TV NEWS ROUND-UP. Today's interesting TV stories to read - 22 February 2021.

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

 

■ How The Simpsons brought Mrs Krabappel back for a proper final goodbye.

■ MUST READ. "Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) members live for the events, rather than for the love of movies”.

- Did you know that the HFPA that votes on and hands out the Golden Globes have No black members?

■ The grand Vision behind the latest reveal on Wandavision on Disney+.

■ Criminal Minds is being revived for Paramount+.

■ Hong Kong's government wants to clamp down on its public broadcaster.

■ Belarus jails two journalists from the independent Belsat TV channel for simply live-streaming a public protest.

■ Are individual video streaming services going to get bundled up just like the traditional pay-TV channel bundle?

■ Like MultiChoice there's also a 2021 price hike coming for Sky subscribers in Britain.

■ As Media24's new HONEY TV channel launches on DStv, do we really need more Wives on TV?

■ The superrich MultiChoice Nigeria chairperson, Adewunmi Ogunsanyaon has a thing for luxury property investments and owns several lux addresses in Nigeria's most exclusive estates.

■ Apple TV+ is making gains with high-income millennials.

■ Covid-19 has made Americans a video streaming nation.

■ From a distance NBC broadcasters are trying to make the audience feel close to the action.

■ From WandaVision to The Mandalorian: The 14 best shows to watch on Disney+.

- WandaVision's biggest antagonist is the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU).

■ Zee TV: Running the show even after decades.

■ Disney+ is set to surpass Netflix's subscribers within 5 years with 294 million subscribers.

■ Apple TV+ has no excuse to be lagging behind the others in the video streaming race.

■ MultiChoice's legacy and TV money - and Big Brother Naija as MultiChoice's goldmine.

■ How M-Net's Tinsel emerged as Nigeria's top, longest-running show on DStv.

TV CRITIC's NOTEBOOK. Journalists from across the continent on a Big Brother Naija TV junket with MultiChoice Africa showed off their dazzling feeding frenzy as they 'selfie'd just about everything - except for actually reporting the news and about the business of Big Brother.

If you thought there were going to be reams and reams of detailed, timeous stories as well as comprehensive reporting from the group of journalists from across Africa who went on a week-long TV tour with MultiChoice to Lagos, Nigeria to cover the launch of the 4th season of Big Brother Naija, you thought wrong - and haven't been keeping track of the trash level of what's passing as (non)coverage and reporting of Africa's entertainment and TV industry.

What we did get were selfies - lots and lots of them - food videos, what they drank, their gifts, their nightclub escapades, their dazzling pouting and even their red carpet strutting - because so-called journalists want to be photographed appearing on the red carpet themselves these days, instead of behind the rope line covering it.

While the gaggle of journalists that The MultiChoice Group invited enjoyed their multi-day stay at the Radisson Blu Anchorage Hotel on Victoria Island in Lagos last week in the lead-up to the live show launch event of the 4th season of Big Brother Naija on Sunday, you'd be hard-pressed, even days later, trying to find any story or any actual incisive reporting from any of the multiple media sessions or studio and set tours they did.

What exactly the return on the investment is for MultiChoice when so-called journalists from across Africa go on a week-long media junket and do little to absolutely nothing except taking selfies to make themselves look good, is anyone's guess.

For journalism and entertainment journalism, and in terms of reporting about the TV industry on the continent, it's however once again highly embarrassing - besides looking like a massive MultiChoice waste of money.

FOOD FOOD FOOD 🤸🏿‍♂️🤸🏿‍♂️💃.
##bbnaijaexperience19 @DStv_Ghana @GOtvNg @MultiChoiceGRP pic.twitter.com/1Uhh9o5U47

— Entertainment chic 👌🏿: @adwoaloudgh (@adwoaloudgh) June 28, 2019

Journalists did a media session with John Ugbe, MultiChoice Nigeria CEO; Femi Odugbemi, the West African director of the MultiChoice Talent Factory and students; Wangi Mba-Uzoukwu, M-Net West Africa channels director; as well as studio and set visits of SuperSport and M-Net's prime time soap Tinsel.

They saw, stayed in, and got to personally experience the Big Brother Naija house. They attended the new season's live launch event and afterparty on Sunday night.

The normal expectation is that there wouldn't and shouldn't just be at least one story about each of those, but multiple stories about all of it since journalists got on-location access as well as access to several TV executives, producers and on-screen talent over days.

Instead journalists did almost nothing - besides visibly pandering social media selfies and show-off videos like opening Big Brother Naija gift boxes (ooh, 12 spices!), their meals, their drinks, showing off their dressing up for nights out to have dinner and going to nightclubs - essentially anything but covering and reporting on Big Brother Naija and what they've seen, heard and were told about MultiChoice and its TV operations.

Where is the return on the investment? Where is the duty to the public?

Is Insta-posts from TV Tour, with the swirl of FX-glitter for effect, the level we've fallen to and all that the public get now when access media forsake what they're supposed to be there for?

