Sunday 19 June 2016

Exclusive ITV-Oscar Pistorius interview to air on M-Net and M-Net City

Image result for carte blanche oscar pistorius
M-Net has announced that the pay tv broadcaster has secured the rights to the highly anticipated and much hyped ITV interview/documentary, Oscar Pistorius: The Interview.

The interview will premiere on M-Net this Friday, 24 June 2016 at 22:55, whilst the credits will still be rolling from its first broadcast over in the UK on the ITV network. In addition, the broadcast will be simulcast on M-Net City, which is an M-Net channel available on both the DStv Compact and Extra bouquets, allowing more people to see the special broadcast.

Because M-Net has been hyping the court case as if it is a major soccer match, there will also be a live panel that will be providing what is essentially a build up and post match analysis. So far, we know that John Webb, who had been reporting from court, will be in studio. This special will be broadcast from an actual Supersport studio that is used to hype up sports matches.This part of the special will be produced by the Carte Blanche team.

Carte Blanche ran a popup channel covering the initial trial and has continued to cover the trial during their regular Sunday broadcast.

“The content of the documentary will undoubtedly make headline news across the globe and our viewers will be able to see it in full and in high quality on the M-Net Channels first. In addition to that the Carte Blanche team, who has been following the trial intensively from the start, will add to the conversation with their valuable insights and comments with the Carte Blanche special,” says Jan du Plessis, Director: M-Net Channels.

In addition, because the broadcast time is quite late and on an evening when television viewership is slightly lower, the special will be made available on the DStv Catch Up platform and also air on Supersport channels at various times. Expect to see the interview quite a few times as one of the questions under the FAQ of the release asks "Why are you airing the interview so many times?"

In the interview, acclaimed ITV investigative journalist, Mark Williams-Thomas, will meet up with Pistorius at his uncle's home where he had been  staying in order to provide his side of the story.

Why did Pistorius choose the UK's ITV for the interview instead of a domestic journalist? Apparently he prefers the 'format' presented by the foreign broadcaster. What exactly is the 'format' of a documentary/interview in any case? Is ITV paying him? Are they allowing a certain level of editorial control? Who knows, but it just doesn't make sense why go that far, as if a local broadcaster would not have tweaked a 'format' for him.

Pistorius is not the first major role player in the trial to prefer speaking to foreign media instead of local media. During the initial trial, Reeva Steenkamp's family opted to open up to NBC's Today Show (United States) instead of a local media source. The odd move led to American media commentators to speculate that NBC had paid the family for the interview (as it is odd, at least in the US, to prefer foreign media over local media), especially considering how close to the time of the incident the interview took place. The pressure from critics led NBC to actually issue a statement that no sum of money had [apparently] been paid for that interview.

[ANN7's Michael Appel has Tweeted that he will be appearing in the special]






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