REVENGE? SABC3 yanks new drama Revenge off of its schedule on the day its suppose to start due to not having received any tapes.

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Revenge was supposed to start on SABC3 on Tuesday evening at 20:30 but on Tuesday SABC3 had to rush to find a replacement for its promoted new American drama starring Emily VanCamp since the public broadcaster's only commercial TV channel didn't have the show.

Viewers tuning in on Tuesday night at 20:30 to SABC3 to watch the first episode of the big-buzz drama which already drew rave reviews when it was shown on M-Net, saw two episodes of the sitcom Hot in Cleveland back-to-back as SABC3 rushed to pad the schedule with temporary filler.

There's been no official explanation so far about why SABC3 advertised and marketed Revenge to start and then suddenly failed to show it on Tuesday.

According to sources the Revenge tapes didn't arrive, and although SABC3 waited until the very day it was supposed to play out episode one before finding a replacement for the Tuesday night hour, there was no Revenge to show.

It's not yet clear whether the non-delivery of the Revenge tapes to SABC3 are related to payment issues as in the past, contractual bungling, administrative content procurement problems, or issues with the international distributor.

The broadcaster has not yet said whether Revenge is permanently off the SABC3 schedule or what will be shown this coming Tuesday at 20:30.

Doctor Who 50th anniversary episode to be shown on BBC Entertainment in South Africa on 23 November at the same time as 75 countries.

South African TV viewers will be able to see the special 50th anniversary episode of Doctor Who on 23 November on BBC Entertainment (DStv 120) as the same time as it's being show in the United Kingdom, with viewers in 75 countries across six continent who will be able to watch the episode at the same time.

BBC Worldwide says Africa, Europe and Latin America have all signed up for the global simulcast together with Australia, the United States and Canada.

It means that South African viewers will be able to see Matt Smith and Jenna Coleman in the once-off Doctor Who special entitled "The Day of the Doctor" at exactly the same time as millions of viewers across the globe tune in on 23 November.

The former Time Lord David Tennant as well as Billie Piper, and John Hurt will appear in the 50th anniversary episode.

"Few TV shows can still lay claim to being appointment viewing but Doctor Who takes this to another level," says Tim Davie, the CEO of BBC Worldwide which issued a statement late on Tuesday night.

"We wanted to create a truly international event for Doctor Who fans in as many countries as possible and the simultaneous broadcast across so many countries will make for a fitting birthday tribute to our Time Lord."

"The Doctor has always been a time traveller - now he's travelling time zones," says Steve Moffat, the showrunner for Doctor Who and the executive producer of the 50th anniversay episode in the statement.

"On 23 November it won't be the bad guys conquering the Earth - everywhere it will be The Day of the Doctor."

BREAKING. TopTV subscribers fuming after On Digital Media (ODM) suddenly blocks all channels, possibly due to new billing system.

TopTV subscribers are livid, with subscribers on Tuesday reacting in shock and anger after their TV signals became blocked on Tuesday 1 October although their accounts are fully paid up, with no response at all from the struggling On Digital Media (ODM) on why it's happening.

Outraged TopTV subscribers are venting in yet another in a long line of customer crises for the beleaguered pay-TV operator, with subscribers saying that although their accounts with the Woodmead based satellite pay-TV operator are paid up and up to date, that they are suddenly being confronted with scrambled signals and unable to receive any TopTV channels.

TopTV subscribers are lashing out after they woke up on Tuesday with a black screen simply stating: "This Service is blocked (4)". It's not clear how many TopTV subscribers are affected but the problem launched an avalanche of complaints.

TopTV subscribers claim they struggled immensely and couldn't get through by telephone to ODM's call centre and that they're not getting any responses or answers by email from the satellite pay-TV operator which is currently being taken over by China's StarTimes following a bail-out earlier this year.

Prepaid TopTV subscribers were affected as well, saying its impossible to activate an account and being told that the smart card number is invalid.

As a barrage of complaints came flooding in to On Digital Media on Tuesday, bewildered TopTV subscribers all complained about the same thing: blocked channels. It appears that the introduction of yet another new billing system, this time a day-to-day billing system, is to blame which is creating some kind of technical issue.

With the new payment and billing system, it appears as if TopTV subscribers must make a payment before the 1st of a month or have their signal cut off, whereas customers still got an unencoded service when they paid on the 1st or within a few days after a month has started.

TopTV previously suffered embarrassment blamed on faulty implementation of billing systems. TopTV erroneously and infamously ran a double debit order on thousands of TopTV subscribers' bank accounts in February 2011 when it "upgraded" to a new billing system.

