eNCA Cut From SKY

eNCA, the South African news channel whose editorial independence has been under scrutiny as of late, is being cut from the SKY satellite tv platform in the UK, a mere two years after launch.

The reason for the cut, according to Patrick Conroy, is that the company is responding to the changes in the way people consume news in the digital world, which I call crap on. In the US, which is a relatively more digitally developed digital market than the UK, news channels are still springing up, with not one being online-exclusive, though they do maintain an online presence as well. It makes no sense for an expanding news operation like eNCA to now solely depend on online distribution where it will just disappear into obscurity among other news services.

Conroy further stated that broadcasting via satellite is quite expensive, which may be the true reason why the channel was being cut. It seems as if instead of SKY paying eNCA for the rights to have channel on their platfor, eNCA instead paid SKY for the rights to be on the platform.

When the channel launched on SKY two years ago with much fan fair, which included a statement from the president's office congratulating them and constantly being reported as "news" on eTV's eNews Prime Time bulletin, the channel changed its name from the eNews Channel to eNCA.

The channel also launched African Edition, a pan-African news bulletin that aired after News Night exclusively on the SKY platform hosted by Lindy Mtongana and Kwangu Liwewe. That has, as I reported, been cut a few months ago.

The channel does, however, remain available to viewers outside South Africa at livestation.com, a platform that hosts many other news channels. (For rights reasons, eNCA cannot be viewed from South Africa on Livestation)

When News Breaks...

This past Sunday, October 26th, the tragic news broke that South African national Soccer Team Captain, Senzo Meyiwa had been murdered.

Be it a Sunday evening, SA's three news channel were greatly understaffed and worked a somewhat limited schedule compared to the rest of the week.

So, when ANN7 was the first news channel to break the news in the 11pm edition of Nightcap (with eNCA a few seconds later), there was very little information available about the story and what did the news channels do about it? Nothing.

All channels went on with their schedule as if it were just a normal story: eNCA and ANN7 both went to taped content at 23:30, with SABC News having signed off hours eariler as they usually do.

Supersport Blitz, the local sports news channel packaged by Supersport did not mention the story at all for the remainder of Sunday evening. Yes, during the 11pm hour (when the news broke) the channel was carrying Sky Sports News, but they could have broken out of that broadcast to mention the tragic news or just put up a ticker message on screen.

What I am getting at is that if you not someone to go online late on a Sunday night, you would not have known the news. The online world was abuzz with the tragic news, with various relevant terms trending on social networks throughout the evening and various news websites having the decency to publish an article about what information is known up until that point.

And South Africa's three news channels (and also SS Blitz as this is a story relevant to them as well)? Closed on time for Sunday office hours.

This is the first time that I can recall that a South African news story broke and developed in the online world much faster and better than the traditional broadcast news medium of television with Twitter providing much more information than what is present on television.

Yes, it is now common place for Twitter to now be the center of the news world in countries like the US, but up to this point it has been pretty common for South African news to break on television first.

Of course, come Monday morning the news channels all saw the potential for this story to be milked for their gain and they all jumped on the bandwagon with some being insensitive enough to be close to stalking family and friends of the victim, people that are in mourning. 

Is this a kind of changing of the guard between new and old media beginning to take place right here in Africa?

eNCA Goes Back In Time

Since the advent of the tablet PC, most notably the iPad, these mobile PC's have been intergrated into many different types of live broadcasts, including talent shows, talk shows, and, of course, news broadcasts.

eNCA also had its anchors iPad's on display during live broadcasts (my favourite was Iman Rappetti's iPad with its red leather case), but since the channel swopped its studio desks that had been part of the furniture since the channel's launch back in 2008 for round tables, the channel instead has laptops on screen again, taking viewers back in time to when laptops were the hip technology around.

Now there is nothing wrong with having a laptop on screen, many anchors on channels like CNN has them on the side, often alongside a tablet PC and cellphone, bt the laptops used on eNCA don't seem very... trendy, if you ask me.

