Today's interesting TV stories to read from TV with Thinus - 24 March 2015

You don't want DStv and StarSat to sell their TV channels individually.
If MultiChoice and On Digital Media and StarTimes Media SA s"unbundle" their pay-TV channels, guess what ... you are going to be paying a lot more for DStv and StarSat.
Meanwhile Canada will offer pay-TV subscribers a la carte pay-TV channels from next year - but it will mean higher "per-subscriber carriage fees".


MultiChoice to add a new TV channel for Southern Africa soon.
The new TV channel from M-Net on DStv will be for movie producers to broadcast their local content across the Southern Africa region. The new DStv channel will be in standard definition (SD) and M-Net is looking for movies from localfilmmakers.

"The SABC is now a propaganda machine."
The COPE political party says the SABC is no longer an authentic public broadcaster but increasingly a propaganda machine for the ruling party.


Meanwhile the SABC is getting ready to fire 2 more SABC board members.
SABC board members Rachel Kalidass and Ronnie Lubisi received letters in March accusing them of fraudulent conduct and they've been threatened with suspension. The Communication Workers' Union (CWU) says it is extremely concerned with what is going on at the SABC and the minister of communications, Faith Muthambi's, interference.
Meanwhile former SABC board member Lumko Mtimde who resigned in 2013 could be making a comeback as SABC board member - he is one of 97 candidates nominated for the new position after Ellen Zandile Tshabalala's disgraceful exit.


Anger keeps building over massive 20% and DStv price increase in Zambia.
Meanwhile a consumer watchdog body in Zambia says DStv's massive price hike from 1 April is too steep and untimely.

Meanwhile Sky is hiking its subscription fees from June.
Sky usually increases its subscriptions in September every year but is now starting to do it twice a year.


Jeremy Clarkson says he's been fired by the BBC.
The star of Top Gear on BBC Entertainment (DStv 120) tells an audience at a charity auction he was sacked by the BBC. In an obscenity-laced tirade Jeremy Clarkson said the BBC "f*cked up" Top Gear.
Meanwhile BBC Worldwide has been forced to cancel the first of the Top Gear Live shows, with the Norway one which is getting postponed after Jeremy Clarkson's "fracas".
Meanwhile The Hollywood Reporter asks whether the BBC will really fire Jeremy Clarkson.


Sky News (DStv 402) reporter "devastated".
Martin Brunt tells inquest he is "devastated" after death of woman he interviewed who was an online troll.

More people fired at E! Entertainment (DStv 124).
Betsy Rott, Tim Rosta and Leigh Anne Gardner are out together with "virtually everyone in the TV specials department".

Downton Abbey's upcoming 6th season will be its last.
TVLine reports that the new 6th season of the ITV drama shown on BBC Entertainment (DStv 120) will end after the 6th series.

Masechaba Lekalake done with Ekse on e.tv.
Her final episode of the local talk show on e.tv which saw production upheaval behind the scenes, will be on Thursday, 26 March.

Zuku wants DStv to pay penalties in content sharing fight.
Zuku TV from Wananchi has asked Kenya's Competition Authority to force MultiChoice Kenya to resell some of the rights to its exclusive content and to pay penalties

REVIEW. The surreal 2015 South African Film and Television Awards remains bad although it is getting better ... as many questions remain.

Although still filled with cringe worthy mistakes and problems it wasn't as bad as in the past - which means there was improvement - when the 9th South African Film and Television Awards (Saftas) was broadcast live on Sunday night on SABC2 from Gallagher Estate in Midrand.

The National Film and Video Foundation's (NFVF) "annual" - although there's years where it didn't take place at all - 9th Saftas aimed at honouring South Africa's film and TV industry, once again disappointed, although some things were better.

The 2015 Saftas again had film and TV industry insiders as well as viewers roll their eyes.

There was strange nominees (several in wrong categories like Jeremy Maggs of eNCA nominated for a variety show), little attention to detail (naming host Loyiso Gola "Loyisa" for instance and blatantly omitting noteworthy names from the In Memoriam tribute), panning over empty seats, sound issues and other production mistakes like moments of black screen with just a SABC2 logo.

All in all the 2015 Saftas, again done by Clive Morris Productions, was a better live TV production and broadcast than in previous years with less mistakes and better pre-production - although this NFVF initiative was still far from perfect and still lacks credibility and quality.

