Soweto TV co-presenter, Thembinkosi 'Mangethe' Zwane, dies at 45 after battle with diabetes.

A Soweto TV co-presenter, Thembinkosi "Mangethe" Zwane has died after a long battle with diabetes. He was 43.

Thembinkosi "Mangethe" Zwane died on Friday 11 January and was known as the longest-serving presenter at the Jozi FM radio station in Soweto, where he had worked for two decades.

Thembinkosi "Mangethe" Zwane was also the co-presenter of Izingi, a traditional music show on Soweto TV (DStv 251 / StarSat 488).

"It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of our friend and colleague, Thembinkosi Mangethe," said Soweto TV.

MultiChoice donates broadcasting equipment to Soweto TV including a new final control centre with Cinegy Air PRO.

Naspers' MultiChoice pay-TV business has donated new state-of-the-art broadcasting equipment to the community TV channel, Soweto TV (DStv 251 / StarSat 488) where Bridget Nkuna is the new Soweto TV CEO since August.

MultiChoice gave the free-to-air community TV channel broadcasting in the Gauteng provice a new final control centre (FCC) with Cinegy Air PRO, a broadcast automation with video servers for SD and HD playout.

Soweto TV will use the new equipment for broadcasting but also on-the-job training for local youth, and will help with improving Soweto TV's production quality and on-air look.

Soweto TV wants to start a Soweto TV Academy as the growing Soweto community TV station celebrates 7 years of broadcasting.

Soweto TV (DStv 251) wants to start a Soweto TV Academy as the successful and growing Soweto-based community TV station just celebrated 7 years of broadcasting since it started a regular TV service on 27 June 2007.

Meshack Mosiya chairperson of the Soweto TV board, says the community TV station which has grown to be watched nationally through satellite television in South Africa, wants to continue to nurture "the raw, unearthed talent in the community by teaching them about broadcasting".

Soweto TV has grown from about 200 000 viewers in 2008 tuning in to township television, to reaching a potential audience of 3,65 million viewers.

"I envision us creating premium content we can sell globally, because Soweto TV can be more than a TV channel, we can be a creative agency and a content provider," says Meshack Mosiya.

"We started with a zero base and a young team of untrained staff," he says.

"We're all about upskilling our team and are striving to teach them everything they need to know. Our aim is to make this a professional team and station," says Wandi Nzimande, Soweto TV station manager.

BREAKING. Community television in South Africa takes a giant leap forward, forms new Association of Community Television South Africa.

The growing community television sector in South Africa is taking a giant leap forward with the formation of a new association, the Association of Community Television South Africa, which will be known as ACTSA and will represent the interest of community television and community TV stations in South Africa.

All of the existing community television licensees in South Africa - Soweto TV, Cape Town TV (CTV), Bay TV, One KZN (1KZN), Tshwane TV, North West TV and Bara TV - have signed a joint memorandum of understanding to create the Association of Community Television South Africa which will act to protect and promote, support and canvass for the community television sector in the country.

ACTSA will lobby for the community television sector in South Africa - under threat from a litany of challenges ranging from high signal distribution fees, undue influence and take-over threats from big corporate conglomerates, a lack of skilled personnel and training issues, soaring programming costs and even massive upcoming frequency disruption and viewer confusion as South Africa transitions from an analogue to a digital broadcasting space where community stations have to vacate their analogue frequencies and hope that viewers will be able to find them again.

Then there is also the South African government's interference. The government has started talk about the possible "regionalisation" of community television in South Africa to "provincial level" - something community TV stations don't want or need.

The government also wants to change the law to give the department of communication sweeping powers to appoint the boards of community television stations in South Africa - something else community TV stations are opposed to.

ACTSA will try and help with programme syndication, content exchange, the maximising of possible commercial opportunities as well as training and capacity building between community TV stations in the country.

ACTSA has elected an interim steering committee led by Motse Mfuleni from Bay TV as the chairperson, Karen Thorne from CTV as the deputy chairperson and Colin MacKenzie from Tshwane TV as the general secretary.

"ACTSA will make an important contribution to building media diversity and development in South Africa," says Motse Mfuleni. "Now we as the community television sector have a body that provides support and guidance for community TV stations and we are able to address our issues with one voice representing all the stakeholders in the sector."

ACTSA says all community TV stations joining the association have agreed to "a range of common values". These include a people-centered rather than a profit-driven approach to broadcasting, editorial and fiduciary independence, freedom of speech and community participation.

ACTSA will formulate a charter to help guide the activities of South Africa's community television sector which will include issues such as the mandate of community television in the country, programming, revenue streams and distribution platforms, governance, ownership and control and licensing categories.

BayTV in Port Elizabeth the latest bright beacon in the suddenly vibrant, fast-growing community television sector in South Africa.

