David Mbeha from Namibia wins TLC Entertainment's Next Great Presenter search; says 'I made a promise to my mother that I will really pursue this dream'.

A beaming David Mbeha from Namibia has won the TLC Next Great Presenter search competition, with the Namibian from a small town saying in a moving speech that he made a promise to his mother to pursue his dream of becoming a TV presenter.

David Mbeha will now become the on-air presenter of the 4-part show TLC Top 10 starting on TLC Entertainment (DStv 172) on Thursday, 3 December.

TLC Top 10 as a new programming strand on TLC Entertainment will broadcast over the course of 4 episodes some of the most popular programming on the channel since 2011 with David Mbeha introducing and talking about it.

David Mbeha who won the lion's share of the vote beating Mpiwa Bagwasi from Botswana and Star Khulu from South Africa in the top 3.

He was announced the winner on Wednesday night at a swanky programming upfront presentation at Level Three in Johannesburg where Discovery Networks for the Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa (CEEMEA) region held the factual entertainment brand's annual content preview for 2016.

As part of his presenting prize David Mbeha wins a holiday for two to the island of Bali, as well as a feature article in the January 2016 issue of South Africa's Cosmopolitan.

"I grew up with this huge dream of one day wanting to be a TV host. Coming from a very small town in Namibia where nothing much really happens, I really want to go on to work with a brand that strives to find and celebrate everyday differences," said David Mheba.

"TLC Entertainment is a brand that is passionate, and tells riveting stories, and has such unique content - content that you would never find on any other channel."

"Last year in June I made a promise to my mother that I will really pursue this dream, and chase it no matter what, to become a TV presenter. And that is what I have really done from day one. And tonight I've fulfilled that dream," said David Mbeha.

BREAKING. SABC CEO Frans Matlala abrutptly suspended after just 4 months on the job pending an investigation; SABC top management basically gutted.

Top management instability and scandal continues to rock the SABC with the beleaguered South African public broadcaster that has suspended the new SABC CEO Frans Matlala with immediate effect pending an investigation that the SABC doesn't want to talk about.

The SABC's acting chief operating officer (COO) and head of news Jimi Matthews is now taking over as acting CEO.

Jimi Matthews who himself was accused of assault charges earlier this year was already standing in for the embattled and highly controversial and famously matricless Hlaudi Motsoeneng who is facing a disciplinary hearing and went on "extended leave".

Hlaudi Motsoeneng went on "extended leave" following a recent order of the Supreme Court of Appeal, coming more than a year after the February 2014 report from the Public Protector which directly implicated Hlaudi Motsoeneng in abuse of power and maladministration at the SABC.

Frans Matlala took over in July as the umpteenth SABC CEO after several SABC CEO's were fired and resigned in previous years without finishing their contract terms.

Frans Matlala is the SABC's 9th CEO since 2009.

Management and executive instability as well as political interference continue to rock the struggling public broadcaster which reported a loss of R403 million for the latest financial year.

Meanwhile a a long-delayed process has been delayed even further to try and replace just two out of 6 long-vacant positions on the SABC board.

The firing of SABC board members causing some of these vacancies are itself the subject of a legal challenge in the North Gauteng High Court

Meanwhile the process to find replacements for the most "recent" empty seats on the SABC board hasn't even started yet. Besides the two positions of which the replacement process is delayed due to a parliamentary strike, there's 4 further empty SABC board positions.

The SABC top management structure and SABC board is totally gutted: the SABC is now without a CEO and a COO, along with several empty seats on the SABC board, while several other top executive positions at the SABC also remain unfilled.

"The board of the SABC today suspended with immediate effect the group CEO Frans Matlala pending an investigation," is all the embattled SABC managed to put out to the media in a terse statement todayby SABC spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago.

"The SABC’s group executive for news and current affairs, Jimi Matthews, will be acting CEO during this time," said the SABC in the statement.

"The organisation will not comment further on this matter, until all processes are finalised," said SABC spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago, refusing to say why Frans Matlala was suddenly suspended, further deepening the ongoing management crisis at the SABC.

The SABC remains riddled with top management turn-over and financial problems, personnel unhappiness, accusations of political interference and an unstable SABC board with numerous vacancies.