The comfort of just a black screen with just a SABC2 channel logo in the corner means that you're of course watching yet another attempt at a live South African TV awards show.

The 2015 Saftas stage and stage design by Michael Gill, a 360 degree filmed and lit square creation was the best yet seen at the Saftas in its nine years of existence - functional (although it took some winners long to reach and walk over the stage; perhaps more an incorrect seat plan issue), gleaming and beautiful.

The 2015 Saftas also - surprise! - finished on time (only two minutes late) compared to the overrun of hours in previous years - a huge improvement; although it was still bogged down by endless talk from figureheads and government officials.

Saftas host Loyiso Gola didn't quite sparkle but was a huge improvement on the inept hosts and presenters of previous years.

It again took about half an hour before the first award was even handed out to a winner, with the Saftas still not realising that for a made-for-television awards show viewers tune in to see, and will only stay, for winners being announced and musical performances - not for long speeches.

For an awards show giving itself the label and theme this year of "coming of age" - a hollow moniker referring to South Africa's "21 years" of a film industry (although its actually much older, in fact the 2nd oldest film industry in the world) - the NFVF, Saftas organising committee and the Saftas producers didn't bother to include any clip show or retrospective of highlights of the work and the people from this 21 years.

The 2015 Saftas' most poignant moment came close to the end when e.tv's Scandal! actress, Masasa Mbangeni, dressed in red, won as best actress in a TV soap.

"We all want to be seen," she said."By giving me this award you say you see me. And you say that I'm here. So thank you."

Marius Weyers received a lifetime achievement award and said: "It's an incredible time to be in this industry".

The Saftas, the Saftas judges and the Saftas organising committee have problems that need to be addressed and which still haven't been with NFVF CEO Zama Mkosi in charge.

Zama Mkosi always says the Saftas will be a night to remember. It's true - it's remembered because it's perpetually bad.

Besides English and Afrikaans there were again this year almost no shows as nominees in other languages. Meanwhile South Africa has 11 official languages and TV and film are done in other languages.

The best actor nominees in a TV drama for this year's Saftas were all white. What the Saftas and Saftas judges unconsciously signal to viewers and the industry - whether intentionally or not - is that in a whole year there wasn't a single black deserving actor in a local TV drama who was good enough to be a nominee - and that is simply not true.

Similarly the nominees for best actress in a lead role in a TV comedy category were all black.

Is this the Saftas' form of TV apartheid? What is the overriding diversity rules for the Saftas, if there are any, and when do the judges and judging chairpersons Roberta Durrant and Jerry Mofokeng step in to ensure there's actually equal representation in every category?

Interestingly "Loyisa" as the 2015 Saftas named host Loyiso Gola made jokes about Oscar Pistorius being the biggest news story of the past year. Yet the Saftas, ironically, had not even one show or programme which covered that months long news story as a nominee in any category.

Similarly, although it fell in the judging period, the NFVF and Saftas couldn't create any category or include a single thing regarding any of the shows or coverage during the passing of Nelson Mandela.

This period saw some stellar documentaries, programming and coverage across several TV channels - brilliant work which will now never be recognised.

It was also somewhat meta-media and awkwardly self-referential when Loyiso Gola said that finally South African shows are being recognised internationally. It's actually only been his Late News News on eNCA and e.tv which got that honour.

The Saftas does not have a category for Best TV documentary (apparently South Africa doesn't have documentaries that are good enough that matter).

Yet TV trash like The Comedy Central Roast of Kenny Kunene was a nominee in a superfluous category like Best international format show while the Saftas also ended up shocking shortlisting advertiser-funded productions (AFP's) like Clover’s Little Big Cook Off and Tropika Island of Treasure as nominees for best reality and game shows. 


Surely South African television produce better TV than this?

The Saftas remain surreal and still comes across as amateurly done, although there's been improvements. 

Hopefully the Saftas can become more transparent, more representative and more professional which is what the industry - and in the end the consumers and viewers of local film and television - deserve.

The NFVF's shameful 2015 Saftas again totally botches the In Memoriam section; blatantly "forgets" several notable names for the segment.

