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A man is dead and four others seriously injured after the VIA (DStv 147) TV presenter, Louw Breytenbach, ploughed into the trailer of a still-standing taxi on the N3 in Johannesburg. Netwerk24 reports that Louw Breytenbach (30), presenter of the Drama-mammas talent reality show on VIA, slammed into a taxi's trailer on Wednesday night at 22:30 between the London and Modderfontein offramps on

The 6-episode Ebola drama series, The Hot Zone partly filmed in South Africa is starting on National Geographic (DStv 181 / StarSat 220 / Cell C black 261) on Wednesday, 3 July at 21:00 and features several South African actors part of the cast. National Geographic commissioned The Hot Zone in April 2018 that will debut with a double episode broadcast and is based on Richard Preston's

M-Net (DStv 101) tells me it's switching the linear broadcasting order of the episodes of the brand-new seasons of Chicago P.D. and Chicago Med around next Tuesday, 2 July for one week, in order to have the "One Chicago" 3-way crossover between the various Chicago drama series play out chronologically in the correct order. TVwithThinus reported yesterday that M-Net finally fixed the

kykNET (DStv 144) is adding a new bodycam dating reality show, Hoor My, Sien My, Soen My, that will be produced by Afrokaans. The Afrikaans dating series is based on the international reality format, Hear Me, See Me, Love Me. In every episode a woman spends a day with three guys - but not physically: They take her on dates that she only sees and experiences through the video coming on from

M-Net has snagged two extremely insightful and must-watch properties - a documentary film and a new TV miniseries, both dealing with America's controversial Fox News channel and the man who created it, Roger Ailes. M-Net (DStv 101) acquired the documentary film, Divide & Conquer: The Story of Roger Ailes, broadcast tonight (Wednesday 26 June) on the channel for the first time, but

After 11 months eNCA (DStv 403) is done with Tonight with Jane Dutton, with several other new and long-running programmes - including Maggs on Media - scrapped. It comes as eNCA is once again working on another scheduling revamp following a lacklustre line-up rejig it unveiled in mid-July 2018 that less than a year later had come apart at the seams. After luring the former eNews anchor Jane

The SABC's foreign editor, Sophie Mokoena, on Friday had to apologise to the South African public broadcaster's economics editor, Thandeka Gqubule-Mbeki, for having had retweeted a fake news article that claimed that some of the so-called "SABC8"-journalists were paid by Bosasa. The fake news article first appeared in January 2019 on Times Live. Karima Brown, anchor of The Fix on eNCA (Dstv

The Afrikaans women's magazine SARIE is celebrating its 70th anniversary with a special gold-and-black first-issue throwback cover with Rolene Strauss, while the South African TV icon, Doreen Morris opens up about her 35-year career in the TV biz, revealing some of the big challenges and resistance she faced when she first appeared on television - including death threats. On the cover of

Following unexplained technical playout problems on Monday night with the episode of its Xitsonga drama series, Giyani - Land of Blood, SABC tells TVwithThinus it will add the part that not shown to Tuesday night's episode. On Monday night SABC2 viewers noticed that the last part of the Giyani episode wasn't shown. The episode was also not made available on YouTube. SABC2 didn't explain what

A fire at the SABC that broke out on Tuesday morning prompted the evacuation of its Radio Park building with 9 (now 15) people who were taken to hospital for smoke inhalation - the second mass evacuation at the cash-strapped South African public broadcaster within two months. The fire broke out inside the cafeteria located close to the studios of the 5FM and Metro FM radio stations, prompting

It's not a Christmas but a Chicago miracle: Somehow M-Net (DStv 101) has managed to fix and align the three different Chicago drama series that will now all start their new seasons on the same day - Tuesday - on the channel. This will bring to an end DStv subscribers' confusion about storylines in instances where characters from Chicago Fire, Chicago Med and Chicago P.D. make guest

Another knock is coming for MultiChoice Zimbabwe as the remaining DStv and GOtv subscribers in the Southern African country are now forced to pay for their monthly subscription fees in the new Zimbabwean dollar as the only allowed currency. MultiChoice that just released its first set of financial year results last week as The MultiChoice Group after the pan-African pay-TV operator was spun

