2018's first DStv pop-up channel is the M-Net Movies Oscars channel that will run during February showing Academy Award winning films.

The first pop-up channel of 2018 on MultiChoice's DStv satellite pay-TV platform will be the M-Net Movies Oscars pop up channel that will run from 1 to 28 February for DStv Premium subscribers.

The Oscars pop-up channel packaged by M-Net for DStv will run on DStv channel 109 and will show multiple Oscar-winning films leading up to the 90th Academy Awards taking place at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood on Monday 5 March.

M-Net Movies will show 6 films every day on the channel from around 12:00 to just after midnight, with the film collection that include 115 Academy Award winning films, 757 Oscar nominations and 306 golden statuettes.

Films on the M-Net Movies Oscars pop up channel will range from classics like Gone with the Wind and the original 1959 Ben Hur to 2017's Best Picture winner Moonlight and last year's Best Animated Feature Zootropolis.

Films will feature big Oscar winners beloved by the Academy ranging from Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks to Denzel Washington, Cate Blanchett, Leonardo DiCaprio and South Africa's Charlize Theron.

On weekends the M-Net Movies Oscars channel will show films according to the following thematic categories:

•             Saturday 3 February –  Most Nominations and Most Wins

•             Sunday 4 February –   Most nominations, Most Wins and Best Animation films

•             Saturday 10 February – Best Director

•             Sunday 11 February –  Best Supporting Actress

•             Saturday 17 February – Best Supporting Actor

•             Sunday 18 February – Best Actor

•             Saturday 24 February – Best Actress

•             Sunday 25 February –  Best Picture

The 90th Academy Awards will broadcast live on M-Net Movies Premiere (DStv 104) at 03:30 on Monday 5 March and again on M-Net (DStv 101) 101 on the same day at 21:30, after which it will also be made available on DStv Catch Up.

2018 Winter Olympics pre-coverage to kick off on SuperSport on 5 February, with full coverage starting on 9 February across 4 SuperSport channels on DStv.

The 2018 Winter Olympics will be broadcast across 4 of the SuperSport channels on MultiChoice's DStv satellite pay-TV platform from 9 February with pre-coverage starting on Monday 5 February already.

The 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang will be shown live on the SS11 (DStv 211) and SS12 (DStv 212) channels, as well as on SS13 (DStv 213) and SS14 (DStv 214) that will start as pop-up channels to accomodate Olympics coverage

SS11, SS12 and SS13 will be in high definition (HD) with SS14 as the Olympics news channel that will be in standard definition (SD) on DStv.

SuperSport 11 will launch Monday 5 February on DStv and carry build-up content consisting out of archive footage from previous Omympic Games.

SuperSport 11 will also carry the 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony on Friday 9 February at 13:00.

The Olympics news channel, SS14, will go live on Wednesday 7 February 7 from 05:00. The launch of SS12 and SS13 will take place on Thursday 8 February at 02:00.

All four of these SuperSport channels will also be available on the DStv Now digital platform and the SuperSport website. 

SuperSport says other events not carried on these four dedicated Olympic Games channels will be shown across various SuperSport channels, space permitting.

Daily highlights of all medal performances and ceremonies as well as record-breaking performances will be uploaded on the DStv CatchUp service. In addition a daily one-hour English highlights package will be available on the Maximo channel on DStv.

BREAKING. Actor Sandy Mokwena known as Bra Eddie Khumalo in e.tv's soap Scandal! has died.

South African actor Sandy Mokwena (68) known for his role as Bra Eddie Khumalo in e.tv's weekday soap Scandal! died on Wednesday night.

The specific cause of death is not known yet although the free-to-air broadcaster e.tv says that the actor died from "natural causes". Scandal! is produced by Ochre Moving Pictures.

Sandy Mokwena had roles in several other South African TV series over the years, including the SABC's Generations, Soul City, Okavango, Khululeka, Going Up, Yizo Yizo, Justice for All and Zero Tolerance, and kykNET's (DStv 144) Plek van die Vleisvreters.