On Sunday night on SABC2 it was once again too difficult and cumbersome for the 2015 South African Film and Television Awards to get its annually botched In Memoriam segment right, with the Saftas which again blatantly left several names off the list.

The 2015 Saftas under the custodianship of the National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF) and the Saftas organising committee with the awards show ceremony on TV produced by Clive Morris Productions, again messed up by failing to give proper attention to those the industry lost the past year in its tribute and shamefully omitted names as happened in the past.

While viewers watched a piano and violin tribute at the 9th South African Film and Television Awards as the names scrolled across TV screens and across the backdrop of the Michael Gill designed stage at Gallagher Estate, the Saftas and producers left out several noteworthy industry stalwarts who had passed away.

There was no mention of the SABC cameraman Amos Sibongile Mabuza, SABC Ndebele news anchor Mhlekwa Mahlangu or soccer legend turned SuperSport presenter Isaac "Shakes" Kungwane.

The shameful 2015 Saftas blatantly left out - or forgot - about filmmaker Nelson "Nana Mahomo, stage designer Johan Engels; actor, writer and director Glyn Jones, eNCA (DStv 403) cameraman Elelwani "Dot Com" Rampfumedzi and the former Generations actress Nathi Rula.

The Umoja narrator Penuel "Hope" Ndaba who passed away in December 2014 wasn't "important" enough to get an In Memoriam mention at the NFVF's Saftas.

Writer Nadine Gordimer got an honourable and deserved mention; however the Saftas blatantly and shockingly excluded writer and critic Dan Jacobson, Andre P Brink, Mafika Pascal Gwala and Chris van Wyk.

It's unacceptable and pathetic that the NFVF, the Saftas organising committee and the Saftas year after year are unable to proper honour those who've passed away in a purported awards show supposedly there to honour those in South Africa's film and TV industry.

If you can't get it right, stop doing it. 

Doing it shoddily and the Saftas producers botching something like the In Memoriam segment year after year (which isn't difficult to get right, complete and accurate) does an incredible amount of damage.

The 2015 South African Film and Television Awards keeps getting worse - this year in fact you won't even find it in the TV schedule listings.

The amateur awards show, the 2015 South African Film and Television Awards (Saftas) is set to be broadcast tonight - live on SABC2 - but looking at TV schedules you wouldn't know: it's not even listed this year meaning viewers will care even less.

With the National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF) which couldn't be bothered to ensure the 2015 Saftas' broadcasting details are in schedules issued to the media, and with SABC2 which couldn't be bothered in the slightest to send out an updated SABC2 schedule for Sunday, you'd be hard pressed to find any SABC2 schedule in any magazine or newspaper listing and telling viewers that the awards ceremony is taking place and on SABC2.

On Friday not the SABC's online schedules where SABC2 is listed had the Saftas showing for Sunday 22 March, nor did MultiChoice's EPG on SABC2 show any trace of it.

It means that people like me leaving their homes on Friday for the weekend and setting their weekend recordings - couldn't even record it even if they wanted to or knew that it was supposed to be on SABC2 around 19:30 or 20:00 on Sunday.

(If you think there's going to be Setswana and Sotho news on SABC2 at 19:30 guess again. It will be Saftas red carpet coverage with Ayanda-Allie Paine and Jen Su - but nobody in the world would ever know that.)

Look at Friday newspapers, Saturday's ones and even Sundays papers today - not a mention of the Saftas on a SABC2 schedule grid of this terrible awards show trying to "honour" local film and television.

It's yet another sign of how the South African Film and Television Awards keeps regressing and getting worse - in 2015 it's not even making TV listings and printed schedules this year like in the past.

I type up TV schedules for a living. By hand. Daily. For this Sunday, SABC2 couldn't be bothered to issue an updated programming change for something one would presume the SABC and SABC2 would want viewers to watch and want viewers to tune to SABC2 for.

Why are basic things not done and why is standard-set practices not taking place and happening when it comes to the Saftas year after year after year, and why does it keep getting worse?

Another example: Who is the host of the 2015 Saftas? (Pssst, it will be Loyiso Gola).

SABC2 broadcasting the Saftas this year, again produced for TV by Clive Morris Productions, couldn't even put out a very basic press release or statement to announce it - neither did the NFVF release a statement nor the Saftas' PR and publicity company Listen Up getting paid by the NFVF to actually communicate with the press and send the media information.

