broadcast

- Three countries that have not yet held PAMRO’s conference were proposed (Madagascar, Namibia and Zambia). Ballots were collected and counted after the meeting. The votes were announced at the Gala dinner. Madagascar received the majority of votes and will host the 2013 PAMRO conference.

- On October 11, 2012, Eutelsat has placed an order for a new satellite to offer enhanced broadcasting capacity for the Middle East and North Africa.

MultiChoice viewers of NTV Uganda can now access it on DStv Channel 283 instead of 141, following an automatic migration on the pay TV platform which occurred last week, 1 October 2012. NTV is reportedly Uganda's number one local television station and a preferred source for reliable, objective and comprehensive news, plus quality programming by the middleclass. 

The Sing Off - the popular American musical reality show – hits SA’s TV screens for the first time on SABC3 on Wednesday the 3rd of October at 8pm for 24 episodes. 

Hosted by Nick Lachey, this hugely popular show stands out from other series of its kind as it features a capella groups who do amazing things with their voices with no back-up band or safety net.

The Cape Town TV community station has lost over 600,000 viewers because its frequency was changed to accommodate digital terrestrial television trials, it said on Friday.

Station manager Karen Thorne said the free-to-air channel was relocated from channel 38 to channel 67 in March this year by the Independent Communications Authority of SA (Icasa).

On 20th. September 2012, the Office of Radio and Television of Benin (ORTB) seized equipment at Bell Benin Communications (BBCom). The problem is that at the same time, officers seized the technical equipment of the private television Canal 3 Benin, which were kept in the premises of Bell Benin Communications (BBCom), the telecommunications operator who owns the private channel.

The issue started from a contract between BBCom and ORTB that did not seem to have been honored by the telecoms company. Beninactu.com evokes a debt of 71 million FCFA (108 000 Euros). 

- In South Africa on 20 September 2012, MTV changed its Channels. Over the past decade, MTV has evolved from a music channel to one focused on youth entertainment and consequently it will move from channel 321, in the music segment of the DStv EPG, to channel 130 in the general entertainment package form 1 October 2012. The content carried by the channel now focuses on entertainment, ranging from reality to comedy to drama to observational documentaries and reflecting the young lives of its audience.

The Chairman of DAAR Communications Group, High Chief Raymond Dokpesi has described the Director-General of the Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation, Otunba Olusegun Runsewe as a solitary crusader of tourism development in Nigeria.

It’s the biggest crowd puller on South African TV screens. With an average daily reach of almost two-million viewers, this television genre far outstrips any other. It’s not sport. It’s not reality TV. It’s soap opera.

Television audience research conducted by the South African Audience Research Foundation (SAARF) shows that on average, just over 1,862-million free-to-air and pay-TV viewers (aged 4+) tune in to catch their favorite soapies each day. (SABC 1’s ‘Generations’ is South Africa’s number one soapie, a position it has held for several years.)

French media and industrial group Lagardère wants to dispose of its stake in Canal Plus and disengage from the pay TV group “as quickly as possible”, according to Chief Financial Officer Dominique D’Hinnin, speaking on a call to mark the company’s first-half results.

D’Hinnin said that Lagardère wanted to restart talks with Canal Plus’s management to agree the timing of any move.

Media bodies have praised Government for budgeting about K89 billion meant for setting up of eight provincial television (TV) and radio stations in Zambia.

Zambia Union of Journalists (ZUJ) and the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) Zambia said in separate interviews that the move would create jobs in the media and was a milestone in the development of the nation.