The Democratic Alliance (DA) political party was quick to react to the latest chapter of the SABC's ongoing crises, with Phumzile Van Damme, the DA's shadow minister of communications saying in a statement that the suspension of SABC CEO Frans Matlala "was carried out with virtually no reasons provided to parliament and the public".

She called on the minister of communications, Faith Muthambi to "come clean" on the reasons for Frans Matlala's sudden shocking suspension.

She said Faith Muthambi must "urgently provide the reasons for Frans Matlala's suspension and urgently fix the permanent state of chaos in order to restore much lost credibility to the SABC".

Time again for the best annual TV upfront in South Africa as Discovery Networks CEEMEA gets ready to showcase what viewers will see in 2016.

The best annual TV upfront in South Africa – the one from Discovery Networks International – is once again set to wow TV and ad execs, TV critics and ad buyers today.

Discovery is set to trot out its on-screen TV talent and executives as it previews its upcoming channel content for the 2015 festive period and the whole of 2016.

The past few years Discovery Networks South Africa's annual programming upfront has constantly ranked tops among all TV channels and broadcasters, followed by Disney South Africa and then BBC Worldwide South Africa.

The three, with Discovery far in the lead, are the only ones who bring a level of razzle-dazzle and provide a lot of programming information at annual upfront events most other local and international TV channels and broadcasters don't care to invest in or do.

Discovery Networks for the Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa (CEEMEA) region remains the only of the TV content providers in South Africa and operating in the Africa region that not only does an annual upfront, but at their showcase event also rolls out high-level executives, local and international TV talent and gives advertising executives and the media a detailed, year-long glimpse of what the next year holds across all of its individual channels.

On Wednesday evening, after a selection of stars from across the various Discovery channels have done media interviews, Discovery Networks CEEMEA is once again set to show the South African TV biz not just why its necessary to do a programming upfront and to create buzz around your TV shows, but how to properly do your show-and-tell.  

  

Discovery Networks CEEMEA will once again take the 250 invited media and advertiser guests through the programming highlights for the whole new year for each of its channels like Discovery Channel, Discovery World, Animal Planet and TLC Entertainment at its upfront at Level Three in Johannesburg.

Tonight Discovery will also announce the winner of its TLC Next Great Presenter campaign who will present the 4-part series TLC Top 10 in December.

Besides on-screen Discovery channels' stars like magician Troy Von Schneibner, the "Lion Queen" Andi Rive and Whitney Thore of My Big Fat Fabulous Life, a phalanx of Discovery executives are once again jetting in to South Africa.

Some of the senior management set to show at this evening's Discovery Networks upfront are Kaisa Kieli (president and managing director Discovery Networks CEEMEA), James Gibbons (executive vice president for emerging business), Lee Hobbs (vice president of channels for emerging business), Debbie Brady (commercial director for emerging business) and Matt Brown (creative manager for emerging business).

SABC adds Systraat as the South African public broadcaster's first web series in the form of an Afrikaans animation show.

A new 'Laan' is coming to the SABC in the form of Systraat, the South African public broadcaster's first web series in the form of an Afrikaans animation show.

Systraat will be the the SABC's first animated Afrikaans sitcom series, as well as the public broadcaster's first show to roll out and be "broadcast" online first before its been shown on linear television.

Systraat ("Sidestreet") is produced by Stemmburg Television also responsible for the long-running Afrikaans music competition show Noot vir Noot and the more recent Musiek Roulette on SABC2.

Systraat's first episode will debut on 24 November at 21:00 online at YouTube on SABC3's YouTube channel.

Systraat's internet debut follows the second season of Clifton Shores, now retitled as The Shores, also currently playing out with a new episode weekly on YouTube as the South African TV industry starts to move more TV content to viewers through over-the-top (OTT) players and platforms.

Systraat follows the comedic exploits of the Afrikaans Kotze family and will have English subtitles.

"We're moving into a new digital age where television becomes on demand, so we thought we want to make this two firsts – the first South African animated sitcom but we also want to make it the first South African on demand show from the SABC and put that on YouTube," creator Carl Stemmet told the SABC.

