BREAKING. Raging wildfire engulfs the set of M-Net's soap The Wild; threatened cast and crew evacuated as flames threatened production.

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I can break the news exclusively - and have all the real-life dramatic details - about a raging, out-of-control wildfire that threatened the set, cast and crew of M-Net's soap The Wild and caused the complete evacuation from the game farm outside Heidelberg on Wednesday and forced an unexpected shutdown of the production as flames advanced to the lodge.

''It was a real-life drama behind the scenes of The Wild,'' executive producer Bobby Heaney, tells TV with Thinus. ''On Wednesday at 13:00 someone noticed smoke in the distance, drove to the top of the mountain and saw that a fire has started in the distance two farms away and was advancing - due to very strong winds - in the direction of The Wild,'' he says. ''Luckily we're surrounded by an informed, very tight community well-used to dealing with fires immediately and everyone was immediately aware of the threatening fire coming towards us.''

Fire prevention sprang into action to try and contain the fire with 70 people, including fire beaters and 20 vehicles trying to bring it under control as the cast and crew evacuated the lodge set. A bakkie got damaged while a fire truck got stuck but nobody was injured as the production called for an immediate evacuation. The fire actually started as a firebreak two farms away but the farmer underestimated the wind. By 22:00 on Wednesday the fire drama than engulfed The Wild was over.

''We had to drop 4 scenes and with the production schedule as tight as this one is, it did create a bit of an issue,'' says Bobby Heaney. ''But the scenes have been picked up and by the end of today [Friday] we will be back on schedule.''

''We were very lucky,'' he says when it comes to outside scenes and scenic shots. ''I was very concerned about how the result of the fire will be impacting the vista. Luckily the only part destroyed is one section over the plains on the right of the lodge - actually a part we burned as a quick firebreak.''

''The irony is that while The Wild was experiencing a very dramatic real-life fire event, the soap is working on exactly such a story and some of the fire footage we managed to shoot will be making it into the actual show,'' says Bobby Heaney. ''In upcoming episodes Ian Roberts who plays Karel is burning firebreaks and some of this footage will be built into that storyline. We will even be using a section of the burnt farm now. In an ironic sense some of the real-life drama will be seen on screen in The Wild soon.''

Programming note: e.tv jumps to secure the broadcasting rights to Amy Winehouse special, My Daughter Amy.

Great to see some responsive programming from an unexpected quarter - e.tv. The red letter channel has jumped quickly to secure the broadcasting rights to the Amy Winehouse documentary entitled My Daughter Amy which e.tv will be showing on Tuesday 9 August at 21:30.

e.tv will be pre-empting 3rd Degree on 9 August to show the My Daughter Amy special after the unexpected death of the British singer this past weekend.

BREAKING. M-Net secures the broadcasting rights to the great new Franklin & Bash; new buddy-lawyer dramedy to air before end of 2011.

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I can exclusively break the news and reveal that M-Net has signed for the broadcasting rights to the brand-new (and funny-good!) new buddy-lawyer show Franklin & Bash, and that Franklin & Bash will start on M-Net before the end of the year.

I've been watching Franklin & Bash and love it, and earlier this week the delightful bromance dramedy was renewed for a second season in America. Now I can reveal that M-Net's definitely grabbed the show, and although a specific broadcasting date isn't certain yet, the first season's 10 episodes will definitely start sometime between October and December of this year still on M-Net. The first season of Franklin & Bash started last month in America.

Imagine a male version of Ally McBeal - kooky, kinda crazy, kinda outrageous cases with a wonderful Indian nerdy assistant Pindar and a kinda-weird, aloof-yet-present, eccentric British boss. Franklin & Bash is about two best friends (Mark-Paul Gosselaar and Breckin Meyer), both lawyers, who leave their own ragtag firm and go to work (after they're asked) for a spiffy law firm - but they're adamant to keep their level of to school for cool.

Of course they have no idea what he's talking about, but says their Indian nerdy assistant Pindar (who fears people) with visible trepidation when they show up in front of the gleaming new building on their first day: ''This place looks like a Borg cube.''
Hilarious.

BREAKING. DStv ratings to go down 9% on average from August as PVR viewership that has become 'significant' gets removed temporarily.

The viewership ratings of MultiChoice's DStv will decrease on average by 9% on TAMS from August - not really because of less people watching DStv or television in South Africa, but actually due to a technical, temporary, adjustment that will see TV households in South Africa with personal video recorders (PVRs) no longer being counted or their viewership taken into effect.

ALSO READ: PVR viewership removed from TAMS from August; viewership of M-Net, kykNET, SuperSport will appear lower.

