Cartoon Network reboots Ben 10; reboot series starting 10 October with Ben 10 back as a 10-year old boy - a decade after the hit show first started.

After starting Ben 10 in 2006, then growing him up in subsequent series and even doing movies and live-action films with the aged character, the Cartoon Network (DStv 301) is spinning the Omnitrix back 10 years to a time when Ben 10 was, well 10.

On 10 October (then 10th of the 10th month, get it?) Cartoon Network is rolling out the new-old, back-to-10 Ben 10 with the rebooted new Ben 10 series.

On 10 October Ben 10 will start on the Cartoon Network in South Africa and Africa, starting at 17:05 - months before it will be broadcast in America from April 2017.

The newly rebooted Ben 10 is a complete reinvention for a new generation of kids, with new episodes of the original character.

In the decade since it started, the hugely successful show that won 3 Emmys has spawned its own social moniker where a "Ben 10" has come to refer to a relationship between a woman with a much younger man.

While the world has moved on and seen things like the interactive Pokemon GO, it's the imaginative Ben 10 world where the character transforms into various alien creatures to save the universe that still captures the imagination of young viewers.  

"Our African audience last saw 10-year old Ben Tennyson on 2006 and we decided to transition him back to the age of a goofy, unconventional kid-hero to target a brand-new audience," says Tramm Wigzell, the vice president for multi-platform at Cartoon Network.

"Ben will still transform into his signature mature aliens and fight all the villains that once plagued the city, but this time around he is more modern and relatable with younger fans, but also familiar to our die-hard fans.

"Ben is a character that grew with his audience, making him one of the most relatable cartoon heroes ever to feature on the channel and now we are rewinding the clock to captivate the next, new generation of Ben 10 viewers," says Tramm Wigzell.

"We are really excited - kids will meet a more modern, relatable 10-year old Ben. The show has always been about an average kid that finds himself in extraordinary circumstances - boy, girl, no matter your age, or cultural background, Ben 10 us relatable because anyone and everyone can be a hero in their own right."

"We think Ben's character is timeless and so it felt like the right time to bring him back. Our African audience can now look forward to a brand-new show,with all new scripts and a brand-new look and feel, in order to build a brand-new generation of Ben 10 fans," says Tramm Wigzell.

The new Ben 10 will see a reimagined Ben Tennyson, his cousin Gwen and Grandpa Max as they travel through America during their summer vacation.

When Ben finds the Omnitrix - a mysterious watch that transforms him into 10 different friendly aliens, an world of extra-terrestrial superpowers opens up to him.

The new Ben 10 is produced by Cartoon Network Studios.

Married at First Sight South Africa on Lifetime adds Sam Cohen as presenter; selects 5 specialist relationship contributors to guide married couples.

Radio talker Sam Cohen has been added as the presenter of the first season of the reality series Married at First Sight South Africa that will start on Lifetime (DStv 131) early next year, with 5 specialist contributors that's been added to guide the couples before, during and after the cameras have stopped rolling.

Almost 300 South Africans signed up for the reality show, willing to be paired and then to get married as viewers follow their on-screen experiment to see if it leads to wedded bliss or disaster. The producers are currently selecting the participants.

Married at First Sight SA is A+E Networks UK's second local commissioned show for South Africa, following Four Weddings SA also on Lifetime.

Morning radio host Sam Cohen will present, with 5 relationship experts working with the participants on the show.

Sam Cohen's previous TV presenting work was on e.tv's parental guidance programme Great Expectations and she recently released her book, From Whiskey To Water.

Rebecca Fuller-Campbell of Oxyg3n Media producing the show, says "We are now in the process of selecting the men and women and preparing them for the day they will meet each other for the first time at the altar."

In order to match the couples as scientifically as possible, in the hopes that they will find true love, the producers have selected a number of specialist experts who will work with, and closely monitor, the individuals.

These in-show experts for Married at First Sight South Africa will include Gary Kayle (financial coach), Dr. Shingai Mutambirwa (sex therapist), Neo Tshireletso Pule (counselling psychologist), Paula Quinsee (relationship expert) and Anna Trapido (antropological advisor).

