Could alleged cheater Matthew Booth lose SuperSport commentator job after wife Sonia Booth reveals extramarital affair through Tupperware and cheesecake?

by Thinus Ferreira

The SuperSport football commentator Matthew Booth could lose his job after his wife Sonia Booth took to social media on Monday to accuse him of a nasty, long-running extramarital affair that is damaging his public image as a soccer legend.

On Monday, in a series of detailed posts on Instagram, Sonia Booth revealed and explained how she discovered that Matthew Booth is having an alleged extra-marital affair with another married woman, and how she went to the woman's house to collect her Tupperware and left it in their garage to find.

Sonia Booth said Matthew Booth baked a late-night cheesecake for his lover and used the couple's Tupperware to take it to his mistress house.

Last week MultiChoice and SuperSport announced that Matthew Booth would be a commentator for the magazine shows that SuperSport will broadcast on DStv as part of its 2022 FIFA World Cup coverage when the tournament starts in Qatar from 20 November.

On Monday Sonia Booth said that Matthew Booth has been cheating on her since 14 February 2022 and that she has had a discussion with the cheating woman's husband.

"This was start: 14 Feb 2022," Sonia Booth wrote in her post. She detailed how Matthew Booth allegedly wasted the couple's money on buying things for his mistress, buying her flowers, expensive gifts, taking her for lunches and travelling with her to various places and staying in hotels.

Sonia Booth explained how Matthew Booth allegedly baked a cheesecake on Thursday 3 November and that they thought it was for their son's birthday - only to discover the next morning that the cake was gone. Matthew Booth took it in Tupperware to his lover's house.

Sonia Booth went to the other woman's husband and took her Tupperware back, and left it in the garage to make sure that William Booth sees it when he parks his car.

Matthew Booth has not made any public statement yet about the allegations of his extramarital affair and cheating on Sonia Booth.

SuperSport has not made any statement about Matthew Booth's involvement with SuperSport's commentary coverage for the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

MultiChoice signals interim profit downturn, negatively impacted by R700 million increase for DStv decoder subsidies and weaker rand.

by Thinus Ferreira

MultiChoice is warning the market and investors that its interim profits will be less for the six months until the end of September 2022, negatively impacted by things like spending R700 million more on DStv decoder subsidies for the 2022 FIFA World Cup, the weakening of the rand against the American dollar, and struggling with foreign exchange losses trying to get cash out of Nigeria.

In a trading statement on Monday, MultiChoice that will publish its interim financial results this Thursday 10 November, warned that while MultiChoice is seeing ongoing DStv subscriber growth, it will see lower earnings per share during the period of 1 April to 30 September 2022.

While MultiChoice previously reported earnings per share of R3.17, it now expects it to be between R3.71 and R3.87 lower, meaning a MultiChoice net loss. 

"The financial performance for the current period benefited from continued subscriber growth, an ongoing reduction in Rest of Africa (ROA) trading losses and further savings generated from the group's established cost optimisation programme," MultiChoice said in the trading statement.

"This was however tempered by a R700 million increase in decoder subsidies ahead of the upcoming 2022 FIFA World Cup."

"The reduction in earnings and headline earnings per share is primarily due to higher unrealised foreign exchange losses on the translation of the group's USD liabilities (including transponder leases) stemming from the sharp depreciation in the ZAR against the USD towards the end of the current period."

"This is further impacted by an increase in foreign exchange losses associated with the repatriation of cash from Nigeria at the parallel rate – these exchange losses are considered to be of a temporary nature."

"Compared to the prior period, the group expects earnings per share for the current period to be between R3.71 and R3.87 lower than the prior period's reported earnings per share of R3.17. Headline earnings per share for the current period is expected to be between R4.06 and R4.20 lower than the prior period's reported headline earnings per share of 356 ZAR cents," MultiChoice said.

SABC's prime time TV audience share falls to below a third in 2021/2022 as just 18% of households bother to pay their SABC TV Licence fee.

by Thinus Ferreira

At less than a fifth, just 18% of South African TV households the broadcaster happens to be aware of,  still bother to pay their annual SABC TV licence - as SABC TV viewership and ratings in prime time continue to tank and have now fallen to below a third of the total audience share as viewers abandon what it's showing.

According to the SABC's latest financial report of 2021/2022, only 18.3% of South African TV households on the broadcaster's database still bothered to pay their R265 annual SABC TV Licence - while the SABC spent even more millions during the financial year trying to get South Africans to pay up.