Although painful and painfully late, at least in previous years the press were officially told and knew who the main presenter or presenters of the Saftas would be.

Also this year: Not a single word from the NFVF, SABC2, the Saftas or Listen Up on the red carpet presenters - something else that grudgingly were at least announced in previous years before the awards show. This year ... nothing.

And another part of the overall Saftas puzzle which signals how it keeps regressing and remains a last minute, rushed, badly organised affair.

On Wednesday 18 March - only four days before Sunday's awards ceremony - I suddenly/finally/co-incidentally/surprisingly got an invitation to the 2015 Saftas (no communication or word or details regarding pre-show media coverage or red carpet accreditation.) Really Saftas, in what world?

In a universe where you compete with things like a Big Brother Mzansi's live launch (which was actually moved out of the way and a week earlier to be out of the way of Miss South Africa 2015 next Sunday) and other events happening at the same time (and set weeks before) and properly communicated and the press invited, the South African Film and Television Awards has a really long way to go before it will be considered remotely professional.

The Oscars and the Emmys (and the Saftas purports to try and be the "Emmys" of South Africa) communicate with press and the media - even in South Africa - constantly and months in advance.

I get emails and media statements and press information and accreditation requests months before from them. With the National Film and Video Foundation and the Saftas everything is always last minute.

How do you not laugh at something like the Saftas which emails a throwaway-looking invitation just 4 days before the actual event?

The NFVF, the Saftas organising committee, NFVF CEO and Saftas chairperson Zama Mkosi need to do more to communicate better - and to build better relationships with South Africa's press, TV and film critics and journalists covering not just them, but the Saftas.

They need to do more to make the Saftas more transparent and to bring legitimacy to the Saftas - something this awards show doesn't have and won't get if the very basic basics don't improve.

Every year I hear from several production companies and producers complaining, and people who are upset and angry at the way the Saftas operate. They're too scared to speak up and speak out out of fear of being blacklisted.

I listen to what they all say, and to a very large degree I agree with their complaints and issues. Add to those the myriad of small things not being done, and not being done properly, and you end up with the amateur mess the Saftas ends up being every year.

And it starts with a lot of small things like having a programme listed in a TV schedule, properly announcing the presenters, properly announcing the nominees without spelling mistakes and other trashy errors.

I've been to and attended the Saftas a few times in years gone by. It was bad, but I always had hope. It's gone from bad to worse over the past few year - but when it comes to the Saftas I still have hope.

I want the Saftas to be good. I want the Saftas to be a legitimate, real representation of great work done in a year in South Africa's film and television industry and have those people and production companies be honoured for it.

And being able to feel they legitimately deserve the award and recognition.

It is still not happening.

Why is it so difficult for the NFVF and the Saftas to get right?

The choice of British TV programming expanding as MultiChoice adds the ITV Choice channel to DStv from 5 May.

There's more British TV programming than just the BBC, and from 5 May South African and the rest of Africa's DStv subscribers will get a bigger choice when the global British TV channel ITV Choice (DStv 123) becomes available on MultiChoice's DStv.

When ITV Choice, from ITV Studios Global Entertainment, launches in May it will be the first time since the closure of Carlton Select at the end of March 2003 that there will be competition on DStv in terms of general British entertainment television channels.

The British demise of Carlton Select exactly 12 years ago left only BBC Prime, later renamed BBC Entertainment (DStv 120), as the sole channel in the general British entertainment category.

From May ITV Choice, a commercial general entertainment TV channel broadcast globally in 40 countries, will instantly become competition for the BBC Worldwide supplied BBC Entertainment which has come in for criticism for showing old programming and taking too long to broadcast episodes of international hits like Downton Abbey which in the United Kingdom is actually an ITV shown and ITV Studios produced show.

It's in fact likely that over time several TV shows from ITV Studios currently seen on other DStv TV channels in Africa, ranging from The X Factor UK and Britain's Got Talent on M-Net, to Downton Abbey and Mr Selfridge on BBC Entertainment will migrate from those channels to ITV Choice.

Current BBC Entertainment shown programming like The Only Way is Essex, Who Wants to be a Millionaire UK, The Cube and M-Net's Broadchurch are actually shown in the United Kingdom on the commercial free-to-air channel ITV.