BayTV, the first community television station in Port Elizabeth which launched in October last year, is quickly becoming yet another successful community TV venture and another new community TV station that just started with the help of a management contract from Urban Brew Studios.

BayTV, broadcasting to the wider Nelson Mandela Bay metropole and surrounding areas in the Eastern Cape province from its production studio inside the old Nedbank building in Port Elizabeth's Chapel Street can be seen by terrestrial viewers as far Uitenhage, Bethelsdorp, Despatch, Ibhayi, KwaNobuhle, Motherwell and the wider Port Elizabeth.

The broadcasting launch of BayTV in October follows the successful launch of SowetoTV (DStv 150) now broadcasting to Soweto and as far as Pretoria, Vanderbijlpark, Vereeniging and Sasolburg, as well as the launch last year of 1KZN (TopTV 187) based in Richards Bay and broadcasting to the wider Uthungulu and iLembe districts in the KwaZulu-Natal province.

Both SowetoTV and 1KZN - which gets management assistance from Urban Brew Studios (with its shareholder Kagiso Media) in the form of management contracts - have carriage agreements with South African pay TV operators, giving these community TV channels national reach and making viewership possible to South Africans living outside of the actual terrestrial broadcasting area of these new channels.

Thanks to Urban Brew Studios' help and professional production underpinnings, both SowetoTV and 1KZN have remarkably high production values. SowetoTV's daily news bulletin is incredibly impressive for what a daily community television news broadcast can and is supposed to be. All these things are clearly heralding a sea change coming to South Africa's suddenly fast-expanding, and now vibrant, community television sector.

CTV, Cape Town's community TV station which is somewhat trundling along (and which doesn't have a larger management contract with a major South African production company like Urban Brew Studios) in the way that BayTV and the other have - also don't have similar carriage agreements with pay TV operators in place (yet). However the growth in community television stations in South Africa - especially aided by the management oversight roll-out model aggressively followed by Urban Brew Studios, seems to be working well. Independent South African community TV stations, helped by a production company like Urban Brew lending expertise and assistance, is clearing yielding dividends in creating strong, and brand-new localised terrestrial television options for viewers.

In just three months since the channel launched, BayTV has become a media magnet for young producers, presenters and media graduates around the Eastern Cape. Besides giving viewers a new TV option, the station, just like its successful counterparts elsewhere in South Africa, is allowing a new entry point to the country's TV industry and production sector - much-needed opportunities which otherwise would not have, and until now simply haven't, existed.

BayTV, with station manager Bronwyn Jacobs, has a range of shows. Like it's community television counterparts, BayTV is clearly focused on not trying to compete with the SABC, e.tv and other big national broadcasters, but bringing viewers niche content, tailor-made for their regional audience. And that's where all these community TV upstarts are suddenly finding great success - and winning new viewers. BayTV's content is a mix of local content, educational youth programming, news, and a smattering of international programming and music.

BayTV's schedule is an 8 hour programming block, with two repeat cycles to create 24 hours of programming. BayTV's premiere block starts at 16:00 daily, running until midnight and the channel broadcast in English, Xhosa and Afrikaans.

Local content consists of programme such as Big1Up (a daily youth show dedicated to a specific theme like''Girl Talk'' or ''Boy Talk'')and the Today Show (its current affairs show covering business, investments and the sport, lifestyle and events stories happening in and around Port Elizabeth). Then there is WeRLoud, a show aimed at 18 to 40 year olds covering ''everything that matters'' and even sporting BayTV's own music chart.

BayTV, joining the likes of CTV, SowetoTV and 1KZN, is a welcome and clearly strong addition to a suddenly growing group of community TV broadcasters in South Africa who are fast making their mark - and viewership inroads - that's been long neglected within South Africa's TV industry.

Community TV station Soweto TV increases its broadcasting range in Gauteng; plans to invest in further local content with relevance.

The community television station Soweto TV (DStv 150) has increased its broadcasting range to the extend where viewers can pick up the terrestrial free-to-air TV channel in Gauteng now in Heidelberg, Benoni, Springs, Nigel, Tembisa, Pretoria, Vanderbijlpark, Vereeniging and Sasolburg.

Soweto TV is a high quality community television station and probablt the most successful community TV channel so far in South Africa with excellent production values and a great daily TV news bulletin that actually surpass that of the national broadcasters of most African countries in terms of its look and feel. Soweto TV is run with support from Urban Brew Studios (a subsidiary of Kagiso Media) and has a multiple year community television broadcasting license from the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa).

''With the greater Gauteng now within our reach, we must invest in TV content that has relevance for each and every locality in which the channel can be viewed,'' says Murphy Morobe, Soweto TV chairperson.

BREAKING. Murphy Morobe the new chairperson of Soweto TV.

Murphy Morobe, CEO of Kagiso Media has been appointed as the new chairperson of the community television station, Soweto TV (STV).