Fears are growing that the SABC on the edge of imminent collapse will be forced into a national broadcasting blackout with the South African public broadcasting still unsure of whether it will be able to pay salaries at the end of June or when the money of a billion rand government bailout will bring relief. Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams, the minister of communications met with the SABC board on

"You're not going to get any blackout. That we promise." That is the promise Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams, South Africa's current minister of finance, made on the red carpet during an interview with SABC News (DStv 404) before Thursday evening's State of the Nation 2019 address by South Africa's president Cyril Ramaphosa. The South African public broadcaster is hovering on the edge of financial

The Right2Know Campaign is calling for urgent intervention to prevent a blackout at the beleaguered South African public broadcaster, saying that a possible impending black-on-air scenario when the SABC finally seizes up and is unable to broadcast any further will be a violation of South African citizens' rights. On Sunday, Bongumusa Makhathini, SABC chairperson, warned that the SABC is

MultiChoice is moving the GINX esports channel on DStv from the sports number cluster to the entertainment set of channels from 25 June. Two years after MultiChoice added GINX and live programming blocks of GINX content broadcast on the SuperSport channels, MultiChoice now sees GINX as esports less part of sports and more part of "lifestyle" content. GINX is being removed from the sports

Mass firings of staffers are coming to MultiChoice with the pay-TV operator running the DStv and GOtv satellite pay-TV service in South Africa and across sub-Saharan Africa planning to axe thousands of workers, planning to get rid of up to 2 194 workers. MultiChoice's consultation process with staffers it wants to get rid of will take place over 60 days. MultiChoice made the announcement of

MultiChoice has added Mozambique's Portuguese-language TVM Internacional channel to its DStv satellite pay-TV platform from Wednesday 19 June on channel 701 for DStv subscribers in South Africa, Mozambique and Angola. TVM International, or TVM Internacional, is the international channel of Mozambique's national TV broadcaster, Televisão de Moçambique (TVM), broadcasting for 24 hours per day.

Annelisa Weiland has exited SABC2’s weekday Afrikaans soap 7de Laan after 19 years switching to the Suidooster weekday soap on kykNET (DStv 144) with her longrunning on-screen character Hilda van Zyl who will be making her last appearance at the end of September. Annelisa Weiland will appear in Suidooster from November, and from July in the new kykNET Afrikaans comedy series, Lui Maar Op,

Location scouting has started and casting will begin soon to find an "iconic" place and actors to film M-Net's South African "Game of Thrones" version as MultiChoice mounts a blue-chip production effort in its own retelling of the story of the Zulu king Shaka that will be broadcast as a new drama series on Mzansi Magic (DStv 161). Besides broadcasting Shaka in South Africa and across

The Gauteng Film Commission (GFC), the Writers' Guild of South Africa (WGSA) and the South African Guild of Editors (SAGE) will be at the 3rd Ekurhuleni International Film Festival (EIFF) taking place from today, 20 June until 23 June at the Springs Theatre. Broadcasters, including the SABC, e.tv and M-Net will all have a presence and do sessions regarding the licensing of TV content, and the

SuperSport will broadcast all Africa Cup of Nations 2019 (Afcon 2019) matches on MultiChoice's DStv satellite pay-TV service while magazine shows like Master Plan and Hello Africa: South Africa will further discuss and cover the African soccer tournament taking place in Egypt. The Afcon 2019 coverage starts this coming Friday, 21 June on SuperSport with commentators including Teko Modise,

MultiChoice does little else specifically to try and prevent the subscriber count drop of its top-tiered DStv Premium customers other than to have the MultiChoice Call Centre operators phone former DStv Premium subscribers after they had cancelled or downgraded. Yet the pay-TV operator says that despite falling numbers its DStv Premium segment is still "a long way off" from the point where it

Whether he came up with his latest banal talking points himself to shape some new kind of justification narrative, or were fed them by the advisors around him, it makes Calvo Mawela, MultiChoice CEO, sound stupid and look out-of-touch as a TV executive, claiming that millennials no longer watch or have the ability or time to watch a 90 minute soccer game. Calvo Mawela, in crazy

The top-end churn keeps escalating and MultiChoice keeps bleeding DStv Premium subscribers - not because of higher prices but because of the pay-TV operator's shocking lack of showing all DStv subscribers why DStv Premium is worth it, constantly sabotaging and diluting its offering, and its failure to provide any added value to what is supposedly its prestige product. Of course customers are

