Btv settles for Chinese Kung Fu movies

MONKAGEDI GAOTLHOBOGWE
Staff Writer | Thursday June 3, 2010 00:00

Director of Broadcasting Services Mogomotsi Kaboeamodimo confirmed they have run out of American Hollywood movies to show on weekends and said they hope to have acquired new material by the last quarter of this year, adding that they did the tendering for new movies last month. However, the Btv boss defended the Kung Fu movies saying there is a segment of the population who like them.

The Kung Fu movies have replaced those mouth-watering Hollywood blockbusters that characterised weekend nights on Btv for the past decade. The Kung Fu movies have been running for more than four months now, with Saturday nights sometimes seeing local music videos playing on slots traditionally reserved for late night movies.

Asked to explain whatever happened to the blockbusters the station had became known for, Btv boss Mogomotsi Kaboeamodimo told Mmegi recently that the process of acquiring new movies and programmes takes time because of red tape. He said Btv also has to negotiate pricing for international content with the suppliers, adding that they need to do business with reputable international suppliers.

Pressed to say what happened to their movies library, Kaboeamodimo claimed they could not play them because each movie has its own conditions. ' Every content is subject to conditions set by the suppliers; some suppliers require accelerated costing, some clauses allow us to repeat the movies or programmes, but others demand that we face it out (the movie) after it has played. 'So the movies ceased to play because their contracts came to an end, or due to costs, or due to new requirements by the suppliers', he explained in a phone interview, amidst allegations that the station actually ran out of tapes onto which they should have recorded movies for repeat.

However, when those allegations were put to him, the Btv boss said he did not know anything about the station running out of recording tapes.

Kaboeamodimo also denied that Btv might not be showing any Hollywood blockbusters on weekends due to beaming restrictions imposed by the suppliers. Btv is known to beam all over Africa, when some content suppliers might require that a certain programme be confined to a certain location. Kaboeamodimo says only FIFA has restricted Btv to beaming World Cup games locally and that they will comply.

A few years ago the suppliers of the No.1 Lady's Detective Agency movie demanded that Btv should not beam the movie beyond Botswana borders, something that took the station years to comply with until the movie was aired last year without restrictions.