ANALYSIS. Bon Appétit! How the French will own your DStv news

by Thinus Ferreira

As more details come to light of Canal+'s aggressive buyout of MultiChoice, one of the inconvenient truths is that South African TV news channels like SABC News, eNCA and Newzroom Afrika will effectively belong to, and be paid for, by a French company.

That ka-ching, ka-ching sounds you're not hearing - since it's electronic payments and not for us, the bourgeoisie, to be either privy to or to be perturbed by - is the payment of millions of rand to sets of lawyers and financial advisors in offices in North America, Europe and South Africa to get Canal+ to the finish line of gobbling up MultiChoice.

The intent of South Africa's string of regulations and Electronic Communications Act (non-existent in other African countries) is to prohibit a place outside of South Africa - like a foreign company - from owning or controlling a local media company like the traditional satellite pay-TV operator MultiChoice.

Forget the legalese of a planned deal. 

In practical terms, that's exactly what will happen if the aggressive buyout of The MultiChoice Group by France's Canal+ goes through, which will effectively give Randburg City a Parisian flair.

The lawyers' plan is for Canal+ to carve out the problem child part - MultiChoice South Africa (holder of that pesky poisoned chalice called a South African satellite pay-TV broadcast licence) - and to spin it out as an "independent" company for now called "Licence Co".

Sprinkle with some required BEE and work the scales to get the shareholding in terms of voting rights to exactly 20% - precisely what the regulators demand - and voilà!: DStv dressed with homegrown African flair displaying the season's latest new French colonial style.

If you've ever watched L.A. Law, Suits or Succession, you'll know that there are rules and laws for everyone. 

Then there are those who want to build on the Liesbeek floodplain, a megamansion closer to the sea, or try to keep tarnished student accommodation open or build a pipeline called Keystone. Where there's a will, there's always a quarrel of lawyers standing by to make it happen for you - at a price.

Important questions remain that neither Canal+ CEO Maxime Saada or MultiChoice Group CEO Calvo Mawela have yet answered.

One of these is the inconvenient truth - to borrow a phrase from Al Gore - about how, after a Canal+ takeover of MultiChoice, the totality of South African pay-TV news will effectively be paid for by a French private company.

It is MultiChoice that annually pays millions of rand for and is responsible for the creation and ongoing existence of the South African public broadcaster's SABC News (DStv 404) TV channel, eMedia's eNCA (DStv 403), as well as Newzroom Afrika.

The SABC News TV channel literally exists solely because of the money that MultiChoice pays to the public broadcaster for its operational expenditure. 

Without the MultiChoice money - already a media ethics debate if you want to get into it since MultiChoice is a private South African company paying a public broadcaster to specifically do a news service - there will only be SABC News as a SABC division with  TV and radio bulletins. 

Without MultiChoice moola there won't be enough money for SABC News as a separate linear TV news channel running 24 hours a day.

It will turn 17 years old this year and started out as the eNews Channel and MultiChoice is also paying eMedia to make and run eNCA for DStv exclusively. 

The same goes for Thokozani Nkosi and Thabile Ngwato's 5-year old Newzroom Afrika, specifically and exclusively commissioned and paid for by MultiChoice for the DStv platform.

Remember the "Gupta-television" ANN7 that was later rebranded as Afro Worldview? 

When MultiChoice decided in 2018 it was over for the channel on DStv, Afro Worldview couldn't and didn't live on because it's the MultiChoice money - what we call a "channel carriage agreement" fee - that funds the expensive operations of running these linear TV news channels.

While MultiChoice doesn't interfere in the editorial content of these TV news channels - and insiders whisper that they've already been given lip-service that new owner-to-be Canal+ won't interfere editorially in news decisions and coverage -  the inconvenient truth remains that every news media worker is mindful of who their media owner is.

What would the French make if they were suddenly told that MultiChoice would now own and be paying for French TV news channels like France24, Canal+'s CNews, or TF1's LCI (La Chaîne Info)?

Besides South Africa, MultiChoice also pays channel carriage fees for the existence on DStv, of localised TV news channels in other African countries. 

Will the TV news channels on MultiChoice's DStv in South Africa and other African countries - when paid and funded by Canal+ - remain as they are? 

Will they self-censor to align with a new media owner? Will Canal+ simply remove TV channels like it had done in West Africa to appease governments like in Guinea in 2023?

With their liberté, egalité and fraternité the French would never be fine with majority foreign ownership of their TV news.

