoming 8th and final season wrapped.

■ The Sopranos at 20: Television learned the wrong lessons from The Sopranos.

■ Surviving R. Kelly and the unstoppable power of true-crime documentaries.

■ The Bachelor's focus on Colton Underwood's virginity shows a bigger problem.
This season highlights the strange lens through which we as a society view sex.

■ 11 bizarre reality shows that weren't too weird for TV.
From Sperm Race to Splash, to a 23-year old naked man confined to a tiny apartment.

■ New American drama series, The Passage, is decent, at a time when decent might not be enough.

■ IMDb, the film and TV website owned by Amazon, is launching a free streaming video channel, IMDb Freedive, that will be available in the United States on its website.

■ Showmax slows everything down to 60fps for a derivative looking teaser trailer for its local drama series The Girl from St Agnes, copying MTV's Teen Wolf and Netflix's Elite with someone running through the woods and swimming in the school's pool.

RENEWED. New seasons for Arrow, Dynasty, Supernatural, Supergirl, Riverdale, Legends of Tomorrow, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, The Flash, Jane the Virgin and Black Lightning.

Several American TV series just got renewed for further seasons, meaning more superhero action and some Cristal for Cristal in Dynasty.

America's CW network has renewed Arrow for a 7th season, The Flash for a 5th season, Legends of Tomorrow for a 4th season, Supergirl for a 4th season, Jane the Virgin for a 5th season and Riverdale for a 3rd season that are all shows seen in South Africa and across Africa on M-Net (DStv 101) on MultiChoice's DStv satellite pay-TV platform.

The new Black Lightning superhero show that just started has also been renewed for a second season, while Crazy Ex-Girlfriend on VUZU (DStv 116) has been renewed for a 4th and likely final season.

The spooky series Supernatural broadcast on SABC3 and that will likely see it's M-Net broadcast moved to 1Magic (DStv 103), has been renewed for a 14th season.

The reboot of Dynasty available on Netflix South Africa as episodes are broadcast on a weekly basis in America, has been renewed for a second season despite low ratings - very likely because of the lucrative international broadcasting rights deal with Netflix.

"We are proud to have such a deep bench of great returning series for 2018-19," says Mark Pedowitz, the CW president in a statement. "By picking these 10 series up for next season, we have a terrific selection of programming to choose from. And I'm especially happy that we'll continue to work with the incredibly talented casts, producers and writers who create the series our fans are so passionate about."

Valor, also from the CW, and also seen on M-Net has had terrible ratings and is very likely cancelled after its first season of 13 episodes.

DAILY TV NEWS ROUND-UP. Today's interesting TV stories to read from TVwithThinus - 11 October 2017.

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


■ Sexual predator Harvey Weinstein over the weekend begged:
"I am desperate for your help," he wrote to Hollywood executives in a private email, "my board is thinking of firing me".
- Harvey Weinstein's name dropped from the credits from all shows; TWC (The Weinstein Company) even considering a total name change to try and save the production and distribution company.
- Another actress comes forward to say Harvey Weinstein humiliated her in a London hotel room wearing only a bathrobe.
- MUST READ: The New Yorker on how rapist Harvey Weinstein sexually abused women.

- Awkward as Ronan Farrow tells Rachel Maddow why NBC News passed and apparently didn't want to do his Harvey Weinstein story.
- Also tells how he was personally threatened with a lawsuit by Harvey Weinstein.
- NBC insiders are livid that NBC News president Noah Oppenheim killed the Harvey Weinstein story.

- Fascinating article from The Guardian in which 20 of Hollywood's high-profile actors and directors remain silent and go "no comment" when asked to speak about Harvey Weinstein.
- Stupid Donna Karan dig herself a hole by responding that "women are asking for it".
- Gwyneth Paltrow and Angelie Jolie say Harvey Weinstein sexually assaulted them.
-  Yet another woma, Louisette Geiss, shares a Harvey Weinstein masturbating story.
- At The Weinstein Company (TWC) staffers "are reeling"; TWC future now in doubt.


■ Hilarie Burton says Ben Affleck groped her on MTV's TRL in 2003.
"I was a kid," said Hilarie Burton.


■ If you watch 1 of these 4 types of TV shows,
you're highly likely to be a narcissist.

■ 2017's TV lessons:
"In the age of Trump comfort food TV is working".

■ And another take on the same theme: The Golden Age of Sad TV.

■ Swaziland's state-controlled TV, Swazi TV, censors a public protest.
Two Swazi TV reporters went to go and cover the public protest by government workers but the Swazi TV CEO summoned them and killed the story.

■ Oprah Winfrey went to the bank for the first time in 29 years
to deposit a $2 million cheque. (And reveals she doesn't have an ATM PIN).

■ Kwesé TV has applied for a possible pay-TV licence in Swaziland.
Asked the Swaziland Communication Commission (SCCOM) in 2016 already for a licence. The excuse for Swaziland's delay as with everything to do with the country's struggling TV industry - is this time "the absence of a licensing framework".

