SABC News fails to broadcast Nkandla debate in parliament live on Thursday while both eNCA and ANN7 showed the proceedings live.

On Thursday SABC News (DStv 404), the South African public broadcaster's 24-hour TV news channel, conspicuously failed to broadcast the Nkandla parliamentary debate live, while the two competitors, eNCA (DStv 403) and ANN7 (DStv 405) both brought viewers the full proceedings as live broadcasts.

It was shocking to see how the SABC and the SABC News channel apparently completely blocked out live coverage and ignored parliament's live debate regarding the ongoing and highly controversial Nkandlagate scandal.

President Jacob Zuma is implicated in alleged irregular spending of millions of rands in upgrades to his Nkandla home.

The SABC and SABC News, already under suspicion and accused of protecting Jacob Zuma by filtering and blocking negative coverage on the SABC through strategically placed Zuma loyalist, did the broadcaster again no favours on Thursday by again enhancing this perception through giving no live coverage of the Nkandla parliamentary debate.

Meanwhile the two other South African TV news channels on MultiChoice's DStv satellite pay-TV platform, eNCA and ANN7, both brought viewers full and rolling live coverage of the parliamentary proceedings which is news of national interest.

Viewers watching SABC News on Thursday wouldn't have known or have been able to following the parliamentary debate live as it happened, SABC News only mentioned the parliamentary debate in passing on some news reports.

It's not clear why the SABC and SABC News would deliberately chose not to bring viewers live coverage of the Nkandla parliamentary debate.

Earlier the week, in a statement, the SABC boasted that "through the SABC News channel 404 on DStv, the SABC has been able to expand its coverage of live events" and that the channel has "seen a steady increase of viewership figures for its live feed of parliamentary sessions which shows that South Africans are interested in having access to the pulse of government".

Oddly the SABC and SABC News on Thursday, when parliament had a live Nkandla debate, the broadcaster suddenly didn't feel that it warranted a live broadcast although the SABC said days before that viewers are interested and that broadcasting a live feed of parliamentary sessions lure viewers.

BREAKING. StarSat silent over adding 3 new channels from today, POP, Da Vinci Learning and Hausa channel, StarTimes Dadin Kowa.

You're reading it here first.

On Digital Media (ODM) and StarTimes South Africa is launching three new TV channels today at 12:00 on the StarSat satellite pay-TV platform, POP (StarSat 302), Da Vinci Learning (StarSat 308) and StarTimes Dadin Kowa (StarSat 404).

Neither StarSat's PR and marketing departments nor StarSat's PR company Burson-Marsteller Africa, has communicated a single word about any of it to the press or that the new TV channels would be launching.

Despite a promise in response to a media enquiry earlier this week to do so when information becomes available when asked about POP, Burson-Marsteller Africa has remained silent.

Despite StarSat's ongoing failure to properly communicate and lack of timeous programming information and notification to the media, some StarSat subscribers noticed the blocked channels being tested, signaling its addition to the Woodmead-based satellite pay-TV operator's platform which will apparently happen from today.

POP, aimed at children between 2 and 11, will launch today at 12:00 on StarSat in the StarSat Smart package and is the replacement channel for the discontinued KidsCo channel which was terminated at the beginning of the year.

Da Vinci Learning, an educational channel also available on other satellite offerings, will launch today on the StarSat Special package.

Then StarSat is adding StarTimes Dadin Kowa, a general entertainment TV channel aimed at Hausa viewers on the StarSat Special package. It's not clear how many of these Hausa speaking viewers there are in South Africa.

There's been no programming schedules, highlights, programming notes or any information regarding any of the new channels forthcoming from StarSat or its PR people.

TV TSUNAMI. MultiChoice makes the DStv decoder internet connected for the first time; true 'TV Everywhere' finally here for South Africa.

In the biggest evolutionary development leap since MultiChoice launched DStv in 1995 in South Africa, the satellite pay-TV platform on Wednesday evening officially launched and became a true TV Everywhere player, giving the DStv decoder an internet connection for the first time ever through the DStv WiFi Connector, and launching a mind-boggling and dazzling array of new, internet and interconnected subscriber services.

