Platco Digital's OpenView HD passes 300 000 South African households after 2 years; adds 100 000 OpenView households in the last 4 months.

Platco Digital's OpenView HD free-to-air satellite platform has passed 300 000 South African TV households.

The platform launched in October 2013 as e.tv's plan to create a workaround for its own digital television given the government's long-delayed and ongoing inability to commercial launch digital terrestrial television (DTT) in South Africa.

HCI owns Sabido Investments, which holds a 67% interest in Platco Digital and a 63% stake in e.tv.

Its broadcasting component didn't want to be left behind as MultiChoice's DStv and StarTimes Media SA's StarSat launch more channels, community TV stations grow and channel fragmentation increase and individual channel audience share keeps decreasing.

Several of the existing e.tv packaged and supplied channels on OpenView HD like eKasi+, eMovies+, eAfrica+ and eToonz+ are very likely part of the channels offering that e.tv will launch its commercial DTT service with once the actual commercial digital migration switch from analogue to digital terrestrial TV finally happens.

OpenView HD saw its share of difficulties with losing some channels that went dark over the past two years as well as some new additions as well as signing up radio stations, currently sitting with 20 TV channels and 8 radio stations and more promised.

However, as the country's economic steadily situation keeps worsening for consumers, OpenView HD has seen a sudden surge from TV viewers opting for its free satellite service which requires a once-off decoder and satellite buying and installation fee.

It's also become easier for existing pay-TV subscribers to make the switch to Platco Digital's service since it started using space on Intersat's IS20 satellite in 2014. It means that subscribers who had a DStv dish installed don't need a new installation since the existing dish is already pointed in the right direction making it easy for OpenView HD buyers to just plug-and-play.

Platco Digital has now experienced a surge, with 100 000 new satellite and decoder installations in the last four months - a third of its overall total users it managed to amass the past two years.

"The strong retail partnerships have contributed to a 300% increase in uptake of OpenView HD decoders in the market," says Maxwell Nonge, Platco Digital managing director who says OpenView HD is now active in 300 000 South African households.

"We constantly strive to secure content that is guided by customer research to ensure that the channels are in line with the target audience's viewing patterns," says Maxwell Nonge.

SABC to show all away games of Bafana Bafana played outside of South Africa again on SABC1 from 2016 in a new 3-year deal with SportFive.

From 2016 the SABC will go back to once again broadcast all the away games of South Africa's national soccer team, Bafana Bafana on public television on SABC1 in a new deal worth millions of rand with SportFive.

This follows after years of the SABC not having the broadcasting rights to Bafana Bafana matches played outside of South Africa and the public broadcaster not willing to pay the much high per match broadcasting rights fees for individual games from the French based company SportFive, saying its too expensive.

SportFive is the official Confederation of African Football (CAF) broadcasting rights holder who sells the broadcasting rights for all of the organisation's tournaments and once-off games to individual companies and broadcasters like the SABC.

In July last year the SABC told parliament that paying for sports rights is putting the SABC under enormous financial pressure and that the public broadcaster cannot continue to pay R500 million per year for sports broadcasting rights.

The SABC told parliament that the revenue the public broadcaster derives from sports coverage does not cover its costs with a shortfall of millions of rand per year and that the SABC cannot continue to pay for sports rights going forward in the future on a unsustainable basis.

In 2015 the SABC went blank on Bafana Bafana several times as the public broadcaster was a no show with matches the national team played outside of South Africa's boarders, but will start showing these again from 2016.

It's part of a new 3-year from 2016 to 2019 that was signed on Tuesday between the SABC and SportFive as the CAF broadcast rights holders.

The new deal between the SABC and SportFive means that all of the remaining 2017 Afcon qualifier matches, as well as the 2018 World Cup qualifiers will be broadcast on SABC1.

"We agreed on the final phases of the African Cup of Nations in Gabon in 2017," says Idriss Akki, SportFive managing director. "Part of the deal is also the next Africa Cup of Nations in 2019 in Cameroon where we agreed on the qualifier matches and on the final phase. 

REVIEW: Star Wars The Force Awakens brilliantly reshapes George Lucas' modern myth in the story that continues to try and bridge the gap between fathers and their children.