The time has come for the depleted, out-of-cash and crumbling South African Broadcasting Corporation to deliberately do something that it has never done in its 82-year history: go black-on-air for a day. As the over 5 000 SABC staffers are unsure if they're going to get paid at the end of June - with the South African government and Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams, the minister of communications,

William Bird, director at the Media Monitoring Africa (MMA) says the South African government looks like it deliberately wants to "crash the SABC" by doing nothing and saying nothing about the billion rand government bailout that was promised to the public broadcaster but not received while the beleagued SABC is literally on the verge of seizing up and shutting down. Treasury and the

MultiChoice that released its financial year report to 31 March 2019 on Tuesday blatantly lied in its presentation document, noting how it had "enhanced content discovery" - in fact, the pay-TV operator did exactly the opposite. The truth is that MultiChoice's "content discovery" - through deliberately failing to help and do for DStv subscribers what works for them, meeting them where they

The two big trade unions representing thousands of SABC staffers are demanding answers and an urgent meeting with the SABC board before the end of this week after shocking revelations by the SABC board chairperson on Sunday and the chief financial officer on Monday that the broke SABC can't guarantee the payment of staff salaries in two weeks time at the end of June. On Sunday, Bongumusa

Viacom's Nickelodeon (DStv 305) kids channel is developing a new, original live-action series in partnership with Imagine Kids+Family that will revolve around a group of kids on an unfinished spaceship accidentally launching into space. With the working title of Untitled Space Show and with Daniel Knauf as writer and showrunner, the series will be co-produced by Nickelodeon and Imagine Kids+

In the one episode of Dr Quinn Medicine Woman, a snake-oil salesman came to Colorado Springs and starts selling an elixir of life that's nothing really. I'm already laughing at the fooled investors, hysterical journalists and clueless publications who will be doing breathless stories for the nation from today's presentation of The MultiChoice Group's financial year report to end of March 2019

MultiChoice has shown another increase in its overall number of DStv subscribers although the African-based pay-TV operator continues to lose top-end DStv Premium subscribers who are abandoning the most expensive tier that no longer offers enough value for money. The MultiChoice Group on Tuesday published its annual financial results for the year that ended 31 March 2019, showing that while

The biggest bitch on South African television is returning with Cherel de Villiers-Haines-Le-Roux-Kumar-Homes who will return to SABC3’s Isidingo for a 2-episode arc to mark its 21st anniversary. TV thesp Michelle Botes is back on the Isidingo backlot filming scenes today for Isidingo’s 21st birthday special episodes produced by Pomegranate Media. These will be broadcast on Friday 5 July

M-Net has started to make it very clear to viewers - irrespective of what channel or platform they might be watching a show on - that they're watching a locally-produced M-Net programme, with all shows now prominently displaying "An M-Net Original" title card at the end. In response to international and local video streaming services that are growing rapidly and churning out a growing volume

The comedy boss of Britain's ITV channel says she has banned existing and new comedy series featuring all-male writing teams or ones that have just "a token woman", with no comedies with an all-male writing team that will be commissioned by the British commercial TV channel anymore. "I won't commission anything with an all-male writing team," Saskia Schuster, ITV's head of comedy, said at the

The SABC's "Day Zero can happen tomorrow." That is the dire and stark warning from the SABC's chief financial officer, Yolande van Biljon, who in an interview on Monday morning with SABC News said that the cash-strapped South African public broadcaster could see its operations seize up at any moment. So precarious is its cash-flow situation and so beleaguered is the South African public

NEWS ALERT - The South African public broadcaster that is finally completely without money on Sunday warned that it's on the verge of a total shutdown and that a "communication blackout is imminent" with the SABC that doesn't have money left to pay staffers at the end of June, is no longer able to pay for electricity and owes hundreds of millions to service and content providers ranging from

The Nigerian government's vengeful and idiotic federal consumer protection unit persists in its unrelenting attack on MultiChoice Nigeria and has issued a "final order", again demanding that the pay-TV operator adhere to outrageous demands like a "24-hour call centres, 7 days a week" and allow DStv and GOtv subscribers to switch off their pay-TV subscription for at least 3 times per year for