In a dramatic and groundbreaking development for the Randburg-based company which has remained the market leader in satellite pay-TV the past two decades on the African continent, MultiChoice is taking a massive leap forward by bringing pay-TV subscribers the first broadband, and interconnected, linear and on demand satellite pay-TV decoder to consumers on the continent.

From 18 November DStv Premium subscribers will be able to buy a DStv WiFi Connector for R399 in retail stores which will use their existing household broadband service to connect their DStv Explora to the internet.

The result is a TV tsunami. Both in content and consumption, as well as functionality, South African TV viewers are set to experience a drastic increase and broadening of what the television viewing experience is and really can be.

The broadband connected DStv Explora also blows recently launched video-on-demand (VOD) competitors like Altech's expensive Altech Node and Times Media's VIDI out of the water with a simply unmatchable deep well of exclusive and current TV content.

With the broadband link, DStv Premium subscribers will now be able to set decoder recordings remotely at any time through their smartphones, tablets and computers as part of the DStv Remote Recordings function on the new DStv NOW App - wherever they are.

The DStv NOW app will launch in December. Through it DStv subscribers will be able to download and watch TV content on their smartphones and tablets, as well as watch the live streaming of several TV channels available on the DStv platform.

Besides getting access to the new DStv Catch Up Plus on the DStv Explora as an additional, broadband-enabled pipe funneling further content and literally doubling the number of hours of the available video-on-demand (VOD) content (another 300 titles), subscribers will also become able to choose 25 titles from the DStv Catch Up Plus library to download to their DStv Explora.

DStv Premium subscribers get access to hundreds more movie titles, TV series, kids' shows, sport, series box sets and other exclusive content.

The 300 additional titles on DStv Catch Up Plus will again double in size to 600 over the next few months as the service rapidly expands.

Access to these connected services is included in the monthly DStv Premium subscription, although consumers will have to pay their internet service provider separately for whatever data charges they incur due to the downloads.

It means a seismic shift for TV consumers who will now, for the first time in South Africa, get access to a true TV Everywhere experience from a traditionally linear pay-TV provider.

"MultiChoice is focused on innovation," says Imtiaz Patel, group CEO of MultiChoice South Africa. "Today we unveiled more content, more convenience, more customer choice and more control."

He called it "a big step forward in the evolution of our innovation roadmap".

"This is the beginning of a new television experience - giving our customers a choice of content to watch when and where they want," said Imtiaz Patel, promising "another step" which MultiChoice will be announcing next week to make these services more accessible to DStv subscribers.

Disgusting Discovery Channel's man-forces-anaconda-to-eat-him stunt with Paul Rosolie draws global outrage; call to boycott Discovery Channel.

The disgusting Discovery Channel (DStv 121) stunt, Eaten Alive, in which a man in a special suit forces an anaconda to eat him while Discovery films it, is drawing global venom from viewers outraged over the animal abuse.

An online petition demanding that Discovery Channel cancels its snake baiting TV special with Paul Rosolie and set to be broadcast this coming Sunday in America already collected tens of thousands of signatures by Tuesday morning.

Discovery is completely silent over the petition asking viewers to boycott Discovery Channel, saying "Discovery Channel is now committing animal abuse". 

The online petition blasts Discovery Channel for the "absolutely disgusting" ratings stunt in which Paul Rosolie gets a snake to swallow him while wearing a custom-built snake-proof suit.

"The show promo even shows the host holding an anaconda by the head as if he's about to be attacked. That's perpetuating stereotypes that condition people to fear these animals. Humans are not their natural prey!"

"This is the same network that 20 years ago brought us Steve Irwin, The Crocodile Hunter. Steve educated and excited people with his passion for reptiles," says the petition. "It is sad to see that this is what has become of Discovery programing".

America's PETA says it's clear that "the snake was tormented and suffered for the sake of ratings - as animals usually do when they're used for entertainment".