(This review written by a critic that's been a longtime Star Wars fan and contains no spoilers.)

What is it with every generation of fathers? 

Luke Skywalker has disappeared, but moviegoers can gladly put in an appearance at the cinema for two hours and 16 minutes to see Star Wars: The Force Awakens – a visceral, moving tour de Force that’s definitively the best in the entire saga after The Empire Strikes Back and A New Hope.

As for Luke, don't worry - he shows up. Eventually.

Anyone in love with George Lucas' sprawling galaxy far, far away and even newcomers or those less familiar with the Force will find a visual delight and their emotions tested in the dark side of the cinema in the next, very well executed chapter of the franchise taken over by director JJ Abrams.

To those who fell in love when Luke Skywalker first started at the horizon where twin suns were setting to a rousing score, feel that The Empire Strikes Back is the best in the series and for those who abhor the sequel-prequel trilogy – The Force Awakens is definitely the movie and further continuation of Star Wars you've been looking for.

As Episode VII, Star Wars: The Force Awakens is an emotional unveiling of a next chapter in a story that solidly remains at heart a tale about trying to close the gap, and bridging the distance – literally and figuratively – between fathers and their children.

As if it hadn’t become transparent over the past three decades, Star Wars’ latest iteration as a modern myth makes it abundantly clear that it’s become the most classic cinematic Bildungroman of all: Star Wars The Force Awakens again restarts the youth’s search for meaning, purpose, and parentage – and this time it’s also the inverse: the parent’s search for child.

The Force Awakens is a visually authentic, nostalgically sound and forward-Force-facing addition to the Star Wars universe – an Oedipus opus that’s the new first act of a new saga, referencing back but laying the solid groundwork for new characters, character development, plot points and yes, a spectacular new war amidst the stars.

History repeats itself but this time in an opposite way. Absent fathers and father figures still fail their children (sons and daughters), but children also fail (and save!) their parents in the film that feels expansive and harkens back to the timeless and massive size and scope of the original Star Wars trilogy.

With a lot of death, destruction, deterioration and some big shockers – there’s at least one climactic, tragic scene between a father and son that rivals and deftly mirror’s the now iconic ‘Luke, I am your father” – the movie is definitely not meant to be seen by anyone under 12.

While previously Star Wars spurred endless debate like "Did Han shoot first?", The Force Awakens will have moviegoers long be talking and definitely debating things like seeing Han Solo again and the new Death Star.

Some dramatic plot points are foreshadowed and can be guessed and figured out fairly quickly within half an hour by real Star Wars fans due to framing and exposition limiting some of the surprise but it doesn’t in any way take away or diminish from the sheer enjoyment and emotional gut punches that’s delivered when ancestry is revealed and when a major death changes the ongoing expanding Star Wars universe forever.

Right up to the end – and literally in the final scene – The Force Awakens continues to be the unfolding of a new journey and to be the passing of the baton to a new Star Wars generation.

A beautiful inverse

While the new film is a new start – an expansion of the established mythos – it incorporates the cleverest of of Jedi minds tricks: a fully and very calculated, inverted story.

Beneath the surface basically every single thing is not just symbolic but also the beautiful inverse of what Star Wars fans saw previously – from camera angles, characters, scenes and a lot of dialogue.

To appreciate the magnitude of some of the moments and events happening you really do need to see A New Hope, Empire and Return of the Jedi first to fully revel in what JJ Abrams and Disney taking over Lucasfilm have very successfully been able to accomplish.

Yet even for casual moviegoers not steeped in Jedi tradition or Wookiee lore this “space movie” will be an enjoyable holiday film fantasy romp through the stars.

While The Force Awakens is filled with dense narrative techniques and very clever mirroring of the work that came before it that can keep film critics and academics busy disecting it for weeks, it’s not flawless but won’t matter if enjoyed on a purely superficial level – as million of people around the world surely will.

The acting Force is definitely with the new stars. You easily lose yourself in the standout and emotive portrayal of Daisy Ridley as Rey. John Boyega as Finn and then the antropomorphic droid, BB-8, are wonderful and dear old Chewie – still actually young for a Wookie – will have you laughing out loud together with moviegoers.

