Your Ultimate New Year's Eve TV Guide

Staying in this New Year's Eve? Well various television channel's will be producing specials, live and taped, to usher in the new year.

ANN7 (DStv 405)
ANN7, South Africa's youngest 24 hour news channel, also becomes South Africa's first 24 hour news channel to produce its own New Year's Eve special with a 1 hour live special, presented by entertainment correspondent Avashnee Vandiar,  from Buffalo Park East London at the inaugural Cowntdown Music Festival. It is unclear which stars will be performing on the  portion of the festival that will be broadcast.

SABC1
SABC1's annual Come Duze 2015 live broadcast originates from Durban this year. The show goes live at 9pm and features celebrities, musicians and actors, giving their New Year’s messages, best wishes, hopes and dreams spiced with 3 hours of the best of
Mzansi’s music videos.

SABC2
SABC 2 will be broadcasting their annual new Years Eve Special from 10pm. No further information has been made available

eTV
eTV will be broadcasting live from the Midmar Music Festival in Kwa-Zulu Natal from 10:30pm with Club 808's Nonhle Thema presenting the live coverage. She will be joined by Collen Zondo and Nontandakubukwa Tha Simelani.

International Broadcasters
Ring in The New Year around thw world with international news channels providing live coverage from their own home countries ringing in the year and also abbreviated coverage of other international NYE events.

CNNi (DStv 401)
My personal favourite, even if it means waking up extremely early, anchor of CNN's Anderson Cooper 360 (Tuesday through Saturday 3am), Anderson Cooper, is joined by his longtime friend and comedienne (and also new host of E!'s Fashion Police), Kathy Griffin, for the 8th year in a row live from Time Square in New York. Their live coverage includes crossings to stops around the US and around the world and kicks off from 4am CAT (With the countdown in that timezone culminating at 7am CAT). At 7:30am they hand over to Brooke Baldwin and Don Lemon who take viewers into the New Year in the US's Central Time Zone.

BBC World News (DStv 400)
BBC World News will be broadcasting their annual New Year Live, which will be covering the countdown and fireworks in London, where New Year's Day starts at 2am CAT. It will also feature performances from Adam Lambert and Queen


Sky News (DStv 402)
Will also be providing live coverage from London.

Other Broadcasters that will be airing special, but not live, broadcasts include:

• Mnet's annual broadcast of the Royal Variety Performance kicking off at 21:30pm (look out for performances by Ladysmith Black Mambazo and Trevor Noah)
• MTV (DStv 130) has massive music video wall from 21:20 pm
• BET (DStv 135) has Notarized, which is a countdown of the top 100 videos as voted by viewers and presented by many different guests. Airs throughout the day and into the night.
• Channel O (DStv 320) has Bassment throughout the day
• MTV Base (DStv 322) has a MVP Top 50 Tracks of 2014 special, as voted for by viewers.
• Trace Urban (DStv 325) also has their resident DJ ushering in the new year.

Juliet Newell to ANN7 Prime?

Juliet Newell on ANN7 Prime

For the past few weeks Juliet Newell has been anchoring ANN7's Prime on an on and off basis, alternating with the likes of Edwin Kgaswe and Gladys Sithole over the festive season.

But unlike Edwin Kgaswe and Gladys Sithole, Juliet has not been a member of ANN7 before she started appearing on the show.

If you are unfamiliar with Juliet Newell, her show reel includes anchoring eTV's then breakfast show, Morning Edition, from 2006, and also at Summit TV (today known as Business Day TV, DStv 412) before that. She also hosted various shows at the SABC throughout the 1990's including an educational show, an environmental show and also a sports show. She also has a rather impressive acting resumé, including a French series and Generations among others.

It is unkown whether she would become ANN7 Prime's permanent new anchor, or whether she is just freelancing at the channel, as no information has been made available (and she is not exactly on social media either).

ANN7 Prime at the moment does not have an announced permanent anchor after the departure of Chantal Rutter Dros at the start of the month.

But Juliet would be a nice addition to the ANN7 lineup if her resumé  is anything to go by, especially considering the recent drainage of experienced on-air talents from the channel.

Becky Anderson Promoted to CNN's Managing Editor in the Middle East

Becky Anderson, the host of CNNi's Connect the World, which airs Sunday through Thursday at 6pm CAT, has been named the news organisation's Managing Editor for the Middle East region (basically the Bureau Chief).