After billing R4.446 billion in total SABC TV Licence fees during its 2021/2022 financial year, the SABC made only R815 million - meaning that a whopping 81.7% of people who have or once had a SABC TV Licence are simply not paying it, known as the fee evasion rate.

Meanwhile, the SABC spent R73 million rand on SABC TV Licence fee collection, which increased R9 million from R64 million in the previous financial year - meaning that the SABC's collection cost rate climbed further from 8.1% to 8.9%.

The SABC says that the "current depressed economic environment resulted in lower collections than anticipated".

The SABC says in its financial report that it wants to do away with the SABC TV Licence and replace it with a levy which it wants private pay-TV operators like MultiChoice to help collect from DStv subscribers - especially DStv subscribers who have TV sets which the SABC doesn't know about and represent millions of TV households.

The SABC has a "known" SABC TV Licence database of just 10.5 million TV households. In reality, there are many millions more South African households with one or more TV sets - households which the broadcaster is not aware of.

The SABC wants to do away with the SABC TV Licence fees and has submitted proposals for a "technology-neutral, device-independent, public media levy to replace the existing television

licence, exempting the indigent", which it wants MultiChoice to help collect as the dominant pay-TV service in South Africa, on the public broadcaster's behalf.

SABC's prime time viewership problem

While the vast majority of South African TV households no longer care to pay a SABC TV Licence, the SABC's dwindling audience in prime time television has fallen further - plunging to below a third of total viewership share.

Just 31% of South African viewers still bothered to watch something on the SABC's TV channels during the 2021/2022 financial year, down further from 35.8% in the previous year. 

It means that two-thirds of viewers now actively avoid, don't want to watch, or can't watch anything on the SABC's SABC1, SABC2 or SABC3 television channels.

The SABC failed in its performance period share targets for each of its TV channels during the financial year, with SABC1 (target: 27%) reaching only 15.47%, SABC2 (target: 12%) reaching only 5.23% due to competition from kykNET (DStv 144) and e.tv, and SABC3 (target: 5%) only managing a paltry 2.11%.

The SABC blames a "combination of a lack of key local properties in key slots, poor marketing, and staff shortages affected performance during the year" and that "aggressive competitors and poor marketing explain the performance achieved". 

For SABC3 "the loss of key local properties without timeous replacements and the re-launch of the channel during Covid-19 adversely impacted the performance of the channel".

SABC3 underdelivered on its target for local content in prime time, while SABC1 continued to repeat YO.TV and as a result the channel underdelivered on local children's quotas.SABC2 repeated children's content and licensed some fresh content, which led to the under-delivery on children's content as well.

The second local drama series for SABC3 was delayed and will only be delivered to the channel at the end of 2022, with SABC3 that is licensing local content from other suppliers to try and help reduce the non-delivery gap.

As a a result, the SABC made less money from advertising since it had fewer viewers. "Advertising revenue declined by 8% due to the decline in audience share," the broadcaster says. 

The SABC's audience share performance problems are due to the "reduced amount of fresh content during the day, as well as less-competitive titles over the weekend that are limited by provided budgets as well as available revenue".

Omuhle Gela out at SABC1's Uzalo in contract fight, Stained Glass TV show not shut down due to unfilmed scenes.

by Thinus Ferreira

Actress Omuhle Gela has quit her job at Uzalo this week over a contract fight with the producers after just five months working on South Africa and SABC1's most-watched TV series.

Omuhle Gela who appeared as Nomaswazi, Njinji's (Thembi Nyandeni) daughter became upset after the Stained Glass TV production allegedly decided to change her contract from what she agreed on initially.

On her Instagram page, Omuhle Gela on Friday said "I've unfortunately made the decision to leave the show with immediate effect". 

The actress who had roles in SABC1's Generations - The Legacy as well as on Mzansi Magic's (DStv 161) Zabalaza and The Queen and e.tv's Umlilo, is known for her role as Busi Motsamai in SABC2's Venda soap Muvhango. She relocated from Johannesburg to Durban to join the Stained Glass TV show.

Nomfundo Zondi, Uzalo publicist, confirmed to TVwithThinus that Omuhle Gela quit over a contract fight.

"Omuhle Gela, who portrays the role of Nomaswazi Magwaza will no longer be part of SABC1's hit show Uzalo due to not agreeing to contractual terms."

"We will update you about future developments regarding this. Stained Glass wishes to thank Omuhle once again for being a part of our family and we wish her success in her future endeavours."

