Filming starts on new Afrikaans kykNET comedy, Mense, Mense, set for broadcast from April - but why add yet another lazy, reduplication show title?

Filming has started on a new Afrikaans comedy for kykNET (DStv 144), lazily-badly entitled Mense, Mense, and set for broadcast on M-Net's Afrikaans pay-TV channel from Monday 9 April at 20:30.

The comedy produced by Nouvanaand Films and set in Johannesburg, revolves around a group of friends who are sharing their professional and personal lives as they live, work and interact together within the same building.

The Mense, Mense "cast cast" includes the singer Bobby van Jaarsveld and actors Crystal-Donna Roberts, Solomon Cupido, as well as Sandra Prinsloo as the building's landlord; in addition to Lea Vivier as well as Reynardt Slabbert.

kykNET says "Mense, Mense exposes the see-saw journey of friendship, relationships and adulthood, but above all the unbreakable love between strangers who become family".

Pierre van Pletzen is the director.

With Mense, Mense it is interesting that kykNET continues not to appear willing to put in the work and time to develop apt, original Afrikaans show titles, and struggles to use the rich, existing Afrikaans lexicon to find words to not just properly define programmes, but to indicate to viewers what they are about.

The repetitive and generic Mense, Mense joins the kykNET schedule that already has, and suffers from, reduplication like Parlement, Parlement that doesn't tell viewers not familiar with shows what they are.

There's also a problematic and lazy "Op Die" ["On the"] title trend on kykNET with show titles called Oppi Kassie [On the Box] and Oppie Stoep [On the Stoep], and even Op Die Spel.

Ideally no TV channel should ever have, or allow, even two show titles that are remotely close to each other in name.

American TV channel executives told The Hollywood Reporter back in 2012 about the topic of picking and assigning TV show names, that "You've got to have something that makes people say, 'I want to check that out'. It has to be catchy, and it has to frame for the audience the context of the show".

An Australian showrunner in 2010 about the same subject, told The Sydney Morning Herald that "unless you're expressing yourself properly with the title, you're most unlikely to succeed".

If kykNET orders some Steri-Stumpies for whoever all are responsible, and make them brainstorm for half an hour, surely better titles idea can be dreamt up than Mense, Mense.

Just like the SABC in South Africa, broadcaster ITV in Britain now wants payment to be carried on satellite TV platforms as its ITV1 channel could go dark on Virgin over a £80 million re-transmission payment battle.

The free-to-air TV channel ITV in Britain could start to disappear from the channel line-up of satellite pay-TV operators like Virgin and Sky in the United Kingdom in a case akin to South Africa's public broadcaster that recently said it now wants money for its TV channels being carried on pay-TV operators' platforms.

The SABC's SABC1, SABC2 and SABC3 channels, as well as e.tv's primary channel are currently carried for free on MultiChoice's DStv, StarSat, and eMedia Investment's OpenView HD under so-called "must-carry regulations".

Satellite TV operators are forced to carry these channels in order to promote access and accessibility of the content to the public, while the channels enjoy the bigger viewership across bigger viewing platforms it would not otherwise have - especially in large geographical areas where there's no coverage of the channels' signals.

The SABC in November 2017 said it now wants satellite TV operators to pay for its channels, with MultiChoice that responded and said the SABC's financial problems has nothing to do with MultiChoice, slammed the SABC as "opportunistic" and said that it's the SABC that will lose out if its channels are removed from platforms like DStv.

In the United Kingdom, ITV has now started to threaten to take its ITV1 channel away from Virgin's pay-TV offering unless Virgin pays it £80 million. Virgin already pays for other channels from ITV, like ITV2, in the way that MultiChoice pays the SABC for the additional SABC channels like SABC News and SABC Encore.

ITV is the same company that supplies the ITV Choice (DStv 123) pay-TV channel to MultiChoice's DStv platform in South Africa and elsewhere in Africa, with shows like Dancing on Ice, Victoria and The Voice UK.

ITV and Virgin have been locked in a stand-off for months now after ITV got the right to now charge for operators to carry ITV1, after a change to British legislation and the introduction of a new Digital Economy Act in April 2017.

Before the change in legislation, pay-TV operators got ITV1 for free.

Virgin in a statement says it won't be paying ITV for the ITV1 channel to be on its line-up and that it doesn't see why it should, saying if ITV should remove ITV1 it will be "mutual self-destruction".

"Our customers will not pay for a service that is available for free and we see no reason why they should," says David Bouchier, chief digital entertainment officer at Virgin Media.

