Cell C black loses more TV channels with True Movies and POP from Sony Pictures Television Networks also removed.

Cell C black is losing more TV channels with True Movies and the kids channel POP - both from Sony Pictures Television Networks - also being removed, with Cell C black that didn't want to tell the broader public about it.

It follows after Sony Pictures Television Networks decided to abruptly remove its linear Sony Channel and Sony MAX channels from Cell C black in January 2019, with these two channels that also went dark on MultiChoice's DStv pay-TV platform since November 2018.

The removal of the channels are part of Sony Pictures Television Networks strange and as yet unexplained decision to change its channel distribution business South Africa and Africa.

Cell C black has now also lost True Movies (Cell C black 242) that got culled on 31 January and was already dumped from MultiChoice's DStv satellite pay-TV platform a while ago due to under-performance, as well as the kids' channel POP (Cell C black 303) that will be taken away on 31 March 2019 when it shuts down.

Both True Movies and POP are run by Sony Pictures Television Networks.

It means that Cell C black is suddenly down 4 TV channels at the beginning of 2019 while Cell C black subscribers are paying the same subscription fee as before for less content. Cell C black didn't say with what or if the 4 channels will be replaced.

POP also remains available on China's StarTimes (Africa)/StarSat (South Africa) satellite pay-TV platform. StarSat was asked whether POP is closing down and being removed from its platform but didn't yet respond. If/when StarSat responds it will be added here.

Ntombi Gama, Cell C black's spokesperson at the Atmosphere PR agency, confirmed in a media enquiry to TVwithThinus that True Movies and POP are also cut from Cell C black in addition to Sony Channel and Sony MAX.

Asked why Cell C black doesn't communicate the discontinuation of TV channels on its service publicly and why potential customers are kept in the dark regarding the changing channel line-up of the service, Ntombi Gama says "we have been communicating these changes to our own subscribers".

TVwithThinus also reached out to Sony Pictures Television this week, with Sony Pictures Television Networks that responded with the same holding statement as in January, again saying that "As part of a review of our channel portfolio, we have decided to revise our offering in sub-Saharan Africa".

"We are actively examining other possibilities in the territory and remain excited about future programming opportunities there."


UPDATE Wednesday 13 February 2019 - 11:40
StarTimes/StarSat respond to the media enquiry confirming that the POP channel will be removed from StarSat since Sony Pictures Television Networks will no longer be producing the channel.

Sony Pictures Television Networks decides to leave Africa as the Sony Channel and Sony Max are yanked from Cell C black.

Sony Pictures Television Networks has decided to leave Africa with its Sony Channel and Sony Max channels that have now also been removed from the Cell C black video streaming service after the channels went dark on MultiChoice's DStv pay-TV platform since November 2018.

The Sony Channel (Cell C black 203) and Sony Max (Cell C black 204) both disappeared from Cell C black's subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) service where they remained available as linear TV channels after their removal from DStv.

It means that Sony's channels are now no longer available anywhere in South Africa.

Cell C black didn't release a public statement but was asked for comment on Monday morning about the absence of the Sony channels on its offering.

"We did not release a press statement but informed active subscribers," Ntombi Gama, Cell C black spokesperson told TVwithThinus, noting that Sony Pictures Television Networks (SPTN) decided to exit the African market and that Sony's channels are no longer available anywhere in South Africa.

"Sony Pictures Television Networks has made a decision to exit the African market. This means that their channels are no longer available for broadcast anywhere in South Africa. Sony Max and Sony Channel are therefore no longer available on Cell C black's live TV offering."

"With more than 60 live channels available on Cell C black, including new seasons of Lee Daniels' STAR and The Gifted on FOX Cell C black 201), subscribers still have access to the best entertainment on offer."

TVwithThinus also reached out to Sony Pictures Television on Monday, with Sony Pictures Television Networks that responded by saying "As part of a review of our channel portfolio, we have decided to revise our offering in sub-Saharan Africa".