"I'm very excited to be a part of Married at First Sight South Africa and I'm looking forward to watching our couples find true love both during and after filming ends. I am, and will always be, a hopeless romantic," says Sam Cohen.

Harley and the Davidsons mini-series on the Discovery Channel chronicles the creations of the iconic Harley-Davidson super motorbike a century ago.

Like a Stetson, a Concorde or a Mercedes, you simply know what the brand name denotes, and so it is with probably the most famous motorcycle brand in the world - the Harley-Davidson, that's getting its own historical brand creation TV retelling in the new Harley and the Davidsons mini-series starting on the Discovery Channel (DStv 121) tonight at 21:00.

The 6-hour, three-part mini-series Harley and the Davidsons is based on the true story of the creation of the "Harley-Davidson" - the motorcycle built to go anywhere - as Walter, Arthur and Bill risked everything to create the motorbike of their dreams and today remains the most admired and coolest motorcycle brand in the world.

Harley and the Davidsons is set at the turn of the 20th century - a time of great social and technological upheaval echoing the waves of vast changes reshaping the modern world today - as the young Davidson brothers and William Harley took on the growing motorcycle industry as the sons of immigrants to create an iconic vehicle.

Built in a shed in Milwaukee, the Harley-Davidson motorcycles were able to survive nearly every condition imaginable as the brothers' ambition propelled them to take part in motorcycle races. Later, fuelled by ingenuity, innovation and design, the founders of Harley-Davidson faced off against much bigger rivals.

Then the Great Depression hit America and the motorcycle industry was decimated but the Harley-Davidson founders continued to defy the odds with their forward-thinking business ideas.

Whether it was securing the American army contract and teaching riders how to make repairs on the field, to embracing boisterous motorcycle clubs across America, they would eventually channel all their resources with their biggest risk yet - creating the world's first superbike, a state-of-the-art racing machine for the masses.

As viewers will see with great attention to engineering detail in Harley and the Davidsons, while the three men all faced very different challenges, it was the motorcycle that united their dreams and ambitions.

New study finds pay-TV subscribers struggle with content discovery and finding the shows they want to watch; only watch the same 10 channels over and over.

New research into pay-TV subscribers' behaviour has found that pay-TV subscribers feel there's too many TV channels and that they struggle to find the shows they would like to watch, with the study revealing that most people watch the same 10 channels over and over again, leading to complaints about repeats.

A new study from Digitalsmiths on pay-TV subscribers that interviewed thousands of subscribers, has found that pay-TV subscribers are overwhelmed with the number of available TV channels.

According to the research, pay-TV subscribers struggle with what is known as "content discovery" - the search and exploration of finding new shows, knowing what its about, and most importantly, knowing on what channel to find it and when its shown.

While the study was done in America by Digitalsmiths, a company that specialises in personalised content discovery, the findings very likely generally hold true for all pay-TV platforms and subscribers globally, like for instance MultiChoice in South Africa and Africa operating the DStv service and StarTimes' StarSat - who all employ the same basic direct-to-home (DTH) pay-TV model.

Pay-TV subscribers feel that it's difficult to find the content they want to watch, and half of existing pay-TV subscribers who considered cancelling their service, said that they would stay if their pay-TV operator introduced added new functionalities to make it easier to find the content they want to see.

Pay-TV subscribers say there's too many TV channels and that they feel overwhelmed by it.

Irrespective of the number of TV channels available, 87% of people say they watch the same few channels over and over again - to the extent that more than 83% indicate they constantly watch less than 10 channels.

Subscribers of video-on-demand (VOD) services - within the South African context those would be players like Naspers' ShowMax, PCCW Global's ONTAPtv.com, PrideTV, MTN's VU and Netflix South Africa - say they're happier about finding content because the process is easier to find something to want to watch.

"One unifying trend that contributes to the popularity of VOD services is their intuitive, personalized, modern interfaces and viewing experiences," the Digitalsmiths report found.

