Tuesday, September 19, 2017

DAILY TV NEWS ROUND-UP. Today's interesting TV stories to read from TVwithThinus - 19 September 2017.


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

■ A new satellite pay-TV service, TStv, says it plans to launch on 1 October in Nigeria - but will it?
TStv blatantly plays on MultiChoice's DStv name, and promises a mix of TV channels already available on DStv and StarSat/StarTimes - but how will that work?
TStv even promises English Premier League (EPL) soccer coverage - but how?

■ Why the series finale of the vampire drama The Strain on FOX (DStv 125 / StarSat 131) ended with a glimmer of hope.
"Bleaker versions were discussed" but the producers felt the audience would "feel too depressed" and that it "just didn't seem like it would be very satisfying".

■ Sean Spicer on his surprise Emmy stage appearance.
He explains how it came about, what scared him - and a lot of interesting details of what happened afterwards. And even more fascinating insight in another first-hand report with details from what he said afterwards.

■ The viewership of the 69th Annual Prime Time Emmy Awards 2017 remains at a record-low. Viewers don't see the air-conditioners blowing outside to keep the red carpet cool, while Allison Janney ironically complained about global warning during the show.
- And how The Handmaid's Tale - a 32-year old book, became a timely TV show and the toast of this year's Emmys.

■ The programming bosses of America's big TV networks reveal the strategies
in a MUST-READ on how they plan on turning around falling ratings for the new TV season.

■ The ratings of kids TV is falling sharper than any other viewing demo in America.

■ Corporate paranoia is growing inside ESPN, the American sports channel that dumped Africa a few years back and is now trying to worm its way back to the continent through Kwesé TV.
ESPN is embroiled in ongoing embarrassment that current and former ESPNers describe as "self-inflicted wounds" as inside angst grows.
-While ESPN's problems keep piling up, ESPN seems confused about what is really happening.

■ Yet another American TV critic is a gonner.
Jeff Jensen is out at Entertainment Weekly - and he finally burns it down in a MUST READ as he reveals how trash Warner Bros. was in deliberately excluding Entertainment Weekly from its media strategy for launching the Harry Potter movies.
Of course EW did a cover story anyway and scooped the rest to serve its readers. Warner Bros. realised its time to crawl back and play nice.