Coronavirus: MSNBC adds Craig Melvin Reports Coronavirus Pandemic to its weekday schedule.

by Thinus Ferreira

MSNBC (StarSat 263) is changing Craig Melvin's show MSNBC Live to Craig Melvin Reports: Coronavirus Pandemic from today, Monday 6 April 2020 with the American presenter who will now report from "key locations" covering the impact of the growing Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic in the United States.

Craig Melvin Reports: Coronavirus Pandemic will broadcast on weekdays, starting on Monday, at 17:00 (South African time SAST).

MSNBC says in a statement that Craig Melvin will "safely report with a slim crew from key locations critical to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic starting with the Central Park field hospital on Monday".

Craig Melvin will be joined by a remote video "Doctor on Duty" daily to provide expert insight, with other NBC News correspondents and reporters across the United States who will provide breaking news coverage and analysis as the Covid-19 crisis escalates.

SABC2 shifts its weekly Afrikaans current affairs show Fokus to Wednesdays to get away from 'church time' and to be more topical and news-based.

by Thinus Ferreira

SABC2 is shifting its weekly Sunday evening Afrikaans current affairs show Fokus to Wednesday evenings to get away from "church time" and to be more topical and news-based as part of the channel's latest schedule changes.

Sunday 5 April 2020 was the last Fokus episode with host Lynette Francis on this night with the long-running show shifting to Wednesdays at 19:00 from 8 April.

According to the show the Fokus content will now be a mix of years and the show will continue doing so every Wednesday evening. Our content will be a mix of packaged inserts, live interviews, discussions and debates with news events that will determine the choice of topics and guests.

Fokus producers Karin d’Orville (based in Gauteng), Keith Sayster (based in the Northern Cape) and Euline Reid (based in Gauteng) will also travel to other provinces throughout South Africa to tell people's stories and to cover news events.

The experienced producer Karin d'Orville focuses on a variety of subjects, while Keith Sayster, also an experienced producer, will still travel to remote places that hardly ever make the news.

The Fokus team remains under the leadership of veteran journalist Alet van Rensburg Wright.

"We are looking forward to the move to a weekday as many of our viewers have complained the Sunday evening is church time," says Alet van Rensburg Wright.

"Our aim is to give a voice to those people, who don't have a voice and to keep our leaders accountable. By broadcasting on Wednesdays we can also ensure that our programme is news-driven and give our viewers a more in-depth account on the news of the day."

Coronavirus: Lockdown in South Africa brings Lockdown and Trackers to Mzansi Magic as the M-Net-packaged channel on DStv scrambles to plug scheduling holes left by unfinished seasons of Housekeepers and eHostela.

by Thinus Ferreira

South Africa's national lockdown period has forced M-Net to use Lockdown and other shows to plug sudden holes on its Mzansi Magic (DStv 161) schedule.

The spreading global Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic also affecting South Africa's struggling TV industry, caused a vast number of locally-produced TV series on public television and pay-TV to abruptly shutter in late-March.

M-Net is now replacing schedule gaps left by incomplete shows on its Mzansi Magic channel, packaged for MultiChoice's DStv channel, with various library series.

After broadcasting new promos throughout March for the second season of Housekeepers, produced by Oche Moving Pictures with Portia Gumede as showrunner and starring Thando Thabethe, Mzansi Magic has pulled the season that was scheduled to debut on Monday 6 April at 20:00.

In its place because of the national lockdown, Mzansi Magic is now showing a borrowed "lockdown": the 5th season the local prison series Lockdown, produced by Black Brain Productions, that was moved to MultiChoice's video streaming service Showmax last year and that made its debut in January 2020 on the streamer.

Since filming hasn't yet finished on all of the episodes of Housekeepers with the production that only started filming at the beginning of March, M-Net decided to remove the series for the time being and to postpone its launch.

It has now been replaced with the prison-wall set series starring Dawn Thandeka King, Connie Chuime, Zola Nombona, Linda Sokhulu and Lorcia Cooper.

The second season of Housekeepers will now start at a date that is still to be determined later in 2020 with insiders who told TVwithThinus that the production was affected and shuttered due to the Covid-19 lockdown.

In another stopgap measure Mzansi Magic also replaced the second season of the KwaMashu-set series eHostela.

The Stained Glass TV produced series was also forced to shutter causing unplanned production delays, with Mzansi Magic that replaced it this past Sunday in the 20:00 timeslot with the locally-produced drama series Trackers that made its debut in October 2019 on the M-Net (DStv 101) channel.