A year later in April 2012 TopTV again made the same mistake related to billing system mistakes and again made a debit order mess when it took money from more than 17 000 TopTV subscribers too early, incorrectly and in some cases double. Now it appears that TopTV cut subscribers off because accounts, although paid, did not reflect on TopTV's systems before or on 1 October - a consequence of the new billing system.

A TopTV spokesperson confirmed to TV with Thinus that indeed a new billing system was introduced.

The company didn't say why TopTV subscribers are suddenly complaining en masse and why subscribers who say their accounts are up to date suddenly found their pay-TV service blocked.

Anxious TopTV subscribers complain of being on hold for anything from 40 minutes and longer, desperately trying to get through to TopTV's call centre on Tuesday, eventually giving up and with many fearing a final shut down of TopTV which is in business rescue. ODM on Tuesday also ended two further channels on its bouquet - Top Crime and Top History - and ended Top Learn which became Mindset TV.

"What is wrong? Is this finally the end?" asked one TopTV subscriber, echoeing the sentiment of scores of TopTV subscribers who had no idea why their signal was suddenly blocked.

Several highly disgruntled TopTV subscribers said that the TopTV call centre was unreachable on Tuesday, some even after holding for as long as an hour in a desperate attempt to try and talk to someone at On Digital Media to try and get their signal restored.

TopTV subscribers who've never missed a payment and always pay on the first of a month saw their TopTV scrambled, just after being told they will lose two more channels permanently.

"TopTV should change their name to Worst TV. You pay, but the service is blocked," wrote a TopTV subscriber. "Your phone number does not work."

Another irate TopTV subscriber said "since my account and services are paid for, my questions is why am I not able to view them? If you have technical problems, the least bit you can do is inform the customers that are paying you!"

Another disgruntled TopTV subscriber said "I pay and then I must see channels taken down, channels that I paid to watch that month. It never gets replaced with a channel that is about the same thing. To contact them today cost me well over R100. But nothing. I could not even speak to one person. Who is going to refund me that money? Who is going to refund for the channels that keeps disappearing?"

Fox International to adapt drama Shufim as a new psycho-thriller series; will roll out in South Africa close to international broadcasting date.

Fox International Channels (FIC) is adapting an Israeli scripted drama Shufim (False Flag) for a global roll-out, which will see the new TV drama be broadcast in South Africa and Africa very soon after episodes are shown internationally as part of the same global strategy FIC now uses globally, with The Walking Dead and Da Vinci's Demons seen on FOX in South Africa and The Bridge on FOX Crime.

Shufim, written by Peter Landesman, revolves around someone killed in a hotel room, and the hotel personnel doing the sleuthing to put together surveillance footage and passport photos to eventually implicate 26 international hotel guests and giving it to the global news media.

The drama will be based - just like Homeland was an adaptation - on an Israeli series which is shown on Keshet channel 2 in Israel.

In the adaptation, 8 apparently ordinary citizens of the United States wake up to see their faces and private lives broadcast across the internet and television news around the world as suspects in a brazen and dangerous crime.

What seems at first like a horrible case of mistaken identity, then turns into a psycho-espionage thriller.

"Our partnership with Keshet and Peter Landesman, who both have strong track records for telling compelling stories, is an exciting addition to our original development slate," says Sharon Tal Yguado, the executive vice president for original development and scripted programming at FIC in a statement.

"Peter with his background in investigative journalism understands the complexity of the story and has come up with a version that will connect deeply with audiences both in the United States and globally."

BREAKING. MultiChoice's DStv Catch Up service takes another step forward; TV drama Banshee to debut episodes before its broadcast date.

Finally MultiChoice's DStv Catch Up service is excitingly getting to and doing what TV with Thinus wanted to see happen back in July 2011 already when I explained why it would be such a win - and now DStv is doing it in an even bigger way: a new TV show will be available to watch on DStv Catch Up before it starts its broadcasting cycle on M-Net.

The drama Banshee set to start on M-Net (DStv 101) on 16 October at 21:30 will have episodes (plural!) roll out and be made available aka Netflix style on DStv's Catch Up service before Banshee starts its linear broadcasting cycle.

"Television takes another leap forward as a TV series premieres on Catch Up for the first time," says DStv in a statement released late Tuesday evening.

DStv will load the first episode of Banshee which will become available and remain available from 9 to 23 October on DStv Catch Up, with episode 2 of Banshee added from 16 October and remaining available until 30 October on DStv Catch Up, followed by episodes 3 and 4 each a week after that.

On M-Net Banshee, which revolves around an ex-con arriving in a small American town and making as if he's the new sheriff, starts on 16 October, with episodes then shown on 23 October, 30 October, 6 November and onwards.

From Big Brother to Carte Blanche: Leigh Bennie is suddenly a TV presenter on M-Net's Carte Blanche.

