BREAKING. On Digital Media to ship between 20 000 and 30 000 new TopTV decoders to shops from Thursday.

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I can tell you that On Digital Media (ODM) who operates the new TopTV pay TV service will be shipping between 20 000 and 30 000 TopTV decoders between Thursday and the weekend to shops across South Africa.

That's after the initial stock of 50 000 TopTV decoders sold at R499 (including the installation fee) sold out on the same day Saturday when it went on sale. These first 50 000 TopTV decoders were manufactured in China, as is this second batch. TopTV would have received it anyway this week but would have kept it back - and has now moved up their decoder roll-out strategy. Vino Govender, ODM CEO told me last week the plan was to sell the first 50 000 during May, then have an additional 75 000 ready from June and then 10 000 per month. That has now obviously changed and ODM has sped the roll-out process up.

I asked today and ODM tells me that from July UEC - the company also manufacturing MultiChoice's DStv decoders - will be producing the TopTV decoders locally.

Programming note: Watch South Africa's massive diamond mining ship Peace in Africa on Discovery.

A brand new international TV series, Mighty Ships starts this evening at 20:00 on Discovery Channel (DStv 121) featuring a South Afric vessel, the MV Peace in Africa in the debut episode.

The massive ship is the most modern diamond mining vessel in the world and in tonight's first episode of Mighty Ships viewers will get the first-ever look at life on board, how the ship looks, and what it does as it mines for diamonds on South Africa's treacherous West Coast. I spoke to Elizly Steyn, production metallurgist onboard the Peace in Africa by satellite video call and asked her some questions.

For the Q&A and some more information about the Peace in Africa, as well as photos and awesome facts, click on READ MORE below.

How the various DStv bouquets look now - after TV channels were added.

MultiChoice has beefed up the various DStv bouquets available to its subscribers. Besides introducing the new DStv Lite bouquet this past Friday (one day before TopTV started their commercial pay TV service in South Africa) all the various existing DStv bouquets have added additional TV channels for subscribers without an increase in the monthly subscriber cost.

I've made a list of how the various bouquets look now, and also what the new DStv Lite bouquet option entails.

For all the new DStv bouquets and their details, click on READ MORE below.

BREAKING. Sade Giliberti back as host of the second season of So You Think You Can Dance? on SABC1.

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I've started asking around (and they know it) so SABC1 decided to make it official: I can confirm that Sade Giliberti is back as the presenter and host of the second season of So You Think You Can Dance? on SABC1 that will start in July on the channel.

The judges for the second season of the reality show in 13 episodes will be Harold van Buuren, David Matamela and Didi Moses. I told you yesterday RIGHT HERE that the show will be back for a second season and here's the audition dates in May.

BREAKING. National Geographic to debut explosive documentary about Iceland volcano.

National Geographic

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I can be first to tell you about the awesome and utterly spectacular TV documentary special coming up this Sunday that National Geographic (DStv 260) is rushing to TV about the Iceland volcano. SPEC-TA-CU-LAR!

National Geographic is rushing Naked Science: Iceland Volcano Eruption to air this Sunday, May 9 at 20:00 with exclusive volcano footage that will blow you away. The devastating Eyjafjallajokull caused mass disruption over Europe's airspace in April. A National Geographic film crew made it to Iceland even before news crews and were there right from the beginning, documenting and capturing the magnificent ash clouds billowing into the air - and were there for the second, even larger volcanic eruption.

The National Geographic team I'm told, were the first ones to get access to the volcano via helicopter and kept the cameras rolling - they even made it to the top of a glacier next to the volcano where they filmed spectacular footage of this natural event. ''Incredible, unparalleled footage of the volcano as it was erupting,'' is what National Geographic tells me they will be showing this Sunday evening.

BREAKING. MTV is looking for totally outrageous South African birthday parties.

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MTV is looking for South African people planning on having big and outrageous parties (from between your 16th birthday to your big 21st) for their show My Super Sweet.

My Super Sweet films the planning, stress and eventually the outrageous celebration of somebody's birthday party with their friends. MTV doesn not pay for the party - you or your friends or your rich parents do - but MTV films it in a fly-on-the-wall way and then broadcast it. The South African and African parties will also be broadcast on MTV Base (DStv 322) and anyone planning a great birthday party with lots of drama 'ya all, can enter.