The somewhat disappointing Adam Driver as the new dark nemesis Kylo Ren is however no Darth Vader (one character somewhat ironically remarks that “Your biggest fear is that you will never be Darth Vader”) and will possibly develop as the trilogy rolls out.

Star Wars will still be and is the definitive movie series dads take their sons to. Now they – and mothers – can take their daughters too.

MultiChoice gives all DStv Premium subscribers full free access to Naspers' video-on-demand service, ShowMax, for 30 days.

MultiChoice is now giving DStv Premium subscribers free access to its Naspers video-on-demand rival, ShowMax, for 30 days.

To help with promotional sampling of the Naspers' service that was launched in August, MultiChoice is giving DStv subscribers 30 days of full free access to ShowMax during the holiday and Christmas season when holiday-goers will presumably have some more time to sample and check out the subscription video-on-demand (SvoD) service.

"DStv is making this holiday season even more festive by giving its loyal customers a complimentary gift of 30 days access to the newly launched video-streaming service, ShowMax, worth R99," says MultiChoice in a mailer to subscribers.

MultiChoice that recently experienced problems due to new software upgrades for its DStv Catch Up service is giving a voucher to all DStv Premium subscribers for a 30-day trial of ShowMax.

"DStv gives you the latest series and movies, the best in live sports, world news and much, much more."

"ShowMax is a different service that lets you watch all the great series you may have missed. With over 20 000 episodes available at the click of a button, ShowMax is the best way to binge on entire series starting with season 1, until you reach the latest season which you can then watch on DStv," says the satellite pay-TV platform.

"See Game of Thrones from the very beginning, and then catch the newest episodes as they air on DStv next year."

MultiChoice says DStv Premium customers who didn't receive a voucher can email enquiries@multichoice.co.za to update their email address on the DStv database to get a voucher number.

Star Wars: The Security Awakens - Tight embargo and strict security in South Africa around press preview, reviews of Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

A tight embargo and strict security surround the press preview of the latest Star Wars film, Star Wars: The Force Awakens that will start showing in South Africa and several other territories a whole two days before its official release in the United States.

The latest 7^th installment in the archetypical science fiction blockbuster franchise set in that galaxy far, far away will start showing in South Africa and several other countries from Wednesday 16 December, 2 days before the film's official debut in the Unites States where it had its official, star-studded red carpet premiere in Los Angeles on Monday night.

While Disney is careful to temper expectations for the movie, Star Wars: The Force Awakens will likely shatter box office records in South Africa – especially for IMAX showings where pre-ticket sales have soared – as well as internationally as well as in the United States.

In South Africa, like in the United States, there's been no advance press showings to the media and film critics of the new movie as Disney and Lucasfilm are trying to keep the secrets and surprises of the film under wraps.

In America only a few publications and selected film critics are being shown the movie and in South Africa the press screening of Star Wars: The Force Awakens takes place on late Tuesday afternoon, less than 12 hours before the film opens to moviegoers locally.

Reviews for Star Wars: The Force Awakens are embargoed for Wednesday, 16 December at 12:01 in the United States and for Wednesday 10:01 in South Africa.

Disney is also requesting film critics to limit their reviews of Star Wars: The Force Awakens to not include spoilers as to keep the surprises of the film intact for fans and moviegoers. It means that film critics have to refrain from spoiling things like why the Millennium Falcon crashes, what happened to Luke Skywalker, who Rey really is and why C-3PO has a red arm.

As in America, and as has been done before for certain high-level security film, no recording devices are allowed for press screenings and South African film critics like their US counterparts will have their cellphones collected beforehand and only returned afterwards.

The new event film helmed by J.J. Abrams is already breaking movie records in South Africa which is setting a new benchmark for ticket pre-sales for IMAX.

Moviegoers clearly want to see the latest Star Wars film on a really big screen and it represents the most advance bookings of any IMAX title in the country before.

Advance bookings to see Star Wars: The Force Awakens at IMAX and 3D venues across South Africa have already reached record levels.

More than 34 500 tickets have already been sold to watch the film at Ster-Kinekor cinemas in the country alone. Meanwhile Nu Metro is also showing the film at its 4DX cinema at the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town.

