RATINGS: Which News Channels Were the Most Watched for the Month Of October in South Africa?

Courtesy once again of Patrick Conroy, we now have yet another glimpse into the world of which news channel is watched the most in South Africa and DStv.

Business Channels First:
CNBC Africa has once again overtaken Business Day TV as the most watched Business News channel in the country (1.68% compared to 0.52%). During the month of October, CNBC Africa aired the 3rd Republican Debate, though it did not send out programming advisories before hand. October also brought with it the Mid Term Budget Speech on the 21st of the month with the channel providing wall to wall coverage of the speech while Business Day TV was showing repeat content.
Compared to September, CNBC Africa is up 16% while Business Day TV's ratings went down double digits, month on month.

International News Channels next and in a month filled with US Politics news and unrest in the Middle East, CNN remains in first place, though its 4.04% share is down from the 5.69% in the prior month when it had a Democrat Primary Debate on its schedule which aired live and repeated in prime time.
They are followed by Al Jazeera English and BBC World News. Combined, one in ten viewers who watched a news channel in South Africa opted to watch an international one.

Now things get interesting...
Before I continue, I want to just put a bit of context into the Month of October 2015 in South African news with a single hashtag: #FeesMustFall. Yip, that happened during October and the graph above is a perfect indicator of which channel South Africans prefer when deciding where to turn for major domestic breaking news issues.

Firstly, ANN7. The downside: In a month with a major breaking news story in South Africa that developed over a number of days, if not weeks, to which the channel dedicated a large deal of resources, Sky News, a British news channel, was watched by more South Africans than a South African news channel.  More so, the channel also aired the South African of the Year Awards during October, an event that was trending on top of Twitter's list for most of that evening.
The upside? The channel's ratings were up 14% compared to September of this year, which is a large margin.
At this point, something has got to give at the channel. They have certain bright spots, for example the in depth analysis on ANN7 Prime and the quality of GameOn! is something often spoke about, but the rest of the channel's lineup need to see a step up in quality to remain relevant.
What's more, Sky News is available on DStv Premium and Extra only whereas ANN7 is available on absolutely all DStv bouquets including the R39 Easy View as well as Commercial packages.

In the same news climate as the above, SABC News saw their ratings decrease by just over 7% during October 2015. The channel's coverage, or lack thereof, of of the #FeesMustFall movement has been widely criticized and the South African public has made their voices heard by tuning out.

With absolutely spectacular coverage of the movement, eNCA remains more than comfortable at the top of the news mountain on DStv. The audience share was up a whopping 15%  compared to September, proving that quality coverage indeed leads to quantity in terms of viewership figures. The channel also trended on Twitter alongside #FreesMustFall and traffic to their website was up during the month of October.





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