Only in South Africa can you go from being part of a Big Brother reali-trash show to suddenly being a presenter on a current affairs TV show as Leigh Bennie just did by becoming a presenter on M-Net's acclaimed weekly Sunday night news magazine show.

On Sunday night Leigh Bennie suddenly popped up, fronting a story about Grahamstown's water supply in the Eastern Cape, inquisitively asking residents about their dirty water.

Everything a respected TV show such as Carte Blanche does, or doesn't do, reflects on such a programme's overall credibility.

It's therefore strange that a former Big Brother contestant is roped in to present an insert such as the one produced Sunday night by Liz Fish, when there's dozens of students graduating TV and film studies at schools and departments at tertiary education institutions across South Africa every year who've actually studied journalism.

Leigh Bennie, a former air traffic controller, became famous after her stint as a contestant on the first season of the lowbrow reality format show Big Brother South Africa in 2001, after which she went into radio.

Her radio show was axed on 702 at the beginning of this year and now she is suddenly on television and on Carte Blanche.

Does having a former reality TV contestant on your show -and more specifically an investigative news magazine show - build and enhance, or detract from such a show's public perception, reputation and brand standing?

South African pay-TV growth set to rise to 6.3 million subscribers by 2017 - PricewaterhouseCooper's annual Outlook report.

South Africa's pay-TV industry is set for continued growth in terms of both subscriber numbers and pay-TV revenues, despite the risks and threats from increasing online digital piracy and so-called over-the-top (OTT) services.

South Africa's total TV revenue as a fast-growing market will increase tot 4,4%  of the total TV revenue within the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region by 2017 - up from 3,7% in 2012.

Meanwhile the number of pay-TV subscribers in South Africa is set to rise from 4.5 million in 2012 to 6.3 million by 2017 in a country where 58% of all TV households are already pay-TV subscribers.

So reports and projects PricewaterhouseCoopers South Africa (PwC) which has released its fourth incredibly well-done and comprehensive, annual edition of what it call's PwC's South African Entertainment and Media Outlook Report (known as "The Outlook"), covering the period of 2013 to 2017.

Spanning as usual the internet, film, radio, newspaper publishing, music, video games, sport and books in different sections, the television section once again details vast changes taking place and shaping the South African TV industry, offering a credible 5 year future projection.

While the value of South Africa's TV sector - revenues generated by pay-TV, public licence fees and advertising in the country reached R27,4 billion in 2012, PwC's report estimates that television sector spend in South Africa will pass the massive R30 billion mark next year in 2014, and will continue to grow to a staggering R35 billion by 2017.

The PwC report expects advertising on television to increase as strongly in South Africa between 2013 and 2017, with net television revenues expected to grow at 5,8% to reach a massive R15,1 billion by 2017.

"The regulation of programme and sports rights is becoming a certainty with the new policy on broadcasting expected to be finalised by March 2014," says PwC, also noting that the SABC has been "severely weakened" by the ongoing management and governance crises at South Africa's public broadcaster.

"The roll-out of digital terrestrial television (DTT) will increase competition in the broadcast sector," says PwC, but notes that "indecision over the choice of technology, and more recently a legal challenge by e.tv have delayed the launch of DTT several times".

Still MultiChoice and its DStv pay-TV service is set to remain the dominant pay-TV player, although rival TopTV is now backed by China's StarTimes, and various new entrants are launching satellite television services.

"South Africa is the largest pay-TV market in Africa, with some 4.5 million pay-TV subscribers, representing 58% of all TV households in 2012. This is expected to increase to 6.3 million by the end of 2017," says PwC, noting that "both subscriber numbers and pay-TV revenues will continue to grow at an impressive rate in the next five years".

PwC says this will give South Africa a pay-TV household penetration of 74% - "very high by regional - and indeed by global - standards".

"Subscription revenues totalled R15.2 billion in 2012 and will reach an estimated R19.6 billion in 2017.

PwC says TV advertising in South Africa generated net revenues of R11.4 billion in 2012 which is set to rise to R15.1 billion in 2017.

"Only a fraction of this growth will come from online TV advertising, with most coming from organic growth in the broadcast TV market, fuelled by growing audiences, greater competition among broadcasters and advertisers for their attention and relatively favourable macro-economic conditions," projects PwC.

"In more mature TV markets the increased penetration of pay-TV services has reduced the share of the main broadcaster, so the SABC will need to adapt to this new competitive landscape to retain its TV share of ad spend."

"One development that could help to create new efficiencies in the South African TV market is the development of a new ad-coding system that is being developed by the SABC, DStv, e.tv, the AdvertisingMedia Forum (AMF), Nielsen and the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB)."

"Currently there is no standardised coding system, which for the South African TV industry leads to errors in ad flighting which are expensive for the industry to fix."

