NBCUniversal International Networks changing the Universal Channel to UNIVERSAL TV with a new colour palette and new on-air look.

After 8 years, NBCUniversal International Networks (NBCUIN) is again changing the brand name and look of its flagship general entertainment channel, with the Universal Channel that is changing to UNIVERSAL TV (DStv 117), including a new on-air look.

The Hallmark Channel changed to the Universal Channel in March 2010 and the purple look that was introduced in May 2013 has now given way to the word "channel" falling away and replaced by "TV".

A coral colour palette has been introduced with the logo retaining the circular globe iconography and design that's again slightly amended.

The Universal Channel look is changing globally, with UNIVERSAL TV that switched in the United Kingdom earlier this month and UNIVERSAL TV in South Africa and across Africa that is the second market to follow.

NBCUIN says the "evolved proposition" for the new-look brand will continue to "highlight that characters are at the heart of great storytelling".

"UNIVERSAL TV’s reinvigorated identity best positions our flagship brand into the future as a relevant, compelling destination for fans of character-driven programming,” says Lee Raftery, the chief marketing and content officer and managing director for the United Kingdom and emerging markets at NBCUniversal International in a provided quote about the UNIVERSAL TV rebrand.

"In making this latest investment in UNIVERSAL TV – combined with the raft of top-quality shows we have recently acquired – we're reinforcing our commitment to delivering a must-watch destination for affiliate partners and viewers, alike."

The new UNIVERSAL TV look developed in collaboration between NBCUniversal International Networks' central marketing team, and the creative agency Red Bee who established the brand positioning, brand logo and creative concept, and the brand consultant Lee Hunt.

Specialist contributions were provided by Dalton Maag (the typeface design studio), Future Deluxe directed and produced brand idents motion and Zelig Sound is responsible for music and sound design.

Universal Channel adds new female Canadian police procedural drama series, The Detail, to the African schedule from 5 June.

NBCUniversal International Networks has acquired the TV rights to the new drama series, The Detail, from Entertainment One (eOne) for South Africa and Africa with the Canadian police procedural that will start its on Tuesday, 5 June at 20:00 on the Universal Channel (DStv 117).

The Detail revolves around three talented, female homicide investigators who work on solving crimes while navigating the challenges of their personal lives and star Angela Griffin, Shenae Grimes-Beech and Wendy Crewson.

Detective Stevie Hall (Griffin) is a sharp, quick-witted interrogator who mentors the street smart detective Jacqueline "Jack" Cooper (Grimes-Beech) who has a messy personal life. Joining them is staff inspector Fiona Currie (Crewson), the homicide unit's formidable boss, who works overtime to secure justice.

"At Universal we love great characters and believe they are central to compelling entertainment," says Lee Raftery, the managing director United Kingdom and emerging markets and chief marketing and content officer at NBCUniversal International.

"We're excited for our viewers to get to know the three strong, female lead detectives from The Detail as they navigate the demands of their jobs while balancing the responsibilities of family life."

The Detail is produced by Ilana Frank of ICF Films with eOne in association with CTV.

"Angela, Shenae and Wendy perfectly capture these strong, complicated and authentically flawed characters that struggle against the obstacles that women face in their personal and professional lives every day," says Ilana Frank, executive producer, saying that The Detail depicts "topical, up-to-the-minute cases and stories seen through a distinctly and unapologetically female lens".

The Detail has a deep talent pool of female writers, directors, producers, and key consultants with Ley Lukins as executive producer and co-showrunner who is also series developer; Ilana Frank, Linda Pope, Sally Wainwright and Nicola Shindler as executive producers, Sonia Hosko as co-executive producer; Kathy Avrich Johnson as consulting producer and writers Naledi Jackson, Sandra Chwialkowska, Katrina Saville and Sarah Goodman.

Directors on The Detail include Jordan Canning and Sara St. Onge.

The Librarians seen on the Universal Channel cancelled after 4 seasons.

The fantasy drama series The Librarians seen in South Africa and Africa on the Universal Channel DStv (DStv 117) has been cancelled in America.

The Librarians, produced by Devlin Electric Entertainment, was a spin-off of the made-for-TV film series The Librarian with Noah Wyle, who made some appearances on the TV series that also starred Christian Kane, Rebecca Romijn, Lindy Booth, John Harlan Kim and John Larroquette.

The Librarians revolved around an ancient organization hidden beneath the Metropolitan Public Library that was dedicated to protecting the world from "the secret, magical reality hidden all around" while solving mysteries, fighting supernatural threats and recovers artifacts".

The show's executive producer Dean Devlin on social media wrote "Just got the official call. TNT has canceled The Librarians - I will immediately begin the process of trying to move the show elsewhere. Please keep your fingers crossed for us!"