This follows the departure of Phil O'Sulliva, who held that position since March 2012, but has been with the organisation in various capacities mainly at their Hong Kong and then Abu Dhabi bureaus.

On Becky's appointment to the position, CNNi head, Tony Maddox said, " “We are delighted to announce that Becky Anderson will become Managing Editor – the regional figurehead and chief of the bureau. She will report to [SVP and CNNI general manager] Mike McCarthy. She will be supported in running our regional production center by a team of the existing staff – each of whom will bring leadership in their bespoke areas of expertise.”

Becky, 46, relocated from the UK to Abu Dhabi earlier this year when CNNi decided to can their business-centric Middle East based show, Global Exchange with John Deftarious, and replaced it with her Connect the World.

News On Christmas

I always wondered why CNN anchor Richard Quest always seemed to work on Christmas Day each and every year. He answered this question in a very season appropriate tweet:

I love anchoring on #Xmas the stories are lovely. The pictures are happier. Yes there is sadness and misery but for few hours we can smile
— Richard Quest (@richardquest) December 24, 2014

In South Africa, like in all other countries, the schedules of 24 hour news channels are usually tweaked quite heavily for Christmas Day as everyone tries to spend time with family, but someone still has to man the 24/7 live news operation.

For the first time, South Africa's 24 hour news channels went live at 7am instead of the usual 6am switch on.

Florence was standing in on Morning News Today for both Dan Moyane and Uveka Rangappa. This was followed by Cathy Mohlanhlana taking her usual slot. At 4pm, Xoli Mngambi was in for Duduzile Ramele on Afternoon News from 4pm and Gareth Edwards took over on Newsnight, the show that he seems to now be anchoring every Friday, from 6pm. The channel featured various taped programming throughout the day and ended the broadcast day before 11pm. Interestingly, the eNCA Moneyline and Tech Report episodes that premiered today featured mostly new content, which is to be appreciated at a time of year when all the channels, not just the news channels, do their "reflection" episodes.

On SABC News it seemed as if it was just another broadcast day, which is something that would be appreciated by someone looking for live news while everyone else was in taped content. Most of their regular anchors were either anchoring their shows, or, as in Ayanda-Allie Paine's case on Morning Live, providing live reports. Morning Live was also broadcast exclusively on the SABC News channel as SABC 2 was broadcasting festive films.

On ANN7, the channel that prides itself as being the "live events and analysis" news network of the country, they did just that:live events, with a live broadcast of a Christmas service from the Regina Mundi church in Soweto from 9am, but this was preceded by a full hour of fluffy taped programming. In Prime time, Gladys Sitholea nchored the 7pm hour which is usually ANN7 Prime but was unbranded for the evening. She was preceded by sports anchor Fahraaz Patel who did the afternoon shift of news (because these days sports anchors, reporters and entertainment anchors all get to do the news on ANN7). The channel also aired a 2hour edited version of their South African of the Year Awards that was held eariler this year.

No matter which channel you watched, the news was the same: Christmas, Christmas deaths, Christmas births, oh and a side note on the AU headquarters being attacked.

And My Personal Choice For ANN7 Prime Anchor Anchors The Show

Gladys Sithole on ANN7 Prime

With ANN7 without a primetime since Chantal Rutter Dros left on the 3rd, I was wondering who would be the perfect replacement on a show that was slowly turning into my favourite news programme (because it is not the same news every 30 minutes and is different from the rest of day programming).

With the channel making the apparent financial cuts others have been reporting about, it is unlikely that they would bring someone in from outside the organisation. With all the rumors of what a bad workplace it is, it is unlikely a big name news personality would want to join.

So we therefore have to look within the ranks for the new anchor and tonight my personal pick for the position anchored the show: Gladys Sithole.

Out of all the "ANN7 Originals" (A term I personally use to refer to all the personalities that rose to prominence on the channel), she seems to be the one that has grown the most since the channel launched and she also does not have a dry personality either. SHe just has that "it" factor needed to anchor the primetime broadcast.

At the moment she is a news anchor on Gauteng's Hot FM (a position she took up a few months ago), anchors an afternoon block on ANN7 then comes back to work at 9pm for Africa Tonight, the show that immediately follows Prime.

Is Gareth Edwards News Night's Permanent Friday Anchor Now?

