On Digital Media fined R25 000 by the Broadcasting Complaints Commission of South Africa for broadcasting porn channels without permission.

The Broadcasting Complaints Commission of South Africa (BCCSA) has fined On Digital Media (ODM) and StarTimes Media South Africa R25 000 for illegally broadcasting hardcore pornography on South African television without permission and approval from the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa).

The R25 000 fine follows after satellite pay-TV operator ODM and StarTimes Media SA kept broadcasting its pornographic TV channels on StarSat from 10 December 2014 to 6 January 2015, after it lost its appeal in the Western Cape High Court which ruled that StarSat needs to shut down its porn channels.

ODM revealed that 284 StarSat subscribers accessed the pornographic TV channels during this period.

On 3 November 2014, Judge Lee Bozalek in a Western Cape High Court judgment, found against ODM and StarTimes Media SA's sex TV channels and that the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) erred in the licensing and licensing process of granting a licence for the porn channels.

 After Justice Alliance of South Africa (Jasa) won its case against ODM's porn broadcast, it took the satellite pay-TV operator to the BCCSA as well.

ODM has to pay the R25 000 fine before or on 30 June and the BCCSA's tribunal found in its judgment that On Digital Media had contravened the code for subscription broadcasters.

Jasa asked the BCCSA to fine ODM R60 000 - the highest fine which can be levelled by the BCCSA - but the complaints commission said that a R60 000 fine was not justified since the service had been provided to less than 300 StarSat subscribers.

"A fine of R25 000 is sufficient to indicate the seriousness of the offence," said the BCCSA.

MAN CAVE. Carte Blanche on M-Net and presenter John Webb ventures into the secret, massive 'Armageddon' Cave on Sunday at 19:00.

In what will be a jaw-dropping world exclusive Carte Blanche presenter John Webb will on Sunday night at 19:00 on M-Net (DStv 101) take viewers inside South Africa's secret "Armageddon" Cave - a seemingly endless cavern west of Johannesburg of which the location is still kept a secret.

About an hour west of Johannesburg, deep below the ground, is a cave that has yet to reveal the secrets of its limits to a very carefully chosen group of explorers and scientists who have descended into its endless darkness - and on Sunday Carte Blanche will be taking viewers along for the plunge, exploring this still off-limits place.

The Carte Blanche cameras descend into a cavern so massive in size that it's been named Armageddon.

In the early hours of the morning in the 1990's a farmer west of Johannesburg woke up to someone running to him screaming "There's a sink hole in the mealie field!"

Measuring 18 metres across and 50 metres deep - about as deep as a 12 block building - the sinkhole later gave way even further a few years later to reveal a massive cave.

Carte Blanche has now gained exclusive access to this super Armageddon Cave - on condition that its location in South Africa remains a secret.

Presenter John Webb takes a camera crew down the darkness and explores unchartered depths and astonishing geological formations.

"This is by far the most extraordinary thing I have ever done in my life," says John Webb. "Extraordinary and absolutely terrifying. No wonder they call it Armageddon".

"The Carte Blanche team, led by veteran producer Diana Lucas, felt privileged as do we all, to be allowed to enter this extraordinary space and bring a truly awesome and remarkable natural phenomenon to our audience," says George Mazarakis, Carte Blanche's executive producer.

BBC World News doing in-depth coverage of the British general election today with latest updates and analysis with David Dimbleby.

As the United Kingdom (UK) votes today to elect a new government, BBC World News (DStv 400 / StarSat 256) will cover the election today and tomorrow with the latest updates and analysis.

Tonight on election night, BBC World News will be coming together with the BBC's domestic news channel to bring Election 2015 to viewers around the world.

The flagship TV results programme will be hosted by David Dimbleby alongside a team of specialist correspondents and will include innovative state of the art graphics depicting the results.

Tomorrow, 8 May, Huw Edwards takes over until the final results become clear. Once the count is done, the World News team will be on hand to help global audiences understand who will be forming the UK's next government.

"Election 2015 is a landmark event for Britain and audiences around the world can expect BBC World News to give it the full coverage it deserves," says Richard Porter, the editorial & digital director for BBC World News.

Disney doing its first ever local South African TV production; looking for 3 teen presenters for I ♥ Violetta as new companion show to Violetta.

Disney has decided to do its first ever local South African TV production on the Disney Channel (DStv 303) and is now looking for three TV teens to present I ♥ Violetta as a companion show to its Violetta telenovela.

Disney Africa which runs the Disney Channel, Disney XD and Disney Junior on MultiChoice's DStv satellite pay-TV platform is now looking for three South African teenagers, between 13 and 18, to present a lifestyle show called I ♥ Violetta which will start later this year.

