Annika Larsen sit-down and confession from Marike de Klerk murderer Luyanda Mboniswa to air on e.tv and eNCA

Thinus Ferreira

Reporter Annika Larsen has scored a sit-down interview with convicted killer Luyanda Mboniswa, who murdered former first lady Marike de Klerk, with Annika Larsen's compelling 23-minute documentary, The Confession - The Marike de Klerk Murder, that is airing on both e.tv and eNCA.

The Confession - The Marike de Klerk Murder will be on e.tv on Friday 7 November at 20:30, and on Sunday 10 November on eNCA (DStv 403) at 22:30.

In The Confession - The Marike de Klerk Murder Annika Larsen travels to Gqeberha, formerly Port Elizabeth, for a sit-down tell-all where Luyanda Mboniswa now lives after he was released after 22 years. 

The Confession - The Marike de Klerk Murder revisits the December 2001 murder of Marike de Klerk, the former first lady whose death sent shockwaves around the world. 

The case of the 22-year-old Luyanda Mboniswa, then employed as a security guard at the complex where de Klerk resided, was charged with the crime in a violent crime story that gripped the nation's attention.

Mboniswa initially confessed to involvement but denied being the killer, attempting to implicate others, including de Klerk's dance teacher, John Tebus, and her son Willem. He was sentenced to life imprisonment.

After serving 22 years behind bars, Mboniswa's participation in an offender rehabilitation program led to his release in August 2023. 

Now, through this documentary, he speaks openly about the crime for the first time and admits his guilt to Annika Larsen on camera.

—finally admitting his guilt and, in doing so, lifting the cloud of suspicion that has hung over others for more than two decades.

"The Confession - The Marike de Klerk Murder offers viewers a rare opportunity to examine this pivotal moment of truth and explore the complexities of justice, rehabilitation, and closure," says e.tv.

e.tv to court again to demand further extension in South Africa's digital TV switch-over with 'devastating impact' warning for country's TV ratings

by Thinus Ferreira

South Africa's umbrella TV broadcasters, together with organisations supporting public broadcasting, are back in court demanding the government push out the analogue TV signal switch-off deadline date looming at the end of March, warning about the "devastating impact" and the loss of a third of the country's total public TV audience overnight.

The SABC, e.tv and community TV stations collectively face the existential danger of the overnight loss of millions of viewers on 1 April when their ratings will plunge and with that their precious ad income.

The SOS Coalition and Media Monitoring Africa (MMA) - organisations that lobby for the protection of public broadcasting - have now come on board and filed an affidavit in court supporting eMedia's e.tv that says it has once again been forced to go to court over the imminent switch-off date.

They say South African television risks losing almost a third of the entire remaining public access TV viewing audience overnight if analogue signals are cut in two months' time.

South Africa's last deadline date for the switch-off of analogue TV signals in the country's long-delayed digital migration process to digital terrestrial television (DTT) was 31 December 2024.

Last month, in another last-minute scramble, Solly Malatsi, minister of communications and digital technologies, hastily announced that the switch-off date would once again be pushed out by another three months to the end of March 2025.

But even these three months are not enough of a reprieve for the SABC, e.tv and community TV stations like Cape Town TV (CTV).

No money was budgeted for the DTT process beyond the end of last year and it is unclear where the department, parastatal signal distributor Sentech and others, will find the money for the current three-month extension that will cost millions more.

It costs the government and Sentech between R130 million to R160 million per year to transmit the same TV signal - for instance SABC1 or SABC3 - as both an analogue and a DTT signal, a process known as dual illumination.

Solly Malatsi is South Africa's 12th minister of communications and digital technologies overseeing the morass of the country's failed DTT migration process that has cost the country already over R12 billion over the past 10 years.

Last year the SABC told the department of communications and digital technologies that the public broadcaster would like the deadline to be extended by another year to the end of 2025. 

eMedia running the country's only commercial TV broadcaster e.tv didn't specify a specific extension date and said it isn't against the DTT process but that more time and a reasonable switch-off extension is required.

Now e.tv is once again taking the government to court over the disastrous DTT process and the latest deadline. 

The broadcaster already took the department to court previously and won in the Constitutional Court in 2022 over the DTT switch-off deadline.

Three years ago the court declared the then minister of communications' deadline of 30 June 2022 unconstitutional and recognised the massively adverse impact the switch-off then would have had on the public and the broadcasters.

Massive TV audience loss risk

On Friday SOS and MMA joined e.tv's latest court fight and lodged an affidavit at the High Court of South Africa in Pretoria, saying that although there's been yet another three-month DTT switch-off extension, that it is still not enough time to avert a South African public broadcasting disaster.

According to the groups' affidavit, the premature analogue signals switch-off on 31 March on the public, public broadcasting the SABC, community TV channels and e.tv would have a "devastating impact".

The groups are also upset about MMA and SOS "exclusion from regular consultations with broadcasters".

SOS and MMA note that if the government and Sentech were to flip the switches across the remaining provinces and kill analogue TV signals on 31 March 2025, "Poor and marginalised communities will be cut off from free-to-air television thus denying their right to access to information".

What will follow will be an immediate "Loss of advertising and sponsorship revenue for the SABC" with the groups warning that "The free-to-air audience will diminish from 55.1% of television household population to 26.6% of television household population". 

That will be 28.5% of the free-to-air audience - almost a third of South Africa's remaining public  TV audience that contribute to South Africa's television ratings - which will be gone overnight. 

"We are hoping that the High Court rules in the public interest as the Constitutional Court did in 2022," the groups say.