StarSat adds its first local South African drama, Maseko Ties, as a telenovela on StarTimes One; hopes to lure viewers with its feuding Maseko Hospital family.

Grey's Anatomy meets Generations as StarSat is unveiling its first local South African drama series - a half hour hospital drama telenovela entitled Maseko Ties - that will start tonight (Monday) on StarTimes One (StarSat 120) at 20:30.

The three day a week telenovela that wasn't specifically commissioned but picked up by On Digital Media (ODM) and StarTimes Media South Africa for its satellite pay-TV platform, will run on StarSat from Mondays to Wednesdays and has 26 licenced episodes revolving around the Maseko family and their Maseko Hospital.

Described by StarSat as "Grey's Anatomy meets Generations", Maseko Ties is StarSat's first proper and new local South African drama series.

It's the first new longform local drama production broadcast on StarSat since the failed TopTV brand imploded and with it its fledgling local content commissioning plans that never properly got off the ground and produced a few short-lived local shows like Top Entertainment.

While China's StarTimes has made bigger inroads the past three years in producing local African content for some of its StarTimes channels elsewhere in Africa, it has done nothing for specifically StarSat in South Africa that has been in business rescue since the end of 2012 until last month.

StarTimes is now looking to change that through a new focus on local South African television content investment, adding to shows like Puppet Nation and Point of Order.

Filming on Maseko Ties, produced by KMP Productions, started in October 2015, with the first season's 26 episodes that was filmed at Le Chatelat Boutique Hotel in Sandhurst in Johannesburg.

In its tough 20:00 timeslot, Maseko Ties will go up against the SABC1 soap Generations - The Legacy and the e.tv telenovela Gold Diggers. The show has no publicity cast picture.

The story of Maseko Ties is set around the Masekos who has doctors in the family - a bit like kykNET's (DStv 144) longrunning Binnelanders soap and the German series Die Schwarzwalkklinik that the SABC dubbed into Afrikaans as Die Swartwoudkliniek on TV1 during the 1990's.

In classic telenovela style, Maseko Ties sees Dr. John Maseko (Amos Ketlele) fighting to preserve the Maseko legacy and his idea of the perfect family as jealousy, secrets, dangerous ambition and manipulation start to unravel the medical clan.

The Maseko Ties cast includes Samela Tyelbooi as eldest daughter Grace Maseko who falls in love with a "Ben 10" photographer ten years younger than her, while her dad wants her to become the next chief of staff.

Other actors include Yonda Thomas, Monnye Kunupi, Tshepo Desando, Nina Marais, Sibusisiwe Jili and Mpho Mabaso, playing characters ranging from one with a vendetta against the family named Sydney who wants to take over the hospital, to Molly, the youngest sibling who resents Grace.

Meanwhile Aunt Rose is a Sally Spectra type aunt who influences people from the sidelines.

"We believe that Maseko Ties will fast become a firm favourite with our viewers," says Mike Dearham, the vice president of StarTimes.

"At StarSat we are committed to growing local content and enabling producers to provide high quality local programmes for the pay-TV industry. The appetite for local content continues to grow and we will constantly search for new local content to meet the viewing preferences of our subscribers."

Here is a promo for the show (and no, it's not you, it's them: a lot of the acting in it looks cardboard and stilted):

BREAKING. Survivor is surviving on SABC3 after all: Survivor Cagayan returning to Monday nights from October, replacing low rated local Divas of Jozi flop.

You're reading it here first.

The reality series Suvivor is surviving on SABC3 after all, with the hit American reality show that's being returned to the channel's primetime schedule following SABC3's sudden evisceration of international content from July that saw the new crop of local shows flop.

Survivor distributed by CBS Studios International has been added back to the SABC3 schedule and will return to its old Monday night prime time timeslot of 20:00 from 3 October with the 28th season, Survivor: Cagayan.

Survivor: Cagayan, instead of a planned local travel show Uyanda: It's On with Uyanda Mbuli will now replace the low rated and critically panned local reality TV trash Divas of Jozi.