PwC says South Africa's TV industry will soon start to feel the impact of the forces which have shaped TV markets in other parts of the world such as rising subscription TV penetration, together with the growing uptake of free-to-air DTT services which will make more TV channels available.

"While this has seen audiences decline for the traditionally leading broadcasters, audience fragmentation has brought the potential for more effective and targeted advertising, with advertisers using niche channels and programming."

PwC says in its latest Outlook Report that "the changing expectations of viewers will increasingly affect the South African television advertising industry over the next five years".

"The sector is faced with a TV audience that is being fragmented by greater programming choice. This gives advertisers additional locations to place their messages, but has also led them to question the rates that they have been paying to the mainstream TV stations."

"Even by 2017 it is expected that in South Africa only 18% of households will have fixed-broadband access. The number with mobile internet access will grow more rapidly, but for most South Africans the best source of video content will continue to be traditional TV providers," projects PwC.

Generations on SABC1 debuts a new title sequence, title card for its 20th anniversary; soap 'continues to amaze us," says channel boss.

Stealing several elements from the videography history of other soaps such as Binneland, The Bold and the Beautiful and Dynasty, Generations- South Africa's most watched TV soap and most watched soap opera - debut a new, yet looking extremely derivative, opening title sequence on Monday night to mark the long running programme's 20th anniversary on television.

Saxophone infused melodies in the opening theme song reminiscent of Binneland and turning-twirling characters reminiscent of both Dynasty and The Bold and the Beautiful ertwhile opening sequences now infuse the new 45 second Generations opener which is trying to re-establish a high-gloss feel for the soap's audience.

The new Generations opener also contains Downton Abbey-esque scenes which looks almost lifted from the British period drama, seemingly to signify the aspirational aspect of the show: the help has to position crystal glasses at a dinner setting and dust the family heirlooms on the mantlepiece.

Sam Mpherwane, the acting SABC1 channel head, spoke on SABC2's morning show Morning Live on Monday morning, saying "Generations amazes us" as far as the viewership is concerned.

"Generations remains heavily in demand - the repeats, the omnibus and across the SABC's three channels where it repeats. Generations amazes us in terms of the number of audiences it attracts."

"Normally we just focus on the number of viewers it attracts on the 20:00 every day on SABC1, but collectively when we look at the repeats and the Generations omnibus we get amazed."

"The creators and the different people who have been working on Generations from the SABC's side have always made sure that this is one series that talks to the real South Africans. The fact that it's been on SABC1 which is essentially the biggest channel in South Africa has gone a long way in ensuring that this can be a pioneering series that sets trends and from a storytelling perspective continues to make waves," said Sam Mpherwane.

Regarding the risque storylines - gays, gays adopting, domestic violence where the woman is the abuser - Sam Mpherwane said "SABC1 is a youth channel" and that "we have to tell bold stories".

"We have to tell stories that would normally not be told, but we have to do it in a responsible manner, and that's the one thing that Generations does so well. It tells what would normally be termed controversial stories, but it does so in a responsible manner in a way in which you as the viewer feel that you can relate to the stories. It resonates with my world."

Sam Mpherwane says SABC1 is happy to use Generations as a TV show "to challenge the norm". He said the show wants to make an impact in viewers' lives.

He said SABC1 and Generations is happy to "create new stars". "Generations lives within the universe of SABC1 as 'Mzansi's biggest storyteller'. It's not an isolated brand," said Sam Mpherwane, saying Generations will try to continue to tell big stories.

"As a channel the next 20 years are looking bright for us. Generations continues to be a key pillar in the plans that we have as SABC1, so we're looking forward to the next 20 years of nothing but the absolutely greatest story telling," said Sam Mpherwane.

Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown renewed for a 3rd season of 8 episodes on CNN International for 2014.

Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown, the travelogue cooking series on CNN International (DStv 401) with Anthony Bourdain has been renewed for a third season for 2014.

The travel documentary series giving viewers a glimpse to sides within countries across the world rarely seen, is currently in its second season worldwide.

Eight new episodes will start on CNN International in 2014 and willinclude tours of Brazil, Las Vegas, as well as an African safari.

"We had high expectations for this series when it launched back in April," says Jeff Zucker, the president of CNN Worldwide in a statement.

He notes that Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown keeps raising the bar "first with the spectacular series premiere in Myanmar, later in the season with the groundbreaking Libya episode, and then at the start of season two with a sensitive and incredibly informative tour of Jerusalem, Gaza and the West Bank. Parts Unknown is a consistent ratings and critical success."

Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown is produced by Zero Point Zero Production with executive producers and founders Chris Collins and Lydia Tenaglia, along with executive producer Sandra Zweig.