Similar to SABC1's YO.TV, SABC2's Hectic Nine-9 and M-Net's former KTV youth block, I ♥ Violetta will have presenters talking about a wide range of topics, mostly related to the Violetta show, for instance discussing the characters, showcasing choreography and giving fashion advice.

The new local show will do a new episode weekly and will start later this year to coincide with the new third season of Violetta on the Disney Channel and which is currently in its second season on weekdays at 16:10.

Regionalised versions of  I ♥ Violetta started in October 2014 in Europe.

Wannabe presenters for I ♥ Violetta can enter at www.disney.co.za until 12 June and have to upload a photo or video to the site, after which selected entrants will be invited for a live audition in front of a judging panel in Cape Town, Durban and Johannesburg.

"Violetta continues to be embraced by audiences and we are thrilled to be partnering with local Disney fans in bringing  I ♥ Violetta  to screen later this year," says Christine Service, the senior vice president and country manager of The Walt Disney Company Africa in a statement.

"We are especially excited to be able to bring a local production to the Disney Channel, a first for South Africa and an amazing opportunity to showcase the immense talent that the country offers."

MultiChoice's DStv BoxOffice announces a price increase to R30 for new movie rentals from 1 June.

MultiChoice is hiking the price of movie rentals for its DStv BoxOffice service with new movies rented online and on PVR decoders which will increase to R30 from June.

From 1 June DStv BoxOffice rental costs for new releases on PVR and online will cost R30 per rental for all DStv Premium, DStv Extra and DStv customers, up from the existing R27.

New releases to non-DStv subscribers as well as customers on other DStv packages will increase to R35 per rental, up from R32,

Classic movies are offered at R15 per movie for everyone.

It marks the second price increase since MultiChoice launched DStv BoxOffice as part of its DStv on Demand offering in July 2011.

Although MultiChoice made no announcement and didn't announce the price hike on the DStv BoxOffice website, the satellite pay-TV platform sent an email to subscribers, informing them of the increase coming into effect from 1 June.

The higher prices will be applicable to all movies added to the DStv BoxOffice service from this date.

"Thank you for your continued support as we continue to bring you the latest and greatest movies," said MultiChoice chief operating officer (COO) Mark Rayner.

SABC1 adds Rise from 12 May marking Kgomotso Matsunyane's return to talk TV exploding with rival shows all targeting a female audience.

Kgomotso Matsunyane is returning to television talk with a new local, weekly TV talk show entitled Rise which will start on SABC1 on Tuesday 12 May at 18:00 and which will join an intensely crowded line-up of talk shows all trying to lure the same viewers.

Rise, originally titled Rise Up and produced by One Man And His Dog Films, takes the original format of Barbara Walters' American talk show The View with Kgomotso Matsunyane who, like Barbara Walters, is not only the executive producer of the talk show but also one of the panelists comprising women of different age brackets talking about various issues affecting women.

Kgomotso Matsunyane is joined on the couch by Lebo Ramafoko and Khanyisile Mazibuko (19) and Nyiko Shikwambane (23).

It marks Kgomotso Matsunyane's return to TV talk who previously tried her hand at late night talk with Late Night with Kgomotso on SABC2 as well as Pillow Talk on SABC3. She was a commissioning editor at SABC1 before embarking on her TV talk show tries.

Kgomotso Matsunyane was a surprise guest during the final live episode of Three Talk with Noeleen on SABC3 two weeks ago, telling Noeleen Maholwana-Sangqu during her TV farewell that "you know how difficult and fickle this industry can be".

Rise will take place in conjunction with the roll-out of The Rise Young Women's Clubs across South Africa to try and help specifically young women with relevant information about health and lifestyle issues.

Rise will discuss topics like unplanned pregnancy, abuse, alcohol abuse and its consequences, sex and body image.

Rise forms part of  a rapid television talk show change on South African television with the addition of several new shows just the past two months to the already over-subscribed talk show genre, making it difficult for viewers to keep up and to stay loyal to any given programme.

SABC1 just added the American TV talk show The Talk on weekdays at 16:30 which will now compete with sister-channel SABC3's Afternoon Express at 16:00 which starts today.

Afternoon Express will be broadcast on weekdays with Bonang Matheba, Jeannie D, Bonnie Mbuli and one of the final three winners of SABC3's Presenter Search on 3 reality competition show.

The American talk show The Meredith Vieira Show started in March at 14:00 on SABC3, and e.tv took over The Steve Harvey Show on weekdays at 16:30 since the beginning of March which used to be on SABC1.

The recent addition of the new BET (DStv 129) channel with a better aligned schedule for South Africa viewers, means that The Wendy Williams Show, now at 16:35, is directly competing with The Talk, The Steve Harvey Show, Ellen on M-Net (DStv 101), and SABC3's Afternoon Express - in addition to the same-day-as-in-the-USA episode of Wendy being shown on BET International (StarSat 167) on StarSat at 19:00 in primetime.