The SABC's controversial chief operating officer (COO) Hlaudi Motsoeneng ordered the SABC's TV channels to drop foreign content from July and to increase local programming to 90%, starting with 80% local content on SABC3. SABC3 had to redo its schedule and has slightly been falling short of the 80%.

Viewership for the crop of new local shows on SABC3 - mostly a combination of local talk and lifestyle shows, several of which had been rushed to air, has been extremely disappointing.

The SABC has either been unable to get better local content ready in time to funnel into the competitive Monday night timeslot on SABC3, or realised that bad content won't cut it in the ratings and wash with viewers just because it's supposedly branded "local".

The return of Survivor with a new season on SABC3 follows closely on the heels of the SABC's backtracking on the American daytime soap Days of Our Lives.

After removing the highly rated and popular late afternoon American soap in late-July as one of the top-performing shows on the SABC3 schedule, the SABC returned Days of Our Lives in August to a late-night timeslot.

The SABC actually has what is referred to as a "lifetime contract" for shows like Days of Our Lives and sister soap The Bold and the Beautiful for instance. The SABC will have to continue paying for these soaps until they're cancelled in America, whether the public broadcaster airs episodes of them or not.

In 2012 a former SABC chairperson, dr. Ben Ngubane explained to parliament that the SABC is locked into some "forever" contracts with certain American TV programming, binding the broadcaster to keep paying for it until these series eventually ends.

Shows like Days and Bold are recommissioned every one to two years in America by broadcasters NBC and CBS, based on their ratings performance.

Survivor: Cagayan, the 28th season and a firm signature show and viewer favourite on SABC3, is the fourth consecutive season to be filmed in the Philippines. In the new season that was broadcast in 2013 in America, the 18 contestants are divided into three tribes based on Brawn (athleticism), Brains (intelligence) or Beauty (attractiveness).

Sexually suggestive ShowMax TV commercial reported to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) for being broadcast before the watershed time period.

A sexually suggestive TV commercial from ShowMax has been reported to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) after a complaint that it’s broadcast during the day when it’s inappropriate for children.

The ASA is still to judge on the matter; the first advertising complaint about the ShowMax video-on-demand (VOD) streaming service.

The ShowMax TV commercial that started in August revolves around an almost naked man gyrating in front of a woman when a child walks in. It’s broadcast in South Africa in the afternoon before the so-called “watershed” cut-off period of 20:00 before which more risque TV content is not allowed due to the likelihood that children are watching.  

According to the complaint, "the advertisement appears during day programming and is unsuitable for the timeslots when it appears".

ShowMax says if the "ShowMax dad ad" is deemed unsuitable "then surely we need a wholesale rethink on what else makes it on to daytime TV".

"The irony is if one were watching ShowMax there wouldn't be any ads and you could activate the kids profile and know 100% that nobody is going to stumble across anything they shouldn't".

Naspers' ShowMax that turned one year old in mid-August and changed its logo, introduced the option for various profiles to filter content for children at the beginning of August. Competitor PCCW Global's ONTAPtv.com will turn one year old on 16 September.

FOX Crime on StarSat changing to FOX Life on 3 October; confusion over whether FOX Crime is continuing on DStv or also changing to FOX Life on that platform.

The change of the FOX Crime (StarSat 132 / DStv 126) channel that was supposed to happen from the beginning of September and that was supposed to switch to the FOX Life channel from September has been pushed back to 3 October - but the pay-TV operators and the FOX Networks Group Africa have been bad at explaining and communicating to their subscribers and the media what is happening.

While the FOX Networks Group in Africa, now managed by Gary Alfonso, hasn't bothered to tell the media anything, at least this is now known: FOX Crime will now be replaced by FOX Life on 3 October.

The channel swop will now happen on 3 October after it has been delayed and pushed back by a month.

FOX Crime will now be replaced by FOX Life on 3 October on On Digital Media's (ODM) and StarTimes Media SA's StarSat.

What is unclear is whether FOX Crime will remain on MultiChoice's DStv from October and if the FOX Crime channel on DStv will also be changing to FOX Life from 3 October for that pay-TV operator.