"Making this snake use up energy by swallowing this fool and then possibly regurgitating him would have left the poor animal exhausted and deprived of the energy that he or she needs. Shame on this pseudo 'wildlife expert' for tormenting this animal, and shame on the Discovery Channel for giving him the incentive to do so," says PETA.

Stephen Secor, a professor at the department of biological sciences at the University of Alabama says he is appalled at the show and that he was contacted in December 2013 to help as scientific advisor and that he was "shocked and then saddened that anyone would consider producing such a show".

"I explained at lengths how a show could be produced that would highlight the amazing biology and physiology of the anaconda, one that is accurate and of interest to both the public and biologists alike."

"I adamantly told them that I would not participate in any project involving someone being swallowed by an anaconda; however I would work with them on an accurate educational/scientific production," says Stephen Secor.

"However, Discovery went with working with an amateur naturalist and a show based on a stunt."

"When I spoke to the producers of this show, I also explained the damage such a show would have on the public's perception of large constricting snakes and the work of professional scientists."

"The Discovery Channel dropped the ball and has taken the presentation of the natural world to a new low," says Stephen Secor who've signed the online petition.

"The producers keep trying to convince me that the message Paul Rosolie was hoping to convey in the show was conservation. Tagging conservation as justification for this show clearly demonstrates that he, the producers, and Discovery have no clue what they are doing."

Life imitates art for Woema TV presenter on kykNET, Theunis Nel; former actor's arm amputated after accident with motorcycle.

Life imitated art with the TV presenter Theunis Nel whose arm had to be amputated yesterday following a vehicle accident with his motorbike.

Theunis Nel who is a presenter of the Woema magazine show on kykNET (DStv 144) played the character of Werner who died in a motorcycle accident in the first season of the 1990's local TV drama Sonkring on TV1.

Theunis Nel came close to death on Monday when a car crashed into his motorcycle on Monday in Pretoria.

Isaac Asimov's 'Foundation' books saga developed as a TV series for HBO by Jonathan Nolan - report.

In a fascinating and groundbreaking development HBO and Warner Bros. TV are apparently working together to bring the groundbreaking and massive science fiction saga of Isaac Asimov's Foundation book series to television which will be written and produced by Jonathan Nolan, The Wrap reports.

The sprawling, hugely influential, and highly acclaimed book series has never been made into a film or film series or TV show and spans as rich and dense a mythology and characters as The Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones and could very likely be as successful as a long-running TV or film project - especially in the hands of HBO which would give it proper financial and creative support together with Warner Bros. capable TV studio.

The fascinating story set far into mankind's future when humanity has spread out across the galaxy inhabiting millions of worlds (without ever finding extra-terrestrial life) spans across several millenia and dozens of characters.

Mathematician Hari Seldon invents psychohistory which can broadly "predict" human behaviour and behavioural patters on a massive scale, and he constructs a plan to shorten the predicted new "dark age" of the Galactic Empire by setting up the "Foundation".

The mesmerising story, filled with major twists and dramatic, unexpected turns, concludes with a few books detailing a highly adventurous journey of an intrepid group trying to find the origins of humanity, apparently a place called Earth. 

According to The Wrap, the Foundation TV series has been in development for the last several months between HBO, Warner Bros. TV and Jonathan Nolan.

BREAKING. StarSat wants to continue pumping the porn; pay-TV provider appeals high court decision over StarSat sex channels.

On Digital Media (ODM) and StarTimes Media South Africa wants to continue pumping hardcore pornography through television to South African viewers and is appealing the ruling from the Western Cape High Court which found the process flawed in which South Africa's broadcasting regulator approve the porn channels.

Last week Mike Dearham, the managing director of StarTimes Media Division said in a statement the pay-TV provider will "continue to enhance and enrich its content offering" and that its strategic intent is to be Africa's "pre-eminent provider of compelling and relevant African content" and that it wants to be "a "role model for the rest of the continent".

It's evident that the pay-TV provider sees pornographic TV channels as part of its plan, with ODM and StarTimes Media SA not willing to relinquish its hardcore sex channels which it has been broadcasting since November 2013 as a separate sex package for R159 per month.

