kykNET adds new daily news summary show kykNET Verslag from 6 April at 21:30; moves actuality themed shows later to 22:00.

After cancelling its breakfast morning show Dagbreek after just two years and shortening the running time of the programmes of its recently introduced late night timeslot, kykNET (DStv 144) will debut kykNET Verslag from 6 April.

kykNET Verslag, a summary of the day's most talked about events, will be broadcast from Mondays to Thursdays at 21:30 as a new half hour programme on M-Net's Afrikaans language TV channel supplied to MultiChoice's DStv, and will be repeated in the mornings at 06:00.

The changes come five months after the different themed late night timeslot, with programmes ranging from news to comedy and talk, was introduced in October 2014.

Besides Insig which remains an hour in duration, all the other actuality programmes on kykNET in the themed timeslot strand are cut to half an hour and also moved half an hour later to start at 22:00. Thursday's Flits which was to be cancelled will now remain, but the format shaken up. Friday's VrydagNag Laat, a satirical show, remains cancelled.

From 6 April, on Monday nights, Rapport editor Waldimar Pelser will continue to present Insig for an hour from 22:00 on kykNET, a news and actuality show looking at news and political events shaping the country as well as interviews with newsmakers.

On Tuesdays Winslyn, now at 22:00, is reduced to half an hour and business woman presenter Santie Botha is gone. Co-presenter Divan Botha remains and will now anchor the show focused on entrepreneurs and business ventures and looking at the South African economy.

On Wednesday Prontuit, now at 22:00, is reduced to half an hour and presenter Mariëtta Kruger is gone. Co-presenter Kabous Meiring remains in this talk show interviewing interesting South Africans.

On Thursday Flits, now at 22:00, was to be scrapped but will now remain, but with a changed focus. Previous co-presenter Yvonne Beyers from Huisgenoot magazine remains, Fanie Cronjé is gone and Bouwer Bosch joins the show.

From 10 April at 17:30 kykNET adds Aktueel Bestes, a weekly digest which is a collection of shorts culled from the week's various shows in the late night timeslot.

According to Karen Meiring, M-Net's director of Afrikaans channels, the adjustments are being made to better accomodate kykNET's target market interested in actuality programming.

"We trust that these moves will see an even bigger increase in viewership within the next couple of months".

kykNET on DStv adds brand-new actuality timeslot with new programming strands and presenters every weeknight from 6 October.

You're reading it here first.

M-Net's Afrikaans language TV channel kykNET (DStv 144) is adding a brand-new late-night actuality timeslot with new programmes and presenters as a fixed new programming strand which will run on every weeknight from Monday 6 October.

From Monday 6 October viewers will be able to tune in for new actuality and magazine shows like Insig with Waldimar Pelser who is the editor of the Afrikaans Sunday newspaper Rapport; while kykNET is reviving one of its first local actuality shows, the longrunning studio talk show Prontuit and is even bringing back the original presenter Mariëtta Kruger.

The new kykNET actuality timeslot is in response to viewers demanding less repeats and more regularly updated magazine and actuality programming which changes more often than other serialised and heavily repeated shows.

The new weekday actuality slot on kykNET will feature various programmes ranging from politics and economic issues to business, culture, the arts, fashion and even satire.

The increase in new Afrikaans programming on kykNET comes at the same time that the SABC moved the bulk of Afrikaans programming permanently from SABC2 to SABC3, the public broadcaster's TV channel with the smallest footprint, making several Afrikaans TV shows less accessible to millions of terrestrial TV viewers in South Africa.

In July the SABC lied and said the move of the Afrikaans TV news bulletin from SABC2 to SABC3 as well as programming was only temporary, although it had already been planned as a permanent move.

The SABC also ordered the Afrikaans soap 7de Laan on SABC2 to reduced the amount of Afrikaans.

Besides Waldimar Pelser, Yvonne Beyers and Mariëtta Kruger kykNET viewers will also see iconic South African soap star Shaleen Surtie-Richards becoming a TV presenter, as well as Jody Abrahams, Bouwer Bosch, Santie Botha, Kabous Meiring, Kim Cloete, Divan Botha, Fanie Cronjé, Francois Toerien and Melt Sieberhagen fronting shows from October in the actuality timeslot.

"At kykNET, we continuously strive to improve and renew our schedule," says Karen Meiring, M-Net's director of Afrikaans channels.

"Our viewers' need for more relevant actuality programming was the reason behind the decision to make our available late night slots more actuality-driven, instead of repeating programmes".

"We not only want to inform and entertain, but also expand on everyday issues to stimulate conversation. This is a major move to something fresh and highly exciting – a brand new late night lineup that'll get tongues wagging on screen and across all social and other media".