BREAKING. Setanta Action is the new action sports channel launching op TopTV, although the pay-TV platform isn't communicating with TV critics.

Another example of TopTV inept, basically non-existent communication with the press and TV critics is the deafening silence and zero information on Setanta Action starting on TopTV as a new sports channel, supposedly next week.

TopTV's lack of any professional form of PR (where's the people who has to communicate and talk about this new channel? Where's the heads-up? The channel information? Pathetic!) continues. It's breathtakingly shocking to me, in yers of covering television as a medium, how clueless TopTV - or whoever is responsible for the PR of all of this - is about how to do it right.

Besides a press statement saying a new action channel - "a first for Africa" is launching on TopTV, On Digital Media (ODM) has communicated a single word to me or other TV critics about this.

Yet yesterday I borke the news RIGHT HERE and told you it is Setanta Action which will (hopefully?) start on TopTV. Whether anything happens or is actually talked about or forthcoming from this company about this - and I have asked - is anyone's guess.

Common Law on M-Net cancelled in America after the conclusion of the new cop buddy drama's first season.

The good legal crime buddy cop show Common Law which South Africans saw on M-Net has been cancelled in America exactly as I said in September it will most likely be.

In America, Ted Linhart, the senior vice president of the USA Network which showed Common Law, tweeted today: ''I can confirm to those who have asked that we are not renewing Common Law. Thanks to all the fans who watched and expressed their support."

FIRST LOOK. Here is the channel logo for the new Mzansi Music channel which will start on DStv on 13 November.

Here is the first look at the new channel logo for the new African music channel, Mzansi Music (DStv 321) which will be starting on DStv on 13 November.

MultiChoice announced earlier today the addition of a few further new TV channels from 13 November for South African DStv subscribers, with the new Mzansi Music channel being one of them.

Mzansi Music will be a 24-hour music TV channel devoted to all-time localand international music videos as well as classic hits.

'We're very excited about VH1 Classic,' says Viacom International Media Networks Africa as VH1 on DStv switches to VH1 Classic.

Viacom International Media Networks Africa (VIMN Africa) tells me they're "very excited" about delivering VH1 Classic as a new TV channel to MultiChoice's DStv platform.

Earlier today MultiChoice made the official announcement that VH1 Classic will be replacing VH1 on channel 323 on DStv from 13 November.

"We're very excited about this new channel. We tested it with DStv two Christmases ago and the response from viewers was very positive," a VIMN Africa spokesperson tells me.

"As MTV focuses more on general entertainment programming, and MTV Base on urban music and youth content, we feel that VH1 Classic adds a complementary, third dimension to our music offering," says VIMN Africa.

BREAKING. Auditor-general to now investigate the fractious SABC board paralysed by bitter infighting over months.

The auditor-general (AG) is now going to investigate the fractious SABC board, derailed after months of bitter infighting between board members accusing each other of corruption and mismanagement and paralysing decision making within SABC top ranks.

The acrimonious infighting between the SABC board and SABC board member Cawe Mahlati will now be investigated by the AG, with parliament's portfolio committee on communications who has decided to ask the AG to investigate the SABC board.

In September the SABC board chairperson dr Ben Ngubane shocked parliament when he announced that the SABC has "degenerted into serious dysfunctionality". He revealed that the entire SABC board has unanimously passed a vote of no confidence in Cawe Mahlati and wants her gone. Cawe Mahlati has refused to step down.

In a highly embarrassing public spectacle on 18 September with the whole SABC board in parliament, Cawe Mahlati lashed back in parliament against "the rampant maladministration and corruption in the SABC board" under the "autocratic and patriarchal" leadership style of dr Ben Ngubane.

Now the portfolio committee on communications, which had to decide what course of action to take next, unanimously decided to get the help of the auditor-general in to probe the SABC board which is once again seen as not providing any effective leadership. In the SABC's latest annual report, the SABC missed most of its set strategic objectives.

According to Eric Kholwane, chairperson of the portfolio commitee on communications, the comittee could recommend that Cawe Mahlati be removed from the SABC board, depending on the outcome of the AG's findings.

Setanta Action is the brand-new sports action TV channel and 'the first of its kind in Africa' TopTV plans to launch next week - sources.