Days after starting a trial available to just some users earlier this week offering them access to certain sports content, MultiChoice's Showmax has opened the sports content trial to all Showmax consumers. Showmax has so far repurposed and taken both American studio content that used to be on M-Net(DStv 101) first from the likes of HBO and Showtime, as well M-Net's locally-produced content

HBO's Cinemax TV channel has also joined South Africa's M-Net and Germany's ZDF in their co-production of the Cape Town filmed drama series based on Deon Meyer's crime-and-spy book Trackers. M-Net announced Trackers in February 2018, based on Deon Meyer's 7th book. While M-Net will show Trackers in South Africa and across sub-Saharan African on MultiChoice's DStv satellite pay-TV service,

Lee Daniels, the co-creator of the American drama series Empire on FOX (DStv 125 / StarSat 131 / Cell C black 201), now says that he is "beyond embarrassed" about his former forceful defence of Jussie Smollett after the disgraced actor earlier this year claimed that he was physically attacked in the United States in a hate crime. In late-January this year Jussie Smollett was hospitalised

The Zimbabwean cameraman Ray Chifamba (33) known as Ray Ceeh who was also a singer-songwriter has been murdered in Lentegeur in Cape Town after he was shot in the neck on Wednesday night in his vehicle. Siyabulela Malo, police spokesperson says Ray Ceeh was killed around 22:43 in Maartbloom Steet in Lentegeur in Mitchells Plain with a murder investigation that is underway. "Lentegeur police

The South African government has announced that its department of communications will be changing to a new name of department of communications and digital technologies (DCDT). South Africa's president Cyril Ramaphosa made the announcement on Friday. This follows the merger of the department of telecommunications and postal services that has been folded back into the department of

It was weird on Wednesday night when I chose to "delete" the news. I love the news, especially TV news, and the more different news sources there are, the better for me, for you and for the world. Yet, on Wednesday I scrolled down the apps list on my phone and clicked "uninstall" on the "news" app of China's CGTN (DStv 409 / StarSat 266) to completely get rid of it. Somehow I should

Content from the Olympic Channel which isn't running and available in South Africa or Africa has now been added to SuperSport's website as part of a partnership between the Olympic Games and MultiChoice in the run-up to the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020. The Olympic Channel was created in 2016 and went live in August 2016 but for the past three years the International Olympic Committee didn't

Britain's Sky pay-TV operator in a statement on Wednesday announced that it is creating Sky Studios and that it will be doubling its spending on original series over the next 5 years as part of its fightback to retain viewers as video streaming services keep growing. Where Sky goes, M-Net and MultiChoice in South Africa over the past 15 years have often followed, so whether the creation of Sky

Viacom Africa will be rolling out NickX in South Africa and across sub-Saharan Africa soon as its new esports gaming platform tied to its Nickelodeon (DStv 305) channel. NickX is a new children-focused, interactive esports platform that will contain and showcase content from Viacom's Nickelodeon, based on Emerge Gaming's ArcadeX technology. NickX will be freely accessible through the

On Wednesday China's global TV news channel, CGTN (DStv 409 / StarSat 266), further damaged what was left of its credibility as a news service by completely ignoring any news regarding the massive public protests in Hong Kong. CGTN again revealed its shocking and deliberate news bias and active censorship of news the Chinese government doesn't like by giving zero coverage and making no

The SABC has fired a current affairs executive producer, Sam Mochichila, found guilty in a jobs-for-cash bribery corruption case. The former Thobela FM executive producer was shown the door on Monday by the South African public broadcaster. He was found guilty of receiving R2000 from a former current affairs producer and presenter Tlou Moabelo, who paid him the cash to get an extension of her

The showrunner, prolific screenwriter, film producer, director and script editor Thandi Brewer, often called "the Shonda Rhimes of South Africa" has died after losing her third battle against cancer. The legendary and highly-respected writer-producer-director had a career in South Africa's TV and film industry spanning close to 60 years. Her legacy stretches beyond the numerous, hugely

Traditional linear TV in the United States as well as in South Africa are fighting back against the rise of video streaming services and MultiChoice's M-Net is visibly in the lead with the first new trend - longer individual episode lengths for both overseas and local shows on broadcast television. Longer TV episodes form part of changes in strategy taken by American broadcasters and M-Net