The actor who had a higher diploma in dramatic arts from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in the United Kingdom had a film resume that included appearances in Taxi to Soweto, The Principal, Dead End and Scarback.

e.tv in a statement says Sandy Mokwena "passed away last night in hospital from natural causes".

"e.tv is deeply saddened by the news and our condolences go out to Sandy’s family and the cast and crew of Scandal! Sandy Mokwena has been part of Scandal! since the first episode which aired in January 2005".

Murphy Brown comedy reboot coming with Candice Bergen back in her former role for a 13-episode first season.

A Murphy Brown comedy reboot is coming, with actress Candice Bergen who will reprise her former role as investigative TV news woman Murphy Brown for a first season of 13 episodes.

America's CBS network gave the green light for a new Murphy Brown version, with executive producer and writer Diane English also returning. The new Murphy Brown will be produced by Warner Bros Television that also produced the original series.

The long-running Murphy Brown is yet another of the American TV series that South Africa's public broadcaster the SABC, started showing but never completed. 

The last two seasons of  the 10 seasons of Murphy Brown were never broadcast on the SABC - and never anywhere else - after TV4 started Murphy Brown for a few seasons, with the show that then shifted to CCV and got dumped during SABC TV channel restructuring.

Will & Grace that was on SABC3 is back on M-Net (DStv 101), The X-Files that was on TV1 is back on FOX (DStv 125 / StarSat 131 / Cell C black 201), and there is also a Roseanne reboot in America with the original series that was shown in South Africa on CCV and with the new version that hasn't found a TV channel home yet. 

Murphy Brown that was set at the fictional TV news magazine show FYI, started in 1988 - making it exactly 30 years since the start of the show - the same as M-Net's long-running weekly investigative magazine show Carte Blanche that will also be celebrating its 30th anniversary in August this year.

Murphy Brown "returns to a world of cable news, social media, fake news and a very different political and cultural climate," says CBS.

Meryl Streep joins the second season of the HBO drama series, Big Little Lies, shown in M-Net.

The all-star cast of one of television most star-studded drama series just got even more "star-studdier" with the Oscar winner Meryl Streep joining the female ensemble of the HBO drama series Big Little Lies.

Meryl Streep will play Mary Louise Wright, the mother of Perry (Alexander Skarsgard), says HBO in a release character description, announcing Meryl Steep's addition to the show.

"She is concerned for the well-being of her grandchildren following her son Perry's death. Mary Louise arrives in Monterey searching for answers."

Meryl Streep joins Nicole Kidman and Reese Witherspoon who are also executive producers on the series. Shailene Woodley and Laura Dern are also set to return. David E. Kelly is once again writing the scripts for all 7 episodes of the second season.

HBO says the second season of Big Little Lies will "explore the malignancy of lies, the durability of friendships, the fragility of marriage and, of course, the vicious ferocity of sound parenting. Relationships will fray, loyalties will erode … the potential for emotional and bodily injury shall loom."

The first season of Big Little Lies was shown on M-Net (DStv 101) exactly a year ago in February 2017.

Meryl Streep's addition to Big Little Lies is just the latest high-profile Hollywood film star following one of the current trends sweeping the TV landscape and that was highlighted and discussed last year by MultiChoice's head of content, Aletta Alberts.

"If you think of the stars you've seen on TV in the last 18 months - it started with Glenn Close doing Damage a few years ago - and it just continued. Now we have Nicole Kidman and Reese Witherspoon. I think the Brits actually set the ball rolling if you think about this."

"Now if you're an A-lister or Hollywood star, if you're not in a TV series, you haven't quite made it," explained Aletta Alberts.

A real South African version of The Real Housewives coming to DStv as M-Net's new 1Magic reveals that it secured the international format rights from NBCUniversal for a local version.

A real South African version of The Real Housewives will be coming to DStv, with M-Net that confirmed that it had picked up the format licensing rights for a local South African version of the show for its new 1Magic (DStv 103) channel.