Since 17 March MultiChoice, and individually the various M-Net-packaged channel sets, have all been asked numerous times which TV series specifically have been impacted or shut down because of the virus issue and the national lockdown but so far there's been no response.

MultiChoice expands access of NBCUniversal International Networks' E! Entertainment channel to DStv Compact subscribers in South Africa from 14 April 2020.

by Thinus Ferreira

NBCUniversal International Networks' E! Entertainment (DStv 124) channel is getting wider carriage with MultiChoice making the channel available to DStv Compact subscribers in South Africa from Tuesday 14 April 2020.

E! is currently available to DStv Premium and DStv Compact Plus subscribers. E! is already available to DStv subscribers on DStv Compact in the rest of Africa.

"We are delighted that E! will now be available to a broader audience in Africa," says Lee Raftery, the managing director, for the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region at NBCUniversal International and chief marketing officer.

"This is an exciting evolution in our partnership with DStv, and new viewers to the channel will be able to enjoy ever-popular series such as Keeping Up With the Kardashians and Botched. We remain committed to bringing African audiences local content, with brand-new episodes of the Safta-nominated Celebrity Game Night."

Thabisa Mkhwanazi, MultiChoice South Africa head of marketing, says "We’re thrilled that our Compact subscribers will now also have access to the wide range of content that the E! Entertainment channel has to offer".

"We continue to strive to bring our customers the best content available so they get the greatest viewing experience possible."

The new season of Keeping Up With the Kardashians just started on E! on Sundays at 20:00with Kourtney's recent revelation that she's no longer happy working with her sisters, while Kris gets creative to encourage a reluctant Khloe to start dating again, while Kylie undergoes a frightening medical procedure.

Meanwhile Anele Mdoda is back as the host of Celebrity Game Night from Sunday 19 April at 21:00 with team captains Jason Goliath and Ayanda Thabethe for brand-new episodes of Celebrity Game Night.

Based on the Primetime Emmy Award-winning series Hollywood Game Night, Anele Mdoda recently received a Safta nomination for Best TV Presenter for hosting the local version of this show, while the production for Celebrity Game Night is also up for an award in the category Best International Format Show.

The E! presenter Jason Kennedy takes E! viewers inside celebrity homes for in-depth interviews in the new series In The Room on Mondays at 21:00 from 11 May as he meets Kourtney Kardashian, Tom Brady and Chris Pratt to discuss their latest projects, products, passions and more.

E! also has new episodes of Botched on Mondays at 20:00 from 8 June revolving around the plastic surgeons Dr Paul Nassif and Dr Terry Dubrow, as well as the latest season of Total Bellas on Sundays at 20:00 from 10 May.

Coronavirus: SABC adds the Steven Soderbergh 2011 thriller, Contagion, to SABC3 as the Sunday night film to show South Africa what could happen during a virus pandemic like Covid-19.

by Thinus Ferreira

As part of a quick-turnaround acquisition and programming move the South African public broadcaster on Friday decided to schedule the 2011 Steven Soderbergh horror/thriller film Contagion as the new Sunday night movie for SABC3 on 5 April 2020 at 21:30.

Contagion will start on Sunday at 21:30 on SABC3, with the film The Rewrite that would have started then, pushed to a new starting time of 23:30.

According to insiders who whispered to TVwithThinus, the Contagion scheduling order comes from SABC CEO Madoda Mxakwe himself, who personally requested all of the SABC's channels, including SABC1 and SABC2 to try and broadcast the film as part of an awareness effort to educate all South Africans about Covid-19 and what can happen when people don't heed best advice during a viral pandemic.

The Contagion promo line is "Nothing spreads like fear" and stars Laurence Fishburne, Matt Damon, Kate Winslet, Jude Law and Gwyneth Paltrow.

While average families suddenly fight to try and stay alive as society begins to unravel and collapse because of the onset and rapid spread of an extremely dangerous worldwide disease, desperate political leaders and scientists battle to try and find a vaccine.

Despite being over a decade old but with its newfound relevance, internationally Contagion has suddenly shot up in the charts of most-requested and most-watched films on the list of library movies on Amazon Prime Video and iTunes and is still in the number one spot after two weeks. Sharing on torrent sites of the film has also increased vastly worldwide.

