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Chief Executive Officer, Continental Broadcasting Services, Nigel Parsons, has emphasised the need for a pan-African television station to provide accurate information on the continent. He said only an African station could report correctly the true position of Africa and Africans.

Parsons said this in Lagos on Tuesday during a facility tour of TVC News, a new pan-African television station, billed to commence broadcasting soon.

- Big Brother Africa reaches one million likes on Facebook. Big Brother Africa has reached out to DStv viewers in a variety of innovative ways including the option for viewers to send messages directly to the screen of the live 24/7 broadcast, and in that way sharing their thoughts, opinions and feelings about the show directly with others watching in 47 countries. Produced for AfricaMagic by Endemol SA, Big Brother Africa currently has over 279 000 Twitter followers.

Inspired by the movie awards season, The Africa Channel (Sky 209, Virgin 828) presents award-winning, UK Premiere films, showcased in the channel’s ‘Africa Picture House’ strand. The season offers an array of diverse stories - a moving portrait of everyday life in Uganda; revenge and personal destiny in Chad, and a humorous take on a Malian family finding their feet abroad. ‘Africa Picture House’ also takes the viewer behind the scenes with a series of exclusive Director interviews,  enabling them to personally introduce their films to the UK audience.

Multichoice Kenya today launched a rewards promo at Nailab which saw Chris Mugambi, a doctor by profession, win 600,000kshs.

The company has started a weekly draw that will run for 8 weeks and during this period, a DStv subscriber will take home Kshs 600,000 weekly.
During the fair at the Nailab, the MultIchoice team said that the promo is open to any subscribers regardless of their bouquet, though they must be connected and active subscribers.

In Calabar, a new cable Television channel known as StarCross TV has been launched by a powerful religious leader based in Nigeria, His Holiness Olumba Olumba Obu of the Brotherhood of the Cross and Star.

The launch was held simultaneously in Calabar and in Pretoria, capital of South Africa, where the network partners are based.The spokesman of the organization, Pastor Patrick Ibeabuchi who briefed journalists in Calabar at the weekend said viewers in Nigeria and in other countries will begin to receive StarCross TV signals in the next couple of weeks.

The credibility of television advertising has come under criticism following a recent survey which dismissed it as not truthful. It was however revealed that ads on the medium are the most entertaining.

The survey, which was carried out by consumer insights company, Pondering Panda, polled the opinion of 1924 respondents among South African Youth between age 15 and 34, on television advertising.

According to the report, the survey said young South Africans find television ads entertaining, but don't see them as necessarily showcasing products and brands honestly.

Kevin O'Grady posted this story on 13 Feb. 2013. Here are some interesting extracts:

“I don’t watch TV. There is no terrestrial TV reception in the tiny rural eastern Free State village I like to call home. But that’s not the reason I don’t watch TV — I could obviously go for the satellite TV option, as do most people in this part of the world.

Africa 7, lanched by “groupe Citizen Media Group” and managed by Oumou Wane is going through financial difficulties. Africa 7 was launched as a new international (including diaspora) TV channel. It started airing in Senegal in Oct 2011.

TV replay: If you are in the UK, watch episodes of successful ‘Africa’ documentary series on BBC iplayer here

Over 60% of young consumers in South Africa have low levels of trust in television advertising, although a similar number still find commercials enjoyable, a report has revealed.

Pondering Panda, the insights provider, polled 1,924 people in the 15–34 year old demographic via mobile phone, and found 71% positively "enjoyed" watching TV spots, as reported by BizCommunity.

An additional 64% of interviewees agreed these ads were typically "not truthful" about the goods and services they promoted. By contrast, just 32% of respondents held the opposite opinion.

Officials of the Nigerian Copyright Commission, NCC, Thursday, in Onitsha arrested six persons over alleged illegal transmission of signals of Digital Satellite Television, DSTV, and recovered hi-tech electrical gadgets worth about N7 million.

The team, led by the NCC Director of Enforcement, Mr. Austin Amodu, was assisted in the operation by the police. Among the streets raided were Oguta, Ekwulobia, Nnewi, Ihembosi, Venn Road South, Iboko, Otumoye and Upper New Market.