For the past few years M-Net has been showing seasons of The Real Housewives, and the various spin-offs from this American reality show franchise on the VUZU AMP (DStv 103) channel.

M-Net is now rebranding and relaunching VUZU AMP as 1 Magic on 29 January on MultiChoice's DStv satellite pay-TV platform, as it tries to court an upmarket black viewership demographic that's familiar with the existing Mzansi Magic (DStv 161) offering and who wants even more premium programming.

1Magic will be available to DStv Premium subscribers only, and although no broadcast date has been specified, the first real South African version of The Real Housewives will make its debut on this channel in the future.

It's not yet clear what exactly the show's title would be and where it would be set, for instance The Real Housewives of Jozi or Sandton, The Real Housewives of Clifton, or The Real Housewives of Soweto.

"1Magic has recently acquired the rights to produce a version of The Real Housewives format. There's no link to the SABC productions from some time back," said Reneilwe Sema, M-Net director of local entertainment channels, in response to a media enquiry from TVwithThinus following Tuesday's 1Magic media launch event held at Saxon Hotel in Johannesburg.

The Real Housewives is an NBCUniversal International format and is produced internationally in conjunction with NBCUniversal International Studios.

An official, "real" South African version of The Real Housewives for the country would be a long way coming.

In 2013 TVwithThinus reported on the drama when Barbie Brazil (real name Thembi Ennie Tshabalala) claimed that she was producing a local South African version entitled The Real Housewives of South Africa although NBCUniversal told me that Barbs doesn't have the rights to the show.

A year later in 2014, The Real Housewives of Johannesburg, reportedly produced by Tigere Media, became a hot topic again with several local well-heeled glitterati whose names were mentioned as being part of yet another attempt at the show. Production started and footage filmed, however the show was abruptly canned after just 6 months - again over format licensing issues.

In 2016 Divas of Jozi made its debut on SABC3. The reality series that was widely panned by viewers and TV critics alike didn't use The Real Housewives name but was a "refilm" of sorts of the 2014 project, with the exact same cast plus an additional woman, and was done by Bravoplex Media.

The Real Housewives has already seen several legitimate format licensing adaptations internationally - including series set in Athens, Vancouver, Melbourne, Cheshire, Auckland, Sydney, Bangkok and last year two, with one set in Toronto, Canada as well as one just called The Real Housewives of Hungary using the country's name.

BBC Worldwide to simulcast the debut episode of Blue Planet II on its BBC Earth and BBC Brit channels on DStv at the same time.

BBC Worldwide will now simulcast the debut episode of the upcoming Blue Planet II natural history documentary series that will be shown on BBC Earth (DStv 184), on the BBC Brit (DStv 120) channel as well.

When the Sir David Attenborough narrated, aqua-exploratory series starts on 4 February at 16:00 on BBC Earth on MultiChoice's DStv satellite pay-TV platform in South Africa, it will also be simulcast to more viewers in South Africa, and across Africa, at the same time on the BBC Brit channel.

BBC Earth is an exclusively DStv Premium channel for its highest paying subscribers, with the channel that also has more limited distribution elsewhere through Africa on MultiChoice Africa with very few African nations where BBC Earth is available on DStv. The more generic BBC Brit however enjoys bigger carriage availability on DStv in Africa.

BBC Brit is also available on the lower DStv Compact Plus and DStv Compact subscription tiers.

The Blue Planet II simulcast on BBC Earth and BBC Brit accomplishes two goals.

Firstly the simulcast of the premium series serves as an upsell marketing opportunity to expose lower-tiered DStv subscribers to what content is available on BBC Earth - something that might prompt some upgrades to DStv Premium.

Secondly it enlarges the potential audience that gets access to the show if they want to watch it with the combined channels' reach that could yield higher viewership and an increase in ratings - a plus for both BBC Worldwide South Africa as well as for MultiChoice.