"We are actively examining other possibilities in the territory and remain excited about future programming opportunities there."

BREAKING. MultiChoice dumps Sony Channel and Sony MAX from DStv at the end of October after not renewing the Sony Pictures Television Networks contract.

MultiChoice is dumping the Sony Channel (DStv 127) and Sony MAX (DStv 128) from its DStv satellite pay-TV platform at the end of October after not renewing the channel's carriage contract with Sony Pictures Television Networks (SPTN).

MultiChoice was asked why it decided not to renew the  carriage contract but declined to answer.

In a terse statement, MultiChoice that incorrectly refers to the Sony Channel as Sony Entertainment, says the Sony channels will stop airing on DStv and that "as from end October 2018, Sony Entertainment (DStv channel 127) and Sony MAX (DStv channel 128) will stop airing on DStv. The current contract with Sony will expire end of October".

Emma Marshall, spokesperson at Sony Pictures Television for the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region told TVwithThinus in response to a media enquiry on Friday that "Sony Pictures Television's channels in Sub-Saharan Africa, Sony Channel and Sony Max, will stop being carried on MultiChoice’s DStv platform at the end of October, as the contract between SPT and MultiChoice expires at that time".

"We thank our viewers in the region for their support. SPT is excited about future opportunities in the Sub-Saharan African market and is exploring programming options for the continent."

The Sony Channel rebranded from Sony Entertainment Television in September 2014 after MultiChoice added it 11 years ago in November 2007.

In January 2011 MultiChoice added Sony MAX as a male-focused channel and as a replacement for Sony's terminated Animax channel. MultiChoice then said that it hoped to do "many more Sony channels on our DStv platform" and that Sony MAX "is fitting in perfectly with the DStv platform".

The Sony Channel and Sony MAX will remain available as linear TV channels on Cell C black on channels 203 and 204.

The Sony Channel and Sony MAX have largely been neglected over the past two years.

In 2016 MultiChoice Africa removed both channels from DStv and GOtv elsewhere in Africa outside of South Africa but later returned it to its GOtv digital terrestrial television subscription service.

In South Africa, MultiChoice also came close to removing the channels at this time, according to sources, who said that the two Sony channels were destined to suffer the same fate as in the rest of Africa after Naspers' pay-TV arm embarked on a wider plan to cut back on channels with too much repeat programming that were angering DStv subscribers.

In the end the Sony Channel and Sony MAX both got a last-minute reprieve, but now the axe finally came down on the channels due to too much old content and repeats.

In mid-2016 Sony Pictures Television Networks for Africa and The Sony Channel dragged MultiChoice into scandal for the faking of Gogglebox South Africa by making as if TV households were watching content across DStv channels that MultiChoice never even showed. Gogglebox SA got cancelled with people involved in the scandal who got fired.

2017 also marked the first year since SPTN started doing it in 2013 that Sony Television in Africa stopped doing any kind of annual Sony upfront event in South Africa with 2018 that also had none.

The accomplished and respected Sonja Underwood who used to be Sony Pictures Television Networks' territory director for Sony Africa's channels also left Sony at the end of March 2017, something that Sony didn't announce, with no new Africa boss who engaged with media or TV critics the past two years.

In July 2018 SPT promoted Kunle Falodun as the "country" leader for Africa to drive and look after Sony's plans and its channel distribution for the African continent, including South Africa.

Sony Pictures Television starts production on new drama series, Reckoning, for its international Sony channels; doesn't want to say whether it will be seen in South Africa.

Sony Pictures Television has started production in Australia of a new 10-episode drama series, Reckoning, that Sony says it will broadcast worldwide on some of its Sony branded international channels.

Sony Pictures Television Networks (SPTN) was asked through its PR agency in South Africa last week whether Reckoning will also be shown on The Sony Channel (DStv 127) carried on MultiChoice's DStv and GOtv in South Africa and Africa, as well as on Cell C's black subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) service on channel 203, but Sony didn't respond with any answer.