No official channel logo for FOX Life has been issued and no monthly channel schedule for October has been provided to media yet - nor what the channel is about, programming highlights or an explanation as to what will happen to shows that viewers have been watching currently and might not have completed their run by the time FOX Crime gets cut.

TVwithThinus asked the FOX Networks Group Africa, ODM and StarSat, and MultiChoice yet again today (Friday) - after asking the channel provider and the pay-TV operators a month ago (when they were less than forthcoming) - what is happening.

When there's responses, this report will update with those responses.

So far, FOX representatives on Friday told me they're not in a position to give any details at the moment.

What is clear, is that the FOX Networks Group in Africa has and is really not managing the news and media publicity about the upcoming switch of the FOX Crime channel to FOX Life well at all.

Pay-TV subscribers in South Africa are paying real money for a service which they are not properly being informed about and that is changing in a month's time. With a month to go, they're not being told why it is happening and what those changes are.

In the absence of any information and explanations from the FOX Networks Group Africa and operators, viewers of FOX Crime are already negative about the looming removal of the channel and its replacement with FOX Life.

"Why replacing instead of adding?" asks John Johnson.

"No, you must add to FOX Crime. We will boycott you if you replace FOX Crime with FOX Life. Add [it] next to FOX Crime, we pleading. After all, we pay. We have a say. You can't take off FOX Crime," says Norman Lambert.

"FOX Crime I enjoyed," says Maruska Honiball. "Why take it away???"

"FOX Crime was good," says Myburgh Dewald, and Kedibone Mametja sums up what a lot of people are thinking about the upcoming dumping of FOX Crime and replacement with FOX Life: "Why replace and not add?"

Second Deon Meyer crime drama TV adaptation, Cape Town, set to start on the Universal Channel on 7 September as a 6-part mini-series.

Cape Town will again be the backdrop of another international TV series this month when Cape Town, the TV adaptation of Deon Meyer's book Dead Before Dying starts on the Universal Channel with several South African actors.

The 6-part mini-series Cape Town, produced by all-in-production and Out of Africa Entertainment and distributed by Dynamic Television, is based on Deon Meyer's third novel, Dead Before Dying (Ikarus in Afrikaans) and will start on the Universal Channel (DStv 117) on Wednesday 7 September at 20:50.

Cape Town will showcase a backdrop of the Mother City and the Western Cape peninsula that will be instantly familiar to Capetonians and South Africans, ranging from places like Constantia and Tokai to Woodstock, Macassar Beach, Cape Town's city centre and other well-known spots where on-location scenes were shot.

The series was filmed in Cape Town last year, similar to American shows like Strike Back, Homeland, Dominion, Black Sails, SAF3 and Of Kings and Prophets that filmed seasons with varying success the past few years, and local productions like the Afrikaans crime drama Die Byl on kykNET.

Although a South African story, the two leads in Cape Town are foreign actors who are trying the South African accent on the tongue, with the Norwegian actor Trond Espen Seim playing alcoholic detective Mat Joubert and the American actor Boris Kodjoe as his new partner Sanctus Snook who portrays a former Hawks unit investigator.    

The Cape Town supporting cast include veteran South African actors Arnold Vosloo and Ian Roberts, alongside Jody Abrahams, Colin Moss, Irshaad Ally and Jessica Haines.

Cape Town, written by Anna Tebbe and executive produced by Zeljko Karajica, Klaus Zimmermann and Daniel March, follows Mat Joubert whose wife Lara was murdered, who investigates two major cases with Sanctus Snook.

Firstly there a series of brutal murders involving men wearing masks of famous people and secondly there are the deaths and disappearances of young European women.

According to the producers, the gritty crime fiction series sees the characters shine a flashlight into the shadows of the city with Cape Town that becomes a character itself in Cape Town: culturally rich and beautiful, but also fractured and harbouring dark secrets behind its glamorous façade.

Cape Town is the second TV series based on a Deon Meyer novel, following the Afrikaans crime drama Orion that was broadcast on kykNET in 2006 and that was also filmed in Cape Town at the time.