IN IMAGES. The Universal Channel's beautiful media preview screening of the new American drama series, Colony, with Josh Holloway and Sarah Wayne Callies.

On Monday evening NBCUniversal International Networks held a media screening event in Johannesburg for the American drama series Colony starting on the Universal Channel (DStv 117) on Mondays at 20:00.

NBCUniversal revealed that the second season of Colony will follow seamlessly after the conclusion of the first season of this dystopian/police state drama with Josh Holloway and Sarah Wayne Callies in the lead roles.

A lot of effort was put into making a beautiful experience and creating a wonderful media screening environment at The Venue in Melrose Arch where media and journalists covering television, MultiChoice programming executives, and TV talent sipped on sparking wine and were served a diverse range of snacks.

Media guests tucked into jalapeno poppers with sour cream, smoked salmon and cream cheese, smoked lamb cubes, chicken, squid ink pasta with smoked prawns, sushi rolls and beef teriyaki stir-fry.

Dessert was beautiful purple blueberry cake pops.

The Cape Town radio presenter Bailey Schneider was the master of ceremonies for the Colony press screening and Sarah Wayne Callies skyped in from Lisbon to answer questions from the press.

M-Net acquires and schedules several great science fiction series for March that are all well worth watching.

M-Net has acquired and scheduled (and rescheduled!) several great science fiction series for March that are all well worth watching.

M-Net (DStv 101) picked up the new science fiction thriller series, Counterpart, that started in America on 10 December. Counterpart will start on Tuesday 27 March at 22:00 on M-Net and revolves around a man who discovers that the mysterious agency he works for is guarding a secret parallel dimension.

Then M-Net also grabbed the first season of the anthology science fiction series, Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams (pictured above).

Like The Outer Limits, every episode has a self-contained science fiction story and will start on M-Net on Wednesday 14 March at 22:00.



Then there is the rescheduled Time After Time that was initially slotted for late-2017 and for M-Net, but was yanked from the schedule.

Time After Time has now also been moved to M-Net City (DStv 115). It will now premiere on this channel on Monday 5 March at 21:00. The show was sadly cancelled after its first season but the story is great. HG Wells uses his time machine to pursue the serial killer Jack the Ripper to modern-day New York.

Not science fiction but also looking good, is the new forensic crime drama series, Instinct, that M-Net has also acquired. Instinct, with Alan Cumming, will start on M-Net City (DStv 115) 3 days after the new show starts in America.

Instinct is a bit like The Mentalist, Elementary and How to Get Away with Murder, and revolves around the professor and former CIA agent Dr Dylan Reinhart who is lured back to his old life when the NYPD needs his help to stop a serial killer who is using his book to commit murders.

South Africa is far behind, but the first season of the quite good, totalitarian science fiction drama series, Colony, is finally starting on the Universal Channel (DStv 117) in March. Josh Holloway is a dad who lives in a segregated Los Angeles with his family where resources are scare after aliens arrived on Earth and divided cities worldwide with massive walls.

Second Deon Meyer crime drama TV adaptation, Cape Town, set to start on the Universal Channel on 7 September as a 6-part mini-series.

Cape Town will again be the backdrop of another international TV series this month when Cape Town, the TV adaptation of Deon Meyer's book Dead Before Dying starts on the Universal Channel with several South African actors.

The 6-part mini-series Cape Town, produced by all-in-production and Out of Africa Entertainment and distributed by Dynamic Television, is based on Deon Meyer's third novel, Dead Before Dying (Ikarus in Afrikaans) and will start on the Universal Channel (DStv 117) on Wednesday 7 September at 20:50.

Cape Town will showcase a backdrop of the Mother City and the Western Cape peninsula that will be instantly familiar to Capetonians and South Africans, ranging from places like Constantia and Tokai to Woodstock, Macassar Beach, Cape Town's city centre and other well-known spots where on-location scenes were shot.

The series was filmed in Cape Town last year, similar to American shows like Strike Back, Homeland, Dominion, Black Sails, SAF3 and Of Kings and Prophets that filmed seasons with varying success the past few years, and local productions like the Afrikaans crime drama Die Byl on kykNET.

Although a South African story, the two leads in Cape Town are foreign actors who are trying the South African accent on the tongue, with the Norwegian actor Trond Espen Seim playing alcoholic detective Mat Joubert and the American actor Boris Kodjoe as his new partner Sanctus Snook who portrays a former Hawks unit investigator.    

The Cape Town supporting cast include veteran South African actors Arnold Vosloo and Ian Roberts, alongside Jody Abrahams, Colin Moss, Irshaad Ally and Jessica Haines.