Sam Trammell (pictured) known for his role on True Blood that was seen on M-Net and Aden Young, are two of the actors who will appear in Reckoning that, although filmed in Sydney, Australia by production company Playmaker, is set in California in the United States.

Reckoning is described as a psychological thriller drama,written by David Hubbard, with David Eick as the showrunner.

Sony Pictures Television Networks in a statement that it didn't want to release in South Africa for Africa, said Reckoning will be wholly produced and post-produced in Australia and will premiere on some of SPTN's international channels.

Reckoning revolves are around two dads who are secretly both serial killers. Both try to suppress their urges, but then a local teenager is murdered and sets them on a course of mutual destruction in their seemingly quiet suburban community.

"Aden Young and Sam Trammell and the fantastic ensemble cast are crushing it in rehearsals. We're thrilled that production has started in beautiful Sydney," said Marie Jacobson, Sony Pictures Television Networks executive vice president for programming and production.

David Taylor and David Maher are the executive produce for Playmaker and said "We are excited to have Aden Young and Sam Trammell leading a talented ensemble cast to bring this riveting and suspenseful thriller to life".

Sony is changing its Sony Channel in the United Kingdom into Sony Crime Channel targeting women, will the same be happening for Sony Channel in South Africa and Africa at some point?

Sony Pictures Television Networks (SPTN) is ending The Sony Channel in the United Kingdom and switching it to the Sony Crime Channel from 6 February, raising questions as to whether the Sony Channel (DStv 127 / Cell C black 203) in South Africa and across Africa on MultiChoice's GOtv service is destined for the same fate sooner or later.

Sony Pictures Television Networks announced that in the United Kingdom the Sony Crime Channel will start on 6 February on Freeview, Sky and Virgin - but it will happen by merging the existing Sony Channel and its True Crime channel.

The result is apparently the end of the Sony Channel in the UK, and a new channel targeting female viewers with more high-profile programming and crime series.

The Sony Crime Channel will be similar to A+E Networks UK's Crime+Investigation (DStv 170) channel and Discovery Networks International's Investigation Discovery (ID) (DStv 171) that are both also strongly focused on female viewers with schedules packed with "true crime" investigation shows.

The Sony Crime Channel will run series like CSI, Person of Interest, Law & Order, Deadly Women, Crime 360, as well as repeats of British dramas like Spooks and Hustle.

SPTN says "With a predominantly female audience, Sony Crime Channel will create a one-stop destination for crime fans to immerse themselves in the genre with a vibrant fusion of fascinating stories, heart-pounding thrills, engrossing characters and stunning reveals.”

Now to South Africa and Africa where The Sony Channel has been largely neglected over at least the past year. Here's more perspective:

In 2016 MultiChoice Africa removed The Sony Channel and Sony MAX (DStv 128), targeting a male viewership, from DStv in Africa.

In South Africa, DStv also came close to removing the channels according to sources at the time, who said the channels were destined to suffer the same fate as in the rest of Africa as MultiChoice started a drive to cut back on channels with too much repeat programming that were angering DStv subscribers, but in the end both channels got a stay of execution.

In African countries outside of South Africa, after their removal from DStv,Sony and Sony Max were added to MultiChoice's GOtv pay-TV digital terrestrial television (DTT) service because it was seen as less premium pay-TV channels with too much old content and repeats - but then the channels were even removed from GOtv ... only to eventually be added back to GOtv.

The past year there's not been much on The Sony Channel or Sony Max for viewers in South Africa and Africa to make pay-TV viewers excited, and there's been other clues as well about how The Sony Channel and Sony Max have been backsliding during 2017.

In mid-2016 Sony Pictures Television Networks for Africa and The Sony Channel was involved in the scandal of faking Gogglebox South Africa by making as if TV households are watching content on DStv that MultiChoice never even showed.

