SABC 2 Adds Deutsche Welle To Overnight Hours

 

SABC 2, the public broadcaster's second most popular channel, has added news and actuality programming from the English service of the Germain broadcaster, Deutsche Welle, to its overnight hours.

The addition of Deutsche Welle (which I will admit I do not know how to pronounce) replaces the beyond stale reruns of old news programmes from the SABC's SABC News International channel, which shut down back in 2010, with repeats airing until the end of November 2014.

Deutsche Welle, which is Germain for "Germain Wave" and often stylised as simply DW, is a service that is described as being similar in nature to France24, BBC World News and Voice of America. In other words, a channel that is meant to create a good image of a certain country, the country that pays its bills, while conveying the news.
 
The introduction of DW to the SABC 2 schedule follows years after the SABC dumped CNN International from being broadcast overnight. The only difference between CNN providing news overnight on the public broadcaster and DW is that CNN is seen as a completely independent news organsiation while DW is not.

 DW is not of course new to the South African market as it has been seen on various community stations like Cape Town TV, where it is featured alongside Al Jazeera.

Though the addition of DW to SABC2's schedule is not best choice I would have made, it certainly trumps old news that is at least 4 years old at its youngest. It remains a good, fresh source of international news for whoever might be up at that hour and not have access to a 24 hour news service, or those that do have access to a 24 hour news service getting a different perspective on the news as DW is not available as a standalone channel on either DStv or Starsat.

Whether the addition of DW is a step forward or back is debatable, considering back when the SABC dumped Siki Mgabadeli's Big Debate, the reason for dumping that show was that the SABC did not want to have any news and actuality content on its air not produced by themselves.

When the SABC launched its previous news channel back in 2007, SABC News International, then President Thabo Mbeki was quoted as saying they do not need other countries to tell African stories, which now seems to be happening again now.