"The position was very clear. How ITV is funded has been the same since it was created – and to come and pick us off individually is not an appropriate way to do it. The government has also been clear that there are benefits on both sides to re-transmission, so for ITV to do something like that, I cannot see the logic, it is counter-intuitive."

"We are the second-biggest TV platform in the United Kingdom and that makes us an important partner. What is important is positive engagement, rather than this position of mutual self-destruction. I’m confident logic will prevail."

ITV in a statement says "ITV, and other public service broadcasters, should be paid fairly by pay-TV platforms that make money from our multi-billion-pound investment in original UK content. A change in the law now allows us to negotiate with Virgin for payment for our main channel, and that is what we are attempting to do."

Holly Marie Combs slams Charmed reboot plans: 'Don't even think of capitalizing on our hard work. Charmed belongs to the 4 of us'.

Actress Holly Marie Combs is angry about the planned reboot of Charmed in America, the youth drama series about a group of sister-witches, saying the show belongs to her and the other original actresses and crew and not the new reboot.

 Charmed ran for 8 seasons and was broadcast on SABC3 in South Africa during the late 1990's and early 2000's, and is now being revived as a new series set in current times - 20 years after it started in 1998 as part of American TV's reboot craze of new versions of old, iconic shows.

Holly Marie Combs played the character of Piper Halliwell during all 8 seasons of Charmed , that started out with Alyssa Milano and Shannen Doherty, with Shannon that was fired after 3 seasons and and replaced with Rose McGowan from the 4th.

Now the CW channel in America is bringing back Charmed, executive produced by Ben Silverman, Jessica O'Toole and Amy Rardin.

On social media Holly Marie Combs slammed the Charmed remake, saying "Here’s the thing. Until you ask us to rewrite it like Brad Kern did weekly, don’t even think of capitalizing on our hard work. Charmed belongs to the 4 of us, our vast amount of writers, crews and predominantly the fans. FYI you will not fool them by owning a title/stamp. So bye".

"And another thing. Reboots or remakes, as we used to call them, usually have story lines so similar to the original that they are legally required to use the same title and buy the rights to that title. If it’s not similar than it’s just another show. A new show with a new title."

"While some may not get why I take issue with the network that didn’t want to renew Charmed 12 years ago ‘reimagining’ it now, let me just say I understand it perfectly. Also this kinda stuff given all that Rose and Alyssa have done lately...um no. Just No."

Here’s the thing. Until you ask us to rewrite it like Brad Kern did weekly don’t even think of capitalizing on our hard work. Charmed belongs to the 4 of us, our vast amount of writers, crews and predominantly the fans. FYI you will not fool them by owning a title/stamp. So bye.

— Holly Marie Combs (@H_Combs) January 26, 2018

According to the CW in a statement about the new Charmed "this fierce, funny, feminist reboot of the original series centres on three sisters in a college town who discover they are witches. Between vanquishing supernatural demons, tearing down the patriarchy, and maintaining familial bonds, a witch’s work is never done".

Six male BBC presenters forced to accept drastic pay cuts as BBC reduces their salaries instead of paying women more, as gender pay disparity investigations continue.

BBC News reports that 6 male, highly-paid BBC presenters and anchors have agreed to take drastic pay cuts after revelations of how much less the BBC is paying female staffers at the BBC.

Instead of the BBC and BBC News paying women more to lift their salaries to the men's level, the BBC and BBC News is lowering the men's salaries.

Meanwhile investigations into gender pay disparity at the BBC continues.

Huw Edwards, Nicky Campbell, John Humphrys, Jon Sopel, Nick Robinson and Jeremy Vine are now all having their pay reduced and agreed to being paid less after the BBC News told them that it wants to pay them less, instead of paying women more.

Recently the BBC's Carrie Gracie quit as the BBC's China editor and slammed the BBC for its "secretive and illegal pay culture", saying "the BBC is breaking equality law and resisting pressure for a fair and transparent pay structure."

In July last year, the BBC was forced to reveal the salaries of all employees earning more than £150,000 a year.

Carrie Gracie says she discovered that the BBC's two male international editors "earned "at least 50% more" than its two female counterparts.

The BBC's United States editor Jon Sopel earned £200 000 to £249 999, while the BBC's Middle East editor Jeremy Bowen earned £150 000 to £199 999. 

Carrie Gracie earned less than £150 000.

The BBC refused to comment or say how much each of the men's earnings were reduced by or how much they would earn now.

In a statement the BBC says "We are very grateful to Huw Edwards, Nicky Campbell, John Humphrys, Jon Sopel, Nick Robinson and Jeremy Vine who have agreed that their pay will now be reduced".

The BBC isn't saying why it's not paying women more and why women's salaries were not rather adjusted upwards.