"We are also hopeful that the government will reconsider and postpone the analogue switch-off date of 31 March 2025 to ensure a proper roll-out of the set-top boxes (STBs) so that no South African

is left without access to television."

Battle to just get boxes

There are millions more South African TV households who either haven't had their free set-box box (STB) installed yet by the government as well as the "missing middle" who earn more than R3 500 and must buy one - although none exist in retail - and must still make the switch.

A shocking 467 000 poor households who have registered for the government-subsidised set-top boxes have not yet had these installed, with STBs gathering dust in locked South African Post Offices and Sentech warehouses.

This is also just the number of households the government is aware of and appears on its outdated database list. 

The department of communications and digital technologies has no idea how many people and TV households exist who are still making use of analogue TV and must pay to buy some type of bridging solution like MultiChoice's DStv, eMedia's Openview, a new DTT-enabled flatscreen TV set or some type of other STB.

This is also why the SABC wants to start its own satellite TV service, similar to Openview, to offer a type of pay-once solution to the "missing middle" to switch from analogue viewing to getting the SABC TV channels and radio stations through a decoder. 

The SABC says there are millions of these viewers in South Africa - TV households still on analogue who must pay for a STB but don't see the urgency or understand the need.

While e.tv refused to go along, kept its analogue signals on and was largely spared the devastating consequences of audience loss, the SABC that initially kept quiet and went along as the government turned its signals off in province after province over the past three years, saw its audience reach and ratings steadily diminish – something that the public has since called "devastating" and a "disaster".

Around 174 analogue transmitters across South Africa's most populated provinces - Gauteng, Western Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape - are still on.

Collectively these four provinces' TV households represent more than half of South Africa's total population.

In the vast majority of cases, one "TV household" on the country's TV ratings system (TAMS) has multiple viewers. 

Depriving these TV households of their TV access will immediately wipe them - and the programmes they watch - from being counted towards the overnight audience ratings of shows ranging from Uzalo on SABC1, Muvhango on SABC2 and Scandal! on e.tv.

Besides viewers cut off from TV news, current affairs and other educational programming, lower ratings will force broadcasters like the SABC and e.tv to immediately lower ad fees on their rate cards, which will lead to lower ad income, and lower overall revenue.

The same goes for community TV channels like CTV and others already fighting an uphill battle with exorbitant signal transmission fees.

The struggling SABC is already technically insolvent and battling an ongoing trend of multi-year traditional TV ratings erosion and can ill afford a massive audience plunge.

Known Associates crime-comedy film The Drop added to eVOD as 'cinematic love letter to Johannesburg's gritty charm'

by Thinus Ferreira

The crime-comedy film The Drop, directed by Jonathan Parkinson and written by Athos Kyriakides will debut on eMedia's eVOD on 30 January, starring Didintle Khunou, Siyabonga Xaba, Garion Dowds, Bonko Khoza and Makgotso Monyemorathoe.

Produced and distributed by Known Associates, The Drop is the story of three flatmates whose mundane lives take a turn after they find themselves at the wrong end of a bank heist gone wrong.

When a robber crashes into their apartment with a bag full of stolen money, the trio's ordinary world is turned upside down.

What follows is botched escape plans, run-ins with law enforcement and an intimidating Russian mobster who wants his money back.

The Drop was filmed on location in Johannesburg's Maboneng precinct which the producers call a "cinematic love letter to Johannesburg's gritty charm and vibrant energy".

"As a director, my goal was to craft a film that blends high-stakes action with relatable, character-driven storytelling, with a wicked and sometimes quirky comedic undertone," says director Jonathan Parkinson.

"The Drop is unapologetically South African, and it’s been an incredible journey bringing this vision to life alongside an exceptional team, and seriously talented cast."

Tshepiso Chikapa-Phiri, producer and Known Associates group CEO, says "This is more than just a film; it's a statement about the vibrancy and resilience of South African storytelling".

"The Drop captures the grit, humour, and unfiltered energy of Johannesburg while showcasing the immense talent our country has to offer. We're excited to deliver a story that's bold, unapologetically local, and universally relatable."

South African government to intervene over Sprinbok rugby broadcast block and sports rights fight between MultiChoice, SuperSport, eMedia's Openview and the SABC.

Thinus Ferreira

An explosive TV keg is on the verge of erupting as untenable pressure is building up over millions of South African TV viewers who continue to be blocked from watching Springboks rugby on free-to-air television, with South Africa's government that said it is now going to intervene.

The ongoing TV sports sublicensing fight between South African broadcasters continue to block South African viewers from seeing Springbok rugby tests on television and specifically on the South African public broadcaster - content that qualifies as sport of national interest and importance.

Two of South Africa's new ministers - Solly Malatsi as minister of communications and Gayton McKenzie as new minister of sports, arts and culture - both now say they want to meet as soon as this week in a sit-down meeting with all of the stakeholders that include MultiChoice and SuperSport, the SABC, eMedia and the South African Rugby Union (SARU).  

Gayton McKenzie says he will summon MultiChoice and SuperSport, eMedia and e.tv, as well as the SABC to meetings. 

"We are very close to a roundtable with all decision-makers. We shall not rest until all can watch the national teams. The nation owns the national teams and the owners must watch their teams playing," he said.

"We are actively dealing with this matter. It is inexcusable and a huge shame on us. We shall very soon revert back after concluding talks."

Gayton McKenzie said he "felt anger, disappointment and sadness that so many South Africans can't watch. We need them to share the Springbok joy. We can't say we are a pro-poor country but don't have the Springboks on SABC. This needs to change. It must change. It's going to change."