The Contagion screenwriter Scott Z. Burns told Fortune magazine that "The similarities between our contagion and the coronavirus are immaterial, accidental, and really not that important. What is more important and accurate is the societal response and the spread of fear and the knock-on effects of that. That is proving to be accurate."

"When I originally pitched this idea to Steven Soderbergh, I said I wanted Contagion to be as grounded in science as it possibly could be. I I didn’t want to do a Hollywood disaster movie that played loose with the science. The heroes needed to be scientists."

Coronavirus: In new CNN special, Witness to the Pandemic, the TV news channel's correspondents share their personal experiences of covering the global Covid-19 pandemic.

by Thinus Ferreira

CNN International (DStv 401) will broadcast another special Covid-19 coronavirus documentary this weekend, Witness to the Pandemic, that will be broadcast on Saturday 4 April 2020 at 19:00 with a repeat on Sunday 5 April at 18:00 and give the first-hand perspectives on how CNN correspondents across the world have experienced covering the unfolding global medical and economic crisis.

As reports of a mysterious pneumonia-like virus spreading in the Chinese city of Wuhan surfaced in early January 2020, CNN correspondents around the world started tracking what we know today as novel coronavirus or Covid-19.

Now, as the number of confirmed cases of coronavirus infections surpasses 1 million and with more than 50,000 deaths worldwide, Witness to the Pandemic will look at how the world got here through the eyes of the CNN correspondents reporting on this unprecedented global crisis.

"I think it's really hard to compare what is happening now to just about any story that I've covered over the last 20 years," says CNN’s chief medical correspondent Dr Sanjay Gupta, who has been at the forefront of CNN’s coverage of Covid-19.

"Unlike a conflict or a natural disaster, this obviously is continuing for a long time and has fundamentally changed the way of life, I think, for everybody on the planet."



CNN's David Culver, Nectar Gan, Paula Hancocks, Will Ripley, Kristie Lu Stout and Ivan Watson all reported extensively on the spread of this virus across Asia, visiting field hospitals and businesses, interviewing residents, business owners, quarantined cruise passengers and health care workers including the Wuhan whistleblower Dr Li Wenliang shortly before he died from coronavirus.

In January CNN sent a team including David Culver to the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan before Chinese authorities placed the city of 11 million people on a partial lockdown.

"I remember looking around thinking: 'This feels like the same mood ahead of a hurricane coming, where you're in the projected path. You don't know how bad it's going to be and how long it's going to last. But you know it's coming.' And that's the same sentiment that I felt walking around Wuhan," says David Culver.

As the virus began to spread to Europe, CNN’s Ben Wedeman covered the first major outbreak of coronavirus in northern Italy, while Al Goodman reported on the spike in cases in Spain and Max Foster covered the impact in the United Kingdom.

"What's different about this story is that unlike covering wars where you could see the enemy, with this story it's invisible," says Ben Wedeman. "You cannot see the germs spreading, so it's a whole different level of danger of risk involved."

The first major deadly outbreak of the coronavirus in the United States happened in Washington state, just a few miles down the road from the city of Seattle in a place called Kirkland.

CNN's Sara Sidner travelled to Kirkland not long after it was discovered that someone had died from coronavirus and several more were dealing with some kind of terrible respiratory problem inside of a nursing home, which is now tied to 35 Covid-19 related deaths.

On the global business front, CNN’s Julia Chatterley tracked the stocks, sectors and indicators most affected by the pandemic from New York, speaking to economists, market analysts and business leaders about how people will be able to financially survive this economic crisis.

"I had an early sense that some form of economic crisis would come from the health crisis, once you see that happening all around the world. The risk that it became a financial crisis, and as we're starting to see now, a jobs crisis too," says Julia Chatterley.

"The speed at which this has happened is also what makes this so dramatic. It's unlike anything we've ever seen before. The real heroes are those on the front lines saving lives and we have to do everything we can I think to tell their story and acknowledge these are people that are at times giving their lives to save others."

"They're the heroes of this story, not us. We're just here to tell theirs."

MultiChoice abruptly shuts down and deletes its existing DStv press portal for the media during Covid-19 coronavirus crisis without warning.

by Thinus Ferreira

MultiChoice on Thursday 2 April 2020 abruptly shut down and deleted its DStv press portal where it has been hosted without bothering to warn or tell the media beforehand anything about it or what they need to do now.

TVwithThinus still access MultiChoice's DStv press portal hosted at https://press.dstv.com/login on Wednesday afternoon, and again on Wednesday night but by Thursday morning it was suddenly gone and deleted.