Of course Gogglebox SA was cancelled and there's not been a second season, with no word from The Sony Channel if there ever again will be one. In December 2017 a veteran producer who was involved with the show at the time, told TVwithThinus that people who were involved in the scandal and allowed it to happen actually got fired.

2017 was also the first year in about 3 or 4 years since Sony Pictures Television Networks from the UK responsible for Africa, failed to do any kind of annual Sony upfront event in South Africa.

Sony did similar upfront events like BBC Worldwide South Africa, Discovery, FOX and others, in previous years but not in 2017 and was conspicuously absent on the upfront circuit where channel providers do their "show and tell" events for the media.

Either SPTN for Africa didn't see it worth spending the money and/or doing the effort, didn't feel it had or has any content or news on The Sony Channel and Sony Max worth crowing about to advertisers and the Press Covering Television, or just lessened the focus and attention that it's giving to these channels in South Africa and across Africa.

Add also the quiet departure of the lovely Sonja Underwood, who used to be Sony Pictures Television Networks' territory director for Sony's Africa channels, and who left Sony at the end of March 2017 for all3media International, something that Sony didn't even announce.

Sonja Underwood whilst at Sony for a decade since 2007 would often directly engage with the media and advertisers, and since she left there's definitely been much less of a tactile interaction and a presence as far as Sony and The Sony Channel in South Africa and Africa is concerned.

Lyle Stewart, is still the senior vice president for the Sony Pictures Television Networks' Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa (CEEMA) region but it doesn't seem as if Sony bothered to appoint any new Sony territory director for Africa specifically. If there is one, TVwithThinus isn't aware of such a person.

Taking all of this into account as background on how Sony and The Sony Channel slipped in the ranks the past year and a half, it definitely wouldn't come as any surprise news if there were suddenly some announcement that The Sony Channel during 2018 is being flipped to The Sony Crime Channel in South Africa and Africa just like what is happening in the UK now.

INTERVIEW. Gogglebox South Africa series director, Jane Kennedy, on the Sony Channel show: 'It touches our humanity in a way I find quite inspiring'.

Watching people watching television, on your television, is what Gogglebox South Africa on the Sony Channel (DStv 127) on Thursdays at 21:00 is all about.

I spoke to Jane Kennedy, the series director of Gogglebox South Africa, a veteran TV producer and expert in unscripted television, who shared some fascinating insights about the show and Sony Pictures Television's very first local South African TV production.

"Gogglebox South Africa touches our humanity in a way that I find quite inspiring and quite magical," she told me, as she reveals what the families see when they watch their TV screens, how South Africans differ, and what TV show the families watched in a pilot episode that didn't work.


How is this show different from other reality shows you've worked on before?
Jane Kennedy: In many ways this is the most real reality show I've worked on, in a way. It's not a game show, so there's no prizes, no elimination.
It's reality on a more authentic level. It's just real people being real.

How much do you have to coax the couch potatoes to react and verbalise and be expressive non-verbally, or did you choose people who are naturally more outgoing and reactive?
Jane Kennedy: We definitely were looking for people who were opinionated - people who watch television and who have opinions. So there's very little coaxing that happens.
Occasionally we might give people some background information about a film or a series, just so that they don't sit on their couch trying to figure out what's going on.


How much do you film for an episode? Obviously you keep the cameras rolling for longer than what viewers see?
Jane Kennedy: We start filming on a Thursday night, cameras start rolling on four families. We have 14 [families] and we film 4 different families for 5 nights of the week. So in essence we can film 20 families over 5 nights. And we have 14 families in the mix.

So we visit some families more than once over the 5 day period and that can be because kids have homework and have to go to bed, or because we have a story we only started showing halfway through the weekend. It's like this unbelievable jigsaw puzzle.

We put 8 to 9 "stories" into one episode. And each one has a beginning, middle and an end. So it's a whole series of beginnings and ends and yet you have to keep the audience interested. So that dance is really a fantastic thing and how you knit them together and stitch them together.