And it is not like the anchors actually use them while they on air. For example, count the amount of times Jeremy Maggs stares at it during a typical episode of News Night. I counted 0.

So why bother having a redundant object, a mere prop, on screen for no reason? No frills, no favour.

Kyknet Tweaks News Programming Schedule

M-Net's Afrikaans channel, Kyknet (DStv 144), recently tweaked their news programming schedule.

This is apart from the recently introduced 21:30 current affairs slot on the channel.
 
The first that has been changed was the start time of its breakfast program, Dagbreek. The show now starts 15 minutes earlier at 05:45 instead of the previous 6am start, meaning it now starts before most other local news programming.

However, the sad part (for a news fan, at least)  is that the show has now lost half an hour of live content per day, airing now for only 90  minutes instead of the previous 2 hour format.

The next major development is the introduction of their own live daily late-night news programme, Kyknuus, which airs daily at 22:30. The show is produced from the Dagbreek studio and is hosted by a rotation of Dagbreek's news presenters like Riaan Cruywagen. The show is a straight news bulletin, though it is noticeably more relaxed than a traditional news bulletin.

With the introduction of Kyknuus, the Kyknuus brand (which itself has been a part of the Dagbreek programme) has taken on a new onscreen identity, dropping the previously used graphics that mimicked the enCA-produced eNuus bulletin.

The introduction of the late night Kyknuus bulletin also means that the late night repeat of eNuus is now dropped, which, though might not be a bad thing considering that its 30 minutes of live news replacing 30 mintues of 4 hour old news. However, the new Kyknuus bulletin only airs on the main Kyknet channel that is only available on DStv's Premium, Extra and the now discontinued Select 2 bouquet. This means that more than half of DStv's subscriber base on packages like Compact and Family that only have access to the second rate Kyknet & kie channel now lose half an hour of news programming as that channel had previously aired the late night repeat of eNuus.

Another thing to think about with the expansion of Kyknuus is to speculate over whether Kyknet might be dropping the externally produced eNuus bulletin in the future. With that bulletin losing its half hour repeat and Kyknuus's expansion, it might seem as if that is to eventually come as eNuus seems to be giving eNCA free promotion on a different channel.

All in all, the growth of Kyknet's Kyknuus seems to be something that could lead to promising things happening in the future (The news junkie in me is hoping that eventually it gets spun off into its own channel).

Mari Ramos Signs Off From CNN

Meteorologist Mari Ramos from CNN (DStv 401) signed off from the channel yesterday for the last time.

Mari was seen mainly during News Stream, which airs at 2pm CAT, and the hours around that show. She has been a part of CNN since 1999.

It is speculated that Ramos is just one of the latest victims of those laid off by CNN as part of their "reshaping" programme whereby they plan to cut their workforce by about 10%.

It is unclear at this stage who will be her permanent replacement.

Below is her final signoff:

News Channels Cover Mid Term Budget Speech

All South African news channels, with the exception of Business Day TV, carried Nhlanhla Nene's first Mid Term Budget Speech live.

eNCA had business anchor Arabile Gumede stationed in a studio at parliament from where he had a panel breaking down and analysing the budget speech while reporter Paula Chowles provided on the ground reaction from various oposition party members and also ANC members. Notably absent from coverage is senior anchor Andrew Barnes, who is based in Cape Town and usually anchors News Day during those hours. eNCA was the first channel to dip out of rolling cverage at 3:30pm, with analysis to follow during news bulletins throughout the rest of the day. Arabile is also slated to talk to the Minister of Finance during the 4pm hour.

ANN7 Mid Term Budget Panel

ANN7 had breakfast anchor Peter van Onselen co-anchoring with the new primetime business anchor from the Johannesburg studios with one analst in studio. Peter did most of the anchoring despite it being an anchoring duo. They provided mainly analysis of the budget and had the minimum amount of live on the ground coverage from parliament.