The Real, yet another panel talk show with various women - Tamar Braxton, Loni Love, Adrienne Bailon, Jeannie Mai and Tamera Mowry-Housley - started at the beginning of April on weekdays on BET (DStv 129) at 17:25.

SABC3 plans to add The Real to its own schedule as well from later in the year.

Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao live fight on SuperSport on DStv delayed due to pay-TV problems across America.

The highly anticipated Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao championship which MultiChoice and SuperSport told DStv subscribers would be broadcast live in South Africa was suddenly delayed due to massive pay-TV problems across America on Saturday when pay-per-view (PPV) orders didn't go through and pay-TV subscribers became vocal, and angry, over a paid for service they couldn't access.

The start of Saturday's Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao championship fight set for Saturday night in the United States and on Sunday morning South African time and billed as "The Fight of the Century", was unexpectedly delayed.

It happened after several pay-TV operators in America had massive trouble to process the PPV orders from customers, many who paid as much as $100 (R1191) to watch the fight.

It means that the viewing of the fight scheduled for SuperSport 2 (DStv 202) on DStv in South Africa and across the rest of the African continent was also delayed.

In America the problem continued for hours as widespread technical difficulties caused anger across the United States from New York to Los Angeles and everywhere in between.

Highlights of the boxing match is being repeated today (Sunday) on SuperSport 5 (DStv 205) and the content has also been placed on MultiChoice's on-demand service, DStv Catch Up.

The on-screen corner logo South African viewers saw and will see on the DStv Catch Up match, "HBO | Showtime | PPV " is what caused the problem and the delay in America.

"We asked consumers for patience with the operators as they deal with overwhelming amount of orders," said Showtime in a statement.

HBO said "There are more orders tonight than any night in PPV history. Fans should just be patient and distributors will process their orders".

Angry pay-TV viewers in America flooded their satellite-TV and cable TV operators after they were unable to get the fight, with thousands saying on social media that they will be changing service providers due to the unresponsiveness and lack of customer service from the companies.

The companies blamed the problems on the enormous volume of pay-per-view orders for the fight which they were not able to process fast enough.

BREAKING. Robyn Kriel becomes CNN International's new East African correspondent as eNCA cuts back on its comprehensive African coverage.

Shocker that's not really a shocker: Robyn Kriel has just officially become CNN International's (DStv 401) new East African correspondent from today as South Africa's eNCA (DStv 403) - where Robyn Kriel was the Kenyan based East African reporter - is detaching itself from comprehensive African news coverage of the continent.

Robyn Kriel has jettisoned eNCA and will now be reporting for CNN International, just like meteorologist Derek van Dam who left eNCA in August last year for CNN International, as well as Debora Patta who parted ways and is now covering Africa extensively for CBS News.

Robyn Kriel's future with eNCA was on the line along with about 30 other people, as eNCA started closing its bureaux across Africa and shuttering its entire African news division.

Robyn Kriel instantly raised eyebrows last month when she appeared on CNN International to do extensive coverage of the Garissa university massacre in Kenya.

TV with Thinus instantly asked eNCA on the day in April about why Robyn Kriel is reporting for CNN International and whether she has left eNCA, and was told that she is "helping out".

Now Robyn Kriel is definitely gone and eNCA is the poorer for it - losing yet another top TV news talent.

There's been no announcement from eNCA about Robyn Kriel's departure; no statement, no reassurance from eNCA on how it will continue or try to keep covering East African news despite having lost a veteran reporter on the ground who've covered multiple major stories from the increasingly important African region over years.

While eNCA no longer sees a sustainable future of instant news reporting from Kenya and the surrounding East African region with a strong on the ground presence through a local news team based there, CNN International does and its obvious and understandable why Robyn Kriel who has extensive experience and news credentials jumped ship.

UNESCO names CNN International's Christiane Amanpour a Goodwill Ambassador for Freedom of Expression and Journalist Safety.

UNESCO has named Christiane Amanpour a Goodwill Ambassador for Freedom of Expression and Journalist Safety.

The veteran TV journalist if CNN International's chief international correspondent and the anchor of the weekday Amanpour on CNN International (DStv 401).

Christiane Amanpour was named Goodwill Ambassador at a ceremony at UNESCO's headquarters in Paris, France.

UNESCO named her a Goodwill Ambassador "in recognition of her efforts to promote free, independent and pluralistic media, having the right to work free from the threat of violence"

Christiane Amanpour says its important for journalists across the world to be "pillars of reform, freedom and democracy".

"We're here to make the world a better place," said Christiane Amanpour.

Christiane Amanpour also made an impassioned plea for the release of all imprisoned journalists, wherever they may be, and condemned the increasing number of attacks and assassinations of media professionals.