So why is South Africa in the Canal+ news coup as part of Canal+'s corporate takeover of MultiChoice simply saying c'est la vie?

ALSO READ: In its aggressive takeover bid Canal+ will carve and spin out MultiChoice's broadcast licence in South Africa and DStv subscibers as 'Licence Co' as MultiChoice Group keeps video assets

Jury finds CNN guilty in Afghan refugee defamation trial, ordered to pay $5 million to security consultant

by Thinus Ferreira

A jury in in the United States has found Warner Bros. Discovery's CNN (DStv 401) guilty in a defamation trial and ordered it to pay $5 million to the security consultant Zachary Young who was defamed in an Afghan refugee story by CNN reporter Alex Marquardt who said in a message "We gonna nail this Zachary Young motherf-cker".

After the verdict by a jury in Florida, CNN quickly reached a settlement to end the case before the jury members in the case could calculate punitive damages which would very likely have forced CNN to pay Zachary Young further millions in the defamation trial.

In a statement CNN said "We remain proud of our journalists and are 100% committed to strong, fearless and fair-minded reporting at CNN, though we will of course take what useful lessons we can from this case".

In 2021 CNN did a report by Alex Marquardt on the exorbitant fees being asked on the black market to evacuate Afghans during the chaotic and sudden withdrawal from the United States from that country.

The jury awarded $4 million in damages related to Zachary Young’s loss of earning potential and another $1 million for pain and suffering, mental anguish, inconvenience and injury to reputation.

During the trial, nasty CNN work text messages were revealed to the jurors like Alex Marquardt who wrote to another CNN staffer "We gonna nail this Zachary Young motherf-cker".

Another CNN worker wrote that Zachar Young had "a punchable face".

Ntokozo Khumalo of Newzroom Afrika, Tshepo Mongoa of SABC News, and others went on an all-expenses paid Karpowership trip to Rio de Janeiro and failed to tell viewers it was a Brazil freebie and promotional coverage.

by Thinus Ferreira

South African TV news journalists like Ntokozo Khumalo of Newzroom Afrika (DStv 405), Tshepo Mongoa of SABC News (DStv 404), and 4 others like Sizwe Sama Yende at City Press went on an all-expenses paid Karpowership to Rio de Janeiro and failed to tell viewers that the coverage was in fact promotional Karpowership coverage due to a freebie Brazil trip.

Nowhere in her story did Ntokozo Khumalo tell DStv subscribers watching the TV news channel that Newzroom Afrika was talking to people Karpowership publicists gave the TV news channel access to in Brazil and wanted Newzroom Afrika to talk to.

Neither did Ntokozo Khumalo or Newzroom Afrika tell viewers that the Brazil visit was part of an all-expenses paid, free trip that was offered to Newzroom Afrika and that Newzroom Afrika agreed to.

While it looks like Ntokozo Khumalo is doing real reporting, the Newzroom Afrika coverage in fact spins Karpowership's involvement as hilariously positive - going as far as even interviewing about the environmental projects Karpowership is paying for, to showcase how allegedly positive and great a Karpowership deal would be to supply South Africa with electricity.

The same goes for SABC News and Tshepo Mongoa of SABC News - with the public broadcaster that likewise deliberately omitted to tell viewers in Tshepo Mongoa's story filed from Rio de Janeiro that the SABC News "reporting" was made possible by Karpowership and is therefore actually a Karpowership promo and something Karpowership paid for in terms of sponsoring a free overseas trip.

Annika Larsen co-incidentally also aired a Karpowership interview she conducted in Turkey for her My Guest Tonight with Annika Larsen show on eNCA (DStv 403) and e.tv, but made it quite clear that "we paid for our trip to Turkey in full interest of unbiased journalism".

"We were not aware Karpowership was taking journalists on a junket when we booked," Annika Larsen said.

TVwithThinus reached out to the South African National Editors' Forum (SANEF) for comment, which will be added here when received.

After 3 months Showmax removes and ends the streaming of live linear TV news channels on the video streaming service.

by Thinus Ferreira

Showmax has ended and removed the live-streamed linear TV news channels and the educational Mindset Pop TV channel that MultiChoice's subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) added in late-March.

Showmax removed the set of linear TV news channels that it added on 26 March 2020 for users in South Africa and Southern Africa because of the growing Covid-19 pandemic that keeps expanding around the world with the coronavirus that keeps infecting more and more people in Africa, South Africa and around the world.