The fight over TV sports sublicensing rights revolve around money and the millions paid to broadcast these, as well as the reselling or sublicensing of it and which viewers then get access to it.

MultiChoice's SuperSport is willing to pay hundreds of millions to sports bodies, content distributors and licensors for something like the past two Saturdays' Springbok test matches against Ireland. This money is then used to fund sport organisations and bodies, as well as pay players.

DStv subscribers in turn pay to watch this sports content on pay-TV services like SuperSport-packaged channels on DStv.

SuperSport sold and sublicensed the rights of the Springbok test matches to the SABC but with a contract stipulation that the content is not allowed to be shown or be accessible on the version of the SABC channels carried on eMedia's Openview satellite service.

MultiChoice argues that eMedia and e.tv would otherwise get free access to premium sports content that e.tv isn't and hasn't paid for.

eMedia argues that what is being shown by and on the SABC should be accessible everywhere the SABC's TV channels are carried and that SuperSport is deliberately not willing to sell or sublicence sports rights to eMedia en e.tv but just to the SABC.

Since eMedia dragged MultiChoice to the Competition Commission Tribunal which is still to hand down judgment in this matter - the SABC, which originally agreed to buy and sublicence the rights from SuperSport had to backtrack and break the deal to broadcast the content.

While MultiChoice and eMedia are duking it out over sports sublicensing rights, the SABC and South African Rugby are caught in the middle with viewers sitting without access.

Mark Alexander, South African Rugby Union president, in a statement said SARU supports the SABC's decision to backtrack on its planned agreement with SuperSport to broadcast the Springbok test matches but also says SARU support the SABC's desire for Springbok matches to be broadcast on the public broadcaster.

"This may appear to be a minor and obscure issue to the general public but it is critically important to the Springboks and the future of rugby in South Africa, affecting to just the broadcasters but the sport itself."

He says it's not SARU, SuperSport or the SABC which are fighting with each other.

"It was the intervention of eMedia and its demand that Openview be permitted to broadcast the rugby without any financial contribution by eMedia that put an end to this agreement."

"eMedia's attempts to put an end to exclusivity in sports broadcasting rights would slash the rights fees, with the sport itself suffering the most, severely impacting our programme delivery from the grassroots level to the back-to-back Rugby World Cup-winning Springboks."

"It is absurd that eMedia should be allowed to broadcast sport without contributing to its support and development."

Khalik Sherrif, eMedia CEO, says SARU is wrong.

"It is an absolute shame when the real facts of a dispute in which there is a court decision in favour of the public is distorted by a national body such as SARU. SARU should act in the interests of all South Africans and not only the privileged few," says Khalik Sherrif.

Sheriff says SARU is simply parroting MultiChoice's views.

According to eMedia, it is "the SABC's decision which resulted in the rugby not being aired by it".

"It is clear that MultiChoice and SuperSport and the SABC are solely responsible for the broader public not being able to watch these sporting events, such as the Springbok/Irish test matches and the cricket T20 final. eMedia has been in the public’s corner trying to ensure the widest access to these events."

MultiChoice told TVwithThinus in response to a media query that MultiChoice is "sympathetic to the position of the SABC in guarding against free-riding by a commercial competitor and using its limited funds in a manner that would serve to further the commercial interest of a private commercial entity".

"The allegation that SuperSport gave too little time for eMedia to bid for the rights is completely false."

"Despite having known about the test matches for months, eMedia belatedly approached SuperSport to inquire about the rights and, after being probed, made an offer to sublicense the rights."

"Their bid was inferior to what the SABC offered and was therefore rejected. Even as late as last week, eMedia repeated its patently sub-commercial offer for the rights to the second test in spite of it having been made aware that its offer was not commercially viable."

"It appears to us that eMedia prefers to free-ride on the investments made by SuperSport and the SABC rather than to itself invest at the level which Springbok rugby deserves."

"Sports broadcasting requires a careful balancing act. While fans would understandably like to watch everything for free, the fact is our sports federations depend on the licensing of exclusive broadcasting rights to keep sport alive."

"SuperSport makes a substantial investment in South African rugby and as a country, we have witnessed the fruits of that investment with the World Cup-winning performances of the Springboks."

"SuperSport must protect its investment in exclusive broadcasting rights. But even so, SuperSport is mindful of the desire of audiences to also see the Springboks play on the channels of the public broadcaster."

"We have therefore endeavoured to reach appropriate sub-licensing arrangements with the SABC. It is eMedia alone who has disrupted those arrangements in pursuit of its own commercial interests."

The SABC in response to a media query told TVwithThinus "the SABC will not be pressurised to use public funds to finance private third parties for sports rights".

"The SABC remains committed to broadcasting sports of national interest."

The SABC said it had acquired the rights for the Olympics games directly from the rights holder, International Olympics Committee in 2017 and will show the upcoming 2024 Olympic Games on the SABC TV channels.

ALSO READ: SABC backtracks on promises to broadcast Springbok Test rugby, cites ongoing Competition Appeal Court case over SuperSport sublicensing rights.

South Africa's SABC and e.tv want 'watertight advertising revenue limits' imposed on MultiChoice as Icasa relooks ad and sponsorship regulations.

by Thinus Ferreira

South Africa's broadcasters like the public broadcaster SABC and eMedia's free-to-air commercial e.tv want "watertight advertising revenue limits" to be imposed on pay-TV operators like MultiChoice running DStv, with an adjusted cap on the amount of money that a pay-TV operator - making money from subscriber fees  - can additionally earn from TV commercials.

eMedia also wants regulations deleted to enable it to take advertising and sponsorship of news and current affairs, including for weather forecasts and sports bulletins.