The South African Advertising Research Foundation (Saarf) that measures television viewership in South Africa with the TAMS system wanted to include - for the first time from August - so-called ''time-shifted viewing'' or viewing happening, or influenced by PVR usage. The organisation that manages the TAMS TV currency and which is used widely by media planners, ad buyers and marketing strategists decided to not only delay time shifted viewing, it decided to remove PVR households from the viewership.

Saarf says it first wants to properly adjust, align and understand PVR viewing, and that PVR viewership will then be added back. PVR viewing information will also be available as a separate set of viewership data to give a very clear picture of what is being watched on PVRs and how that affect overall viewing and audience figures. Saarf says PVR usage and PVR viewing in South Africa has become ''significant'' and has crossed the viewership threshold where this kind of significant time-delayed viewing can be accurately measured and has an impact on overall viewership figures.

''PVR households are now separated out,'' says Saarf. ''In the next South African TV universe update we should be in a better position to get a clearer view of PVR viewing. Time-shifted viewing in South Africa is going to change the industry and change television,'' says Saarf. Saarf actually wants to double the current TAMS sample size and the number of households whose TV viewing is monitored with electronic meters so that South African TV ratings can be ''more robust and so that we're more prepared for the viewership fragmentation coming with digital terrestrial television (DTT) in the country.''

From August with PVR households that's gone - actually still there but just ''invisible'' for the moment since their viewing isn't factored in - the biggest change will be a drop of 9% in DStv ratings. The biggest TV universe reduction comes DStv Premium subscribers, says Saarf. Channels that will suffer a marked decrease in viewers (although they're actually still there) will be kykNET, M-Net, Discovery, the M-Net movie channels, M-Net Series, Disney and BBC Lifestyle. Channels that will be showing a marked increase due to growth in DStv Compact subscribers will be KidsCo, ONE Gospel and SowetoTV.

''Not all channels are adversely affected,'' says Saarf. ''DStv Compact channels are actually growing. Some DStv Premium channels will be going through separation anxiety. But that viewership will come back.''

ALSO READ: VOSDAL is finally coming to the South African television industry. Say what? get ready for same-day-as-live ratings.
ALSO READ: TopTV viewership numbers for the pay TV service is coming, but audience ratings won't be available for individual channels.
ALSO READ: South African television viewership could actually be higher .. if the content broadcasters are showing weren't so crap - industry expert.
ALSO READ: PVR viewership removed from TAMS from August; viewership of M-Net, kykNET and SuperSport to decline.

BREAKING. VOSDAL is finally coming to the South African television industry. What you say? Get ready for Viewing-on-same-day-as-live ratings.

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I can reveal that VOSDAL is coming soon to the South African television industry for the very first time. No. Not a third type of alien in the new drama series Falling Skies, or the annual spring day The Wombles decide to peek out their burrow. Say hello to Viewing-on-same-day-as-live (VOSDAL) television ratings for South Africa.

The South African Advertising Research Foundation (Saarf), custodian of the TAMS system that measures television viewing and audience ratings in South Africa, says that it's planning to introduce VOSDAL as well as a detailed, individual, live+7 day viewership rating measurement system for PVRs when it introduces its time-shifted viewership measurement with the next TV universe update, probably sometime in early 2012.

Saarf has decided to remove PVR households for now, temporarily, from the new TV universe for South African television viewership that will come into effect on 1 August. That decision will lead to a sudden, unexpected decrease in the perceived viewership of some TV channels (because the PVR households are no longer considered towards the viewing total). Saarf promises that this ''missing'' or invisible viewership will however be added back in later with more robust, separate viewership information.

With this new set of PVR household viewership information, ad buyers, media planners, marketing strategists and TV executives will be able to get a detailed and very clear breakdown - for the first time ever - of what specific TV watching of what specific shows happens delayed but still on the same day as broadcast, as well as for each of the 7 consecutive days after a broadcast day.

Saarf plans to make a consolidated file available that will contain ''live+7 day'' PVR information. It will be similar to the live+7 DVR rating the American TV industry has been using for the past few years to get a clearer picture of how many additional viewers really watched a specific show or channel.

The industry will be able to ''customize'' and select what PVR viewership they deem of importance. Ad buyers or media agencies might want to focus on only ''live+VODAL'' - how many viewers saw a show live, plus recorded it but still watched it on that same day. Or you might decide ''live+2'' - viewers who watched a show live as well as those who recorded it and watched it within two days - are still significant enough to count towards your viewership total.

Example: Let's say Idols on M-Net at 17:30 on Sunday attracts a viewership of 950 000 people.
PVR viewership is going to give you a VOSDAL rating of 20 000, meaning that a further 20 000 people watched Idols not at 17:30 but still on the Sunday, bringing the total Idols viewership to actually 970 000.
Then you can add Idols live+1 that might now give you an additional 14 000 viewers who watched the show they've recorded on their PVR on Monday, bringing the total to 984 000.
As you add live+2, live+3, live+4 and so on, the number of viewers on these later days go down as less and less people actually watch what they've PVRed. But it does still make a difference to the overall total number of people who've watched.

