Wednesday, February 8, 2017

DAILY TV NEWS ROUND-UP. Today's interesting TV stories to read from TVwithThinus - 8 February 2017.

Here's the latest news about TV that I read, and that you should too:


■ Advertisers flee Russia Today (DStv 407) after Britain's Sunday Times scares them off.
Russia's RT channel details how media enquiries by the Sunday Times made advertising agencies pull their TV commercials out of fear.

■ MultiChoice Zimbabwe's "Free February" DStv subscription a bit of a fail.
After paid-up Zimbabwe DStv subscribers were promised a month's free subscription in February in a promo, MultiChoice Zimbabwe now says it's only for randomly chosen subscribers, not for everyone.

■ Togo shuts down private TV station La Chaine du Futur.
Togo government says it doesn't have the right "permission formalities; Amnesty International says its an attack on freedom of speech.

■ "Am I a prude?"
Bruce Stephenson in The North Coast Courier wonders if the "lusty banging" in The Vikings on M-Net Edge (DStv 102) is too much.

■ China's StarTimes need to catch a wake-up in Ghana
After trashy StarTimes abruptly cancels the Gala competition for soccer which it announced and of which it took over the sponsorship.

■ Disney blames struggling sport channel ESPN for its fall in profits.
As ESPN viewership continues to plunge, the sports channel that once helped pay-TV revenue is down in profits and revenue and now hurting Disney's bottom line.

■ The AMC channel starts looking to the (uncertain future).
With the AMC channel that got dumped by both MultiChoice from DStv and from Starsat, the original home of the stumbling zombie drama The Walking Dead is forced to make plans for an uncertain future.


■ MultiChoice warns of a surge in fake DStv installers in KwaZulu-Natal.
Fake DStv agents and installers are promising DStv subscribers unrealistic services like free DStv package upgrades.
■ Meanwhile fly-by-night fake DStv agents also also invading Botswana with MultiChoice Botswana warning that people are buying South African DStv subscriptions at the border.
■ And in Kenya pirates stealing DStv signals and reselling it are arrested in their illegal distribution nest leaving thousands of "subscribers" without DStv and StarTimes.
■ Meanwhile MultiChoice Ghana has opened an online shop where people can buy DStv decoders and accessories.


■ Row over MultiChoice's Big Brother Naija filmed in South Africa reveals ...
reveals how hard it is to do business in Nigeria says The Economist.
And what a "goofy outcry" over Big Brother Naija done in South Africa.


■ Tellytrack's (DStv 239) absolutely horrible 2017 The Sun Met coverage.
The legendary Martin Locke explains how awful and badly coordinated the Tellytrack channel's coverage was of this year's horce racing event.

■ New TV drama This Is Us gives TV broadcasters hope.
While the new TV season's biggest hit, This Is Us, isn't anywhere on M-Net, DStv or South African television, The New York Times reports why this new drama series is giving hope to American broadcasters.

■ StarTimes acquires rights for StarSat South Africa and sub-Saharan Africa of Pakistan Super League cricket.
The two-year deal will start with the 2017 edition of the Twenty20 franchise tournament starting Thursday until 5 March.

■ Yolisa Phahle, M-Net CEO on why Netflix keeps her up at night.
I was on holiday, but catching up: M-Net boss did an interview in January 2017 with CNN and Eleni Giokos on M-Net's future prospects.