South Africa's broadcasting regulator, the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa), has published a discussion document in the Government Gazette with e.tv and the SABC that said they're unhappy with the slice of overall TV commercial revenue DStv Media Sales gets as MultiChoice's advertising arm.

Icasa has now published the draft regulations and findings document on its review of the regulator's advertising, infomercials and programme sponsorship regulations of 1999, with broadcasters asking Icasa that "a watertight advertising revenue cap for subscription broadcasting services should be introduced".

The SABC told Icasa that it wants, among other things, an advertising cap for DStv in the form of a "reduction of advertising minutes per hour for subscription services, restrictions on the rate card discounts and any other necessary regulatory intervention".

The SABC said that its revenue from commercials on its TV channels and radio stations are declining. 

eMedia said that the current advertising revenue share breaks down as 21.71% for eMedia Investments, 28.78% for the SABC and 39.02% for MultiChoice.

eMedia urged Icasa to expand the regulations to include all video streaming services available in South Africa "to protect the sustainability and viability of free-to-air services in South Africa which will mean that Icasa should consider the expansion of the proposed regulatory licensing framework to include all audio-visual content service providers and not only broadcasters".

eMedia said that with the shrinking advertising pie available to broadcasters, to ensure the continued viability of free-to-air broadcasters, "limitations need to be placed on the amount of advertising

time available to subscription broadcasters".

eMedia suggested that limitations placed on MultiChoice should be substantially more stringent than those placed on a free-to-air broadcaster, since MultiChoice has no such limitations.

eMedia goes so far as to suggest to Icasa that no advertising should be permitted on channels not produced in South Africa, or on programmes produced by any company associated with or within the group of companies providing such subscription broadcasting service - meaning MultiChoice and M-Net with its set of M-Net channels on DStv.

Meanwhile eMedia wants regulations 5.3 and 5.4 scrapped in order for advertising and sponsorship to be enabled for news and current affairs programmes, which would include for weather forecasts or sports bulletins.

MultiChoice told Icasa that the changing television landscape in South Africa "warrants an easing of the current advertising restrictions rather than the introduction of any additional restrictions".

MultiChoice, the SABC, e.tv and the insurance company OUTsurance all said that the regulations to prohibit the broadcast of infomercials during prime time on television in South Africa should be removed, with Icasa that said it will retain the status quo of regulations around so-called "squeezeback" TV ads.

While none of the broadcasters or MultiChoice said they felt that product placement (PP) in shows need to be indicated when it happens - something that is done overseas - Icasa said its position is that product placement must be signalled clearly, by means of a logo, at the beginning of the programme in which

the placement appears, and at the end of the programme. 

"The reason for such provision is to provide certainty and transparency to audiences so that they are able to differentiate normal programming from product placement."

Written responses on the draft regulations must be made to Icasa by 1 June 2022.

SA TV 2021: A shockwave year in television filled with loss, lockdown and an octopus that won an Oscar.

by Thinus Ferreira

During South African television's tumultuous 2021 - bearing witness to shocking unrest and looting, neverending loadshedding and an unfolding Covid-crisis - the one reassuring constant was TV soaps and telenovelas like Uzalo, with the nation's nightly collection of comforting primetime series stretching from Generations to Isono that continued to provide a sense of uninterrupted assurance and "normalcy" in a world seemingly gone mad.

In probably the worst year on record for South Africa's TV and film industry - rocked by a shockwave of thousands of permanent and temporary job losses as work evaporated, hundreds of deaths due to Covid-19, as well as countless and repeated Covid-19 production shutdowns across multiple series under Lockdown Level 4 - 2021's big unrecognised TV miracle is that the TV soap operas endured.

As the industry was upended behind-the-scenes, TV channels kept broadcasting new episodes nightly during 2021 with its escapist local mix of fantasy, conflict, weddings and scandals, that continued to enthral a combined audience of millions of viewers across Southern Africa.

In 2021, South Africans watched Squid Game on Netflix, Devilsdorp on Showmax and welcomed House of Zwide on e.tv. 

Viewers sat transfixed before eNCA, Newzroom Africa and SABC News to see former president Jacob Zuma being arrested and going to jail, and how South Africans ransacked shopping malls. 

They huddled together in front of the soft glow of their TV screens when president Cyril Ramaphosa beckoned for yet another "family meeting".

Love Island South Africa on M-Net flopped but The Bachelorette SA was more successful. The Real Housewives of Durban and Survivor South Africa: Immunity Island (forced to film in South Africa on the Eastern Cape coast) were hits. 

South Africans got their Friday episode of 7de Laan on SABC2 back (that also reached 5000 episodes). 

While kykNET's new on-air rebranding was more successful, SABC3's rebranding to "S3" saw the channel's already anaemic ratings only fall further this year while its Isidingo replacement, The Estate, failed in luring the viewers it should and likely on borrowed time. 

uBettina Wethu (South Africa's Ugly Betty-version) wasn't the success it could have been. Showmax tried Temptation Island SA as both it and Netflix added further local South African content to their catalogues.

MultiChoice's Showmax launched its first South African telenovela, The Wife, but the most expensive South African drama series yet produced, Blood Psalms, missed its October debut and was pushed to February 2022 because the department of trade, industry and competition failed to pay the millions due to the show in the country's broken film rebate scheme.

MultiChoice introduced DStv subscribers to Korean telenovelas ("K-drama") with tvN, kept losing DStv Premium subscribers, while M-Net brought pay-TV subscribers Harry and Meghan sit-down talk with Oprah.

The SABC that turned 85 completed its retrenchment plan getting rid of hundreds of workers after which the public broadcaster once again became embroiled in serious allegations of SABC News editorial interference. 

