kykNET Musiek channel on DStv rebranded from August as kykNET NOU; moving away from music only channel to incorporate entertainment.

The kykNET Musiek (DStv 146) channel on MultiChoice's DStv satellite pay-TV platform is being rebranded as kykNET NOU! ending its channel proposition as a "music only" channel and incorporating other entertainment content.

kykNET Musiek, launched in November 2012 and packaged and provided by pay-TV broadcaster M-Net as an Afrikaans launguage channel showing Afrikaans music videos and magazine shows around the Afrikaans music industry and artists, will widen its scope from 3 August when the channel name changes to kykNET NOU! and include wider entertainment coverage.

kykNET NOU! will no longer focus on just Afrikaans music and add additional genres like lifestyle and talk show programming with a lot of the content taken and repurposed from the main Afrikaans entertainment channel, kykNET (DSTv 144).

kykNET NOU! will be available to DStv Premium, DStv Compact, DStv Extra and DStv Family subscribers when kykNET Musiek changes to the new channel on 3 August on DStv.

kykNET NOU! plans to cover the Afrikaans music and entertainment sphere.

"We plan to keep viewers up to date and to spice up their social calendar with the latest information about concerts and solo performances," says Karen Meiring, M-Net's director for Afrikaans channels.

kykNET's new radio-on-TV breakfast show Die Groot Ontbyt replacing the cancelled Dagbreek will be shown on kykNET NOU! from 10 August between 06:00 and 08:00.

Other kykNET programming shown on kykNET NOU! include talk show Jou Show with Emo Adams, and the travelogue, Reis na Gister.

Fiesta, Leef Jou Reis, Singstories, Bravo!, Flits and several other programmes from the premium kykNET channel will be shown on kykNET NOU! Other shows include #MyMusiek, #LekkerTV and Jukebox on Saturdays and a revamped JAM! on Sundays at 19:30.

Sing in Harmonie is a choir competition for primary schools.

kykNET plans to broadcast concerts live on kykNET NOU! in the future.

kykNET and kykNET Musiek expand across the United Kingdom, becomes available on Freeview HD as pay-TV channels.

kykNET (DStv 144), the popular Afrikaans language TV channel provided by M-Net to MultiChoice's DStv has been added to the United Kingdom's Freeview HD, the UK's digital terrestrial television (DTT) service.

Although there's been no announcement from kykNET as in 2013 when it first became available in Britain on TalkTalk's YouView TV service, it's now possible for people across the UK to watch kykNET and sister channel kykNET Musiek (DStv 146) and get access to Afrikaans language programming through yet another platform.

Only people with internet connected Freeview HD boxes in Britain can get kykNET however, the channel is streamed by broadband to connected Freeview devices and they remain pay-TV channels and are not free, requiring a monthly subscription.

The two kykNET channels, along with two Japanese TV channels, are brought to viewers in the UK by THEMA, a Canal+ group company specialising in distributing foreign TV channels, and the media services and infrastructure provider Arqiva.

kykNET which started in South Africa in 1999 became available in the United Kingdom in October 2013 on TalkTalk's YouView TV service and switched to high definition (HD) broadcasts in August last year.

Viewers looking for kykNET and Afrikaans TV content now have another option in the UK to watch kykNET and kykNET Musiek.

kykNET and kykNET Musiek TV channels added to THEMA's TalkTalk pay-TV service in the United Kingdom for expat South Africans.

Two of M-Net's Afrikaans pay-TV channels from the South African pay-TV broadcaster have been added to TalkTalk, a TV service accessible for Afrikaans speaking TV viewers living in the United Kingdom, with the kykNET and kykNET Musiek channels which are now accessible on this service.

Viewers in the United Kingdom can now watch kykNET and kykNET Musiek on TalkTalk from THEMA, a company which aggregates TV content from around the world for people not living within those specific countries they're coming from.

"We have received thousands of requests to expand kykNET's footprint. Taking kykNET to the UK is testimony to the fact that we are sensitive to the needs of our audiences and potential audiences no matter where they are," says Karen Meiring, the director of Afrikaans channels at M-Net in a press statement announcing the TalkTalk channel additions.

"With the addition of THEMA and TalTalk, kykNET is turning into a citizen of the world."

"On top of all this home-made programming, TalkTalk offers a wide range of channels that South Africans in the United Kingdom are familiar with, as well as broadband," says Francois Thiellet, the CEO of THEMA who says the company is the ideal partner to bring the Afrikaans language programming of kykNET to expats living outside of South Africa.

BREAKING. MultiChoice adds kykNET Musiek, Mzansi Music, Blackbelt TV as new channels and adding the community TV stations BayTV, 1KZN and Dumisa.

Exactly as I said would happen on 13 November, MultiChoice is adding the new channel kykNET Musiek (DStv 146) to DStv. DStv is also adding Mzansi Music (DStv 321), Blackbelt TV (DStv 129) as a martial arts channel and the community television stations BayTV (DStv 260), 1KZN (DStv 261) and Dumisa (DStv 340).

These will all be channels for DStv Premium and DStv Compact subscribers and will become available on 13 November at 10:00. In Addition Nat Geo Wild (DStv 182) will now also be made available on the DSTv Compact bouquet.

"We are excited with these new additions," says Collins Khumalo, CEO of MultiChoice South Africa in a statement. "We believe they will add more value to our packages and give our customers more variety in entertainment."

"The addition of the three community television stations and the two additional music channels aims to provide our customers with a rich diversity of local content and forms part of our ongoing support of the development of the local television industry."

BREAKING. kykNET Musiek the next new channel joining MultiChoice's DStv from Tuesday 13 November as an Afrikaans music video channel.

You're reading this here first. 

The next new TV channel launching in South Africa and on MultiChoice's DStv pay-TV platform is a new popular music video channel kykNET Musiek starting on DStv on channel 146 and I can spill that kykNET Musiek will go live on Tuesday 13 November.

I'm told kykNET, the Afrikaans channel and division of M-Net, already running kykNET (DStv 144), Koowee (DStv 307) and MK (DStv 324) is "very excited" about the 3rd spinoff TV channel launching in a month's time. The new channel will start shortly after the new weekday morning breakfast show (and the first one in Afrikaans in South Africa) Dagbreek - on Monday 5 November on kykNET. 

I'm told kykNET Musiek - whereas MK is more focused on youth genre music - will be a broadbased popular Afrikaans music video channel. "kykNET Musiek will be the place where you'll be able to see all your Afrikaans music stars - all the Kurt Darrens, all the Juanitas, all the Bobby van Jaarsvelds," I'm told.

kykNET Musiek's channel logo will be this one: the outline of a golden yellow star perched on top of the blue words: kykNET Musiek.