Nomfundo Zondi said there's no truth to rumours that started circulating that Uzalo had to shut down because of Omuhle Gela's abrupt exit from the Durban-based soap since scenes in which her character appeared could no longer no be filmed.

"Just to clarify, production did not shut down or halt," Nomfundo Zondi says.

Uzalo remains the most-watched show in South Africa and drew 6.35 million viewers to the KwaMashu-set series in September.

HBO's Westworld cancelled after 4 seasons.

by Thinus Ferreira

HBO announced late on Friday that it has cancelled its science fiction drama series Westworld after four seasons which was seen in Africa on M-Net (DStv 101) and MultiChoice's video streamer Showmax.

The TV series of which just the first season cost reportedly cost $100 million, was based on Michael Crichton's science fiction film of 1973 about a futuristic amusement park where self-conscious androids start to kill and escape and made its debut in 2016 - but to ever-dwindling ratings which fell from 12 to 4 million over the course of its run.

Westworld's ratings fell sharply in the United States as viewers and critics complained that the story became too dense and confusing, with the show that has now fallen victim to Warner Bros. Discovery's ongoing cost-cutting across the company.

Hope however remains that HBO might eventually commission a standalone made-for-TV film for Westworld to wrap up the story like what eventually happened with HBO's Deadwood: The Movie.

The Westworld husband-and-wife showrunners Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy originally envisioned Westworld to run for at least six seasons and have been outspoken that they would have liked to do a fifth and final season to wrap up the story of the android show.

Now the series won't have a proper conclusion, ending with the fourth season which had what will now be its series finale, three months ago.

"Over the past four seasons, Lisa and Jonah have taken viewers on a mind-bending odyssey, raising the bar at every step. We are tremendously grateful to them, along with their immensely talented cast, producers and crew, and all of our partners at Kilter Films, Bad Robot and Warner Bros. Television. It's been a thrill to join them on this journey," HBO said in a statement announcing Westworld's cancellation.

Kilter Films in a statement says "Making Westworld has been one of the highlights of our careers. We are deeply grateful to our extraordinary cast and crew for creating these indelible characters and brilliant worlds".

"We've been privileged to tell these stories about the future of consciousness - both human and beyond - in the brief window of time before our AI overlords forbid us from doing so."

Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav on the company's latest earnings call told investors that the company is going to be leaning into the strength of its existing franchises like DC Comics' Superman and is also open to working with author J.K. Rowling on expanding the Harry Potter-franchise. Henry Cavill recently announced that he would be returning to the role of Superman. 

Launch plan for SABC+ in advanced stage as broadcaster's 'missing piece' in its digital TV strategy.

by Thinus Ferreira

The projected roll-out and launch plan of SABC+ as the South African public broadcaster's own planned video streaming service - something the broadcaster calls a "missing piece" in its digital TV strategy - is in an advanced stage although no specific date is known yet.

As global and local video streaming services are making inroads in trying to sew up subscribers in South Africa in the hotly contested over-the-top (OTT) players space, the SABC says that plans to launch its own video streaming platform are in an advanced stage.

The SABC's own public access video streaming service which it plans to bring to market within months will function in a similar way to the BBC's iPlayer in the United Kingdom.

The SABC initially said that it would be launching its own streaming service before the end of March 2022 but failed to do so. 

The SABC then pushed the launch of its streamer, tentatively called SABC+, to the next financial year, with Ian Plaatjes, SABC COO, who said that the SABC's streamer would launch in the third quarter of its current financial year, meaning between October and December 2022.

The SABC also said that with the launch of its streamer, it would also debut new SABC TV channels which will be carried on its streaming services, together with existing ones.

Asked for an update on the SABC's streaming service and what the envisioned launch date for the service is, Gugu Ntuli, SABC spokesperson told TVwithThinus that "the SABC will communicate in due course".

When the SABC's streaming service eventually launches it will be what is known as a late-market entrant and will face an even bigger challenge to lure users in a market where South African consumers already have access to MultiChoice's Showmax, The Walt Disney Company's Disney+ since earlier this year, Netflix SA, Amazon Prime Video, VIU, TelkomONE, e.tv's eVOD, Britbox and AcornTV, as well as a few smaller services.

Paramount is supposed to launch its Paramount+ in 2023 in South Africa, while NBCUniversal's Peacock isn't yet available in the territory. Warner Bros. Discovery has no date for a possible launch in South Africa of its combined HBO Max and discovery+ streamers which will be rebranded and getting a new name.

In its recent latest financial report for 2021/2022, the former SABC board chairperson Bongumusa Makhathini, says that the public broadcaster remained "fully committed" to two digital television projects, one being "the launch of an SABC streaming platform".