If you look at some of the other series already done you've get such a wide range of emotions from people - from outright surprise to real sadness. Do you have a favourite emotional response that you want to elicit or enjoy getting from people as a producer?
Jane Kennedy: We aim to try and get a whole range of responses and emotions - from the laugh-out-loud funny,to the shock outrage to the really emotive, tearful stuff.

It's also a work in progress, because the production itself is so intense, it's so fast and so furious. We have 6 days to put a show together. So we experiment. And we think this piece of material is going to work really well.

NCIS for instance, that we tested when we filmed the pilot. It's one of the biggest rated shows on DStv - everyone loves it.

But actually, you know, it's so, the arch of the show is so simple, that unless there's something outrageous in it, it doesn't really get a lot of responses from the families. It's very interesting. Because you think something will work and you show it and it doesn't work and we find something else.


Does it impact the social dynamic and what you get as a producer in terms of where you make what family member sit?
Jane Kennedy: It depends from family to family.

When we went in to set up the infrastructure, the first thing we did was to ask a household how they like to watch television. In some cases we moved them around, but it's more a practical thing, for instance this guy is much taller than his partner and its better if a tall person sits on the far side of the couch.

We see people watching television. We don't see what they see, what do they see when they look at their screens? Are there actual crew there or robo-cameras, and one or two cameras?
Jane Kennedy: They're in their lounge, watching their TV set.

There's no people in the room; we have 2 remote cameras - one is on a wide shot of the family which we never change, and the other one is a close-up camera that is operated remotely and tries to catch the best close-up reactions of family members. That in itself is an art.

You've got maybe four or five people in a family and you don't know who is going to give you a response when. Often it's not the one you expected it to be - so that is quite a dance as well.


Has it already been a struggle - you've worked on so much unscripted television where you don't know what you're going to get - where you end up with a lot of good pieces of TV and you have to make difficult choices on what to show and what to leave out?
Jane Kennedy: Absolutely, absolutely.

The other thing is also you don't want to show the same families all the time, you want to get variation. But there's some families that's so incredibly funny, or there responses are so priceless that you just have to include them.


Have you picked up on, or is there a difference between how young people watch TV now, and how older people watch?
Jane Kennedy: We have young people and we have older people watching.

Our youngest family member is 11 - in fact two 11-year olds in two different families, a boy and a girl. And our oldest family is ... "old". How diplomatic is that?

And for me one of the things that's so magical about Gogglebox SA and this format and why I'm personally so invested in it, is because at the end of the day we all respond in pretty much the same way.

We're all horrified by the same things, we all generally are amused by the same things - from the 7-year olds to the 70-somethings. It's kind of like, it touches our humanity in a way that I find quite inspiring and quite magical.

It makes me feel that we are going to be okay as South Africans in this country that's full of so many different kinds of people, and even more than okay - we are going to fall in love with each other again.

Even though people come from all different walks of life and different areas - you wouldn't be sitting on their couch watching television with them - but they're going to watch something and you're going to feel "oh my gosh, that's exactly how I feel about that".


You said it's very universal when people watch TV and their reactions. But I was wondering in terms of their non-verbal, physical behaviour, are there things you've picked up where we as South Africans are different?
Jane Kennedy: What surprised me in a way - although I suspected it and I was correct in my suspicion - we're very loud as South Africans! Ha ha. We don't hold back, actually.

We're not that kind of British, sort of understated kind of people. We fall off our chairs, we shout out loud, we are passionate people and that is what comes across through Gogglebox South Africa for sure.

Sony on Gogglebox South Africa on the Sony Channel: 'All channels and all programmes' on South African television will be considered for the local series.

All TV channels and all programmes on South African television will be considered for the Sony Channel's (DStv 127) first locally produced show, Gogglebox South Africa, that will start on 3 March.