SABC3's morning show Expresso and Afternoon Express will leave its studio and office space inside The Equinox Building in Sea Point, Cape Town after 9 years and move to a new studio facility in Tokai from where the shows will broadcast from 24 June. As TVwithThinus reported yesterday, both shows and the production company are leaving their longtime studio space berth atop the Sea Point

The Black First Land First (BLF) group has given the Moja Love (DStv 157) channel on MultiChoice's DStv and the Uyajola 9/9 presenter Jub Jub an ultimatum to apologise to Xhosa people by Friday 14 June or be taken to South Africa's Equality Court. Molemo Maarohanye known as Jub Jub is the presenter of the controversial new tabloid reality show Uyajola 9/9 that exposes people cheating on their

The streets are talking and SABC3's weekday Expresso morning show is apparently getting ready to say adios to its 9-year multi-floor penthouse studio and control room space in The Equinox building in Sea Point in Cape Town for a greener pastures elsewhere in the city. Word is that the Cardova Productions produced shows Expresso and Afternoon Express will relocate soon to a new building

Like sand through the hourglass so are the comings and going from weekday TV soaps in South Africa - Gerard Rudolf has been dumped from Isidingo on SABC3, Salamina Mosese has been added to Generations on SABC1 and Pascal Pienaar exited Binnelanders on kykNET (DStv 144). Gerard Rudolf who played the character of Hendrik Lategan appeared on-screen for the last time on Isidingo on Monday 10 June

M-Net (DStv 101) has scooped up the broadcasting licensing rights to the reality competition show, The Amazing Race, with the 30th season that will start on Sunday 14 July at 18:00. M-Net originally scheduled The Amazing Race for Fridays at 19:00, starting in June but postponed the show's launch and gave it a better timeslot on Sundays as a lead-in to Carte Blanche. The long-running and

Taking advantage of some of the newly afforded options of producing TV content in a video streaming world, the legendary filmmaker and director Steven Spielberg is working on a new series that viewers will only be able to watch when it's dark. With the working title of Spielberg After Dark, the series that Steven Spielberg is creating as "a super scary story" for yet another upcoming new

Viacom's BET channel is getting ready to launch its own subscription video-on-demand service (SVOD), BET+ that is set to launch around September this year. The Wall Street Journal reports that BET+, aimed at black viewers in America, will include original movies and original scripted TV shows, along with content from other Viacom channels like Comedy Central, MTV and VH1. Shows on BET+ will

Turner's Cartoon Network has renewed the animation series, Laput, for a third season that will be broadcast on its sister channel Boomerang (DStv 302) in South Africa and across Africa. Lamput, a non-dialogue, slapstick chase animation series, follows Lamput, a gooey orange substance who has escaped from a secret laboratory. Despite the best efforts of scientists Specs Doc and Skinny Doc,

TAC Studios, the production arm of the Africa Channel based in America, is co-producing 4 new TV series across Africa, including My Design Rules with Cape Town's Cardova Productions that will likely be broadcast on the South African public broadcaster's SABC3 channel. In a statement TAC Studios says that "building on its commitment to invest in talent and foster quality and excellence in

WarnerMedia has commissioned, Dune: The Sisterhood, as a new straight-to-series science fiction TV drama for its new, to be launched streaming service based on the world of Frank Herbert's novels. With the small to nothing chance that it's subscription video-on-demand service would be launched and become available in South Africa and across Sub-Saharan Africa as well when it's launched in

The MultiChoice Group, Africa's biggest pay-TV company, is warning that it expects to flip to a full-year headline loss this year, hurt by foreign exchange losses as well as a charge on a stake disposal at its South African business. The MultiChoice Group listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) in February this year. It's expected that The MultiChoice Group will release its financial

Filming has started in Johannesburg, South Africa on Queen Sono, Netflix's first commissioned Netflix Original series for Africa with the 6-episode spy drama, produced by Diprente, that will likely be released globally on Netflix during 2020. Rounding out the Queen Sono ensemble cast beyond the already-announced Pearl Thusi are Vuyo Dabula, Enhle Maphumulo, Kate Liquorish, Loyiso Madinga,