John Humphrys is taking a drastic pay cut and said he will be getting "hugely less" than the £600 000 he was paid until now.

There's been 3 gender pay-gap disparity investigations at the BBC so far and next week an independent audit into equal pay at the BBC will be published.

Next week Carrie Gracie will also appear before Britain's parliament and one of its select committees looking into the BBC's gender pay disparity problem.

SABC2 has some new local programming for February and March including new drama series Guilt; kids show Naruto returns.

The SABC's SABC2 announced some new shows for Johannesburg press at a media event on Thursday that the channel will broadcast in February and March.

A new drama series Guilt will start on Wednesday 28 February at 21:30 in which a group of neighbours find R1 million near an accident scene and agree to stay quiet and keep the money. SABC2 was asked for more information about the show but didn't respond to a media enquiry.

Botho - Act of Kindness is a new local reality show that will start on SABC2 on Friday 9 February at 20:30 in which South Africans do something for someone who had impacted their lives.

Mehlomadala, another new local reality show, will start on Saturday 31 March on SABC2 at 18:00. SABC2 describes it as "bring people together who under normal circumstances might not have come together but the need to reconnect have been etched on each other’s minds and hearts".

The latest season of The Big Debate that started in late-2017 will resume on Saturday 3 February at 19:00 on SABC2 with moderator Redi Tlhabi.

Red Cake - Not The Cooking Show, the variety show with Tumi Morake and Alan Committee will return to SABC2 from Friday 9 February at 19:00.

Relate returns for a second season to SABC2 on Monday 5 February at 22:00 trying to repair fractured relationships.

The 3rd season of Abomzala will start on SABC2 on Sunday 4 Feburary. The second season of the Afrikaans drama series Swartwater will resume on 13 March at 19:00.

The kids show Naruto will return from Monday 5 February with episodes from Mondays to Thursdays at 17:00. The second season of Disney's Doc McStuffins will be broadcast from 9 February on Fridays at 15:00 with Disney A.N.T. Farm on Fridays at 17:00, starting from 23 February.

Grand Masters starts on Thursday 8 February at 10:30 on SABC2 in which teachers from primary and high schools competing in tasks.

Raising Babies 101 starts on Friday 9 February on SABC2 as a weekly talk show for parents and caregivers about parenthood.

Former Disney star, Adam Hicks of Disney XD's Zeke and Luther arrested and charged after a string of armed robberies.

The former Disney star Adam Hicks who appeared in the comedy Zeke and Luther on Disney XD (DStv 304) has been arrested after a string of armed robberies.

USA Today reports that Adam Hicks (25) who appeared as Luther in Zeke and Luther and who plays Diesel Turner in the series Freakish was arrested on Wednesday in Burbank, California.

He was arrested together with a woman called Danni Tamburo (23) in connection with a series of 4 armed robberies.

TMZ reported that Adam Hicks and Danni Tamburo who is apparently his girlfriend, went up to several people and put a gun in their face, demanding money.

Scandal hits M-Net's Date My Family Zambia spin-off on DStv's Zambezi Magic channel as multiple participants are exposed as frauds; MultiChoice Zambia admits proper pre-checks were never done and says it will now ensure 'a stricter vetting process'.

M-Net's Zambian spin-off version of Date My Family Zambia, following after the hugely successful South African version on Mzansi Magic (DStv 161), has been hit by scandal following revelations over fake participants used in the show.

MultiChoice Africa and M-Net broadcast the Zambia version of Date My Family on M-Net's Zambezi Magic (DStv 160) channel in Southern Africa, excluding South Africa.

Looking to cash in on the immense popularity of the show's format in South Africa, M-Net greenlit a spin-off version for Zambezi Magic, but the fake spin-off version somehow failed to adhere to the strict production values and guidelines followed by the South African version.

The producers of Date My Family Zambia failed to properly vet the participants beforehand, resulting in a faked show as viewers discovered.

Date My Family Zambia is executive produced by Catherine Phiri, Mary Phiri and Natasha Phiri and produced by Media365.

The Date my Family Zambia scandal has compromising the integrity of the show, M-Net and Zambezi Magic where Mosibudi Pheeda is the channel head, after shocking revelations that several couples who have appeared on the show have cheated by having known each other already, and that in several cases they had already been in established romantic relationships before they "met" in episodes.

M-Net and Date My Family Zambia moved their burden to pre-check contestants, to viewers.

Viewers quickly started pointing out, using simply social media platforms that can be easily reached and used by anyone, that participants have known each other before and have already been in romantic relationships.