Cape Town, written by Anna Tebbe and executive produced by Zeljko Karajica, Klaus Zimmermann and Daniel March, follows Mat Joubert whose wife Lara was murdered, who investigates two major cases with Sanctus Snook.

Firstly there a series of brutal murders involving men wearing masks of famous people and secondly there are the deaths and disappearances of young European women.

According to the producers, the gritty crime fiction series sees the characters shine a flashlight into the shadows of the city with Cape Town that becomes a character itself in Cape Town: culturally rich and beautiful, but also fractured and harbouring dark secrets behind its glamorous façade.

Cape Town is the second TV series based on a Deon Meyer novel, following the Afrikaans crime drama Orion that was broadcast on kykNET in 2006 and that was also filmed in Cape Town at the time.

NCIS renewed for a 14th and 15th season as Mark Harmon signs a new 2-year contract extension with CBS Studios.

The forensic procedural drama NCIS seen in South Africa on pay-TV broadcaster M-Net, free-to-air public broadcaster SABC2 and the Universal Channel (DStv 117) is getting renewed for a 14th and a 15th season following a new two-year deal CBS Studios signed with star Mark Harmon.

NCIS - the most watched TV drama in the world - is distributed worldwide by CBS Studios International and will now remain on television screens until at least 2018.

Ensemble cast member Michael Weatherly is of course exiting NCIS at the end of the 13th season.

Mark Harmon, besides being in NCIS, is also an executive producer of the spin-off NCIS: New Orleans on M-Net (DStv 101).

"It's extraordinary that in its 13th season and with over 300 episodes to its credit, NCIS continues to excel at such a high level on a global scale," says Glenn Geller, CBS Entertainment president in a statement.

"It is testimony to an amazing cast, led on and off the screen by the exceptional Mark Harmon, for skillfully bringing this universally appealing team of heroes to life; and to Gary Glasberg and his writers for crafting compelling stories that feature NCIS's signature blend of mystery, quirk, drama and comedy every single week".

Universal Channel on DStv gets new sci-fi spaceship drama, Dark Matter; also adds new crime drama Bosch.

You're reading it here first.

The Universal Channel (DStv 117) is advancing with first-run content in high definition with the brand-new science fiction spaceship drama Dark Matter which will start on the channel on Thursday 30 July at 20:00.

Meanwhile Bosch, another brand-new crime series with Titus Welliver, is coming to Universal Channel in July although the starting date is unclear.

NBCUniversal Networks International says the new drama based on Michael Connelly's books about the Los Angeles detective Harry Bosch is starting 1 July at 20:50 and will be on Wednesdays.

Dark Matter, based on the comic series of the same name, starts in America on 12 June for a first season of 13 hour long episodes. 

Dark Matter, filmed in Toronto in Canada, revolves around the crew of a spaceship adrift in deep space who wakes up with amnesia and no memories of who they are, what their mission is, or what happened to them.

As the six strangers and one android go about figuring out who they are and what their purpose is, they have to work together as they discover hidden secrets about themselves, space and the spaceship.

Dark Matter, from the writers of Stargate SG-1, will be shown in 86 countries by NBCUniversal Networks International on the Syfy channel, or on the Universal Channel in places like South Africa where MultiChoice doesn't carry Syfy as a TV channel on DStv.

"Dark Matter is a refreshing and entertaining space opera that blends an intriguing premise with fast-paced suspense," said Chris Regina, the senior vice president for programming at Syfy.

IN PICTURES. Universal Networks International's first ever TV channels programming upfront for TV critics in Cape Town.

Universal Networks International (UNI) on Thursday afternoon held their first programming upfront ever in Cape Town, South Africa for the five TV channels it supplies to MultiChoice's DStv satellite pay-TV platform in South Africa and the rest of Africa.

Universal Networks International (UNI) runs channels like Universal Channel, Studio Universal, Telemundo, E! Entertainment and Style on DStv.

Kaisa Kantalainen, the Universal Networks International head of marketing for the Benelux, Nordic and Africa region, as well as Eva Dvorakova, PR manager for UNI emerging markets for the EMEA region, hosted the press at the Shimmy Beach Lounge.

They talked TV critics through the various upcoming programming on UNI's five TV channels on DStv.

TV critics sipped on sparkling wine and snacked on various channelised Universal Networks International food at different tables.

Janez Vermeiren, Top Billing and The Man Cave presenter and now TV producer was the host.

Universal Networks International did an interesting scent testing and educational session with a "unique" smell for each of the five TV channels.

The UNI panel didn't take questions, but did share viewership figures for all of the channels, and revealed upcoming programming highlights for all five of the channels with sizzle reels.

UNI wowed with a customised video message from E! News' co-presenter Giuliana Rancic on E! Entertainment (DStv 124) who had a special message for South Africa and August's Women's Month.