"That's the perfect platform for it where people can watch it at anytime, anywhere, where ever they are in the world. We're reaching ex-pats who are sitting overseas as well who are hungry for local content and miss local content as well, so in this way we're reaching a much wider market."

According to Carl Stemmet Systraat's stories and humour will be very specific to South Africa. 

"The characters in the series are very identifiable as South Africans – and the situations they deal with: things like the matric dance that everyone has to go to, the braai competition that everyone wants to take part in, the rugby team at university that the oldest son wants to be part of."

"The other themes of father son relationships, squabbles at home, the love life at school and trying to get the girl's attention and social awkwardness, all that kind of stuff is universal," says Carl Stemmet.

Systraat revolves around dad Gys Kotze, an enthusiastic, yet somewhat dimwitted guy who sees himself as an inventor. His wife and mom Esbe Kotze is the strict one and then they have two sons. The older brother Werner is the jock and rugby player at university and the younger brother Hein is the awkward, social outcast and studious child.

Similar to The Simpsons, South Park and Family Guy the main characters are surrounded by a collection of supporting characters ranging from the principal and rugby coach to butchery owner, a doctor and various other ones who pop up throughout the different webisodes.

Can someone please just help MultiChoice and whoever is doing the DStv programming promos (and clearly not actually watching TV) to get it right?

Whoever is doing MultiChoice's in-house promos for various DStv programming clearly isn't watching television.

The embarrassing problems and actually very obvious mistakes continue unabated on DStv with problematic promos for programming from various channels that makes from cringe-watching and eye-rolling.

MultiChoice is quick for instance to run a promo to tell viewers to tune in for the "bloodsuckers" of the 7th season of The Vampire Diairies on Vuzu AMP (DStv 114) on Wednesdays at 21:30.

Whoever received and checked the promo at MultiChoice and then scheduled it for high rotation is clearly clueless and from looking at it, I can tell that no proper verification and quality control took place, and whoever made it doesn't know better or doesn't care either.

After I last month noted the embarrassing mistakes in DStv on-air promos don't think they've gone away.

Watch the DStv promo fillers for a while and you can almost invent a drinking game around it - like guessing what channel's programming promo will have a mistake, or what type of mistake it's going be.

It's sad that for instance a promo for MultiChoice is made to market DStv and Vuzu AMP, goes through several people, wrongly passes through several gatekeepers who presumably is tasked with checking every detail; and that it then ends up on air - and is wrong.

Who signs off on these mistakes? Who gets paid money to get stuff wrong? It's like continuing to bring the wrong food to someone's table in a restaurant.

On and in television, what is shown and what you show is your brand.

If it's wrong, then your brand is wrong and off-message. It speaks to your reputation, to whether the picture that is printed on the outside wrapper correlates to the product inside.

If you cared and actually followed or even watched the show you want other people to watch, you'd know that a cast pic of The Vampire Diaries with Nina Dobrev for the 7th season is passé (and wrong and old).

The dear Nina Dobrev left The Vampire Diaries at the end of the 6th season already - she announced it way back in April, and her final appearance was in mid-May. DStv didn't get the memo.

How do you prevent this? You employ and use people who actually watch television (there's lots of them), or you check things against and read this thing called "Wikipedia".

How on earth does a promo board for Veep from M-Net Edge (DStv 102) with Julia Louis-Dreyfus for instance make it to air on DStv (and get used often) saying "Vice president of the United" with a word missing, and get used for such a long time with nobody noticing, caring or correcting it?

To the point that Julia Louis-Dreyfus' character actually becomes the president in the story and the same promo still being used, saying, "vice president of the United" ...

A large part of television, like the fashion industry, like what Plascon and Dulux sell, like Pantene, is how things look. It's the currency. What does it mean and convey when what you show - like in a promo - is wrong and has mistakes in it?

Is it mere nitpicking? Is it overhyping? Why bother about the details of things? Why care? Why shouldn't everyone just be fine with generalised almost-right images and not-quite-right promos?

Think of what Coco Chanel once famously said: "Dress shabbily and they remember the dress; dress impeccably and they remember the woman."

On-air promos, especially on and for DStv should be impeccable. Just like the "real" content, for instance an episode of a show, it sells the brand too.