The login page, saved as a browser favourite simply returning a "404 Not Found" page without any explanation as to what happened or what's going on, causing massive stress and confusion under several in the media who are dependend on using the site to report and communicate about content on DStv's satellite pay-TV platform.

MultiChoice, unilaterally and without bothering to tell the media, dumped its DStv press portal without giving the press in South Africa no advance warning that it's shutting down its press portal, nor what they have to do,or any explanation why.

The user group - including journalists and editors online, working at newspapers, magazines, in radio and TV, and covering television and ranging from TV writers, TV critics, DJs and social media influencers - received no advance warning from MultiChoice that it is shutting down its press portal, nor what they have to do, or any explanation why.

It's unclear whether the DStv press portal contract termination - possibly the latest misguided and short-sighted cost-cutting measure inside MultiChoice - was ordered by Calvo Mawela, MultiChoice Group CEO, or Mark Rayner, MultiChoice South Africa CEO.

The ordered DStv press portal shutdown and resultant shock, fear and chaos under the media who had no idea that it would be happening and got no communication from MultiChoice about it, comes during a particularly sensitive time in South Africa with the growing Covid-19 novel coronavirus pandemic spreading in the country and globally and where the media in all spheres requires better and more communication - not less - than ever before.

The DStv press portal that already migrated to a new site once before, hosts an extremely precious and valuable archive  - constantly updated - that is a precious and highly-functional publicity material reservoir ranging from monthly schedules and highlight documents, show and cast publicity images, press releases and media statements, show and channel logos and a myriad of other useful information for channels ranging from Al Jazeera to Zee World.

Besides the information from third-part channels hosted on DStv, MultiChoice's DStv press portal carried information about all of M-Net's own packaged channels ranging from M-Net and Mzansi Magic, to 1Magic, to the carousels of M-Net Movies and kykNET channels.

In a instant on Thursday MultiChoice ripped it all away from South Africa's press without warning or any indication as to what they are supposed to do.

On Thursday TVwithThinus emailed and asked MultiChoice's corporate communications team headed by Joe Heshu, MultiChoice group executive for corporate affairs, and Reggy Moalusi, executive head of corporate affairs at MultiChoice South Africa, to please restore the DStv press portal.

They were told and reminded that the DStv poress portal is something that is crucially-important and used a lot by a lot of press in South Africa - many of whom won't yet realise that it's gone from where it used to be, with no idea of what's wrong when they suddenly and urgently need to access it.

TVwithThinus asked MultiChoice's communications team on Thursday - including MultiChoice SA CEO Mark Rayner and Yolisa Phahle, MultiChoice CEO for general entertainment, when the decision was made to remove and destroy the DStv press portal where it has been and where it has been hosted, and why this was not communicated to anybody who is highly dependent on it.

MultiChoice was also asked why the pay-TV operator decided to do away with the existing DStv press portal during such an extremely sensitive time and stressful period in South Africa due to the coronavirus pandemic when the South African government and others implored that as much information as possible be kept and made available to the media and the public.

By Friday afternoon at 14:00 there was no response yet from MultiChoice to any of the questions.

On Friday evening a MultiChoice representative in a phone call said that the DStv press portal has been moved to a new website. MultiChoice gave no explanation why this has happened or why it has been done, or why it has been done now.

It's unclear whether media knows they have to go to a new website, or have to take the time to register again. It's also highly unlikely that the richly populated publicity material, the "Latest News" section without having to search containing latest press releases and announcements, or archived material including monthly schedules and the vast collection of high-res images, will be available on a new site.

"If MultiChoice wanted to shut down or move the DStv press portal the very least they could have done would have been to inform the journalists and editors making use of it personally, and at least a month before the time. That is basic," a journalist and TV critic who uses the site constantly told TVwithThinus on Thursday evening.

"MultiChoice is absolutely beyond ridiculous".

Another user remarked: "I don't like the new one it's so empty".

Coronavirus: Bollywood goes on a break as Indian TV channels Star Life, Zee World and Glow TV switch to series repeats because of Covid-19.

by Thinus Ferreira

With Bollywood in lockdown multiple shows seen in South Africa across several Indian TV channels have been affected by the spreading global Covid-19 novel coronavirus pandemic with series on channels ranging from Star Life, Zee World and Glow TV that have run out of new episodes and been replaced by repeats.

On Star Life (DStv 167  / StarSat 550 / Openview 110) all new shows have the schedule skids since the studios in India and South Africa and their filming, dubbing process and distribution operations have all shuttered as part of national lockdown periods in both countries.