Showmax made BBC World News, CNN International, Sky News, Al Jazeera, euronews and Newzroom Africa available for 3 months that it removed on 30 June 2020. South African users of Showmax also got access to SABC News and africanews as live linear TV news channels.

Showmax originally announced that it would axe the live TV news channels at the end of May 2020 but extended it for June.

"We were given access to these channels as a temporary measure in the early days of the Covid-19 crisis in order to help everyone keep up-to-date on the latest developments," says Showmax.

"As lockdown is now easing and we’re slowly getting back to some kind of new normal, we're going to be discontinuing the news service. The Mindset Pop channel, which was added to help parents while schools were closed, will also be leaving Showmax."

"We’ll keep an eye on developments and, if the circumstances change, we’ll do our best to step in again."

MultiChoice is working and planning the launch of its DStv Streaming service that will carry the same collection of live linear TV news channels, very much like the existing DStv Now offering.

This so-called "DStv dishless" version will be a web-based look-alike version of DStv but not requiring any installation.

The South African public broadcaster's SABC News channel on DStv increases its viewership to 35 768 monthly; Zulu and Xhosa TV news bulletins on SABC1 continue to grow.

The South African public broadcaster says it has managed to increase the viewership and market share of its SABC News (DStv 404) channel which is up 14 percentage points over 2017, while the viewership of the Zulu and Xhosa TV news bulletins on SABC1 continue to grow.

The SABC News' YouTube channel has also nearly doubled its average monthly views compared to a year ago.

The SABC rebranded its SABC News offering in June.

The SABC says the SABC News channel carried on MultiChoice's DStv satellite pay-TV platform has increased its average monthly viewership and market share by 14 068 viewers, from 21 700 viewers (23% share of news channels) during June to November 2017, to 35 768 (37% share of news channels) during June to November 2018.

SABC News remains the second most watched of all the available TV News channels carried on DStv after eNCA (DStv 403).

The SABC says its isiXhosa and isiZulu SABC TV news bulletins carried on SABC1 are currently ranked 6th and 7th overall on the list of most-watched shows on South African television.

During November the isiXhosa news lured 4.31 million viewers for its most-watched edition on 1 November, while the isiZulu news on 14 November pulled 4.07 million viewers for its most-watched edition on SABC1.

On YouTube the SABC's SABC News channel has nearly doubled its monthly average views from just over 5 million per month in 2017 to almost 10 million views per month in 2018.

The SABC says that the live streaming of the former American president Barack Obama's Mandela Lecture in July 2018 was SABC News' most popular news video of the year with more than 13.6 million viewers.

SABC News social media engagement is also up with Twitter followers that increased from 940 000 at the end of 2017 to 1.17 million in 2018.

"We are pleased with the audience growth, as we get a sense of assurance that we are on the right track, and still continue to strengthen the public news service as the only extensive, all-inclusive, diverse and multilingual news organisation in South Africa," says Phathiswa Magopeni, the head of SABC news and current affairs, in a statement.

"With national elections coming up in 2019, SABC News through its independent and impartial coverage, will continue to reflect the South African story in an unrestrained, responsible and balanced manner."

With Afro Worldview’s DStv days numbered, the future of the South African public broadcaster's SABC News is also up in the air.

As MultiChoice gets ready to dump the Afro Worldview channel from its DStv service on 20 August, the SABC News channel could also go dark at the end of this month when that contract expires, with MultiChoice that will have to make announcements about SABC News as well as what channel is replacing Afro Worldview soon.

MultiChoice remains in the process to find and appoint a new channel to replace Afro Worldview - formerly known as the notorious Gupta family's ANN7 channel and belonging to Mzwanele Manyi and his Afrotone Media Holdings.

Afro Worldview is coming to an end on DStv on 20 August exactly five years after its hurried and disastrous launch.

MultiChoice is yet to make an announcement about which group out of the shortlisted candidates that applied earlier this year before the cut-off date at the end of April.

The new TV news channel will be given the opportunity to start a news service in DStv set's of news channels as a new majority black-owned TV news channel, to rival and compete with eMedia Investment's eNCA (DStv 403) as well as the public broadcaster's SABC News as a new local news channel ahead of South Africa's general election in 2019.

MultiChoice has steadfastly refused to divulge the names of shortlisted bidders and consortiums after over 60 groups and individuals applied, although the local TV biz and news industry haven't been shy about gossiping after hours about who might be in the running.

Unconfirmed names and places bandied about to replace Afro Worldview have so far ranged from Justice Malala that abruptly left eNCA earlier this month, to the Tiso Blackstar group, Primedia and MSG Afrika.