To nominate yourself or a friend to star in your own episode of My Super Sweet on MTV if you're living in South Africa and planning on having a totally rocking birthday party in 2010, send an email to:
mtvsupersweet@mavericktv.co.uk. You can also download an application form for the show who will be visiting South Africa,  RIGHT HERE.

BREAKING. TopTV versus DStv pay TV price war set to escalate: MultiChoice planning a massive offensive to fight TopTV ''tooth and nail on this''.

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The TopTV versus DStv pay TV war has only just begun. Insider sources are telling me that MultiChoice is planning a massive and full-scale offensive on all fronts in the price war against new pay TV entrant TopTV.

MultiChoice's full-out assault on TopTV will include MultiChoice matching (I'm told the plans are being worked out on this) TopTV's seemingly ''installation free'' model where subscribers buy a decoder and don't seem to pay for installation or for that matter, that much for a decoder. Although MultiChoice is already subsidizing DStv decoder models heavily according to a scale, installation costs remain a prohibitive barrier to new pay TV subscriber uptake, especially in lower income groups. This is where On Digital Media (ODM) is now making a heavy subsidization effort by removing installation cost and even pushing down decoder hardware cost to fascilitate subscriber growth. Look out for TopTV adding several thousand more subscribers this weekend when new stock becomes available from Thursday. I'm told MultiChoice is planning ''on fighting TopTV tooth and nail on this''.

Although their official stance is that they welcome competition to South Africa's pay TV market MultiChoice is not so much in shock, as somewhat surprised (and a bit jealous) at TopTV: not so much for being able to capture the elusive lower end pay TV entry market that has somewhat stubbornly evaded MultiChoice over the past few years, but the unexpected rapid way that TopTV has managed to sell 50 000 decoders over the past weekend. I'm told that MultiChoice, although they expected TopTV to make some inroads did NOT expect that reaction. MultiChoice is however not bewildered, "'I'd say more determined to be better,'' says a well-placed source.

Other sources within MultiChoice privy to discussions that have happened since the weekend and immediately on Monday, but who are not allowed to talk to the media about it, tells me ''MultiChoice had plans, a lot of plans especially for this month [May] and next month, but now we've gone into overdrive and looking at enhancing what we're planning even further''. Another source revealed to me that upcoming plans revolve around a decoder special in which installation is subsidized similar to what TopTV is doing now. ''It's irritating. Them coming in and doing that [TopTV selling 50 000 decoders] but we're not sitting back,'' says a third source. ''We have plans. We have room to manuevre slightly, not a lot but a bit. This year DStv will be around for 15 years - we have grown with our subscribers and we look after them. And we're not reactionary in these matters. We're busy with exciting stuff and it's been on the cards way before TopTV became TopTV selling a lot of decoders.''

I haven't spoken to MultiChoice's official spokespeople, so none of these upcoming plans are confirmed (although one of these sources used the word ''imminent''), but as soon as it happens, I will have the news.

BREAKING. M-Net planning to move Idols' Monday eviction show to TUESDAY this season.

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I heard a while ago that that M-Net has quietly been mulling a major Idols change for the new season and here it is: I can exclusively reveal that M-Net is planning on moving Idols' Eviction Mondays to Tuesdays when the sixth season starts in July.

According to insiders close to the production (which is currently busy with the nationwide audition process), Idols will no longer be sending contestants home on a Monday this winter. Instead they will be crying, while they're singing their swan songs, on Tuesday nights on M-Net.

BREAKING. Special investigators descend on the SABC to ''investigate anything and anyone''.

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I can tell you first (and I bet you're going to get a different spin on it elsewhere) that special forensic investigators and auditors have invaded the SABC's head office in Aucklandpark! These special investogators will scourge the whole of the public broadcaster for mismanagement and corruption with special focus on the SABC's most problem prone and mismanaged divisions.

A whole team of the Special Investigative Unit (SIU) entered the SABC today to investigate everything at the public broadcaster they want to - especially divisions and departments within the SABC that has been named and shamed in basically every single official report since las year like the personnel heavy SABC content enterprises division that insiders tell me is sees as a little ''fiefdom inside the SABC'' just like the news department and the SABC's commercial enterprises division, allegedly also a ''brooding mess of ungovernable egos, contracts and bureaucracy'' according to my sources. The special investigators were as far as I understand it, appointed by the SABC board and can ''investigate anything and anyone'' and any system.