In 2021 fewer people than ever (down to 21% bothered to still pay a SABC TV Licence with plans to scrap it altogether and replace it with a new type of tax.

The SABC officially launched SABC Sport as a TV channel, while SuperSport did its best to try and bring live sports back this year and branched out into more school sports coverage.

Britbox SA and eMedia's eVOD both launched as two new video streaming services in South Africa in 2021 while ViacomCBS Networks Africa abruptly cancelled its MTV Africa Music Awards it tried to revive this year. 

The M-Net City channel changed to Me, Glow TV was removed from Openview but had to be returned after a court case, and StarSat shed more TV channels this year. 

The long-delayed completion of the switch from analogue to digital terrestrial television (DTT) broadcasting in South Africa was yet again postponed, with new warnings that suddenly switching off TV signals to millions of viewers who don't have set-top boxes to receive the new signals, will damage South Africa's TV ratings system.

Meanwhile worsening Eskom blackouts continued to have a debilitating impact during 2021 on TV ratings, damaging all broadcasters and advertisers with loadshedding that wiped millions of TV households from the national viewership data.

Moja Love (DStv 157) - which had to suspend Jub Jub on Uyajola 9/9 as its most-watched show after rape allegations - and Mzansi Magic (DStv 161) were the two most-watched pay-TV channels in South Africa in 2021. 

SABC1 remained the most-watched free-to-air TV channel. More South African TV news reporters were attacked and robbed this year than ever before.

South African viewers lost FOX after 11 years, The Bold and the Beautiful (again) and weather presenters on eNCA and eNuus. The ratings for the 17th season of Idols on Mzansi Magic plunged as Somizi Mhlongo exited as a judge after serious allegations of physical abuse.

We lost Africa's most influential woman in television, MultiChoice's content boss Aletta Alberts, to Covid, as well as producer-actor Shona Ferguson in July, and an unending TV treasure chest list of names gone too soon who have enriched and who were deeply woven into the tapestry of South Africa's TV industry. 

We lost icons from Franz Marx to Shaleen Surtie-Richards, with calls that more must be done to support and protect South African artists and performers while the South African government for another year refused to make the Performers' Protection Amendment Bill (PPAB) a law that would ensure that actors are paid residuals for TV rebroadcasts.

We said goodbye to LIVE AMP on SABC1 after 25 seasons, as well as the beloved TV news anchor Noxolo Grootboom who read her final TV news bulletin with even Cyril Ramaphosa moving his national address out of the way so that the nation could watch her swansong first. 

Jeremy Maggs, Jane Dutton and Uveka Rangappa left eNCA with no goodbye. 

South Africa's TV and film industry and film lost at least 18 669 jobs (59%) over the past year due to Covid. 

And in-between the tumult, a little film on TV about a friendly South African octopus won an Oscar.

MUST WATCH. The Days of Our Lives: Beyond Salem trailer is utter insanity with Marlena, John, Shane Donovan and a Billie impersonator!

by Thinus Ferreira

While the long-running American weekday soap Days of Our Lives is broadcast on e.tv in South Africa, NBC in America has commissioned a terrific-looking limited-series spinoff, Days of Our Lives: Beyond Salem, absolutely filled with OG Salem superstars like Marlena, John, Billie and many more, men kissing, a drag queen impersonating Billy, and even clones, all wrapped in a spy-and-jewel mystery.

Days of Our Lives: Beyond Salem will start on the American streaming service Peacock on 6 September with a daily new episode until Friday 10 September. 

There's no word yet on whether the 5-episode series might be distributed internationally or whether e.tv might pick it up for its new eVOD streaming service or as a special weeklong primetime Days of Our Lives encore on e.tv.

The jaw-dropping trailer reveals that besides Marlena - still looking exactly the same as always - there is also Charles Shaughnessy, known as Mister Sheffield in The Nanny, reprising his role as Shane Donovan but just with slightly greyer hair. Shaughnessy became widely known for playing the character on Days of our Lives from 1984 to 1992.

In a hilarious scene, Jackie Cox from RuPaul's Drag Race, the iconic Canadian drag queen famously known for her Lisa Rinna impersonation, will also guest star in the show.

In Days of Our Lives: Beyond Salem, over a long weekend, John and Marlena once again travel internationally to solve a mystery as they've done together so many times before.

This time they travel to Zurich, while Ben and Ciara have a romantic getaway in New Orleans, Chad visits some old friends in Phoenix, and Abe, Paulina, Lani, and Eli vacation in Miami. 

All find themselves embroiled in a mystery involving stolen jewels (Peacock! wink, wink!) which, in the wrong hands, could cause dire consequences for Salem. 

It's a race against time for ISA agent Billie Reed as she crosses the globe in search of this missing treasure, together with Salem super couples.

The Days of our Lives limited series is packed with the soap's who's-who: From now Real Housewives star Lisa Rinna back as Billie Reed, to Deidre Hall as Dr Marlena Evans, Drake Hogestyn as John Black, Jackée Harry as Paulina Price, James Reynolds as Abe Carver, Victoria Konefal as Ciara Brady, Robert Scott Wilson as Ben Weston, Billy Flynn as Chad DiMera, Lamon Archey as Eli Grant and Sal Stowers as Lani Price. 

Not enough you say? Eileen Davidson is also set to appear and all we can say is: Nun-outfit and bad teeth.

Thaao Penghlis is back as Tony DiMera, Leann Hunley is Anna DiMera, Christie Clark is Carrie Brady, Austin Peck is back as Austin Reed, Greg Rikaart is there Leo Stark, and viewers can watch Chandler Massey as Will Horton, Zachary Atticus Tinker as Sonny Kiriakis and Peter Porte as Kyle Graham who all join the hunt of stolen jewels across the globe.