Star Life switched to a binge-block rebroadcast schedule from 1 April 2020 of already-aired series for the next to months until at least the end of May 2020 with A Perfect Lie, Family Affairs, Kulfi, Made for Each Other and The Inseparables that all abruptly stopped airing new episodes.

Once new episodes become available, the last few aired episodes of these shows will repeat again before new episodes are possibly shown. Star Life continues to show daily Bollywood films at 15:00

The Star Life prime time schedule has now changed to two episodes daily of The Crossroads at 18:00 until 19:00, followed by 5 consecutive episodes daily of Forever Yours until 21:30, and then 3 episodes daily of Chasing My Heart between 21:30 and 23:00.

With production and international content distribution from within India shut down, on Zee World (DStv 166) the just-started Jodha & Akbar has been removed from the schedule indefinitely. The telenovela Ring of Fire has also been removed and replaced by a rebroadcast of Gangaa at 20:00 with Jodha & Akbar replaced by a rebroadcast of Twist of Fate at 21:00.

A repeat of Mehek has replaced Lies of the Heart on weekdays at 17:00, while Lies of the Heart at 22:00 is a rebroadcast of the series.

New episodes are still available for the recently started Our Perfect Place broadcast daily at 18:00 in its usual timeslot and the second season of Deception which continue daily in the 19:00 timeslot.

The schedule of Glow TV (StarSat 570 / Openview 140) has also been dramatically impacted by the global Covid-19 national lockdowns and the inability to get content out of India.

Glow TV has switched to a programming strategy for now of repeats of the past two week's episodes of its Indian series True Love, This is Love and Young Love.

Coronavirus: Nat Geo's Genius Aretha postponed, FOX's Empire cut short without proper series finale, and M-Net's Billions and Black Monday getting mid-season breaks.

by Thinus Ferreira

As the impact of the spread of the global Covid-19 novel coronavirus increases in countries from the United States to South Africa more American-produced TV series are having to adjust with the shutdown of the TV industry now impacting National Geographic's Genius: Aretha, Showtime's Billions and Black Monday, and with FOX's Empire that will no longer have a proper series finale.

The biographical series, Genius: Aretha, with Cynthia Erivo in the lead role has been postponed and will no longer start in late-May 2020 on National Geographic (DStv 181 / StarSat 220) since the Fox21 Television Studios and Imagine Television Studios production shut down on 13 March with filming which hadn't completed. No new starting date exists.

"Production on National Geographic’s limited series Genius: Aretha remains suspended and it has become clear that the series will not be completed in time for our previously announced airdate," says National Geographic in a statement.

"We look forward to resuming work as soon as is possible and safe, and at that time will announce a new premiere date for later this year."

"We cannot wait to let Aretha's voice sing, and in the words of the Queen herself, 'Being the Queen is not all about singing, and being a diva is not all about singing. It has much to do with your service to people. And your social contributions to your community and your civic contributions as well.' "

"In that spirit, we wish all of our viewers well in these challenging times, particularly those who are working in our communities to keep us all safe."

Meanwhile FOX (DStv 125 / StarSat 131) already announced that it has been forced to postpone the 10th season finale of The Walking Dead zombie drama series.

AMC already pushed out the starting date of the spinoff series, Walking Dead: World Beyond that would have started on 12 April directly after the 10th season finale of The Walking Dead, also because of the coronavirus pandemic. AMC said that Walking Dead: World Beyond will now start "later this year". This series will be shown on SundanceTV (DStv 108) in South Africa.

Preproduction on the 11th season of The Walking Dead was already postponed as well.

Empire, with episodes of the 6th and final season currently on Thursdays at 20:45 on FOX (DStv 125 / StarSat 131) will also now end two episodes earlier with episode 18 on 7 May 2020 in South Africa instead of episode 20.

South African viewers are two weeks behind the United States and will see the 14th episode next week, with the promo for next week's 16th episode of Empire in America suddenly saying "Get ready for the shocking final three episodes of Empire", meaning that the series with Taraji P. Henson will end with the 18th episode.

The latest season of the Showtime drama series Billions (on M-Net (DStv 101) and Showmax) and Black Monday on 1Magic (DStv 103) haven't completed filming. The 5th season of Billions will show the first 7 episodes, and the second season of Black Monday will start but then end mid-season, with the rest of the episodes of both series that will be broadcast later.