Christine Basson, known for her iconic South African TV roles as the long-suffering Marietjie Barnhoorn in Agter Elke Man on the SABC and Nora Naudé in South Africa's first local weekday soap Egoli on M-Net produced by Franz Marx Productions, has died. She was 78. She worked in the South African entertainment, film and TV industry for over decades and had her first film acting role in 1976's

The MultiChoice Group's subscription video-on-demand service (SVOD) Showmax has started live-streaming sports content that until now has only been available on its DStv satellite pay-TV platform and its DStv Now Catch Up service, as part of a trial run. With the live-streaming of sports, Showmax is now taking on SuperSport directly. It's similar in the way that which M-Net's content and the

The third season of The Voice South Africa on M-Net (DStv 101) has its top 8 talent with DStv subscribers who will now decide who goes home weekly in the Sunday night live shows broadcast from the Mosaiek Teatro in Fairlands, Johannesburg. The Western Cape has the most talent left in the top 8. The top 8 talent who are now vying for the viewers' vote are Tasché Burger (18) from Brackenfell

The long-running and so-called "cancelled" RGB magazine entertainment show on SABC1 returned on Saturday 8 June with a new episode at 19:30 with presenters Sinazo Yolwa and Samora Mangesi, putting to be bed trash reports and peddled rumours about the show's demise. The Real Goboza and other locally-produced shows on SABC1 like Nyan' Nyan have been on a repeat loop of old episodes for months

There is a fightback from criminals against efforts to clean up the struggling SABC and getting rid of fraud and corruption within the South African public broadcaster, said Bongumusa Makhathini, SABC board chairperson, who on Saturday said that "this place has been poorly run". Bongumusa Makhathini spoke on Saturday on SABC News following the shocking assassination attempt on Friday night on

The South African public broadcaster says its broke and can't afford to show any matches of the FIFA Women's World Cup 2019 taking place in France since the SABC is "not in a financial position to bid for the rights". The SABC made the announcement on kick-off day of the tournament. South Africa's national women's football team known as Banyana Banyana qualified for their first ever Women's

The SABC's live coverage of the Cricket World Cup 2019 on television is over and done after it had barely begun, with no further live broadcast of TV matches. The South African public broadcaster confirmed that viewers and listeners of the SABC's TV and radio will still get some delayed broadcasts of matches - some done the day after - and radio coverage, as well as highlight summaries.

The police have arrested a 32-year old suspect and have recovered a gun and the abandoned assassination vehicle that was used in the shocking drive-by murder attempt on Friday night at the home of Thami Zikode, the chief audit boss of the South African public broadcaster. Thami Zikode, survived a shocking assassination attempt on Friday night when he managed to shoot back after 4 assailants

The signal of Nigeria's African Independent Television (AIT) has been restored and the TV channel is back on the air after a court order for its transmission to be restored following its shutdown by Nigeria's draconian censorship broadcasting body. AIT is carried on MultiChoice's DStv satellite pay-TV service, and by late-Friday was once again seen on channel 253 on DStv in Nigeria. Nigeria's

The South African public broadcaster's chief audit executive, Thami Zikode, survived a shocking assassination attempt on Friday night when he managed to shoot back after assailants followed him home and started firing their guns. The SABC's SABC News division reported on Friday night that Thami Zikode is safe and unharmed after the shocking attempt to kill him. Thamsanqa Phineas Zikode (

We are your weather girls, and have we got news for you: For the first time in history the SABC is hiring and looking for freelance weather presenters for its TV news bulletins from Afrikaans to Zulu - in all 11 of South Africa's official languages. Although struggling financially and having started a process of retrenchment that was halted, the SABC is now looking for freelance weather

Don't pay for any audition. Ever. So says South Africa's most-watched TV show, Uzalo on SABC1 that is starting an awareness campaign to combat the growing scourge of con-artists preying on enthralled yet uninformed viewers who continue to fall for fake audition scams and are swindled out of money. While the growing popularity of locally-produced, serialised weekday dramas across South Africa

A shocking police raid on the headquarters of Australia's public broadcaster, the Australia Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) in the week has been condemned by the media in Australia, as well as by international media and other public broadcasters, South Africa excluded. On Wednesday Australian police carried out a shocking raid on the headquarters of Australia's ABC in Sydney, claiming that

National Geographic (DStv 181 / StarSat 220 / Cell C black 261) will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the moonlanding in July with a 2-hour documentary, Apollo: Missions to the Moon. The film that will showcase never-before-heard mission recordings, newly transferred footage and rare photographs of all 12 crewed missions to tell the complete story of Nasa's historic Apollo space programme.