You're reading it here first. 

I'm hearing from sources that the sports channel which TopTV will be adding next week will be Setanta Action - we will see what happens, as I don't have any official confirmation yet.

Late yesterday TopTV said that the pay-TV operator will be adding a new dedicated sports action TV channel  to its platform in the first week of November.

TopTV which lacks any real sports channels, has Fuel TV and Setanta Africa but has struggled the past three years to secure any real sports programming due to rights issues.

TopTV calls the new sports channel "the first of its kind in Africa".

BREAKING. TopTV loses another TV channel as 1KZN leaves TopTV at the end of November and will be jumping exclusively to DStv.

You're reading it here first. 

Sources have told me and I can exclusively spill, that TopTV is losing yet another TV channel, this time 1KZN (TopTV 187) which will no longer be available on On Digital Media's (ODM) TopTV from the end of November.

1KZN, the community TV station near Richards Bay which started broadcasting in July last year for the KwaZulu/Natal community and which TopTV quietly added to their bouquet in September last year, will no longer be seen on TopTV.

A year later than business relationship has fizzed out and is over with Urban Brew Studios which helped to get 1KZN from TopTV to DStv.

As DStv is adding 1KZN from 13 November as a community TV channel, it does not mean that 1KZN would simply have been available on both DStv and TopTV. 1KZN is jumping exclusively to DStv, according to my sources.

1KZN will henceforth be available on MultiChoice's DStv Premium, DStv Compact and DStv Lite bouquets on channel 261.

"This is indeed a milestone to be celebrated," says Themba Fakazi, the executive chairman of the 1KZNTV board, who makes no mention in a press statement that 1KZN is leaving TopTV.

"The inclusion on DStv also offers an exciting opportunity to reflect the diversity and inclusivity of the people of KwaZulu/Natal."

Edwin Mncwango, executive director says that "being on DStv gives 1KZN the unique opportunity to grow as a station and to provide the young and local talent in KwaZulu/Natal the national exposure they deserve."

"Except for better reception for local viewers, the inclusion of 1KZN on DStv allows people in other parts of the country with roots in KwaZulu/Natal to stay in touch with what's happening in their home province."

1KZN says that the community TV station's programming will remain aimed at and be created by the community of KwaZulu/Natal and will continue to remain relevant and local in focus. 1KZN will also continue to broadcast free-to-air in the Richards Bay area and the surrounding communities in the districts of iLembe, Uthungulu, Zululand and uMkhanyakude.

BREAKING. MultiChoice adds kykNET Musiek, Mzansi Music, Blackbelt TV as new channels and adding the community TV stations BayTV, 1KZN and Dumisa.

Exactly as I said would happen on 13 November, MultiChoice is adding the new channel kykNET Musiek (DStv 146) to DStv. DStv is also adding Mzansi Music (DStv 321), Blackbelt TV (DStv 129) as a martial arts channel and the community television stations BayTV (DStv 260), 1KZN (DStv 261) and Dumisa (DStv 340).

These will all be channels for DStv Premium and DStv Compact subscribers and will become available on 13 November at 10:00. In Addition Nat Geo Wild (DStv 182) will now also be made available on the DSTv Compact bouquet.

"We are excited with these new additions," says Collins Khumalo, CEO of MultiChoice South Africa in a statement. "We believe they will add more value to our packages and give our customers more variety in entertainment."

"The addition of the three community television stations and the two additional music channels aims to provide our customers with a rich diversity of local content and forms part of our ongoing support of the development of the local television industry."

BREAKING. On 13 November MultiChoice is ending VH1 and replacing the channel with the VH1 Classic channel.

On 13 November MultiChoice is discontinuing VH1 (DStv 323) and replacing it with VH1 Classic on the same channel.

Two years ago DStv experimented as part of subscriber consumer research with making VH1 Classic accessible as a TV channel to subscribers. MultiChoice then said the channel wasn't feasible and a good fit. MultiChoice said VH1 Classic "didn't test well".

Now VH1 Classic is considered a better fit on the DStv bouquet than VH1, despite not having tested well, two years ago. MultiChoice now clearly believes that VH1 Classic is a better channel or a better fit to its overall bouquet.