Sony Pictures Television is allaying fears that Gogglebox SA, based on the British series that films ordinary couch potatoes watching television, would miss out on accurately capturing the true South African television zeitgeist by excluding shows on channels from the South African public broadcaster's SABC channels for instance, or broadcasters like e.tv.

Earlier Sony Pictures Television was vague when asked specifically what channels Gogglebox South Africa - which will be seen on the Sony Channel on MultiChoice's DStv satellite pay-TV platform - would potentially consider and include and if it would include the SABC and e.tv.

Sony Pictures Television says "all channels and all programmes are potential material because Gogglebox is about drawing on the biggest TV moments and watching the nation's response to them".

Sony Pictures Television says "Gogglebox goes into the lounges of some of the country's most avid and opinionated television viewers to watch them discuss, laugh and cry about some of the biggest, current and most talked about television moments in the seven days preceding an episode".

"It captures a cultural response to something that's happening in the world," said Farah Ramzan Golant, format producer from All3Media International.

What it means it that when a big moment happens in Uzalo, The Bold and the Beautiful, Majakathata, Isidingo, WWE wrestling, Selimathunzi, 7de Laan or Scandal! - all the biggest top-rated shows representing tens of millions of viewers on their respective channels - it will be possible for viewers' reactions to those shows to show up in Gogglebox South Africa on the Sony Channel.

"Gogglebox is a fantastic show and we believe that its humour and diversity makes it perfect for South African audiences," says Sonja Underwood, Sony Pictures Television Networks' territory director for Sony's Africa channels.

"It is not your typical television show and we believe our first local production will become a firm viewer favourite."

Gogglebox South Africa will have 10 episodes and is produced by Eject Media's Stephan Le Roux and Picture Tree's Gary King.

"We believe that we have created a show that will create debate among people," says Stephan Le Roux. "Gogglebox South Africa reflects the current state of society and will stimulate viewers to share their opinions and thoughts".

Gogglebox South Africa on the Sony Channel on DStv will have one very big flaw when it starts in March: The show about TV will exclude the biggest TV channels in South Africa.

Gogglebox South Africa will have one very big flaw that will be a deliberate drawback for the new show when it starts on 3 March on the Sony Channel (DStv 127): the show that's purportedly about television won't be about all South African television.

SEE UPDATE BELOW

Gogglebox South Africa will not be inclusive of all TV channels and all the local and most collectively watched South African TV fare. The show will exclude the biggest TV shows, soaps and channels with a focus on what's on Sony's own two TV channels and some other DStv channels.

In Gogglebox viewers at home watch viewers as they watch and comment on television.

Sadly Gogglebox South Africa that will be shown on the Sony Channel from 3 March at 21:00 will only be about shows on The Sony Channel, Sony Max and some other DStv channels.

The SABC's three channels - SABC1, SABC2 and SABC3 - together with the free-to-air commercial broadcaster e.tv dominate with the biggest viewership especially when it comes to weekday soaps and prime time programming like Uzalo, Muvhango, Generations - The Legacy, Rhythm City, Scandal!, Ashes to Ashes and a range of other mass audience shows that South Africans watch and follow in large numbers.

Yet Gogglebox South Africa on Sony Channel will apparently not include or cover any of these shows or channels - the programming that truly make for a communal watching experience in South Africa and that give rise to questions like "Is Gxabhashe really dead?", "Is Xander going to be found guilty?" and "Will Tau ever know if his baby is alive?"

Gogglebox in the United Kingdom broadcast on Channel4, has no problem to show viewers watching rival public channels as people in Gogglebox comment on various popular programming shown across rival channels like the BBC, ITV and others.

Asked if Gogglebox South Africa will include and cover all TV channels, including programming on the SABC and e.tv, Sony Pictures Television Networks tells TV with Thinus it won't.

"The shows that will be reviewed weekly on Gogglebox South Africa are a cross selection of shows on the Sony Channel, Sony Max, as well as the best and most talked about entertainment, sport, news, politics and current affairs shows that aired in the past week on DStv".