On MultiChoice, ITV Choice will be for DStv Premium subscribers across Africa only, with some programming like the popular British soaps Coronation Street and Emmerdale which will see episodes broadcast within 48 hours after it was shown in the United Kingdom.

ITV Choice says all other programming will be broadcast "very close" to UK transmission dates.

Although ITV Choice says the channel is broadcast in high definition (HD) it's not clear whether MultiChoice will broadcast this HD version of ITV Choice on DStv for its Premium subscribers from May.

ITV Choice didn't release a May schedule with the announcement, but says the channel's programming line-up at launch will include ITV Studios' prime time entertainment series Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway, Big Star's Little Star, Keep it in the Family, Get Your Act Together as well as shows like Eggheads and Coach Trip.

Drama series on ITV Choice at launch will include Poldark, Arthur & George which tells the story of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and ITV Studios' World War II drama Home Fires. The detective series Vera and Murdock Mysteries will also make their debut.

"We are delighted to bring ITV Choice to Africa for the first time with MultiChoice as our partners," says Nic van Zwanenberg, channel director of ITV Choice.

Nic van Zwanenberg says a key element to build ITV Choice is to show entertainment and drama programming "within days of it airing in the United Kingdom", promising that further programming expansion will be announced.

"Our customers love British content and when we decided to add more British channels, ITV was the natural choice," says Aletta Alberts, the general manager for content at MultiChoice South Africa.

BREAKING. Cape Town DJ Ryan O'Connor to be the presenter of M-Net's reality show Power Couple SA.

The Cape Town DJ Ryan O'Connor will be the presenter of M-Net's new reality show Power Couple SA the regional radio station KFM announced this morning.

The show - a bit of a cross between elements of Fear Factor, Love in the Wild and Temptation Island will revolve around 8 couples competing in various challenges in and around a camera-filled villa in Cape Town, to win an ultimate cash prize - worth more than R1 million - premised on how well they know each other.

Power Couple SA, produced by production company Afrokaans, is set to debut in August on M-Net for a total of 14 weekly episodes.

Viewers will decide the eventual winner through public voting who will be announced during a live finale broadcast on M-Net in December.

Today's interesting TV stories to read from TV with Thinus - 19 March 2015

"The meteor that never fell to Earth".
The New York Times covers the astounding rise of Empire on FOX (DStv 125 / StarSat 131).

Top Gear inquiry starts.
The BBC investigative panel listens to the evidence of Jeremy Clarkson and the producer in the scandalous "fracas" which erupted around the BBC Entertainment (DStv 120) car show.
Meanwhile the international Top Gear shows - including in South Africa - will continue as announced, and The New York Times says Top Gear has "hit rock bottom".

Cosatu condemns the ongoing mismanagement of the SABC.
Trade federation demands that the people involved in the scandalous decision to give MultiChoice exclusive access to the SABC archives all resign.

E! Entertainment (DStv 124) now turns to RuPaul.
After the Fashion Police fiasco E! now hopes Good Work - commenting on the plastic surgery in Hollywood - works.

Nigerians wonder what the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) is doing over MultiChoice's DStv price hike.
Is the "exploitative" 1 April DStv price hike "the beginning of the end of the road" for DStv in many Nigerian homes?

Meanwhile the petition against MultiChoice Zambia dominates the media.
In Zambia, MultiChoice is hiking the price for DStv subscriptions from 1 April by a staggering 21% for DStv Premium and a massive 22% for DStv Compact, while DStv Access is rising with an astronomical 30%.

Game of Thrones has its first ever European media premiere event.
South African and African viewers on M-Net (DStv 101) will see episodes of the new 5th season even before Sky subscribers will who will be 19 hours behind (although there were no South African press at the massive press launch in London at the Tower of London).


MUST READ: Your TV study article of the day.
If you really want to understand and learn and know pay-TV better and how the whole system works, take the time to read this great new article how it started and the changing structure of the pay-TV business.

New research into global TV viewership.
Viacom International Media Networks (VIMN) looks at how global TV viewers are redefining their relationship with television.

Watch SABC3's Presenter Search on 3 reality show.
Didn't know that you could watch the entire episodes of Presenter Search on 3 online, did you?