He notes that "the SABC will implement an over-the-top (OTT) streaming strategy, with the short-term goal of leveraging online and mobile platforms to allow customers to access all SABC content and services anywhere, anytime, and on any device".

"The streaming platform will consolidate all SABC television and radio content for IP transmission over mobile and web. The potential for this platform is limitless, and remains one of the missing pieces of the SABC's distribution strategy."

"Currently, the SABC is a 'pure-play' content provider that is required to do distribution deals with third-party platforms, including Sentech, OpenView and TelkomONE. By procuring its own streaming platform, the SABC will be able to control its destiny in this regard," he says.

"It is our sincere hope that telecommunications companies will make good on their promise to drop data prices in lieu of the additional spectrum obtained through the digital dividend. At current rates, our poorer households cannot afford to stream SABC video or audio services on their mobile devices."

The SABC's 2021/2022 financial report states that the broadcaster's "plans to launch its own OTT streaming platform are advanced" and that it "will go to market during the 2022/2023 financial year.

Once it does launch "SABC content and channels on this platform will provide audiences with more choice and free-to-air services" the broadcaster says.

SHOCKING SMACKDOWN. WWE wrestling slamdunked away from SuperSport linear on DStv and to MultiChoice's Showmax streamer as its new home in multi-year contract extension.

by Thinus Ferreira

With tepid viewership on SuperSport in South Africa for WWE and a massive drop in buzz since the American wrestling entertainment franchise jumped a few years ago from eMedia's e.tv to pay-TV, MultiChoice and SuperSport are shunting WWE away from its linear channels on DStv to its streaming service Showmax. 

SuperSport took over WWE from e.tv in September 2017 but over the past five years buzz and ratings for WWE on DStv were nowhere near the viewership it once had on the free-to-air channel.

In a new multi-year contract extension WWE is now pushed off SuperSport where a linear wrestling TV channel was created specifically for it, to Showmax which has an even smaller potential audience and viewership as a streaming service.

The result is that even fewer viewers will be watching WWE wrestling in South Africa and Africa, down from the number of people who watched as DStv subscribers on SuperSport, and down from the viewers who watched when WWE was on e.tv.

SuperSport will continue to broadcast live weekly episodes of shows such as Raw, SmackDown and NXT on a linear SuperSport channel, as well as WWE's premium live events.

MultiChoice and SuperSport are not specifying whether the WWE TV channel on channel 128 on DStv is getting terminated and removed but it wouldn't be surprising if the bulk of WWE content will now sit on Showmax.

The WWE's new deal with SuperSport to house WWE content on MultiChoice's Showmax is similar to what the WWE Network has done in the United States, where it has moved its content in a licensing agreement to NBCUniversal's Peacock video streaming service. 

WWE has done the same in Australia where its wrestling is now on Foxtel's Binge streaming service, and in Indonesia and the Philippines with Disney+ Hotstar.

In a statement Matt Drew, WWE senior vice president of international, says "Showmax Pro is the market leader and a perfect home for WWE content. By delivering our premium live events including WrestleMania, we believe this partnership will expand our audience and deliver even more to WWE fans throughout the region".

Barry Dubovsky, MultiChoice Connected Video chief operating officer, says in the statement "Adding WWE to the Showmax platform is an exciting development that we know our entertainment and sport-loving African subscribers are going to enjoy, making WWE even more accessible and affordable".

Hilariously, Yolisa Phahle, MultiChoice Connected Video chief executive officer, is attributed the exact same drop-in quote in the WWE and MultiChoice press release issued to American media, saying "Adding WWE to the Showmax platform is an exciting development that we know our entertainment and sport-loving African subscribers are going to enjoy, making WWE even more accessible and affordable".

SABC2's Muvhango cast and crew on another 'stay-away' at Word of Mouth Productions after they have again not been paid by the SABC.

by Thinus Ferreira

The cast and crew of SABC2's prime-time soap Muvhango have once again not been paid, this time for October, with actors and workers behind-the-scenes who have stopped working and have started a "stay-away" until they've received their money from Duma Ndlovu's Word of Mouth Productions show.

Muvhango staff on the public broadcaster's Venda soap were told to put their debit orders on hold, with promises that they would be paid on Friday 4 November.

The Kwathole Conexion PR company repping Muvhango didn't respond to a media enquiry TVwithThinus made earlier this week about the unpaid cast.

