BREAKING. Al Jazeera to start a brand-new, hard-hitting investigative magazine show, Africa Investigates, to cover the entire African continent.

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Al Jazeera (DStv 406 / TopTV 401) is becoming the first 24 hour global news channel to produce a brand-new weekly show as an investigate programme and devote a weekly timeslot to a hard-hitting investigative magazine show that will be specifically covering Africa and set out to uncover corruption and expose fraud and crime on the continent.

Africa Investigtes will start on Wednesday 2 November at 23:30 (South African time with several weekly repeats) on Al Jazeera as a groundbreaking new weekly show and a true world first for journalist in Africa.

Africa Investigates - with the first episode (2 November) that will talk to the various journalists who will be working on the show and who will explain the many dangers they face - will aim to uncover everything from corruption, fraud, abuse to child trafficking across the length and breadth of Africa.

The second episode of Africa Investigates on 9 November will focus on the gold fraudsters of Ghana.

Al Jazeera describes Africa Investigates as a ''hard-hitting investigative programme which gives some of Africa's best journalists the opportunity to pursue high-level targets across the continent'' and a show that will ''put wrongdoing and abuse under an international television spotlight''.

BREAKING. BBC Worldwide appoints Nina Laricheva as vice president for commercial development for the Africa region.

BBC Worldwide Channels that runs channels such as BBC Entertainment, BBC Knowledge, BBC Lifestyle and CBeebies in South Africa, has appointed Nina Laricheva  as vice president commercial development for the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region.

Nina Laricheva will report to Ian McDonough, the senior vice president and general manager for the EMEA region for BBC Worldwide Channels who had the position before her until August last year. Nina Laricheva will be responsible for driving revenue growth and the strategic development of all of these BBC TV channels, as well as BBC World News seen in South Africa on both TopTV and DStv.

Nina Laricheva will be responsible for the sales and business strategy for the TV channels in South Africa and negotiating multi-platform distribution deals with local teams. She previously worked as sales director at Universal Networks International and as commercial director for Discovery Networks Europe. She will start at BBC Worldwide on 1 November.

''The portfolio has enormous potential for growth in EMEA and I look forward to developing new and existing business models with the view to creating greater relevance to our valued viewers,'' Nina Laricheva said in a BBC Worldwide press statement. This month saw the first original commission for the EMEA region - Come Dine With Me South Africa for BBC Entertainment (DStv 120).

Disney Junior commissions new ''animation Western'' preschool show entitled Oki's Oasis featuring Mandy Moore.

Disney Junior (DStv 309) has commissioned an ''animation Western'' show entitled Oki's Oasis aimed at preschool children which will start on Disney Junior from 2013 and which will feature the voice of Mandy Moore.

Oki's Oasis will be produced by Wildbrain Entertainment and will start from 2012 on Disney Junior TV channels worldwide as well as Disney Junior programming blocks. Oki will be voiced by Mandy Moore a sheriff cat who has to keep her Wild West town safe from evildoers in the episodes which will be 11 minutes long each.

''Oki's Oasis uses the legend of the Old West to impart social skills and lessons for young kids about being a good friend and neighbour," says Nancy Kanter, senior vice president of original programming and general manager of Disney Junior Worldwide.

BREAKING. Bloomberg Television appoints new head of American newsgathering and a new West Coast bureau chief.

Wendy Brundige has been appointed as West Coast bureau chief and Justin Dial as the head of American newsgathering at Bloomberg Television (DStv 411).

Wendy Brundige will be based in San Francisco and will oversee editorial content and production for Bloomberg West, the daily show at 00:00 South African time, presented by Emily Chang and Cory Johnson from the business news channel's studios there.

''We're thrilled to welcome Wendy and Justin to the Bloomberg team,'' says Andrew Morse, head of Bloomberg TV in America in a press release. ''Their experience and expertise will be invaluable as we pursue our goal of becoming the most influential business and financial news network in the world.''

Newly commissioned factual entertainment show exploring Britain's different counties to start on History in April 2012.

History (DStv 254), run by AETN Networks UK, has commissioned a new factual entertainment show entitled No County for Old Men that is scheduled to be shown on History in April 2012. There will be 8 episodes.

In No County for Old Men, the comedians and friends Simon Day and John Thomson attempt to uncover and discover the differences between different British countries as they travel from Cornwall to Cumberland, Surrey to Suffolk and from Herefordshire to Carmarthenshire.

''The counties of Britain are living historical artefacts and Simon Day and John Thomson's comedic peregrination through our county customs and characters will show how our history is alive and evolving all around us,'' says Adam MacDonald, AETN Networks UK's vice president of programming.

Programming note: Second season of Pair of Kings to start on Disney XD on Saturday 5 November at 08:30 with a double episode.

The second season of the live action teen sitcom Pair of Kings will start on Disney XD (DStv 304) with a two-parter on Saturday 5 November at 08:30, and then new episodes every Saturday.

The second season of Pair of Kings with twins Brady and Boomer started in June in America and will probably have 21 episodes similar to the first season.

In the season opener two parter entitled ''The King of Legend'' the pair of brothers awaken an ancient statue called Zadoc that expands the ''Dark Side'' of the island they now rule over, putting the entire island at danger.

BREAKING. eNews furious after eNews Channel disappears off DStv; viewers clueless and upset after the news channel freezes.

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MultiChoice's DStv ''froze'' South African pay TV operator's most popular 24 hour TV news channel today with no explanation as to why it happened or what is going on.