In late-June Calvo Mawela, MultiChoice SA CEO, said that Naspers's pay-TV arm wants to make an announcement about the successful bidder replacing Afro Worldview before that channel goes dark on DStv, saying "we are targeting to make an announcement before the expiry of the current contract so that we can give people an opportunity to know exactly what's coming next".

Now MultiChoice, as it told the industry in January, has started to tell DStv subscribers on Afro Worldview's i-plate on DStv that Afro Worldview is being removed with less than two weeks' time remaining for the channel on the operator's channel line-up.

"Dear viewer, please note that Afro Worldview will stop airing on 20 August 2018. You can find local news on eNCA 403) and SABC News (404)," says DStv in the advisory.

Afro Worldview's already low viewership has been on an ongoing ratings slide the past few months, with viewership on DStv that has kept dropping from 9.89% of the total TV news audience in April to 9% in May and 4.22% in June.  

MultiChoice on Monday in response to a media enquiry asking about the new channel replacement process, told TVwithThinus that "the process to appoint the successful bidder for the news channel has not been concluded. Once this process is completed, we will make all necessary announcements".

Future of SABC News channel up in the air

Meanwhile there is a possibility that DStv subscribers and South African viewers could lose more than Afro Worldview, with the SABC and MultiChoice that are yet to conclude a new possible contract agreement for the SABC News channel that could also go dark when its existing contract expires at the end of this month.

SABC News, part of a bundled channels agreement that sees it being provided exclusively to MultiChoice together with the library rerun channel SABC Encore (DStv 156), could go dark if a new contract isn't signed between the MultiChoice and the public broadcaster.

If MultiChoice doesn't extend the channel carriage agreement for SABC News, the channel will presumably have to shutter just like SABC News International, the public broadcaster's first try at a 24-hour TV news channel that bled the corporation dry and was terminated after bleeding millions of rand after just three years at the end of March 2010.

Although a public TV channel and packaged and operated from inside its the South African Broadcasting Corporation's Auckland Park headquarters, the SABC isn't able to keep the expensive SABC News channel running without the hundreds of millions of rand MultiChoice pays the SABC for the channel as part of the controversial channels deal that has given MultiChoice exclusive access to the SABC archives the past few years.

In addition, the cash-strapped SABC that is now playing hardball in negotiations, now wants payment for its SABC1, SABC2 and SABC3 channels from MultiChoice as well as a possible "new revenue stream", although the broadcasting regulator, Icasa, under the country's so-called "must-carry" regulations, have mandated that the public broadcaster's terrestrial TV channels must be carried by satellite operators to help with wider availability, but free of charge.

Both the SABC and MultiChoice in response to a media enquiry told TVwithThinus that discussions are ongoing and that SABC News and SABC Encore will stay on the air on DStv for the time being.

"The SABC and MultiChoice are currently in discussions to carry the SABC News and SABC Encore channels on DStv. We will communicate the outcome once the discussions have been finalised. The channels will continue to air on DStv whilst the discussions are ongoing," both said.

Earlier this year the new SABC board told parliament's portfolio committee on communications that it would like to see the SABC News channel continue.

SABC News and SABC Encore - although they're content from and created by the public broadcaster - are not available to other satellite TV platforms like StarSat operated by China's StarTimes, e.tv's Openview or Deukom in the way that SABC1, SABC2 and SABC3 are.

Madoda Mxakwe, SABC CEO, told SABC News in a TV interview last week that negotiations around the possible renewal of the SABC News channel carriage agreement is "at a very sensitive stage".

Madoda Mxakwe said the SABC will make an announcement about the future of the SABC News channel before the end of August. He said "we are busy engaging with different partners, including MultiChoice, in terms of ensuring that there is a different revenue stream into the business."

South Africa's TV news channels racing to cover the latest #ZumaMustFall viral sensation as massive billboard goes up on Cape Town building.

South Africa's TV news channels are racing on Friday afternoon to cover the latest #ZumaMustFall viral sensation, fuelled by a massive banner that went up as a billboard at the top of Longstreet in Cape Town with three black words on an all-white background simply saying "Zuma Must Fall".

The outdoor billboard banner space belongs to Continental Outdoor Media that usually sells the large ad space above the McDonalds on the corner of Kloof, Long and Buitensingel streets to advertisers.

Newsrooms immediately started working the phones to find out who booked and paid for the ad space, and how much the massive banner and ad campaign cost that workers erected on Friday as curious onlookers started flocking to the very busy intersection.