It's so incredibly painful to think that there's people who work in television who are not actually watching television, people working with television who don't really care about it, and people selling and marketing television who don't actually know or themselves engage with the actual content of it.

It's a shame.

Discovery Communications looking for Nazi treasure as it gets permission to film World War II train mystery that might yield precious artworks, gold.

Discovery Communications is looking for possible Nazi gold in Poland where Discovery got permission and access to film the investigation into a World War II armored train mystery.

In 2016 Discovery International Networks will show the investigation and process on one of the Discovery channels on MultiChoice's DStv satellite pay-TV platform that is taking place in that country and that will hopefully solve an intriguing historical mystery.

Discovery will be filming the investigation of the Department of geophysics at the University of Science and Technology (AGH) in the town of Walbrzych, looking into what might be buried at the potential final resting place of a German armored train that's been buried deep underground for 70 years.

According to speculation over the years, priceless artwork and gold could be onboard the Nazi train.

In a statement Marjorie Kaplan, president of content for Discovery Networks International says Discovery will "help chronicle what will no doubt continue to be a globally captivating story, and could be one of the most significant World War Two archaeological finds ever made".

"We are proud to have the world's eyes on Poland as we stand alongside our local partners to capture these events as they unfold. We look forward to sharing this story around the world in a way that only Discovery can through its global networks and rich heritage of capturing these monumental moments in history," says Olgierd Dobrzynski, the general manager for Discovery Networks Poland.

"Our experience and modern equipment will contribute to solving the riddle that has kept so many people around the world interested," says Prof. Janusz Madej, the chief of research expedition at AGH's Department of Geophysics.

Filling of 3 of 6 long-vacant SABC board seats delayed even further due to parliamentary staff strike and a delay with State Security Agency checking qualifications.

The long-delayed filling of vacant positions on the unstable SABC board is being delayed even further since the checking of the qualifications of the shortlisted candidates has not yet been finished and finalised.

The latest delay in getting the empty SABC board positions filled was revealed today by parliament's portfolio committee on communications.

Controversially, the process is of filling empty SABC board member positions is shockingly only for 3 out of 6 empty positions. While the process to fill 3 vacant positions, there is another 3 empty SABC board member seats vacant for months, of which the process hasn't even started for.

After the minister of communications, Faith Muthambi intervened with the SABC board and fired SABC board members while others quit, several positions have remained empty for the larger part of 2015 as the public broadcaster keeps lurching from the one crisis and scandal to the next.

The process of filling the empty SABC board seats which was readvertised last month, is continuing since the State Security Agency is still busy checking the shortlisted candidates.

The process has also been delayed due to the strike by parliamentary staff.

Joyce Moloi-Moropa, the chairperson of the portfolio committee on communications who herself will apparently soon be gone after she's given notice that she's quitting, told the committee on Tuesday that the process to fill the long-delayed SABC board positions will only be for the first three.

"Until such time the president brings the other three vacancies [under anybody's attention], this is all we are dealing with," said Joyce Moloi-Moropa.

Courteney Monroe appointed as the new CEO of National Geographic Global Networks; Ward Platt the new COO of National Geographic Partners.

Courteney Monroe has been appointed as the new CEO of National Geographic Global Networks.

Courteney Monroe now becomes the new National Geographic Channels boss who will be in charge of channels like National Geographic Channel (DStv 181) and Nat Geo Wild (DStv 182).

She will oversee global programming, operations and global marketing for the portfolio of National Geographic Channels worldwide, and will also be in charge of National Geographic Studios, the in-house TV production studio making shows like Brain Games and Explorer.

Courteney Monroe had been the CEO of National Geographic Channels in the United States.

Meanwhile Ward Platt, currently the chief operating officer (COO) of Fox International Channels and CEO of National Geographic Channels International has been appointed in the new position of COO of National Geographic Partners.

In this position Ward Platt will oversee the entire portfolio of National Geographic Partners' businesses, including channels distribution, advertising revenue, digital publishing, licensing, travel and consumer products. He will also look after the National Geographic Partners' international operations.

Hamish Mykura, National Geographic Channels International vice president and head of content remains in his position.

The appointments come after 21st Century Fox completed its deal to take majority control of National Geographic and started firing 10% of the overall staff earlier this month.