The disappearance today just after 14:00 of the eNews Channel (DStv 403) - the most watched TV news channel in South Africa - left viewers first puzzled and then fuming, on the day that big news broke about the ousting of South Africa's national police commissioner and a major cabinet reshuffle.

eNews is blaming MultiChoice's DStv engineers who were, according to the broadcaster, unable to switch-over to the supposed back-up system after a massive signal failure occured. MultiChoice told TV with Thinus that it first have to find out what happened before the platform can comment.

The eNews Channel wasn't able to broadcast from just after 14:00 today. Late today eNews had to issue an apology. ''eNews apologises to viewers after being off the air for 47 minutes,'' the broadcaster said in a statement released late today. The major signal failure of the eNews Channel occured at 14:08, causing a frozen image of the channel for an hour while big South African news was breaking.

Although a second redundant line - a so-called back-up - to MultiChoice was operational, eNews says that ''DStv were unable to switch over immediately''. According to eNews ''usually the switch over to the second signal would only take a few seconds, or minutes at most'' but viewers were left channel-less for an hour. ''DStv regrettably took longer than expected to switch over,'' Rob Brown, head of technical operations for the eNews Channel, said in the statement the channel issued.

eNews is fuming - and so are viewers. 'We are very disappointed that the switch over took so long,'' says Patrick Conroy, group head of news at eNews. ''We have redundancy lines in place for just this kind of problem and should never have been off air. We have received numerous complaints from viewers, which is entirely understandable.''

While MultiChoice is yet to respond to what happened and why MultiChoice wasn't able to make the switch immediately, eNews is compiling a report while e.tv engineers are planning to take up the matter with DStv management.

Meanwhile a high ranking eNews insider tells TV with Thinus that eNews feels ''embarrassed'' and ''let down''. ''It also exposes vulnerabilities in what is supposed to never happen - vulnerabilities in what is considered the back-up plan. Interesting conversations are going to be taking place because of what happened today.''

BREAKING. Roy is out; Dina is in. Dina Pule takes over as South Africa's new minister of communications as Roy Padayachie shuffles out.

South Africa's television industry is reacting with shock about the just-made announcement that Roy Padayachie is out and that Dina Pule is in as South Africa's new minister of communications.

President Jacob Zuma announced a ministerial shake-up and one of the government department's affected is the department of communications. Roy Padayachie is becoming the new minister of public service and administration. Dina Pule takes over from him. She used to be the deputy minister for performance monitoring and evaluation.

Roy Padayachie was South Africa's minister of communications for exactly a year, after he replaced the controversial Siphiwe Nyanda in a shocking cabinet change in October 2010.

Early reservations from South Africa's TV industry about Dina Pule's appointment mostly centres around two issues: the SABC, and South Africa's digital migration process to digital terrestrial television (DTT).

People I've spoken to the past hour are concerned that it will take Dina Pule (too much) time to get up to speed with the unmitigated melodrama of the beleaguered South African public broadcaster that is still for all intent and purposes on life-support.

Will Dina Pule have to ''remeet'' all the multitude of stakeholders again, just like Roy Padayachie had to do when he took over from a retired general? And secondly: does Dina Pule have the insight and communications background to steer South Africa's crucial transition to digital television?

With South Africa's television industry that needs immediate leadership, insight, right decisions, and speedy solutions to crucial matters regarding the SABC and DTT insofar it concerns public broadcasting, several people are immediately wondering not if, but how big, the setback will be with an industry that has to reset and grapple yet again with a new minister of communications.

''I think the big issue is that we must keep the broadcasting policy review process on track - it is critical to the long term health of broadcasting,'' Kate Skinner, coordinator of the Support Public Broadcasting Coalition (SOS) public pressure group tells TV with Thinus.

''We need new strong broadcasting laws in the public interest. The deep structural governance, oversight and funding problems in the sector stem mainly - although certainly not only - from gaps in the legislation. We need a commitment from the new minister and deputy minister that this will be prioritised,'' says Kate Skinner, commenting on the latest communication minister shuffle.

''Also, we certainly can not afford any further delays on the digital migration process. The new minister and deputy minister must very urgently communicate their plans on these issues. We very urgently need a new vision for public broadcasting - the hope is that the new minister and deputy minister will be able to craft this,'' she says.

BREAKING. Entries open for MasterChef South Africa on M-Net; contestants must first complete a set of pre-registration questions.

Entries has opened today, as I told you RIGHT HERE would happen from today for MasterChef South Africa on M-Net that will be producing a local version of the cooking reality show.

MasterChef South Africa will be co-produced by Curious Pictures and Lucky Bean Media and South Africans can now enter online at the M-Net website.

Potential contestants will have to complete a ''pre-registration'' online, since the MasterChef South Africa producers will want to see potential contestants first, just like the screening that happened for Survivor SA.

Contestants have to indicate on the pre-registration for MasterChef South Africa whether they have worked professionally in a kitchen before or not (it won't disqualify you), had any training as a chef, and whether Cape Town, Durban or Johannesburg are the closest city for an audition.

Then contestants have to then give their personal contact information, tell about your cooking experience, and give more personal information about who you are and why you would make a great contestant for MasterChef South Africa.

Potential MasterChef South Africa contestants have to answer questions such as: Who's your biggest cooking influence? When did you realize that cooking and making food is what you want to do? When did you first fell in love with food? Who taught you how to cook? What's your favourite dish? Of course there's no incorrect answers. Contestants also have to say why they want to ''change your life to become a professional in the cooking industry''.

Potential contestants are asked to tell more about their loved ones, their hobbies and share the ''great ambition in your life'', and separately say where you see yourself in five years' time. Contestants have to divulge the most difficult thing in their life so far and their greatest achievements.