Days of Our Lives: Beyond Salem is produced by Corday Productions in association with Sony Pictures Television with Ken Corday as the executive producer with co-executive producer Albert Alarr.

Nisa Allie exits eNCA as TV news channel's regional manager in the Western Cape.

by Thinus Ferreira

In yet another high-level eNCA (DStv 403) defection, Nisa Allie has resigned to exit eMedia's TV news channel after 13 years where she has lately been part of eNCA's senior management team, as regional manager of eNCA in the Western Cape from Cape Town.

Sources told TVwithThinus that the highly-respected, competent and well-liked Nisa Allie resigned in mid-August.

We can confirm that she has resigned," an eMedia spokesperson told TVwithThinus on Wednesday.

Asked for comment from e.tv's side about her departure and what Nisa Allie has contributed to the company, eMedia said that it has no official comment at this stage.

Nisa Allie worked climbed the ranks inside eNCA and e.tv as an eNCA assignments editor since May 2008 when she joined from Primedia where she was a producer and reporter. 

Nisa Allie moved to the position of Cape Town news editor at eNCA and was instrumental in the creation of the Open News TV channel in late-2018 for eMedia's Openview free-to-air satellite pay-TV service as Open News managing director.

Despite its initial lofty goals, Open News that started off with a slate of original news programming during the afternoons and prime time supported by the existing e.tv news division, didn't last long and morphed into the more toned-down eNews & Sport channel on Openview.

e.tv launches its eVOD video streaming service.

by Thinus Ferreira

e.tv has launched the South African broadcaster's homegrown video streaming service, eVOD (e-Video-On-Demand) as a so-called freemium streamer with over 2 500 hours of content at launch, including different premium subscription tiers for exclusive content.

e.tv plans to spend at least R100 million per year on creating brand-new local content for eVOD that will include 4 eOriginal series and 10 original South African feature films, and the plan is to add the streaming of live linear TV channels on eVOD in the future.

As e.tv is a free-to-air commercial broadcaster, eVOD offers thousands of hours of free library content that is available after a customer registers an eVOD profile.

eVOD also offers daily (R5 for 24 hours), weekly (R15) and monthly (R29.99) subscriptions, giving a viewer access to all content and offering more exclusive content including a first-run eOriginal movie, and access to the next week's 5 episodes of e.tv's top local prime soaps and telenovelas in a functionality called FastForward (FF).

eVOD subscribers can for instance watch the first episode of the new local drama series Is'phindiselo before broadcast, as well as Atlantis, the first eVOD Original movie in which a young woman sets out to find her missing brother involved in a gang and starring Bronte Snel, Maurice Carpede, Chumani Pan, Keenan Arrison and Ettienne Gertse.

eVOD customers can pay with debit or credit cards, airtime or partner billing with e.tv that has partnered with MTN and with MTN customers who register for eVOD who get 4GB data free monthly until 31 January 2022 that can only be used to watch eVOD content.

eVOD is available to download as an app for mobile devices on the Google Play and Apple's App Store, and is online at www.evod.co.za as a browser experience for computers. 

e.tv's existing "e On Demand" website service where people could watch Catch Up episodes of shows, will now redirect users to the eVOD website.

eVOD launches in South Africa just a day before BritBox SA that is launching on 6 August with the country that is adding two new video streaming services in an already crowded video-on-demand space and where the South African public broadcaster plans to launch its own SABC VOD service, modelled on the BBC's Player, before the end of the year.

Besides eVOD and BritBox SA, South African consumers already have access to MultiChoice's Showmax, Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Apple TV+ that are all competing with PCCW Media's VIU, Vodacom Video Play and TelkomONE. 

Consumers are still waiting for other global streamers like WarnerMedia's HBO Max, along with Disney+, Paramount+, NBCUniversal's Peacock and Discovery+ to launch locally.

"We decided to meet our audience in places where they will be at - so if not on the TV set, on the mobile, or on the PC, and eventually they will get the eVOD content again on TV," said Khalik Sherrif, eMedia Holdings CEO, the eVOD virtual launch event on Wednesday night.

"We have a huge following in South Africa through e.tv and all the other TV channels and we understand in our business that our customers and audiences are changing on a daily basis these days, getting content through means that we didn't conceive of 10 years ago - the TV has evolved from analogue to DTH to DTT and the last couple of years we went to OTT."

Multiple new eOriginal series, films planned

Marlon Davids, e.tv managing director said that "the investment in the local broadcasting industry will be R100 million per year - that's what our investment is going to be - and it will include at least 4 eOriginal series for eVOD, as well as at least 10 local movies per year".

"Atlantis is available to watch on eVOD and up until the end of March 2022 next year we will launch another 4 movies, and possibly 2 more. In a full financial year there will always be 10 movies that we will launch."

Excluding Atlantis that is already on eVOD, the other eOriginal films will be available on a T-VOD basis on eVOD as a transactional video-on-demand offering.

"This means that eVOD users will pay a to-be-determined once-off fee to watch a movie because it won't be available on TV or in cinemas and will be territory premieres," Marlon Davids said. The price for T-VOD films has not been decided yet.

"A big part of eVOD will be Catch Up, so users will be able to watch last night's episode of series like Durban Gen or House of Zwide or even the Turkish telenovelas dubbed into Afrikaans."

"In that space we know that viewers are obsessed with those shows like Gebroke Harte, so we will also offer FastForward for Elif to see the next 5 episodes that will still be broadcast on the eExtra channel."