The embarrassing revelations damaged the reputation of Date My Family Zambia and M-Net and DStv's Zambezi Magic channel over putting an entertainment reality dating show on the air that isn't quite so true.

There's no way that DStv subscribers watching the show on Zambezi Magic can trust that what they're seeing in Date My Family Zambia is actually real and whether the so-called single people looking for love are really single or haven't already met and dated each other. 

Weirdly MultiChoice Zambia and M-Net are now trying to distance themselves from the mistakes with blame-shifting, saying the producers on Date My Family Zambia relies on the participants and the information they provide to the show.

Banks, hospitals, courts, schools and other institutions of course don't just rely on the information provided by people and actually carry out checks to verify the accuracy and authenticity.

"For this purpose, our show producers rely heavily on the honesty of the applicants and full disclosure thereof," says MultiChoice Zambia in a statement, not explaining why proper vetting of contestants on a M-Net reality show didn't take place before viewers started spotted the truth and called the show out publicly.

"However, due to misrepresentation by several participants of recent episodes, we have endeavoured to ensure a stricter vetting process so that our valued DStv customers can continue to enjoy an authentic entertainment experience with real honest conversations," says MultiChoice Zambia.

Like Cinderella, MultiChoice turns Sky News into a TV pumpkin in Africa at exactly the stroke of midnight, blocking the news with a litany of tacky DStv promos.

On Friday night, at exactly the stroke of midnight when Saturday arrived at 00:00, MultiChoice suddenly turned Sky News (DStv 402) into a TV pumpkin - showing DStv promo after DStv promo after DStv promo instead of Sky News' headlined news.

While the process of playout of on-air promos are automated (these promo bumper starting points and their duration are carefully cued according to the schedules provided by third-party channels and where in-house promos will be needed to replace advertising not to be shown in Africa), it is still in the end human error.  

Obviously MultiChoice is not supposed to blast out a string of DStv promos on Sky News during actual editorial and actual "story" and programmatic content and blocking that out, and definitely not at the start of a "show" or at the top of the hour.

Yet that is exactly what happened when MultiChoice played DStv promo after DStv promo instead of letting Sky News broadcast the news.

After the first second of the start of Sky News' News at 10 intro seen in South Africa and Africa at midnight, MultiChoice interrupted it with a DStv promo, and simply kept going and going and going.

First MultiChoice showed its DStv promo on Sky News, instead of the news, for high definition (HD) and HD content, followed by a promo for SuperSport for the 2018 Winter Olympics, followed by a promo for the DStv Eutelsat Awards, followed by a promo for DStv BoxOffice and the kids movies DStv subscribers can rent.

By the time this all ended, so much time had already lapsed that any DStv subscribers who wanted to watch the news on Sky News to get the breaking and headline making stories, missed it all - after about 7 minutes in.

MultiChoice likely also chased viewers away from Sky News who would have tuned away from Sky's news channel. 

Nobody is going to keep watching a TV channel where it seems as if nothing is going to come on at the top of the hour, where new programming is supposed to start, if all you get is just DStv promo after DStv promo.

If you can't trust (MultiChoice with, and to bring) the news, who can you trust?

Also the insanity of playing out a DStv promo for high definition (HD) on DStv channels that are not actually being broadcast in HD completely defeats the entire purpose. Why is this promo shown on non-HD DStv channels in the first place?

Is it a case of "it was made and produced, now lets plaster it as filled wherever because its too much effort to strategically place it on just channels like M-Net, BBC First and E!"?

It's like when TV manufacturers like Samsung and others run commercials for HD TV sets to show their "clarity" and "sharpness" on channels that are not actually shown in HD. It helps nothing.

Nonsense like this makes DStv in-house promos feel like, and exposes them, for what they mostly actually are: empty filler overlay to replace and pass linear scheduled commercial airtime. 

Promos are a bane of any satellite pay-TV operator's existence but at least when they're done "right", they feel less intrusive and less disruptive.

Boxing commentator, Bert Blewett (84) has died.

The South African boxing commentator, Bert Blewett has died. He was 84.

He started his boxing journalism and broadcasting career in 1978. Besides writing for numerous publications, he covered boxing for first the SABC and then moved to M-Net and SuperSport.

Based in Durban, he was nominated to the World Boxing Hall of Fame in 1988.

He was the editor of the Knockout, Boxing Beat and Ringside magazines before serving as editor of South African Boxing World which later changed its name to Boxing World from September 1977 to August 2004.

Bert Blewett received numerous awards for his contribution to boxing and was also a presenter on the television programme Bert Blewett’s Boxing Update.

He also published a hardcover book The A-Z of Boxing in 1996, which was subsequently released in paperback in 1999.