Early in November, Gareth Edwards stepped down as anchor of eNCA's Afternoon News to take up the position of head of social media at the news organisation.

But it seems that despite this, Gareth now seems to be the channel's permanent anchor of News Night on a Friday evening. His first evening of anchoring the show in his current stint was November 7th.

His final Friday of anchoring his old Afternoon News slot was on November 14th, and he did not anchor that evening's News Night.

Since then, he has been anchoring News Night every Friday evening.

The only Friday evening he has not been anchoring News Night was on December 5th when the channel was covering the anniversary of the passing of Nelson Mandela, but even on that day he was providing live crossings from the Legacy Match.

I am definitely not complaining about having him on air every Friday, and I am sure neither Iman Rappetti or Jeremy Maggs, News Night's actual anchors, are complaining about having every weekend as a long weekend either. 

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.

Hajra Omarjee Resigns From ANN7

The excellent Senior Political Correspondent of ANN7, Hajra Omarjee, has resigned from the troubled news channel.

Her last day at the channel was today, December 13th, covering the EFF's first Elective Conference from where she reported throughout the day.

She joined ANN7 last year from eNCA, playing a great roll in many of the new channel's coverage of major events, including the passing of former president Nelson Mandela and anchored the channel's coverage of the State of the Nation Address earlier this year, which was quickly followed by an interview with President Zuma.

Around election time,she started anchoring a new political show, Political Edge, which aired on Sundays and often featured various prominent politicians. The show went off the air on November 24th, with Omarjee and others involved describing it as a "season finale" and that they will be back in the new year, which now will now obviously not happen. After the final aired, she tweeted: "YOU made #PoliticalEdge ANN7's highest rated show. #PoliticalEdge wraps for 2014. Special thanks to @asandamagaqa @ThisLifeJhb @ANN7tv" Many people read this as a goodbye tweet, including certain publications.

The first signs of cracks in her relationship with ANN7 appeared during the controversial exit of Asanda Magaqa from the channel, after Asanda was "escorted" from the news organisation's premises following disciplinary action. Hajra, who represented Asanda at those hearings tweeted the following after Asanda was escorted from the premises: "I feel nauseous, I have a throbbing headache .... I'm going home."

She guest hosted a slot on Johannesburg's newsy radio station, PowerFM, earlier this month. Another person that guest hosted a slot on that station is eNCA's Iman Rapetti, who now anchors a permanent slot on the channel.

ANN7 now has more slots to fill in the new year: Prime time anchor, business anchor and now senior politcal correspondent and host of Political Edge, and all this excludes the countless backstage departures at the channel.

Tirrin Cosway Leaves ANN7

 

The cards keep falling on this one.

ANN7 Prime's Business Anchor, Tyron "Tirrin" Cosway is leaving the station after 14 months. This follows the show's main anchor, Chantal Rutter Dros, who left the stationat the start of the month.

He initially joined the channel as a producer and quality controller, but was moved to be the channel's first, and only, business anchor, anchoring not only the business segments on Prime, but also the excellent social media segment (seen nowhere else).

His leaving the station is unrelated to Rutter Dros', as he will be immigrating to London.

This also means that Peter Stemmet, the show's sports anchor that has been sitting in the show's anchor seat on an interim basis, is the last person of what was an incredible cast on an incredible newscast that has now fallen apart.

Which Local News Channel Boasts The Most Popular Website?

With viewership statistics for local news channels being rare to find at best, I thought I would look at the popularity of each of the local news channels' websites, the next best metric that is actually available.

All of South Africa's three general news channels, and the two business channels, maintain their own news websites that compete nit only with each other, but also other online-only brands of news, along with social media.

So, which South African news channel has the most popular website?

5. ann7.com
In a distant fifth place, ANN7's (DStv 405) website ranks as the 11 784th most popular website in South Africa (692,277 globally).

The average visitor to the website spends only 1 minute, 59 seconds on the website, averaging 1.8 per visitor.

The website's bounce rate, which measures the percentage of visitors that leave the website after only looking at the homepage is 57.1%

Like its television counterpart, the online version of ANN7 also barely features any advertisements. But for some reason the website still feels quite cluttered and unorganised.

92% of the website's traffic originates from South Africa.