"Also some of these Turkish drama series that haven't been on e.tv channels before will now premiere on eVOD even before it goes to one of our linear TV channels."

"After Is'phindiselo our 13-part series that has already been renewed for a second 13-episode season, we will launch another one towards mid-September called Housewives, that is in production."

Plan to move e.tv content to eVOD

e.tv told TVwithThinus that its existing shows like soaps of which Catch Up rights have been licensed to MultiChoice's DStv Now will remain accessible on that pay-TV provider's streaming service but e.tv's content is no longer available on VIU and has been moved to eVOD.

"As our contractual obligations ride themselves out, we're consolidating our content on our OTT service which is the logical thing to do," Khalik Sherrif said.

"We are introducing what is the mass audience of South Africa to content that is now going to be streamed. As data becomes cheaper, the numbers will grow. But we had to be in this business. We had to start somewhere."

7th season of Ultimate Braai Master to film in Nelson Mandela Bay over 6 weeks as a contained Covid-safe bubble show, will broadcast on e.tv and stream on Netflix.

by Thinus Ferreira

The reality competition show Ultimate Braai Master has been picked up for a 7th season and will this time be broadcast on e.tv and streamed on Netflix SA while it has become the second series that will be produced as a Covid-19-safe bubble production in the Eastern Cape following shortly on the heels of M-Net's upcoming latest season of Survivor SA that was also shot in the province.

Gqeberha, previously Port Elizabeth, will pay R2 million to the production of the 7th season of Ultimate Braai Master, with host Justin Bonello, for the series to film a self-contained season within the Nelson Mandela Bay municipality. 

In previous seasons, Ultimate Braai Master produced by Okuhle Media, would criss-cross South Africa in roadtrips for braai challenges at various scenic locations in the country.

However, with the ongoing Covid-pandemic, the only viable and practical possibility is to film a new season of Ultimate Braai Master over the course of 6 weeks that is geographically contained. This is similar to what Afrokaans did for M-Net with Survivor SA: Immunity Island in the Eastern Cape that will play out on the Wild Coast from June.

Besides Justin Bonello, the chef-judges Peter Goffe-Wood and Benny Masekwameng will return to judge the braai challenges in which teams of two compete against each other to win R1 million. 

The season of 13 episodes will again be shown on e.tv and for the first time in Ultimate Braai Master history, on Netflix SA as well.

About the Nelson Mandela Bay metro paying R2 million to the show, mayor Nqaba Bhanga in a statement says that "We believe sport and entertainment unifies our people, it's not about politics. We support this - this show will put us on Netflix, we will be watched by the entire globe and throughout South Africa and we will be the centre of attraction".

"We don't want to compete with Durban and Cape Town, we are competing with the world. We are not setting the bar low."

"We want to see value for money as our hospitality industry has suffered and we want to inject money that will assist the industry."

Thsonono Buyeye, deputy exeuctive mayor, says "We welcome this show, the exposure that we will be receiving as a city is massive. We fully support this, we wish to thank SRAC, I think this is a brilliant one that we should support. It is what we have been calling for; that we should be a destination of choice for such events".

South Africa's TV ratings system and broadcasters risk damage in new monthly analogue TV hard switch-off approach as signal transmitters are shut down in provinces before all viewers have switched to DTT or received set-top boxes.

by Thinus Ferreira

South Africa's TV ratings system risks getting damaged by the government's hard switch-off approach of analogue TV signal transmitters in communities across South Africa, which could leave millions of TV households without television access who haven't switched to digital terrestrial television (DTT) and who haven't received a free government set-top box (STB) or can't buy one.

It is estimated that there are more than 3 million South African TV households who are still on the analogue television platform.

These 3 million analogue TV households - in a new staggered monthly cut-off approach - are set to lose access to their TV signal over the next 9 months, with the process that could inflict damage to South Africa's TV ratings system and the so-called "TV households universe".

As a country South Africa has the most credible TV ratings system on the African continent for compiling daily, weekly and monthly viewership numbers for broadcasters and advertisers.

South Africa's TV rating system is the envy of other African markets where broadcasters, international TV channel distributors and advertisers are often forced to operate in the dark and have to make best-estimated guesses based on parsing other related marketing data and research in the absence of similarly comprehensive ratings data.

Now the credibility of the numbers-crunching used to compile ratings data for South African TV viewership is under threat after the country's department of communications and digital technologies have published a new list of analogue TV transmitters in various provinces being switched off, and that has started in the Free State this week.

The big issue is that the department - that is more than a decade late in completing the digital migration process from analogue to digital terrestrial television in South Africa - is now switching off analogue signals in succession in provinces but before all analogue viewers have actually switched over to digital TV. 

That will wipe an as yet undetermined number of TV viewers every month from now on from the total TV universe on which the current TV ratings metric is based and that is tallied using installed People Meters in homes across the country.

Meanwhile millions of DTT set-top boxes are gathering dust in South African Post Office warehouses that haven't been distributed to qualifying poorest households, with many more TV households who don't qualify for a free one and who have to spend their own money to buy an STB or new digital-signal enabled TV set.

Hard switch-off approach

The department's original digital migration plan stated that analogue transmitters won't be switched off before all viewers haven't been migrated to DTT successfully. The department has now switched to a "hard switch-off" approach where TV households simply lose access if they haven't switched and transmitters are switched off.

With the long-drawn-out process, the department and minister Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams, are under huge pressure to complete the DTT migration in order to make the dividend of frequencies available after the switch away from analogue TV for things like next-generation mobile data systems like 5G.

