News Shorts: Sky News Named News Channel Of The Year At RTS, BET Announces New Series In Bloom + Release Date And NCIS Spinoff Greenlight By Paramount Plus

Sky scores big in the UK

Sky News has been named News Channel of the Year for the seventh consecutive year at the Royal Television Society Journalism Awards. 

Responding to Sky News winning the award, David Rhodes, Executive Chairman for Sky News Group said:

“It’s been a momentous year for news and I couldn’t be more proud that Sky News has been recognised by winning News Channel of the Year for a phenomenal seventh year in a row. To provide audiences with the full story first, our 800 journalists around the world have told

compelling human-interest stories, held those in power to account, have gone deep into the data and delivered powerful eyewitness reports from around the globe”.

The BBC, which similar to Sky News is based from the UK and made substantial changes to its news output in the last year walked away almost empty-handed. The broadcaster did secure a win for its coverage of the Ukraine conflict and for a BBC Wales investigation into Welsh Rugby.

BET launches new local drama

In Bloom has been produced by MTV Staying Alive Foundation with continued support of Paramount and grant support by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The thought-provoking collection tells unheard stories addressing a range of crucial issues including period poverty, child marriage, gender-based violence, HIV self-stigma, family planning and women’s economic empowerment. 

The anthology comes from five female filmmakers from Nigeria, Kenya, India, the US and Brazil, creatively championing new voices and enabling insightful conversations to dismantle systemic injustices.

In Bloom will also premiere on BET, DStv Channel 129 on March 8 at 20:00 CAT

NCIS spinoff in development 

CBS Studios is expanding its ever growing NCIS franchise by bringing back two fan favorite characters from the mothership series, Tony DiNozzo, played by Michael Weatherly, and Ziva David, portrayed by Cote de Pablo, who will reunite on screen for the first time in 10 years. Paramount+ has given a 10-episode series order to the untitled spinoff headlined by Weatherly and de Pablo and written by John McNamara (Trumbo, The Magicians). All three executive produce.

Nicknamed NCIS: Europe, the new action-packed spinoff, set to start production later this year, will follow Tony (Weatherly) and Ziva (de Pablo) as they find themselves on the run across the continent.

NCIS is one of CBS Studios’ most valuable franchises and its expansion has been a goal for the studio. This is one of two new NCIS offshoots greenlighted this year, along with the Young Gibbs prequel series for CBS, NCIS: Origins. It is also the second extension of the NCIS franchise beyond the U.S., following NCIS: Sydney, which has been airing on CBS in the U.S.

StarSat Will More Likely Launch A Total Of 10 Channels, Part Of Them Are Currently Active On The Platform

StarTimes Media has upgraded their bouquet offering that will see the introduction of 10 new premium channels across news, kids, movies, fashion, novelas, gaming and esports giving subscribers an enriched content experience at the same affordable monthly subscription for their bouquets of choice. Some of them may take longer to appear on the platform or become a no show.

Consumers will have access to channels Sky News, CBeebies, Gametoon, Timeless Drama Channel (TDC), Tlnovelas, FashionBox HD, SABC Education, FilmBox, Limpopo TV and Toonami will enrich the already existing content genres available to the broadcaster’s terrestrial and satellite television.

Sky News is a British free-to-air television news channel and organisation. Sky News is distributed via a radio news service, and through online channels. It is owned by Sky Group, a division of Comcast. The channel is also available on MultiChoice's DStv.

CBeebies is a British free-to-air television network owned by the BBC through BBC Studios. It is aimed at young children aged 3 and upwards. It manages an international network supported by subscription services. The channel is also carried on MultiChoice's DStv.

Gametoon features interactive gaming/second screen gaming, game reviews, tournaments esports and viral content fueled with best of the Web and much more. The channel gives its viewers a unique opportunity to play dedicated games on their mobile devices and share scores along with social profile pictures on air. The channel is owned by SPI International.

Timeless Drama Channel is a Turkish entertainment channel featuring Turkish drama and Turkish telenovelas with series such as The Uncle in Black, Kurt Seyit and Sura, 20 Minutes, The End and many more. The channel also airs movies and run by SPI International.

Tlnovelas is a Spanish-language pay television network that broadcasts Mexican telenovelas produced by Televisa, the owner of the channel.

FashionBox HD features inspirational, educational and always highly entertaining content on shopping, lifestyle and new fashion trends. The channel is owned by SPI International.

SABC Education is an interactive education channel for the youth that carries programming from the department of education, archived shows from the SABC library, as well as educational programmes seen and available on SABC1, SABC2 and SABC3.

FilmBox is a movie channel that broadcasts a range of Hollywood blockbusters, world movies and local productions.

Limpopo TV is a multi-advertorial channel offering a variety of programs that include magazine style shows, reality shows, local dramas, animation, current affairs, movies, sitcoms and sports, local news, infomercials and local stories.

Toonami is a 24-hour kids channel with the best of DC animation carrying a bit of action, adventure and team work which was available on DStv as a pop-up channel but runs full-time on StarSat. The channel is owned by WarnerMedia.

So far StarSat and StarTimes have launched several of these channels or are still trying to launch them. You need visit their customer care for more details about the channel.

StarTimes (StarSat) Might Be Adding Another News Channel Soon

StarSat as usual has been silent when it comes to adding more channels on the platform besides the two new channels from SPI International, they might be adding Sky News really soon.

Sky News is a British free-to-air television news channel and organisation. Sky News is distributed via a radio news service, and through online channels. It is owned by Sky Group , a division of Comcast. John Ryley is the head of Sky News, a role he has held since June 2006. Sky News is currently Royal Television Society News Channel of the Year, the 12th time it has held the award. It is a provider of live streaming world news which can be viewed via its website, YouTube , and various mobile devices and digital media players.

The only part that begs the question is customer's monthly fees will the platform perhaps hike consumer's fees due to the growth of quality channels even though sports has been halted admist the coronavirus pandemic.

NBCUniversal Launches A New News Channel Called Sky World News Globally, Question Arise On Whether This Channel Will Replace Sky News On DStv?

A new NBC Sky World News channel will go live this summer across global TV networks, as well as on the Peacock streaming service which will not be available in South Africa.

The channel will mark Comcast’s first effort to unite its brands since its $30 billion acquisition of Sky in 2018.

Andy Lack, chairman of NBC News, told the FT that the service will target English-speaking audiences, and will draw on a 3,500-strong combined workforce and hire 100-200 dedicated staff. Ten new bureaus will open worldwide, extending the NBC-Sky reporting footprint by some 50 per cent.

The operation will be led by British TV executive Deborah Turness, who ran NBC News between 2013 and 2017 before being given responsibility for developing its international arm.

On launch, the television channel will reach an estimated 130 million households, and will seek to take on the likes of CNN and BBC in the global world news market. Since then MultiChoice and Sky News have been silent on the matter.

“We’ve longed for an international channel,” Lack said to the FT . “Going back to the Gulf war when CNN essentially came on to the scene, we knew then at NBC that if you weren’t in the 24-hour news business globally, you weren’t really in the news business. So when I first went to NBC in 1993 it was like, goddamn, how do we get one of those?” That opportunity seemingly finally arose following the acquistion of Sky.