It is worth noting that ANN7's website is also by far the youngest of any of the websites listed at slightly more than a year. Even though the SABC News channel is just a few weeks older than it, SABC News has had an online platform for a long time before laucnhing the SABC News channel.

Ann7 is one of three local news sites that make their tv feed available for free at their own site.



4. businessdaytv.co.za
In fourth place is the official website of Business Day TV (DStv 412), which is the 1 487th most popular website overall in South Africa (339 606 globally).

Like Business Day TV is the tv counterpart to the nationally-distributed Business Day newspaper, bussinessdaytv.co.za is the sister of businessdayonline.co.za, the actual website of the newspaper, while businessdaytv.co.za focuses more on the television channel, including videos and a free live feed of the tv channel, along with some news, though not as extensive as Business Day Online.

Though its visitor figure is lower than most other websites on the list, its visitors are undoubtedly the most satisfied (or most dedicated), with its bounce rate of 28.6%, 8 average page views per visitor and 9:58 minutes spent online by the average visitor, all of which are much greater than any other website listed here. Their online team must be doing something right.

Its visitor percentage from South Africa is also much higher than the rest, with 99.3% of visitors originating from SA.



3. cnbcafrica.com
Though its South African rank of 1759th is worse than BDTV, the website of CNBC Africa (DStv410) ranks much higher when one looks at the global rank of 76,728th. This odd situation of being more popular internationally than domestically is due to a relatively small 34.1% of visitors from South Africa (much smaller than the rest), with the next most popular countries being Nigeria (28.1%), the US (8.4%) and Kenya (6.4%)

This mix is proof that CNBC Africa is truly a pan african news organisation and really covers news that interest people outside of South Africa (unlike other news channels that have the word "Africa" in their name but then their reporters in the Rest of Africa are doing reports on Twitter because for some reason they get so little airtime).

"cnbc live" was the second most searched for term that drove traffic to the site (and could also be why the channel is so popular in the US) as it has a live feed of the channel available for free to anyone, whereas in the US people would have to verify their pay tv subscription before being given access to the live feed. (CNBC Africa boasts quite a bit of daily live content from its international counterpart).

The channel' s bounce rate is 51.8%, daily viewers visit an average of 2.01 pages per visit and spend an average of 3:08 minutes on the website.






2. sabcnews.com

In second place is none other than the news website of the public broadcaster. Overall, it ranks as the 274th most popular website in SA (40 118 globally).

It boasts the highest bounce rate of any website on this list with 59.9%, the average visitor spends 2:14 minutes on the site, with the average visitor visiting 1.56 pages.

87.3% of visitors are from South Africa, with the US, India, the UK and Germany rounding out the top 5, respectively.

 Overall, I must say the SABC's news website is much cleaner than any other website on the list, and also quite colourful but not overdone. Whoever does the website for the organisation is doing a good job at it.

The SABC also maintains a very strong presence on Youtube and the stats listed here exclude stats for the organisation's individual channels' official websites or radio stations.



1. enca.com
It is not a surprise that the website of South Africa's most watched news channel, eNCA (DStv 403) is also the most visited website of any local news channel.

It ranks as the 247th most popular website overall in SA (29 370 globally).

The channel's bounce rate (hope you still remember what that is) is 50.1%, with the average visitor spending 3:29 minutes on the site, visiting 1.97 pages.

Since launching the website with the rebrand from eNews Channel to eNCA, the news organisation has undoubtedly put the most effort into its website in not very long of a time, and it paid off. The channel remained in its Beta phase (the time during which a wedsite or computer programme is tested and tweaked until perfect) for about a year before finally settling with its current design. When they finalised the design, they made a few slightly larger changes to the site, like expanding its Life section (Lifestyle news), in line with high traffic there.

The channel also maintains a strong presence on social media, with multiple Twitter accounts, a popular Youtube channel, popular personalities being quite active online and seamless intergration to their on televison product.

As expected, 79.1% of visitors are from South Africa, followed by the UK (where the channel ceased broadcasting recently) with 4.1% and Nigeria, india and the US rounding off the top five.

The channel is also available for live streaming at livestation.com

Not many surprises on the list, but let's see what happens in a year.
All statistics can be verified using online web measurement services like Alexa. All data is accurate as at December 2, 2014.