The Broadcasting Research Council of South Africa (BRCSA) as the custodian body of the country's TV ratings system hasn't yet responded to a media enquiry made earlier this week seeking comment about the potential impact on South Africa's TAMS and how the ratings system is going to be impacted.

Analogue viewers who don't have access to digital TV are who are getting cut off monthly will have to be removed from the existing TV universe data as well.

It's unclear how the BRCSA will have to change or adjust the existing TV universe when analogue-only TV households start to disappear and lose access to television in the real world.

Free-to-air broadcasters like the SABC with its SABC1, SABC2 and SABC3 channels, and eMedia Investments with its free-to-air commercial channel e.tv, are likely to be impacted the most if they have to adjust advertising rate cards to lower 30 second-ad spot pricing if ratings are lowered because the existing TV universe shrinks.

Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams on Tuesday in a statement revealed the new timeline for analogue signals to be cut and said that "it is anticipated that this process, which will be done province-by-province, will be completed by the end of March 2022".

On Monday the analogue TV signal was switched off in Boesmanskop and surrounding towns like Vanstadensrus, Zastron and Rouxville in the Xhariep District Municipality in the Eastern Free State near the Lesotho border.

That was followed on Tuesday by Ladybrand and the surrounding towns like Hobhouse, Tweespruit and Clocolan all losing their analogue TV signal. People who haven't switched to digital TV - mostly the poor people in rural communities - now have no access to television.

According to the department, the switch-off plans are to end analogue signals in the Free State by end of March 2021, Northern Cape by end of April 2021, Northern Cape by end of April 2021, the North West, Mpumalanga and Eastern Cape provinces by end of May 2021, Kwa-Zulu Natal by end of July 2021, the Western Cape by end of November 2021, Limpopo by end of December 2021, and finally Gauteng by end of January 2022.

"The department is collaborating with provincial governments and district municipalities to recruit local installers of government-subsided decoders in order to accelerate the implementation of the broadcasting digital migration," said Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams in the statement.

Poor households with a combined household income of less than R3 200 can get a free set-top box.

TV households who do not qualify for free government decoders have to buy an STB or an integrated digital television (IDTV) set that has DTT decoding capability built-in.

The cast and crew of e.tv's canned Rhythm City thought they were called together to be congratulated for their hard work and ratings during Covid-19 - then they were told they're fired during a cold speech.

by Thinus Ferreira

Just before the axe came down on e.tv's canned Rhythm City soap, the cast and crew thought that they were being called together to be congratulated for their hard work and ratings during the Covid-19 pandemic - but then they got fired during a "cold and clinical" speech.

On Friday e.tv shocked South Africa's TV industry when it suddenly announced that after 13 years it's over for its Rhythm City weekday prime time soap produced by Quizzical Pictures. 

On Sunday the City Press newspaper reported that the Rhythm City cast and crew were called together for an e.tv meeting, allegedly under the guise of it being a "meet-and-greet" session, only to be "let down" by the terrible cancellation news.

"The speech was cold and clinical. Everyone just had a look on their faces like: What am I going to do?" Rhythm City insiders at Sasani Studios said.

They thought that the e.tv team was coming to congratulate and to praise them for their perseverance and hard work through the Covid-19 pandemic crisis that even saw the production shut down more than once this year.

"It was a surprise as the show has been doing well. You don't can a successful show," a source said.

e.tv declined to say why it decided to cancel Rhythm City other than to say that it's been axed as "part of a business strategy". Marlon Davids, e.tv managing director, in a statement said that "e.tv continues to look forward to fulfilling its mandate of producing exceptional and relevant local content".

After 13 years Rhythm City, executive produced by Harriet Gavshon, will end with its final episode on 16 July 2021 with e.tv that plans to replace it with another daily drama series.

According to e.tv, Rhythm City's "on-air life cycle" is apparently not good enough for the channel anymore, with e.tv that took the decision to can Rhythm City after having reviewed the show's "on-air life cycle".

e.tv doesn't specifically mention any financial reasons for Rhythm City's cancellation in its surprising press statement, yet it stands to reason that Rhythm City's axing is because the soap is likely no longer profitable for e.tv, or is loss-making, or is no longer making enough money for the commercial free-to-air broadcaster.

A combination of ratings and profitability are the main drivers behind the fate of series and programming on commercial TV channels and Rhythm City is clearly no longer making sense as a "keeper" for e.tv within this matrix.

e.tv that doesn't want to give any specific reasons for Rhythm City's cancellation in its press release for something that is a long-running show, will fuel speculation within South Africa's TV industry and under viewers and fans as to what exactly led to its demise.

Rhythm City, created by Rolie Nikiwe and Neil McCarthy, made its broadcast debut on e.tv on 9 July 2007 and was the replacement for the struggling youth-focused Backstage - it was instantly much more popular and gave e.tv a foot in the door in the production of scripted, local South African prime time content that could pull significant ratings.

Rhythm City peaked at almost 5.2 million viewers in 2020 and has consistently ranked amongst the Top 10 most-watched prime time soap operas in South Africa, with its cancellation catching South Africa's TV industry by surprise.

In October Rhythm City pulled 4.04 million viewers at its monthly highwater mark in its 19:00 timeslot, making it the second most-watched show on the e.tv schedule behind Scandal! with 5.1 million viewers. 

In May this year, Rhythm City won the Best TV Soap award at 2020's 14th South African Film and Television Awards (Saftas).

 

ALSO READ: e.tv cancels Rhythm City after 13 years, Quizzical Pictures produced daily soap opera to end in July 2021 as part of unexplained 'business strategy' and will be replaced by another daily drama series.