■ "Don't end up disappointed" by TStv.
Nigeria's new pay-TV operator busy with fraud and lying about TV channels and content it didn't acquire legally has "undertones" that's disturbing. and TStv "should also stop making false promises to would-be subscribers".

■ Riverdale showrunner promises a "sexier" second season with more drama and danger.
The second season will continue right after the shooting of Archie's dad.

■ In Zimbabwe, CBZ also pulls the plug on DStv Zimbabwe payments for MultiChoice Zimbabwe.

■ With Marvel's Inhumans now also on TV as a new drama series on M-Net (DStv 101)
the question is asked how many Marvel series is too many?

■ Millennials are at odds with their parents over binge-watching TV.
Older people strill watch TV the traditional way, while young adults watch Netflix, Amazon and streaming services.

DAILY TV NEWS ROUND-UP. Today's interesting TV stories to read from TVwithThinus - 13 September 2017.

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

■ The former SABC Lotus FM DJ Vikash Mathura facing fraud court charges.
Allegedly billed Ellerines over R887 000 in secret on-air ad deal at Lotus FM on behalf of the SABC.

■ British government orders in-depth review of FOX's proposed mega Sky take-over deal.
The British government orders a full scale investigation of 21st Century Fox's proposed deal to take over the UK's pay-TV service Sky, and also wants a review of Broadcasting Standards.
It will take 6 months. At issue is also questions over the ongoing editorial independence of Sky News (DStv 402).
- It's a big setback for the Murdochs who hoped to avoid a thorough investigation.

■ How Omarosa is the most despised person in the White House.
The trashy American reality TV star now working for Donald Trump constantly plots against other officials, derails meetings and is notorious for distracting with negative news and gossip.

■ Riverdale's Camila Mendes was told she doesn't look Latin-American enough.
The starlet seen on VUZU AMP (DStv 103) says "that mentality is so backwards".

■ Nigerian journo Femi Solaja t/hypes up SuperSport's acquisition of WWE wrestling for DStv.
Will the wrestling on SuperSport translate into any significant ratings?

■ Jeff Probst wants Survivor to stay in Fiji permanently.
Despite major cost-cutting that saw Survivor film 4 seasons in Fiji, the show's host says Survivor should permanently stay there: "This is our home. I hope we end our show here".

■ Research: Pay-TV faces a period of unprecedented change.
The global transformation of the pay-TV industry is creating a "perfect storm" of slowing pay-TV growth - but Africa excluded.
A whopping 67% of TV executives agree that competition from SVOD services will have a negative impact on pay-TV, pushing prices down and increasing churn.
In order to grow, in order to grow, pay-TV service providers will have to innovate strongly over the next 5 years.

■ The good/bad side of streaming services is that they will have to start invest more in actual TV production and marketing of their shows.
The same holds true for the likes of Showmax, Netflix and Amazon Prime Video in South Africa. Traditional pay-TV says subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) services have some great content but do little to have premiere parties, marketing and to get traction with the media and viewers.

■ Mozambique wants to learn 'best media practices' from their Chinese trainers.
Mozambique wants to import more Chinese TV series like the Chinese soap opera, A Beautiful Daughter-in-Law Era that has "a great influence on the country".

■ Botswana's state broadcaster doesn't want to share its infrastructure with private broadcasters.
Btv tells Botswana's parliament is has rejected recommendation's from Botswana's broadcasting regulator, the Botswana Communications Authority (Bocra), to share its infrastructure that it's not using with private and other broadcasters to help the country's TV, film and radio industry.

■ The long-struggling plan to launch a SADC Television bouquet has been postponed again.
The Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries have been trying for years now to start a local content TV exchange network for various Southern African countries to show some of their TV shows in each other's nations to promote regional African integration.
It's still going nowhere.

■ Uganda has suspended the ABS Television's TV licence indefinitely.
The Christian church owned TV station "repeatedly breached minimum broadcasting standards" according to Uganda's broadcasting regulator for broadcasting, Kalondoozi, a soft-core pornographic show that's a local Uganda version of the catch-cheaters-in-the-act Cheaters show.

■ Nigeria plans to start the Nigeria Police TV channel in November 2017 with 5 000 staffers.
And apparently CNN International will help with training.

FremantleMedia buys Australian independent production company.
Takes over Essential Media and Entertainment, one of the largest independent producers in Australia, rebranding the drama business under the name Easy Tiger.

■ uBaba Buhari is simple; watches on a 32 inch.
Nigeria's president Muhammadu Buhari watches television on a small TV set that is still LCD, not even LED. Such a selfless, humble man, even sitting on old furniture.

■ MultiChoice Africa donates after Sierra Leone mudslide disaster.
Gives 500 mattresses, 150 school bags and LED lights to survivors.

■ 15 TV bosses talk about the new TV season's trends.
What show would they steal, what worries them about the TV biz, and the new trends they're seeing.

■ Could Netflix (take a deep breath) ... spend $20 million on a single hour of a TV series?
Yes, says Netflix's COO. Netflix now has 104 million users worldwide and the economics of its global audience base makes such never-before-seen and outrageous production budgets possible.