BBC Worldwide South Africa will preview Blue Planet II to the media next week at an event screening; its PR agency told TVwithThinus this week that it will be for Johannesburg press only with no media from elsewhere invited to see the series beforehand.

Blue Planet II follows 16 years after the first BBC series and has been released as DVD and Blu-ray sets since 27 November 2017 on Amazon. The production team spent over 6 000 hours diving underwater, including filming in South Africa.

The BBC will follow up Blue Planet II with programmes looking at how ocean plastic and clothing manufacture are impacting nature.

M-Net and MultiChoice's Africa Magic Viewers Choice Awards not scrapped, says M-Net; 6th AMVCAs moved to latter part of 2018 to unclutter the event television schedule because of Big Brother Naija and the FIFA World Cup.

M-Net and MultiChoice's Africa Magic Viewers Choice Awards has not been cancelled as the trashy Nigerian press erroneously reported, with M-Net telling TVwithThinus that the annual pan-African award show celebrating the continent's film and television as well as its producers and stars is going ahead and has deliberately been moved to the latter part of this year to unclutter the event television schedule.

The Africa Magic Viewers Choice Awards has been taking place for the past 5 years during March in Lagos, Nigeria.

The lack of a call for entries, and the absence of a broadcasting date of the live awards show for the 6th Africa Magic Viewers Choice Awards for 2018, led to Nigerian media doing erroneous trash-reporting about the AMVCA's alleged demise.

Part of the breathless so-called Nigerian "reporting" was that M-Net and MultiChoice scrapped the Africa Magic Viewers Choice Awards due to "a lack of funds".

Not so.

"As you are aware, the Africa Magic Viewers Choice Awards typically happen in March every year," Efosa Aiyevbomwan, Africa Magic's head of publicity tells me in response to a media enquiry.

"However, given the highly anticipated return of Big Brother Naija this January and the FIFA World Cup in June, both of which would clash with the planning, execution and broadcast of the Africa Magic Viewers Choice Awards, a decision has been taken to move the awards to the latter part of 2018."

"We will communicate exact timelines in due course," says Efosa Aiyevbomwan.

M-Net's successful Mzansi Magic Viewers Choice Awards for South Africa that was launched last year and that took place in August 2017 will likely return, as will the Royalty Soapie Awards set for 17 March after a two year absence.

Also hopefully coming back this year after they were both scrapped for 2017 and didn't take place - but not definitely confirmed yet - are Viacom International Media Networks Africa's (VIMN Africa) MTV Africa Music Awards and Turner Broadcasting and MultiChoice's CNN MultiChoice African Journalist Awards.

Netflix loses and writes off a whopping $39 million in content because of Kevin Spacey's sexual harassment scandal and other sex predators.

When Netflix announced its 4th quarter earnings of 2017 late on Tuesday, the global video streaming service also revealed that it wrote off a whopping $39 million in content it commissioned and that were in stages of being produced, but that Netflix won't be showing anymore.

Netflix said the R39 million write-down was related to content "we've decided not to move forward with".

Netflix CFO David Wells said the write-down of $39 million was "related to the societal reset around sexual harassment" and that Netflix never "had one of this magnitude".

Part of this $39 million is very clearly the scandalous fallout of the sexual predator Kevin Spacey who was fired from House of Cards' 6th season and the show that has also been cancelled and the season reduced from 13 to just 8 last episodes.

Seasons of House of Cards in South Africa is broadcast on M-Net (DStv 101) that acquired the broadcasting rights to this show and Orange is the New Black from Netflix.

Then there's also at least one Kevin Spacey project that Netflix abandoned as well, the biographical Gore Vidal movie in which Kevin Spacey would have appeared.

Netflix also dumped the alleged sex predator Louis CK who was to film a second stand-up special for Netflix after sexual misconduct charges in November 2017.

Netflix also suspended production on the 3rd season of The Ranch after Danny Masterson left the show after rape accusations were made against him. Production will resume without him in a few weeks' time.