Discovery's ID: Investigation Discovery on MultiChoice's DStv also being changed to ID Xtra from January 2016 a few months after it happened on StarSat.

Discovery's ID: Investigation Discovery channel on MultiChoice's DStv is now also being changed into the ID Xtra channel as what happened on StarTimes Media SA's StarSat a few months ago, with the switch set to take place on 5 January 2016.

Discovery Networks International for the Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa (CEEMEA) region launched ID Xtra as a replacement channel in April 2014. 

It switched ID: Investigation Discovery out for ID Xtra on 31 July on StarSat where the channel has been running for the past five months.

The same switch will now happen on 5 January 2016 on MultiChoice's DStv satellite pay-TV platform on channel 171. ID Xtra will be available to DStv Premium, DStv Extra and DStv Compact subscribers.

ID Xtra is more geared towards targeting specifically female viewers with predominantly tabloid-focused crime stories, since a lot of Discovery's existing other channels like Discovery Channel and Discovery World are mostly geared towards a male audience.

Besides TLC Entertainment, ID Xtra as a mystery and suspense channel will give female viewers another channel catering to their viewing taste with crime programming and dramatic crime reconstructions covering "desperate housewives" and "salacious real-life stories of passion, revenge and murder". 

"With its glossy reconstructions of real-life mysteries, ID Xtra will have viewers glued to their screens for hours at a time," says James Gibbons, the executive vice president and country manager for emerging business for Discovery Networks' CEEMEA region.

"Mystery and suspense is one of the fastest growing genres within pay TV and Discovery is in pole position, leading the category with a channel that has already been a proven success across CEEMEA."

"Our DStv customers love mystery and suspense stories and ID Xtra takes these stories to a glossier and more dramatic level," says Aletta Alberts, MultiChoice South Africa's general manager for content.

"Avid fans of this genre will have an even wider selection of brand new and intriguing content to choose from and still be able to catch up on their old time favourites from Discovery ID."

ID Xtra carries shows like Tabloid with Jerry Springer (weekdays at 20:20) covering shocking and bizarre crime stories making headlines.

Other ID Xtra programming include Do Not Disturb: Hotel Horrors (Saturday 9 January, 22:00) going behind closed doors to uncover shocking crimes inside hotels; Bad Blood (Sunday 24 January, 22:00) following families driven apart by heinous crimes as they come together for the first time; and Mansions & Murders (Monday 11 January, 22:50) that re-enacts crimes involving wealthy mansion dwellers.

RACIST? SEXIST? M-Net deliberately deletes and crops out the only black man and the only woman from the Horrible Bosses 2 poster art to market it on DStv.

M-Net decided to deliberately delete the only black man and the only woman featuring on the Horrible Bosses 2 poster to promote the movie on MultiChoice's DStv satellite pay-TV platform, leaving only white men.

M-Net Movies took the original Horrible Bosses 2 poster art and decided that it didn't want the sole black man or the woman in the image.

M-Net photo-shopped Jamie Foxx and Jennifer Aniston out of the image that was shown on DStv's channels and on social media to promote the Sunday night film on the M-Net Movies Premiere (DStv 103) channel.

The strange move from M-Net comes across as very racist and sexist.

 Look again carefully at what M-Net did in its image: spacing is clearly not a problem: Jamie Foxx doesn't appear at the horizontal side where it might make the overall image "too long". He filled a "gap" that's simply now left empty.

The same goes for Jennifer Aniston: To add insult to injury, M-Net's reprehensible image doctoring leaves the space where she stood completely empty.

It's not as if M-Net "functionally" deleted her to crop and make the image "shorter" - the space where she stands but got deleted from is left there.

It begs the question: Why did M-Net decide to deliberately remove all traces of specifically these two characters - the black man and the woman? And how many people at M-Net, after it was done, all saw it and signed off on it and said this is right?

This also wasn't a "little" or thoughtless decision. Notice how Jamie Foxx' right hand had to be scrubbed from the image. Notice how Jennifer Aniston's whole arm had to be deleted and a whole new black tie created for the character she stood next to.

Making M-Net's disgusting marketing photoshopping even more reprehensible is if keep in mind that M-Net is a South African company and that M-Net Movies Premiere presumably would want South African viewers, and South African viewers of all races, to watch.