Sony Pictures Television Networks declined to respond as to what the rationale is behind the decision to not cover and include all channels' possible shows in Gogglebox South Africa.

The decision means that Gogglebox South Africa won't be as inclusive as it should be, to make for a real comprehensive show that really reflects the most popular, most watched and top TV moments of the previous week that South African viewers have really been talking about.

This exclusion will likely hamper the upcoming show's bigger, broader appeal and popularity.

Gogglebox South Africa is likely stepping into the same TV trap that became the downfall of previous shows on South African television on specific channels that promised to cover entertainment news or celebrities but then actually ended up only doing myopic coverage of news or celebrities who appeared on that one channel.

Adding to the awkwardness is that Gogglebox South Africa is Sony Pictures Television Network's first locally commissioned South African television series.

Sony wants to show that the show is South African, but Gogglebox South Africa will make as if the TV that the bulk of South African television viewers are really watching, doesn't exist.

When a big moment happens in Uzalo, The Bold and the Beautiful, Majakathata, Isidingo, WWE wrestling, Selimathunzi, 7de Laan or Scandal! - all the biggest top-rated shows representing tens of millions of viewers on their respective channels - it won't make Gogglebox South Africa on the Sony Channel on DStv.

"Gogglebox is a fantastic show and we believe that its humour and diversity makes it perfect for South African audiences," says Sonja Underwood, Sony Pictures Television Networks' territory director for Sony's Africa channels.

"It is not your typical television show and we believe our first local production will become a firm viewer favourite."

Gogglebox South Africa will have 10 episodes and is produced by Eject Media's Stephan Le Roux and Picture Tree's Gary King.

"We believe that we have created a show that will create debate among people," says Stephan Le Roux. "Gogglebox South Africa reflects the current state of society and will stimulate viewers to share their opinions and thoughts".


UPDATE 29 February 2016 14:00:
Sony Pictures Television is more specific regarding exactly what content Gogglebox South Africa could include, saying "all channels and all programmes are potential material" for the show.

Sony Pictures Television says "all channels and all programmes are potential material because Gogglebox is about drawing on the biggest TV moments and watching the nation's response to them".

Sony Pictures Television says "Gogglebox goes into the lounges of some of the country's most avid and opinionated television viewers to watch them discuss, laugh and cry about some of the biggest, current and most talked about television moments in the seven days preceding an episode".

"It captures a cultural response to something that's happening in the world," said Farah Ramzan Golant, format producer from All3Media International.

Sony Channel on DStv adds first local South African show, Gogglebox in which viewers talk about what they're watching on television.

Sony Channel (DStv 127) is finally adding the channel's first locally produced South African programming with Gogglebox, a local version of the British format show.

Gogglebox shows opinionated TV viewers talking about television.

Sony Pictures Television Networks has been slow to come up with and produce local South African TV content for its channel seen in South Africa and the rest of the African continent, while internationally supplied TV channels like BBC Entertainment, now BBC First; Food Network, BET and others started commissioning local programming a few years ago.

Now the Sony Channel is also getting in on the act adding a bit of local content.

The South African version of Gogglebox will start on the channel in 2016 for 10 episodes and shows people talking about what they're watching on television. It will be produced by Eject Media and Picture Tree.

Gogglebox started in 2013 on Channel 4 in the United Kingdom.

The show is filmed in viewers' homes with small remote-controlled cameras operated from a control room elsewhere, capturing what people have to say about the TV they've watched.

It's not clear whether people featuring on Gogglebox will only be talking about Sony Channel programming, or whether they will be giving their opinions about all programming available to South African viewers on the SABC, e.tv, M-Net the range of DStv, OpenView HD and StarSat channels, as well as community TV stations.