"Upon completing the transaction to form National Geographic Partners, we are thrilled to bring these incredibly talented executives to the senior leadership team," says Declan Moore, CEO of National Geographic Partners chief Moore said in a statement.

"We're excited to officially begin our journey to bring a new and integrated National Geographic experience to people worldwide, and I look forward to partnering with Ward Platt and working with Susan Goldberg, Courteney Monroe and Jeffrey Schneider to share the National Geographic mission with an even larger audience," says Declan Moore.

Programming changes as M-Net pulls disastrous Wicked City; M-Net's NCIS Los Angeles, Vuzu AMP's Supergirl, FOX Crime's Legends impacted by Paris terror attacks.

M-Net is pulling the disastrous and cancelled Wicked City off its programming line-up while the weekend's terrorism attacks in Paris are also impacting South African viewers with programming changes regarding episodes of several shows across a number of TV channels and services.

After disastrously low ratings and scathing reviews from TV critics, M-Net is dumping the new crime drama anthology series Wicked City that was supposed to start on M-Net (DStv 101) on 30 December.

Meanwhile the horrific terror attacks in Paris saw British and American broadcasters pull this week's episodes of multiple shows set in Paris and dealing with violence or revolving around terrorism themes. The changes are directly impacting what South African viewers will see - or not get to see - this week.

The Britcaster ITV dumped Sunday's latest 4th episode of the visceral shock-drama Jekyll and Hyde with the latest episode which is added to Naspers' ShowMax subscription video-on-demand (SVoD) service within 24 hours after it is shown in the United Kingdom.

With no new Jekyll and Hyde episode shown, there's no new episode for ShowMax of the horror series, with no announcement from ITV as to when the graphic episode revolving around a kidnapping with a gun will be shown.

CBS pulled the latest episode of the 7th season of the forensic crime drama NCIS: Los Angeles entitled "Defectors" with no word from CBS on when the episode will be shown.

In South Africa M-Net is 3 weeks behind America with the forensic crime drama shown here on Friday nights at 20:30 and it's a sure bet that South African viewers also won't be seeing the episode in three week's time which revolves around the terror group ISIS recruiting young women as terrorists.

Monday's 4th episode of Supergirl has also been pulled and replaced by CBS impacting Vuzu AMP (DStv 114) in South Africa and Africa which is showing the same episode as in the United States on a weekly basis.

There's been no word from Vuzu AMP, an M-Net channel, but it's absolutely a sure thing that the planned Supergirl episode in which Kara deals with bomb explosions in National City won't be shown on Vuzu AMP on Thursday.

FOX International Channels (FIC) and FIC Africa are changing the episode of Legends which also saw the latest 3rd episode of the second season of the drama series abruptly pulled by the TNT channel in America.

The latest Legends episode entitled "The Legend of Curtis Ballard" was yanked since it's set in Paris and deals with Martin (Sean Bean) looking for someone while a peaceful protest is on the verge of turning violent.

"As a result of the recent tragic events in Paris, the originally scheduled episode of Legends has been postponed. Our thoughts and condolences are with the victims and their families," said TNT in a statement.

The same episode of Legends in the United States is shown in South Africa weekly on Thursdays on FOX Crime (DStv 126 / StarSat 132) at 20:30. FIC Africa is replacing it on Thursday with a repeat of the second season's premiere episode.

"Because Legends is screened close to the U.S. broadcasts and since the episode in question was pulled from the schedule last night in the United States, Africa will be putting replacement programming in Legends' place this week. There is no specific date at the moment when the episode (3) in question will be played," FIC Africa tells TV with Thinus.

Meanwhile viewers have had a hard time keeping up with TV news channels since the electronic programme guides (EPGs) on MultiChoice's DStv and StarTimes Media SA's StarSat have failed to keep up with special reports, and announced and adjusted programming focusign on the aftermath of the Paris attacks.

Over the weekend Infinity Media's ANN7 (DStv 405) dropped its own programming and switched to the channel feed of the French 24-hour TV news channel France24 which is a news channel only available on StarSat. 

France24 has been lauded for its incisive and comprehensive coverage of the Paris attacks since Saturday and has started broadcasting its live channel feed for free on YouTube.