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Combined Artistic Productions

News
16 September 1988
Combined Artistic Productions produces an average of 160 hours of broadcast television every year, focusing on large-scale live events, current affairs and reality TV series, short format documentaries, and interactive live TV.
Combined Artists

Carte Blanche

In South Africa, we're best known for producing Carte Blanche, M-Net's flagship actuality programme. Carte Blanche has developed a high degree of credibility in South African television journalism and has been awarded more than 200 local and international awards for quality stories that have made a difference. In August 2008, to commemorate 20 years on air, Carte Blanche launched the "Making a Difference" Campaign.
As the name suggests, Carte Blanche covers a variety of subjects and prides itself on the diversity and depth of its stories. Stories range from investigations into abuse of the vulnerable, to the inspiring determination of South African sports personalities, both abled and disabled. Carte Blanche is also known to go undercover in tracking and arresting high profile criminals, or takes time out to explore the edges of existence.

 

OSCAR PISTORIUS TRIAL - A Carte Blanche Channel




In March 2014 we launched the OSCAR PISTORIUS TRIAL - A Carte Blanche Channel, the coverage of which was a watershed moment in the advancement of open justice in South Africa. Led by esteemed channel executive director George Mazarakis, the OSCAR PISTORIUS TRIAL - a Carte Blanche channel combined state of the art of technology and vastly qualified experts to deliver, not just to its audiences but to the global media fraternity, an unprecedented view of the courtroom proceedings. The channel featured round-the-clock coverage of the trial, as well as hours of exclusive documentaries, profiles and in-depth expert analysis.

During 2010, Combined Artists produced the FIFA World Cup South Africa Final Draw Show for an expected audience of 200 million. We also did the Preliminary Draw and the Confederation Cup Draw.

 

 

Other big events include:


Millennium Broadcast with Nelson Mandela, transmitted live to a global audience of four billion viewers from Robben Island, Cape Town.

Miss SA Beauty Pageants and Miss World.

The company has tackled difficult and strategically challenging projects, notably shows launching M-Net into countries like Ghana, Kenya, Cameroon, Nigeria and Egypt. An earlier travel programme series, Bon Voyage, also saw our crews working in more than 30 countries on locations as diverse as China, Bom Bom Island and Nepal.
The company has been tasked with creating new formats in Current Affairs and Reality TV to meet our clients' needs. Projects include Carte Blanche Extra, M-Net's Show Me The Mommy, Estee Lauder's LOOKS2Live By and Revlon's Face to Face.

Not just a television production company, Combined Artists has also been involved in Internet production and social media projects. Notably, in a world first, Carte Blanche made use of a brand new format for its 22nd birthday show that allowed the audience to determine the flow, content and narrative of the show live via Facebook and Twitter.