We Are One

Today, December 7th, 2014 marks one year since the start of this blog. To celebrate, and to take a trip down memory lane, I thought I would reveal the top ten most read articles  on this blog, so that you can see what fellow internet users reading this blog are actually searching for:

10. ANN7 Announces Nominees of their inaugural "South African of the Year" Awards
By far the most searched for news channel when I look at the various  search terms directing to this site, ANN7 should really put together a functional PR department to get word of their channel out there, because viewers are curious, and they are not making an active attempt to reach potential viewers.

9.  CNN's South African-based correspondent to relocate to Atlanta
Robyn Curnow's excellent work (I don't personally share that view) during the Oscar trial was noticed by CNN bigwigs and she was subsequently moved to CNN Headquarters in Atlanta where she now anchprs the weekday iDesk.

8. ANN7 SATY 2014 Red Carpet
ANN7 might be the least watched local news channel, but for one night the channel was the top trending topic on Twitter when they held their South African of the Year Awards. My article containing pics from the Red Carpet special ranks as 8th.

7. ANN7's Political Edge Wraps Up For 2014
Politcal Edge hosted by Hajra Omarjee has become one of the most talked about political shows on South African television.

6. Your Ultimate 2014 FIFA World Cup Coverage Guide (SABC1)
Considering the SABC only made their "official" World Cup broadcast plans, which include magazine shows and hosts, the day before the world cup, viewers were curious to find out exactly what the SABC had planned for them.

5.  DStv Financial Results Including NEW Channels
The article that teasted the launch of Lifetime and Nicktoons is next on the list.

4. Your Ultimate 2014 FIFA World Cup Coverage Guide (Supersport)
This article simply outlines what Supersport's broadcast plans were for the World Cup held earlier this year.

3. WORLD CUP COVERAGE:Presenters and Analysts Announced, Includes John Dykes, Andy Townsend, Ryan Giggs
Yet another article on World Cup Coverage by Supersport which is then followed by yet another at number 2:

2. Ryan Giggs Has Left Supersports World Cup Team
The news that Ryan Giggs very abrupty left Supersports World Cup panel of stars, with him as the crown jewel, very quickly became the most read article on this blog by a wide gap, until number one came by:

1. The most read article on this blog in this past year, out of 173 articles are...
Derek van Dam leaving eNCA for CNN International
 The surprising news that longtime weather head at eNCA, Derek van Damwas leaving SA's most watched news channel for CNN was the most read article on this blog this year. Derek can now be seen on CNN, DStv 401, on most weekday mornings, which is overnight in the US, and also filling in on other shifts.

Thanks for an awesome year guys. I will be taking things a bit slower for December and early January only, but special articles will still be published, including looking at which local tv news channel has the most popular website, among others.

Here's to the year ahead.

Channel [Ed] To Enter The Current Affairs Genre

 

As Channel [ED] (DStv 190) prepares to celebrate its upcoming first birthday, they will be launching a few locally-produced current affairs shows.

Highlights include:

Anchored by Danine Naidoo, Edge premieres on Wednesday, 10 December at 19:00 and takes viewers on a Science and Technology reality series set at the cutting edge of technological research and development. Get drawn into the world of hero geeks and their magnificent creations. It also seems to me like one of the more exciting of the shows being launched. the show's Hashtag is #EDEDGE. It seems like it will be competing with other tech shows like eNCA's Tech report and also the various incarnations of a technology show the guy from Stuff magazine and the guy from Tech Central keep launching and relaunching on CNBC Africa and Business Day TV (if  they can ever decide to settle on a slot, show and channel, I will be able to write what their show is called).

Current affairs take centre-stage with Behind the Headlines from Wednesday, 10 December at 19:30 – sight impaired radio and television journalist, Rhulani Baloyi, will unpack the headlines making news.

Contact is a first-person account, reality documentary series that goes off the beaten track to find human stories that are not in mainstream media [but ought to be] - premieres on Wednesday, 10 December at 21:00; while Criselda Kananda and her studio guests unpack sexual health matters on the talk show Sexual Health, which premieres Monday, 15 December at 21:00.

Other new and regular features include Corner Talks which premieres Wednesday, 10 December at 18:00 - an actuality and social commentary series (presented by Simphiwe 'Tofolux' Masoka and Ayanda Nhlapo), captured in the heart of Johannesburg’s townships. The series takes the average young person in the corner and puts them in the front row seat of social commentary.