The BBC is rolling out a new 5-episode series, The Planets on BBC Earth (DStv 184) from Sunday 23 June at 18:00, along with some moonlanding documentaries in July to celebrate the 50th anniversary of mankind's spacefaring milestone. In The Planets Professor Brian Cox as presenter uses the latest planetary science research to tell the story of the different worlds in our solar system. The

Two new local films produced by young filmmakers who have graduated from M-Net's Magic in Motion Academy, Wa Lepelle and Themba Lam, will be shown on Mzansi Magic (DStv 161) this month on Saturdays, starting on Saturday, 8 June at 19:30. During the week M-Net and MultiChoice held a cinema screening in Sandton, Johannesburg where Wa Lepelle and Themba Lam had a big screen premiere. Wa

The eNCA (DStv 403) reporter Michael Appel who used to work at the now-shuttered and controversial ANN, in a report on eNCA reveals more of the horrific working conditions and the abuse of staffers which he had personal experience of and that took place at the Gupta family's propaganda TV channel on DStv. Michael Appel decided to file his report in which he includes personal recollections and

The Afrikaans Ghoema Music Awards that was overshadowed by controversy this year will continue – along with kykNET as a sponsor – although Heidi Edeling is out as CEO of the Ghoema Music Trust. Controversy erupted in April before the 8th annual kykNET Ghoema Music Awards at the Sun Arena in Pretoria when MultiChoice demanded the removal of “Die Land” music video as an already-announced

Another shocking high-level executive exit is rocking South Africa's TV industry and the beleaguered South African public broadcaster with the SABC's highly-respected head of television, Nomsa Philiso, who has resigned and will be gone at the end of June after a 24 year career at the broadcaster. The well-liked and respected Nomsa Philiso, who served as acting SABC CEO and served in

China's StarTimes pay-TV service in Africa and operating as StarSat in South Africa has acquired the exclusive broadcasting rights for CONMEBOL Copa América Brasil 2019 in July for Sub-Saharan Africa, including South Africa. The 46th edition of Copa America will take place from 14 June to 7 July in 5 cities from Brazil with 12 teams competing including two guests, Japan and Qatar.

Viacom Africa has commissioned a new local South African wedding dress reality show, 2 Families and a Wedding Dress, that will start on BET (DStv 129) on Wednesday 24 July at 21:30. Similar to the long-running show Say Yes to the Dress on Discovery Inc.'s TLC channel,  the 13-episode 2 Families and a Wedding Dress will have presenter Thembisa Mdoda helping 13 prospective brides to choose a

NBCUniversal has moved Lee Raftery to the newly-created position of managing director for the Africa, Europe and Middle East (EMEA) region, excluding the United Kingdom, Germany and Italy. Lee Raftery has been the chief marketing and content officer and managing director for the United Kingdom and emerging markets at NBCUniversal International, and will, in addition to his new position,

Production has started on a Gauteng farm of a new e.tv local drama series, Isipho, that is filmed on location in Muldersdrift and that will start on the channel on Monday 1 July at 18:30 taking on SABC1's popular Skeem Saam in the same timeslot. Isipho, telling a supernatural story, will have four episodes per week from Mondays to Thursdays, and is produced by Herbert Hadebe's HerbVision

Netflix has commissioned a new animation series, Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous, that will become available sometime in 2020 and is set just after the 2015-film Jurassic World with Chris Pratt. Produced by DreamWorks Animation, Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous will tell the story of 6 teenagers who are stranded on Isla Nublar after the dinosaurs go wild and escape. The teenagers have to work

Zee Entertainment Enterprises (ZEEL) has promoted Sunita Uchil to executive vice president of its new international co-production and co-development division at ZEE. ZEE is looking at doing more international co-productions, for instance Mehek that recently started on Zee World (DStv 166) in South Africa and across sub-Saharan Africa, with Zee Africa that smartly utilised the back-end