According to court documents ODM and StarTimes Media SA has around 400 subscribers for the sex channels which Icasa approved after the company applied for a second time to broadcast porn following its first application which was denied.

South Africa's broadcasting regulator, the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) has not yet decided whether it, like ODM and StarTimes Media SA, will be appealing the ruling.

At the beginning of the month the Western Cape High Court ordered StarSat to stop broadcasting its pornography TV channels in South Africa after the the non-profit organisations Justice Alliance of South Africa (Jasa), Cause for Justice and Doctors for Life took Icasa and StarSat to court for allowing and broadcasting pornography on television in South Africa.

Judge Lee Bozalek said the decision by Icasa was reviewed and set aside, but ODM has now appealed the high court ruling.

ODM, which is in business rescue, brought two applications to show pornography to Icasa - the first of which was rejected by the regulator, and the second a year later which was approved in April 2013 after which TopTV, rebranded as StarSat, activated the pornography channels.

Icasa admitted to court that the regulator had failed to appoint experts to consider StarSat's porn plan. On Digital Media also failed to register with the Film and Publications Board (FPB) as a porn purveyor.

ODM and StarTimes Media SA and its PR company Burson-Marsteller didn't respond to media enquiries earlier this month as to whether the Woodmead-based satellite pay-TV provider would be appealing the high court decision or stop broadcasting the channels.

On Monday respond to a media enquiry seeking comment after the company did decide to appeal the high court decision, ODM says "its lawyers have reviewed the judgement and do believe there is a very good case for appeal".

The company says it has "filed an Application for Leave to Appeal the judgement to a full bench of the Western Cape Division or the Supreme Court of Appeal".

"ODM has at all times ensured that it meets all the conditions of the licence by offering the adult content channels as a separate and verified subscription package, broadcast during the watershed period of 20:00 and 05:00, accessible only with a double-pin process. This made it extremely unlikely that children would be able to access the content."

Investigative magazine show, Africa Investigates, returns to Al Jazeera for a 2nd season from Wednesday 12 November.

Africa Investigates, the investigative magazine show on Al Jazeera (DStv 406 / StarSat 257) returns for a second season to the 24-hour TV news channel from Wednesday 12 November at 22:30.

The first episode of the second season of Africa Investigates is entitled "Liberia: Living with Ebola".

Sirous Samura and Mae Azango explores the reaity of living through the world's deadliest Ebola epidemic and ask whether the Liberian government is making the Ebola crisis worse in which already 5 000 people died in eight nations.

For the piece Sirous Samura and Mae Azango filmed with a Red Cross body collection team who risk their lives travelling around Monrovia picking up the dangerously contagious corpses of the deceased.

They also spent time in an Ebola treatment unit run by Medecins Sans Frontieres and followed emergency response teams working in the Red Light slum, one of Monrovia's poorest and most densely populated areas.

"This groundbreaking series gives some of Africa's best journalists the opportunity to pursue high-level investigative targets across the continent," says Diarmuid Jeffreys, Al Jazeera English's executive producer.

Lara Logan quarantined in South Africa over Ebola after visiting Liberia for a week to report on the deadly disease ravaging West Africa.

Lara Logan of CBS News is quarantined in South Africa over Ebola after a week long visit to Liberia to report on the disease ravaging the country and West Africa.

Lara Logan, who is from South Africa, is now in a hotel in South Africa, where she and her 60 Minutes colleagues are self-quarantined following their week long Liberia visit.

Lara Logan on Sunday night told CBS' 60 Minutes Overtime that the crew is spending a lot of time in the hotel "where the government has given us permission to work during our quarantine".

"We wanted to try and, as much as possible, minimise our exposure to anybody, while we still had to get our piece done."

"We were very mindful of the fact that this 21 day period after you've been in an Ebola infected country is very important to everybody," says Lara Logan, admitting to "cabin-fever" in the South African hotel.

"I haven't left the building since we've arrived here," says Lara Logan.