ALSO READ: DStv viewership to go down 9% on average from August as PVR viewership, that has become ''significant'', gets temporarily removed.
ALSO READ: TopTV viewership numbers for the pay TV service is coming, but audience ratings won't be available for individual channels.
ALSO READ: PVR viewership removed from TAMS from August; viewership of M-Net, kykNET, SuperSport will decline.

BREAKING. Current TV's CEO Mark Rosenthal leaving the youth news network; Joel Hyatt returning to Al Gore's network.

Mark Rosenthal, CEO of  Current TV (TopTV 406) is leaving Al Gore's youth news network and will be replaced by Joel Hyatt who returns to his CEO role at the struggling channel.

Mark Rosenthal was was previously COO and president of MTV succeeded Joel Hyatt as CEO in 2009 after Joel Hyatt resigned in 2009. Now Joel Hyatt returns who founded Current TV with Al Gore.

BREAKING. TopTV viewership numbers for the pay TV service is coming, but audience ratings won't be available for individual channels.

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Viewership numbers for TopTV is coming, but it won't be viewership figures per channel, but rather for TopTV as a whole.

Since the new pay TV entrant to the South African television market started its commercial satellite pay TV service in May last year, no independent, verifiable, viewership figures or audience ratings have been available.

The South African Advertising Research Foundation (Saarf) said today that TopTV viewership is coming and will soon be available. There will be one snag however - it's not going to be possible for ad buyers or media planners to find out what the South African viewership is for a specific channel on TopTV. ''The only viewership figures that will be released initially will be the overall total - just the overall viewership of TopTV,'' says Saarf, saying that the sample of TopTV subscribers that represent all South African television viewers is still too small.

''Only overall viewership will be available for TopTV,'' says Saarf. ''The sample of TopTV subscribers is too small and not yet robust enough for measurement of separate channels on the TopTV bouquet. We're speaking about ,04 of a rating point. You just can't break it up at the moment.''

Saarf says when MultiChoice's DStv pay platform entered the market it was measured in the same way initially. ''It's too small initially as a part of the total TV audience to pick up individual channels but as DStv grew you're later able to separate out individual channels. The same approach will be taken with TopTV.''

ALSO READ: South African television viewership in total could actually be higher ... if the content broadcasters are showing weren't so crap - viewership research expert.

BREAKING. e.tv's local dance reality show Step Up or Step Out renewed for a second season that will be shown in 2012.

Sadly e.tv can't be bothered to invite Cape Town press covering television (or even explain why not) to what it calls the ''glitz and glamorous finale'' this coming Sunday of its reality show Step Up or Step Out. But I can reveal that this reality show with competing dance crews produced by Endemol SA, has been renewed for a second season.

The second season of Step Up or Step Out will be on e.tv in 2012 after the show garnered enough viewers to crack the list of top 10 shows on e.tv on a weekly basis. ''We look forward to an even better and mind-blowing new season,'' says Monde Twala, the group head of e.tv channels division.

Of course the Step Up and Step Out live finale on Sunday on e.tv will be competing - at least in terms of press attention - with the finale of Big Brother Africa Amplified also happening live on Sunday evening.

Sunday nights TV with Thinus of course cover Idols - so come for the coverage, stay for the snark.

BREAKING. South African television viewership in total could actually be higher ... if the content broadcasters are showing weren't so crap.

A leading and authoritative industry expert tracking television viewership in South Africa says combined total television viewership in South Africa could actually be higher - if the TV content broadcasters are showing wasn't so crap.

Dr Chris Eyre, managing director of AGB Nielsen Media Research spoke this morning and addressed a group of journalists, ad buyers, media planners as well as media and marketing executives about the new TAMS universe of the South African Advertising Research Foundation (Saarf). Saarf is the leading organisation in South Africa tracking television viewership in South Africa and will temporarily remove PVR households from the audience universe from August.

ALSO READ: PVR viewership removed from TAMS from August, viewership of M-Net, kykNET and SuperSport will appear lower.

The authoritative and widely-respected Dr Chris Eyre suggested that general total television viewership in South Africa could actually be higher than what it is currently but that less viewers are watching because the content that broadcasters and TV channels are showing South African viewers are substandard and not of a good quality. He was very direct and blunt in his assessment of why television viewership in South Africa could actually be higher - but isn't.

''Data suggest that content is approaching ... crap,'' dr Chris Eyre said. ''Television is going up in the South African context all the time, but it could actually be higher.'' He suggested that low quality TV content is to blame for the growth not being higher. ''You have to factor in the quality of the content South African viewers are getting to view.''