South African TV viewers seen commenting on Sony Channel about other channels' shows and other TV programming not on the Sony Channel - good and bad - might be awkward for Sony, and indirectly give exposure to rivals' TV content.

"Gogglebox is a great show and we are confident that it will resonate with South African viewers," says Lyle Stewart, the senior vice president for the Sony Pictures Television Networks' Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa (CEEMA) region.

"We feel that the timing is right for a local production to really cater for South African audiences and add to our already strong programming mix on the Sony Channel," says Lyle Stewart.

"We are excited to see what South Africans really think of the television programmes they watch and those who appear on the box - be they celebrities or politicians," says Gary King, Gogglebox producer.

"This is a brilliant format and we are excited to work on this," says Stephan Le Roux, Gogglebox executive producer. "We feel that this is the show South African viewers have been waiting for."

BREAKING. Hannibal on The Sony Channel on DStv cancelled after 3 seasons, drama series will come to an end in August with no 4th season.

Hannibal on The Sony Channel (DStv 127) on DStv has been cancelled and the current 3rd season finishing in August in America will be its last.

The low-rated and gruesome drama series from Bryan Fuller was based on Hannibal Lecter, the psychiatrist turned serial killer from Thomas Harris' best-selling novels.

Hannibal was co-commissioned by Sony Pictures Television Networks and France's Gaumont International Television and distributed on Sony Television's worldwide TV channels.

Hannibal with Mads Mikkelsen and Hugh Dancy will however not see a 4th season on the NBC network in America as its viewership kept plunging and with the drama burning off the episodes of the current 13-episode third season during the American summer when viewers tune out.

The 3rd season of Hannibal which began showing in America two weeks ago has not yet started on the Sony Channel on DStv.

According to The Hollywood Reporter there was an apparent rights issue behind-the-scenes which together with the low ratings spelled the death-knell for Hannibal.

Bryan Fuller wanted to introduce the character of Clarice Starling in Hannibal's possible 4th season but the rights were unavailable.

"NBC has allowed us to craft a television series that no other broadcast network would have dared, and kept us on the air for three seasons despite Cancellation Bear Chow ratings and images that would have shredded the eyeballs of lesser Standards & Practices enforcers," says Bryan Fuller in a statement.

"We thank Gaumont and everyone involved in the show for their tireless efforts that have made Hannibal an incredible experience," says NBC in a statement.

EXCLUSIVE. Sony Channel on DStv is the brand-new name of Sony Entertainment Television (SET) as the channel rebrands with a new look.

You're reading it here first.

The Sony Channel (DStv 127) on MultiChoice's DStv satellite pay-TV platform in South Africa and the rest of Africa is the brand-new name of Sony Entertainment Television (SET) following a rebranding and simplified renaming of the popular general entertainment channel from Sony Pictures Television (SPT).

The simplified name change from Sony Entertainment Television (SET) to Sony Channel appears to be the first such rebranding of the channel which is available internationally in several countries and territories.

The Sony Channel will be 7 years old in South Africa in a month and a half's time since it first launched on 2 November 2007 on DStv in South Africa.

The Sony Channel became the home of highly rated series like The Amazing Race, Hannibal, Drop Dead Diva, NCIS, Friends, CSI and several American talk shows.

According to sources the rebranding of Sony Entertainment Television only pertains to the Sony Channel, not sister channel Sony MAX (DStv 128).

The new on-air look of the Sony Channel made its debut this morning just after 06:00 on DStv during The Arsenio Hall Show with beautiful new multi-coloured on-air idents to signal and indicate different programming genres.

Blue signify comedy, red signify drama, green signify reality and yellow is now used for movies.

The former three-tiered name in white is now shorter and stacks over just two lines, saying just "Sony Channel", having done away with the long "Entertainment" and "Television" for a simpler, cleaner appearance whilst maintaining the Sony "S".

The new Sony Channel logo and on-air imaging utilise shiny, high-gloss, flipping "micro tiles" to create a "wave" effect and looks beautiful.