Are you ready for the hottest season of #BBNaija starting this Sunday on @DStvUganda!?! My #bbnaijaexperience just got hotter with this welcome gift from Big Brother! pic.twitter.com/Z468beuMB4

— Charlie Denzel Mwiyeretsi 🇺🇬 (@DenzelUG) June 27, 2019

It's hugely problematic when on a TV junket, it's more publicly known that journalists went to Lagos' Lekki market, visited Freedom Park in downtown Lagos, visited the Nike Art Centre for Art and Culture and had a night out at N-tyce, than what it is to find any actual reporting on what the journalists were there to cover and report on workwise about the latest African version of the Endemol Shine Group's reality format show.

MultiChoice literally gave journalists the experience of staying over for a night in the newly-created Big Brother Naija camera-filled house - the first time in 13 years (since 2006) that a Big Brother production has been done from inside Nigeria, while M-Net and SuperSport gave access to their studios and shows.

Scour the interwebs and try and find stories from the overnight experience or the various other productions and what was said or seen there.

Beyond the lack of first-hand reports about the Big Brother Naija stay (of which there should rightly be several), there are no reports about the design, the construction, the production behind-the-scenes, the new broadcasting set-up from Lagos, or what went into the creation of the house.

Where is the coverage?

It's as if some people were simply picked for a multi-day holiday in Lagos as part of a week of self-entitled feeding, frolicking and having fun without doing the work - which is to represent the hundreds or thousands of readers, listeners or viewers, and to report on the business of broadcasting and the business of Big Brother Naija.

It's inexcusable.


ALSO READ: From a male stripper to a lawyer and a police officer working in Londen are part of the 21 Nigerian housemates competing in the 4th season of M-Net West Africa's Big Brother Naija on DStv that is now done from a studio in Lagos.
ALSO READ: IN IMAGES. 50 photos from inside the house of the 4th season of Big Brother Naija and its colourfully designed interior.

BREAKING. Devastating 'mystery fire' engulfs M-Net, SuperSport and MultiChoice's Lagos studios; broadcasting of shows likely affected.

Pandemonium hit as a devastated fire broke out on Saturday and destroyed property and studios worth millions where M-Net records its soaps such as Tinsel, magazine shows such as Studio 53, and the studio where SuperSport broadcast from in Lagos, Nigeria. The fire which razed the studio complex will likely result in broadcasting disruptions of some productions.

The fire raged for hours on Saturday but is now under control. The studio fascilities has been closed and will remain closed for the time being.

A "mystery fire" broke out on 2 March at 15:30 with the inferno which engulfed the former Phillips Warehouse Building, now the Ojoto Studios fascility, causing massive damage to property belonging to MultiChoice Nigeria. All Tinsel episodes and Studio 53 on M-Net's AfricaMagic channels on DStv are shot inside the building.

SuperSport's live transmission for the weekend in Nigeria was just about to begin on Saturday afternoon when the fire broke out and gutted the entire SuperSport studio and others.

According to reports the Lagos fire department is blamed for arriving late to the scene, but Rasaq Fadipe, the director of the Lagos Fire Services is quoted as saying "I will fault the organisation. How can you have a big premise like this, a whole multinational company, and there's no water hydrant? It's given us a bad image."

M-Net's AfricaMagic Viewers' Choice Awards is set to take place in Lagos, Nigeria this coming weekend.

I asked M-Net about the fire and the pay-TV broadcaster says that the fire "broke out yesterday afternoon at the Ojoto Studios fascility, which is home to both M-Net and SuperSport productions in Nigeria".

"At this time the fire is under control and an investigation is underway to determine the cause of the blaze. While the fire appears to have caused significant damage to the fascility, which may result in some screening delays for programmes recorded on site, M-Net and SuperSport are already hard at work with a view to resuming production as soon as possible in order to minimise any impact on viewing audiences."

"M-Net, SuperSport and MultiChoice are deeply thankful and grateful that no-one was injured during this unfortunate accident," says the pay-TV broadcaster.

M-Net says the devastating fire "will not affect its plans for next weekend" when the AfricaMagic Viewers' Choice Awards takes place. The awards is done in association with MultiChoice.

M-Net sells 4 shows - All Access Mzansi, Cooking with Siba, Tinsel and Naija Sings to Africa HD for broadcast in America.

M-Net has licensed over 300 hours of the pay broadcaster's high definition (HD) TV shows to the new TV channel Africa HD that will be broadcasting in America and the Carribean from 2012.

M-Net has licensed the two Mzansi Magic shows Cooking with Siba and the entertainment magazine show All Access Mzansi to Africa HD, as well as two Nigerian soaps - Tinsel and the reality show Naija Sings.

''This partnership reflects M-Net's global strategy supporting the expansion of our HD programming  library into territories worldwide,'' says Mike Dearham, M-Net's head of sales and library. ''These shows are a true reflection of the diverse array of programming that is currently being produced on the African continent.''

Africa HD says the nascent broadcaster is looking forward to possibly expanding the number of M-Net shows on the channel in future. "We look forward to a long and mutually rewarding relationship as Africa HD expands its global footprint,'' says James Makawa, CEO of Africa HD.