Here we have the Free-To-Air Viewership of the news of the passing of former statesman Nelson Mandela. The viewership figures are broken down quarter by quarter from the moment the news broke in the 11 o'clock hour of the 5th of December.
Courtesy of SAARF
As seen at the start of the coverage, eTV was ahead of the TOTAL COMBINED viewership figures of the SABC. This is attributed to a very strong movie lead-in the channel had. This is seen in the strong drop off that occured after that.
Viewership at the SABC started at a combined share of below 30%, but eventually peaked in the midnight hours at slightly above 60, more than double its share at the start.
From the above, we can also see SABC3 is clearly the least watched channel. However, it should be noted that at some points viewership at eTV dipped even below this, showing that eTV doesn't seem to be the place to be for breaking news or things of National Importance, the country still trusts the SABC, knowing clearly it is the mouthpiece of the SABC.
The slight marks you can see on the graph indicate 2am Saturday Morning, 2 am Sunday Morning, and the point at which SABC1 decided to drop off from the SABC News feed to show soccer, a move that may seem to be controversial, but definitely worked out considering the high viewership the soccer received as people likely tuned out of being fatigued by Mandela coverage and now finally having choice viewing after more than 24 hrs of rolling news coverage across all channels.
It would be nice to receive the news channels' ratings so that we can see whether eNCA viewership has affected the viewership seen at eTV because these numbers are alarmingly low considering the scope of their coverage.
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