Gugu Ntuli, SABC spokesperson, in response to a media query, says "The SABC can confirm that there was a delay in the October payment to the production house. The production house has been notified accordingly and the SABC apologises for any inconvenience caused".

In an internal memo from the SABC to Word of Mouth Productions also sent to staffers and actors, the broadcaster said "This memo serves to inform you, the producer, of a delay in the end of October payments. Please be advised that payments will be effected on Friday 4 November 2022."

"Kindly accept our sincerest apologies. We apologise for any inconvenience caused and we further note the level of stress that the late notification may cause".

Muvhango workers said they won't return to work on the new season before they haven't received payment.

Over the past month the SABC has been busy with a national content roadshow, visiting various provinces to try and drum up renew support from content producers to try and persuade them to work with the public broadcaster again and to pitch and bring projects to the SABC.

The SABC is trying to mend the South African production industry's broken trust in the broadcaster after a period of large and small independent producers have been left in the lurch after not getting paid by the SABC - sometimes for months - and producers who have had shows abruptly cancelled despite contracts.

Producers who no longer want to work with the SABC have tried to switch to doing projects for streamers like Netflix in South Africa, MultiChoice and the various M-Net packaged TV channels on DStv and prefer to no longer work with the SABC.

In December 2019 Muvhango also experienced a production shutdown for several days, also due to non-payment of the show's cast and crew for two months in October and November, which Word of Mouth Productions and the SABC blamed on each other.

ALSO READ: Production set to resume on SABC2's Muvhango after embarrassing 3-day shutdown following the non-payment of its cast and crew that Word of Mouth Productions and the SABC blame on each other.

Carte Blanche exposes Real Housewives of Pretoria Mel Viljoen's alleged Tammy Taylor 'Made in the USA' fake products.

by Thinus Ferreira

The Real Housewives of Pretoria cast member Mel Viljoen and her husband Peet Viljoen is once again embroiled in scandal following another Carte Blanche investigative exposé tracking down and revealing how her Tammy Taylor SA business is allegedly printing fake "Made in the USA" Tammy Taylor labels in South Africa added to imported bottles and jars, allegedly filled with generic beauty products bought in bulk elsewhere.

On Sunday night the investigative magazine show Carte Blanche on M-Net (DStv 101) did a follow-up to its 2020 and 2021 reports on Tammy Taylor SA, this time talking to people who claimed and explained how they're allegedly being swindled out of millions of rand and their businesses after acquiring a Tammy Taylor franchise.

Carte Blanche also reported on how Tammy Taylor SA is allegedly selling and passing off fake "Made in the USA" rebranded Tammy Taylor products in imported bottles and jars, with labels printed in South Africa which are allegedly filled with generic beauty products bought in Europe. 

Tammy Taylor is run by Melany Viljoen and her disbarred lawyer husband Peet Viljoen, who appears in the new Afrikaans spinoff of NBCUniversal's The Real Housewives reality show franchise, Die Real Housewives of Pretoria on kykNET (DStv 144).

Carte Blanche's Sunday night exposé tracked down two of the companies in Midrand and Pretoria who confirmed that they have printed product labels and bottles for Tammy Taylor SA that look like Tammy Taylor in America, containing the words "Made in the USA", after Tammy Taylor Nails in California in the United States cancelled the Master Licence Agreement. 

Tammy Taylor Nails Incorporated, a company registered in the United States, stopped supplying Tammy Taylor SA with products in April. Since the Master Licence Agreement was cancelled, Carte Blanche reported that the Viljoens have no right to use the Tammy Taylor brand name.

"Basically what we do is, they send us the artwork and we print directly onto the bottles," one of the printers told Carte Blanche presenter Masa Kekana. The counterfeit bottles contain the details of Tammy Taylor Nails, Inc.

A businesswoman Happy Simelane, explained and showed Carte Blanche how she paid R2.8 million in cash to become a franchisee for a Tammy Taylor Menlyn Maine franchise store in Pretoria in July 2021 but was never even given the keys to her store by Tammy Taylor SA.

"I was never given access to the bank account, or even have a key to say 'Happy this is your store," Happy Simelane explained. 

Mel Viljoen in a written response to Carte Blanche stated that "We have not done or taken anything that Happy did not agree to in writing. Sadly Happy did not honor her agreement with the brand. Happy Simelane were given ampule time to remedy her breach." (sic)

After Peet Viljoen in Instagram messages during the past week slammed Carte Blanche for its latest reporting, Carte Blanche in a statement told TVwithThinus that "Carte Blanche rejects the allegations made publicly by the Viljoens and stands by its story".