SABC News Mid Term Budget Panel

On SABC News, the lunchtime news team (which is a business-centric news bulletin in any case) provided live on the ground coverage from parliament in what I must say is the best studio at parliament: there is decent lighting, decent space and a decent view. They were joined by various in studio analysts and also had a few reporters on the ground getting reaction from MP's as they leave parliament (and look for reports as some of them appeared on all three news channels). Their coverage was also simulcast on SABC2.

CNBC Africa also hosted a budget panel from their studio in Johannesburg.

Channel O Tweaks Turn Up, Adds Sammy Sosa as co-presenter

Turn Up, Channel O's (DStv 320) flagship weekly live show hosted by Siyabonga "Scoop" Ngwekazi underwent a few changes this past Friday, Occtober 17th.

Firstly, the show now starts half an hour later than before at 19:30 instead of 7pm as has been the case since earlier this year when it moved from a daily to a weekly programme.

Next, the show has dumped the green screen that has been used since inception and now originates from the brand new V Entertainment set that debuted this past Monday. Along with this, the show has now adopted a new multi-camera camera format and is shot in high definition, even though Channel O is not even available in widescreen.

Turn Up has also now added a co-host to the mix with Sammy Sosa (Sam Lehoko) joining Scoop at the helm of the show. Sammy previously hosted to Gig Guide on etv's Club 808 (which is hosted by Channel O Alum, Nonhle Thema), and is also the midmorning/early afternoon presenter on YFM.

She will be primarily hosting a segment called The Drop, which features the latest entertainment news from the continent.

SABC News Tweaks Schedule

The SABC News Channel, DStv 404, has yet again made changes to the channel's schedule, this time being the late night hours that get a much needed shuffle, at least in my opinion.

The main change that took effect this past Monday, October 14, was the shifting of its 11pm late night news program, Your World, to the 9pm hour on the lineup, effectively pushing the repeats of African-language news back by an hour.

The show also underwent some somewhat minor tweaks to coincide with the timeslot change. Firstly, and most strikingly, the show is now broadcast live instead of on a tape-delay as had been done previously.

The show also changed studios, dropping the studio that is used for most of the SABC News Channel's programming live Sports Live and Newsroom and instead now originates from the studio used for the African-language bulletins that are broadcast on SABC 1.

Another major change undertaken by the show is that it now has a new anchor, the same person that anchors the channel's News @ 8 programme.

This then means that yet again long time SABC news anchor, Mahendra Raghunath, will find himself without a news bulletin o anchor as Your World had previously been anchored by him during the week.

Overall, I feel this is very smart counter programming on the part of the SABC, the second most watched news channel in the country,  to add live news in the 9pm not too long after eNCA, the most watched news channel in the country, completely dropped a live general news bulletin in the 9pm hour. This is a sure way of attracting viewers in that hour that would like to see local news but cannot find it anywhere else (ANN7 has Africa Tonight in the 9pm half-hour).

REVIEW: Vuzu Relaunches Flagship Daily Entertainment News Show, V Entertainment

Vuzu presenter Shelton Forbes in the channel's new studio

M-net's youth-centric brand, Vuzu, today launched the "amplified" version of its daily flagship entertainment news shows, V Entertainment. The relaunch of the show coincides with the launch of the second Vuzu channel, Vuzu Amp, which is available exclusively to DStv Premium subscribers.

As part of the show's relaunch, the show finally moved into a real studio, dropping the green screen that was used for the greater part of its history (They did have a dull real studio at launch in 2009, but it was dropped at the end of their first season). The new studio, mostly in glossy black with pink elements and with multiple cameras, is a welcomed upgrade from the single camera green screen format that had been used in the past.

The new graphics is also more well done than previously though nothing very special.

For the relaunch, the show was hosted by three presenters instead of just one, the three longest running presenters on the show. In order of length as a presenter, they were Siyabonga "Scoop" Ngwekazi, Lalla Hirayama and Dineo Moeketsi. However, Siya's appearance was billed as a special appearance since he officially left the show a few months ago when he moved to Channel O to launch Turn Up. Vuzu does, however, say that Siya will be appearing on the show sporadically in the future.