If anything, the black man and the sole woman should have been left in the image and one or two of the white men rather deleted to make the image come across as more multi-cultural and inclusive.

I have asked M-Net for comment on Sunday afternoon and why the pay-TV broadcaster decided that the only black man in the marketing image and the only woman in the image who was put there originally by the Hollywood movie studio isn't good enough to be there for South Africa.

I will update this story if and when M-Net has a response.

Miners Shot Down documentary film will now be broadcast on eNCA on Sunday at 19:00 followed by special panel discussion; will be shown on e.tv in January 2016.

The harrowing and International Emmy awarded South African documentary Miners Show Down will suddenly be broadcast tonight on eNCA (DStv 403) at 19:05, with the documentary that will also be broadcast sometime in January 2016 on sister channel e.tv.

The Rehad Desai documentary won an International Emmy at the end of November in New York despite the refusal of South Africa's big terrestrial TV broadcasters - the SABC as public broadcaster and Sabido's e.tv - to show it in the country.

The documentary, produced by Uhuru Productions that won in the documentary category and which has won numerous international and local film awards the past year, recounts the horrific story through witnesses and widows of how the South African police massacred miners in the shocking incident which left 44 miners dead and the country stunned.

Miners Shot Down has since been shown on the education channel [ED] (DStv 190), Al Jazeera (DStv 406 / StarSat 257), the community TV station, Cape Town TV (CTV) and the video-on-demand services of Times Media Group's VIDI and PCCW Global's ONTAPtv.com.

Following public pressure through a petition which already amassed more than 5 000 signatures and public calls for the SABC and e.tv to broadcast Miners Shot Down following its Emmy win, the commercially run e.tv and eNCA at the end of November said that it won't pay the TV producer and filmmaker to show Miners Shot Down but will broadcast the documentary "if Rehad Desai drops us a free copy".

Miners Shot Down has now quietly appeared on the eNCA schedule on Sunday at 19:05, with no pre-publicity or programming advisory from the channel to the press or TV critics and no notification that the documentary has been picked up and scheduled.

While broadcasters and TV channels usually want to maximise their potential ratings by getting media exposure through publicising and marketing shows and its programming acquisitions - especially for an Emmy winning programme - eNCA's lack of letting the media and viewers know through the press, makes it less likely for viewers to be aware that the documentary is finally on TV and that it will be shown.

The Miners Shot Down broadcast will be followed by an hour-long panel discussion on eNCA between 20:00 and 21:00 with eNCA anchor Jeremy Maggs as moderator. eNCA also decided to keep quiet about this additional programming add-on to the press with no publicity promotion or announcement about it.

Sister channel e.tv will now also broadcast Miners Shot Down sometime in January 2016. 

e.tv and eNCA didn't respond to a media enquiry about their programming acquisition of the documentary and its scheduling that made on Saturday evening.

Two people killed in MTV helicopter crash on Saturday in Argentina working on the reality show, The Challenge, in an unauthorised flight.

Two people have been killed in a MTV helicopter in the western part of Argentina on Saturday working on a show called The Challenge, according to Argentina's state news agency Telam.

The Bell 206 helicopter crashed at the reservoir at the Potrerillos de Mendoza dam 1 000 km northwest of Buenos Aires and Carlos Alberto Zarlenga and Luis Marcelo Barrera both died.

A police spokesperson told the Spanish language newspaper El Sol that the MTV helicopter was not authorised to fly over the dam.

Roberto Munives told El Sol that "due to the time of the accident, there is no hope of finding the crew alive".

Search and rescue workers have so far been unable to retrieve the bodies of the MTV helicopter pilot and a technician since the helicopter wreck is 60 m under the water surface.

According to Todo Noticias Argentina, the helicopter crashed into the Potrerillos dam in the city of Lujan de Cuyo at 08:15 and that "the white and light blue aircraft — contracted by MTV to take footage in the area — suddenly fell and exploded".

Saturday's crash is the second deadly helicopter crash in Argentina involving a reality show.

In a statement MTV says the helicopter was part of The Challenge, a co-production of MTV and Bunim-Murray Productions and was on its way to a shooting location when it fell and crashed. According to MTV the two people who died are not part of the cast or crew.