{"id":636342,"date":"2026-03-27T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-27T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=636342"},"modified":"2026-03-27T07:37:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-27T05:37:16","slug":"top-dstv-show-vacates-offices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/broadcasting\/636342-top-dstv-show-vacates-offices.html","title":{"rendered":"Carte Blanche vacates its offices"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

M-Net’s iconic and long-running weekly investigative journalism programme, Carte Blanche, is vacating its offices in Ferndale, Johannesburg.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The show’s executive producer, John Webb, told<\/a> veteran broadcasting journalist Thinus Ferreira that it will be exiting the rented offices at the end of March 2026, as the building’s owner has sold it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We considered finding alternative office space, but given the experience gained during the pandemic and to improve operational efficiencies, we’ve decided to return to a work-from-home model,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“As our internal team is small and we rely on freelance producers and other technical contractors for the bulk of our content, a fixed office space is no longer a necessity.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The popular programme will continue to air from its set at Stark Studios.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Carte Blanche premiered in August 1988 and was initially anchored by Derek Watts and Ruda Landman. Landman left the show in 2007, after which Bongani Bingwa became a presenter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The programme airs on Sundays at 19:00 on M-Net, DStv channel 101, and, according to M-Net, consistently ranks among the channel’s top 10 shows, with substantial local viewership each week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is unclear whether the decision to vacate Carte Blanche’s rented offices forms part of cost-cutting interventions at M-Net’s owner, MultiChoice, which was recently taken over by the French firm Canal+.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Canal+ promptly began a cost-cutting exercise at MultiChoice after taking control of the company in September 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The effort includes rationalising MultiChoice’s internal content and negotiating with sports and general entertainment rights holders for better content licensing costs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is also renegotiating hardware prices, optimising broadcast infrastructure, and converging the two broadcasters’ tech infrastructure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other savings have been realised through the scaling of procurement best practices, rationalising brand and marketing, optimising financing costs, and reducing structural support costs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Canal+ said the cost-cutting actions coming from its immediate interventions had already secured over \u20ac80 million (R1.58 billion) in free cash flow synergies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Canal+ under investigation in South Africa<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Canal+ announced further cost-cutting interventions this past month, including shutting down<\/a> MultiChoice’s streaming platform, Showmax, which has been described as an “expensive failure.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Portfolio Committee on Communications and Digital Technologies announced plans to investigate<\/a> the broadcaster’s actions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) and the Competition Commission briefed the subcommittee appointed to look into the cost cuts on 17 March 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Committee chair Khusela Diko also said the committee will schedule special oversight visits to the broadcast sector on 31 March and 1 April 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She said the oversight visits would cover broadcasters such as MultiChoice and E-tv, as well as other commercial operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

EFF MP Sixolise Gcilishe said the decision to shut down Showmax raises serious concerns about support for the local creative industry, job retention, and adherence to South Africa’s transformation goals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Showmax has been crucial in contributing to our national identity and pushing the South African narrative by providing a platform for local producers, actors, writers, and technical teams,” she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Its discontinuation poses a serious risk of diminishing a critical distribution avenue for local content, particularly resulting in a cultural landscape overly influenced by international programmes.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She wants MultiChoice to explain the impact on future local production and answer questions about the status of existing contracts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Any significant corporate changes by a major entity like MultiChoice will likely result in job losses, affecting not just the company but also the wider creative sector,” Gcilishe said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She also wants MultiChoice executives to provide a specific timeline, along with reasons for shutting down Showmax, including an assessment of potential job losses within its ranks and across the wider industry.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The staff of the production company behind Carte Blanche will return to working from home.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341076,"featured_media":636391,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_facebook_post_id":"","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_threads_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[21383,23857,104070,85,25571,97352,5016,475,48784,103823],"class_list":["post-636342","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-broadcasting","tag-canal","tag-carte-blanche","tag-combined-artistic-productions","tag-dstv","tag-john-webb","tag-khusela-diko","tag-m-net","tag-multichoice","tag-portfolio-committee-on-communications","tag-sixolise-gcilishe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636342"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341076"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=636342"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636342\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":636600,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636342\/revisions\/636600"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/636391"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=636342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=636342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=636342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}