New graphics, a new studio, being broadcast in High Definition and having three presenters instead of one did not save what was a terrible show, content-wise at least, when compared to what viewers had come to expect from V Entertainment. Instead of being the jam packed entertainment news show viewers had come to expect, the show seemed to be filled with more banter between presenters and the promotion of what will now become a daily poll on the show than anything else. By 22 minutes after the start of the show, it was all over and they played out with a new music video from singing sensation, Bucie.

They just spent way too much time talking about a poll that does not belong on this show. Yes, social networking integration is good, but that should have remained on the V Prime segments.

Reviews on social networks for the new V Entertainment are mixed. The only thing people are complimenting from the show is its set, while those that critiqued the content side of the show, what the show should really be about, described it as a "yawnfest," and rightfully so.

The manner in which the channel promoted the relaunch of the show, though not giving specifics, made it seem as if, heck, the show was being improved, but that was definitely not what happened.

As a tv channel (a medium of communication), one would expect the channel to communicate details about the relaunch ahead of time, but that was totally not the case. Before today, it was not known whether the show would remain in the 6pm time slot or change time slots. The show's timeslot became even more questionable this past Sunday when on Idols, Proverb said that it would air at 5pm instead. Up until today it was never confirmed whether the V-Prime segments that air throughout primetime would air on Vuzu or Vuzu Amp with the channel only today announcing the finer details of the whole situation. It is even unclear as to how many presenters will be presenting the show from tomorrow. One? Two? More?

Going forward, V Entertainment has a lot of room for improvement, the only sad part about that is that the room for improvement after today's show is greater than that of prior episodes of a show that wasn't in need of a fix now being broken.

Trevor Noah Joining The Daily Show

South African comedian, Trevor Noah, will be joining the cast of Comedy Central's late night talks show, The Daily Show, which is hosted by comedian Jon Stewart.

Noah's official role as part of "The Best F*&#ing News Team Ever!"(that is what they refer to themselves as) will be Contributor, beginning in December.

Noah is not completely unknown to the American late night comedy scene. He previously appeared on the Tonight Show, then hosted by Jay Leno, back in 2012.

He has also recently been setting the British comedy circuit ablaze, with appearances on shows like Live at the Apollo, seen in SA on BBC Entertainment (DStv 120).

He himself also hosted a "late night" talk show, though it aired in early primetime, on Mnet, Tonight with Trevor Noah, which moved to Mzansi Magic for its second season.

The Daily Show airs on Comedy Central (DStv 122) Tuesday to Friday evenings at 23:50.

eNCA Adds New Show, Week In One, to Schedule

eNCA, DStv 403, has added yet another new show to the channel's growing number of speciality news programming. The latest edition is News in One.

News in One is a new show that debuted earlier today, October 4th 2014, with little prior promotion or fanfare. News in One is to be a weekly show reviewing the week's top news stories in one thirty minute bulletin.

The show is hosted by eNCA senior anchor (and now Power FM presenter as well), Jeremy Maggs. It now means that Jeremy Maggs will be seen on our screens seven days a week: Monday-Friday on Newsnight, Sunday on Maggs on Media and now Saturdays as well on Week in One.

Week in One is the second new show to debut on the channel this week. eNCA Moneyline premiered on Wednesday evening with Siki Mgadabeli at the helm. That show received much better promotion leading up to its launch in comparison to the silent launch of Week in One.

The weekly premiere is on a Saturday morning at 10am and then repeats a whopping 4 additional times over both Saturday and Sunday as eNCA continues their cutting back of live news for reasons unknown.

The channel, whose slogan once upon a time was "Prime Time, All The Time" now no longer has just ONE full hour of news on the channel on a weekend day as eNCA now has a mere 7.5 hours of live news on a Saturday.

BDTV Goes Widescreen

 

South African business news channel Business Day TV, DStv 412, has started broadcasting in widescreen.

The channel also made slight adjustments to their on air presentation to go with the transition to the new aspect ratio.

This now leaves CNBC Africa as the only South African news channel not broadcasting in the now standard aspect ratio of 16:9.