Young filmmakers across Africa have until 14 June to apply for a place and to be a part of the second year of MultiChoice Africa's film academy, the MultiChoice Talent Factory, with 60 students from across Southern Africa, West Africa and East Africa who will be chosen and given a year-long filmmaking enrichment course. Twenty filmmakers will get to attend the MultiChoice Talent Factory in

MultiChoice Africa and M-Net West Africa have announced that the 4th season of Big Brother Nigeria will start on Sunday 30 June with Big Brother Naija, produced from Lagos this year, that will be available to all DStv subscribers in sub-Saharan Africa, including South Africa. The reality show that's been done before with Nigerian contestants housed in Johannesburg, South Africa, will see its

Viacom's Nickelodeon (DStv 305) has commissioned the new animation series, Kamp Koral, as an original prequel spinoff from its SpongeBob SquarePants series. The 13-episode, CG-animated series will introduce a younger, 10-year-old SpongeBob SquarePants during his summer at sleepaway camp and his adventures that took place before the SpongeBob SquarePants series. Production on Kamp Koral is

Viacom's Nickelodeon (DStv 305) has renewed four of its preschool animation series PAW Patrol, Bubble Guppies, Abby Hatcher and Butterbean's Café for further seasons. PAW Patrol gets a 7th season, Bubble Guppies is renewed for a 5th season, and Abby Hatcher and Butterbean's Café both get second seasons. In the seventh season of PAW Patrol with 26 half-hour episodes, produced by Spin Master

SABC2 will broadcast a revamped Zwa Maramani current affairs show from Wednesday night, 5 June at 20:30 with presenter Tshifhiwa Mbedzi. The Tshivenda current affair programme produced internally by the SABC, covers public interest issues with a focus on developmental journalism, focusing on rural and remote areas in South Africa. Tshifhiwa Mbedzi has been fronting the half-hour Zwa Maramani

From 1 July 2019 to 31 March 2020 the SABC is giving qualifying small ad agencies 25%-bonus advertising airtime as part of the Competition Tribunal's order of February 2019. The South African public broadcaster will give 25% bonus advertising airtime for every rand of airtime bought by all qualifying small agencies who meet the criteria for broad-based black economic empowerment (BBBEE). The

Apple has announced that it’s ending iTunes which it will be replacing with Apple Music, Apple TV and Apple Podcasts. iTunes that Apple launched in 2001, will survive on Windows platforms, with downloads for iTunes that will continue to be available in a sidebar on the Apple Music app for Macs. Apple made the announcement at the Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) in San Jose where

The SABC and the Special Investigation Unit (SIU) have lost their court application to set aside a service agreement that was signed in 2016 with the advisory firm SekelaXabiso (SkX) in a contract under which the SABC is supposed to pay SekelaXabiso R6 million. The City Press newspaper on Sunday reported  that the application was dismissed with costs against the South African public

SuperSport is broadcasting the 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup (CWC) on the SuperSport 2 (DStv 202) and SuperSport 6 (DStv 206) channels with MultiChoice giving access to all matches in which South Africa's cricket team play for all DStv subscribers irrespective of which subscription tier they're on on the SuperSport 13 (DStv 213) channel. Gideon Khobane, SuperSport CEO, in a statement says

Jenna-Leigh Bilong is done as an anchor of the Afrikaans TV news bulletin eNuus broadcast on kykNET (DStv 144) after six years and anchored her final broadcast on Tuesday evening. Neither kykNET nor eNuus bothered to issue any press release notifying the press about her exit or why she left, or to wish Jenna-Leigh Bilong well after six years seen on-air. The news presenter is known for

Calvo Mawela, MultiChoice Group CEO, says he is not aware of any new sexual harassment claims that have been officially been made against people working at the Randburg-based satellite pay-TV service or divisions like SuperSport, and that in instances where such cases are reported, MultiChoice will act on it. Calvo Mawela addressed sexual harassment when the topic surfaced as a joint press

The Premier Soccer League (PSL) and MultiChoice is changing the format of its MultiChoice Diski Challenge that it started in August 2014, doubling the number of matches per season and turning it into a full league programme from 9 August that will run until June every year. In the new format starting with the 6th season of 2019/2020 and broadcast on SuperSport on MultiChoice's DStv satellite