Foxtel Arts to launch in Australia on 28 March as a new TV channel.
Maybe one day MultiChoice's DStv or On Digital Media's StarSat will have a real South African arts TV channel too.

How Wendy Williams became talk TV's unlikely survivor.
Why the American TV talk show seen in South Africa on BET (DStv 135 / StarSat 167) became a hit dishing on pop culture and celebrities.

Abrupt ouster of Marcel Golding and Bronwyn Keene Young exit damaged e.tv
Remgro admits the scandalous has affected the TV channel's business - it has in fact "hurt" the company" over which Remgro refused to talk about last year.

Hungary's embarrassing TV fail.
Restart of Hungary's state TV channel leaves viewers with black screens on the first day due to technical problems.

Jon Cryer on Charlie Sheen and what really happened.
The Hollywood Reporter has a fascinating extract from Jon Cryer's new book So That Happened detailing what happened behind-the-scenes during Charlie Sheen's infamous meltdown.

Viewership for Keeping Up with the Kardashians falls to record low.
Ratings plunge for the new 10th season on E! Entertainment (DStv 124); premiere episode marks an all-time ratings low. Meanwhile eNews' Giuliana Rancic thinks its better to be "under-prepared" for live TV.

New channel AfricaMagic Igbo from M-Net launching on MultiChoice's DStv on 2 April to showcase Nigeria's Igbo language culture.

As expected and reported earlier, M-Net will now launch a new AfricaMagic TV channel on MultiChoice's DStv, AfricaMagic Igbo on 2 April at 19:00.

AfricaMagic Igbo, created to broadcast Igbo language entertainment content in Nigeria, will be on DStv channel 159 to bring to 8 the number of AfricaMagic TV channels from M-Net.

The launch of AfricaMagic Igbo comes as M-Net will shut down the failed Maisha Magic at the end of May and is rebranding and changing AfricaMagic Urban Movies' name and positioning to AfricaMagic Urban after 7 months since that channel last changed.

Beyond Nigeria for which AfricaMagic Igbo is primarily intended, the Igbo language is also spoken in a number of other African countries like Equatorial Guinea and the Democratic Republic of Congo and Gabon.

"Igbo language entertainment content has always played a prominent role in the Nigerian film and television industry and we are glad to offer a platform where this rich content can be showcased to the rest of Africa and the world," says Wangi Mba-Uzoukwu, M-Net's director for West Africa.

"Viewers can definitely expect to see the best of Igbo culture and talent on display," says John Ugbe, MultiChoice Nigeria's managing director.

BREAKING. SABC dumps sponsorship of the Cape Town International Jazz Festival; public broadcaster couldn't agree on certain terms.

Shock has been reverberating through South Africa's jazz, music and performing arts circles with the SABC which has decided to dump its sponsorship of the Cape Town International Jazz Festival, not giving specific reasons, but saying the SABC "could not agree on certain terms and conditions during negotiations".

The SABC - which has been a broadcast partner and sponsor of the annual highlight on not just the international jazz calendar but also South Africa and Cape Town's jazz and arts scene - announced that after consideration of the cost benefit of its sponsorship for the Cape Town International Jazz Festival, the broadcaster "decided not to participate as a media partner for this year's event".

The Cape Town International Jazz Festival is South Africa's largest live music festival.

The SABC said on Wednesday the public broadcaster will "continue to partner with organisers whose events have a strategic fit to our broadcasting mandate".

The SABC in previous years said it was a "proud co-sponsor" and exclusive broadcast sponsor of the Cape Town International Festival.

The SABC not only broadcast festival coverage and performances across SABC1, SABC2 and SABC3, but also sponsored the Community Jazz Concert at the Greenmarket Square and helped with training, upliftment and development programmes.

Shows like Top Billing, Expresso and Afro Cafe also covered the festival previously, known for its international performers and showcasing upcoming new talent sharing the annual line-up.

The 16th Cape Town Jazz Festival is set to take place from 27 March again at the Cape Town International Convention Centre (CTICC).

The SABC said on Wednesday that despite its non-participation as a sponsor, "the SABC wishes the organisers of the festival well" and that the broadcaster will "commence negotiations for the 2016 Cape Town International Jazz Festival soon".