There's also the entrepreneurial docu-series Earned (starts Thursday, 11 December at 19:00) that seems quite interesting if you into those shows that follow businesses around and Create, which starts Tuesday, 16 December at 19:00 and reveals a variety of career paths to help the viewer make informed decisions about their future careers, and seems to boast a few scripted elements as well.

Thursday, 11 December at 16:00 sees the launch of the talk show Share with Hannah Viviers, as she engages with the youth about living in the twenty-first century and GIBS (Gordon Institute of Business Science) starts Monday, 15 December at 20:00 and covers various business issues affecting the African continent as well as tips on how to maneuver your venture into a successful business.

Overall this aggessive push into local content is something great as i always love it when the local industry grows and more South African stories get told.

My only worry is now that these shows are added to the schedule, what gets cut?The answer to this question seems like the international documentaries, which after a scan over their schedule does indeed seem to be the case. This is sad as it now means no international documentaries that are not produced by the big name documentary channels will be seen on local tv anymore. Think about whether the likes of National Geographic, Discovery or the BBC allows documentaries not produced by themselves to be shown on their channels.

Below is the channel's new showreel:

Post by ED318.

Starsat [Finally] Gets Into the Local Content Game

 

Starsat, South Africa's second, small pay tv provider is finally expanding into producing more local content.

At the moment, the only locally produced programming on Starsat's self compiled channels is the excellent Puppet Nation (which is given away for free on Youtube anyway and was launched way before Starsat), and before that they had a magazine show that was co-hosted by AKA, but was silently cancelled.

Their latest attempt into the local content market is in the form of four new shows, surprisingly all of which are scripted and not just cheap reality trash. The first, which the press release said is the "most popular," despite not havin any viewership data or buzz, is “David Kau’s House,” with comedian David Kau. The rest of the four are a sitcom (Wired), two dramas (Twisted and Sweetest Taboo).

 What is the most admirable part in Starsat's local content venture is that all rights will remain the property of the producers and not the broadcaster, like other paytv providers we know. (Good example of this at issue would be when MNet launched The Wild. A Google search will tell you what I am referring to).

The press release also shows Starsat finally realising that local content has really become popular in the last few years as quality and choice has increased. This move by Starsat is likely going to compete with MNet's local interest brand, Mzansi Magic

In addition to this, Starsat is also launching two self-compiled music channels. The one, Star Times SA Music, will, as the name says, be about South African music and the other, Star Times Soul, is about soul music. (If there is one thing that Starsat can learn from DStv is that generic channels that lack a brand image do not work. This is evident in the recent closure of two channels that carried the MNet Series name but then relaunched as channels with better brand identities. This is especially needed in music channels where brands and trendiness is of particular importance)

Candy Crowely Leaving CNN

Candy Crowley, moderator of CNN's State of the Union which airs on a Sunday afternoon here in SA,  is resigning from the network after 27 years.

She has also been seen on other CNN programming, providing political reports and commentary and also contributing greatly during Election cycles.

She took the helm of State of the Union in 2010, after John King stepped down to host another show on CNNUS.

Her work culminated in 2012 when she became the first woman in 20 years to moderate a presidential debate.

She moderates her final State of the Union this Sunday, where she will interview former US President George Bush.

=========================================================================

Below is CNN Boss, Jeff Zucker's full note to staff:

December 5, 2014

In her 27 years at CNN, Candy Crowley has been one of the most important and impactful journalists on our air. Since she joined us in 1987, her assignments have taken her to all 50 states, covering a broad range of political stories, including presidential, congressional and gubernatorial races. Candy made her mark covering the presidential campaigns of Pat Buchanan, George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, Howard Dean, Bob Dole, Jesse Jackson, Edward Kennedy, John Kerry, Barack Obama, Ronald Reagan and Mitt Romney. And as we all remember, she made her mark yet again in 2012 when she became the first woman to moderate a presidential debate in 20 years.

To say she lives and breathes politics is more than an understatement. She has an innate ability to sense its nuance, push its limits, and ask questions that others won’t. She is beloved in Washington even by those that she so skillfully takes to task on Sunday mornings. And she’s an award-winning journalist – taking home everything from a Peabody and Emmys to an Edward R. Murrow award. She is a television news icon.

Thus, it is with mixed emotions, that I wanted to let you know that Candy has let us know that she has made the decision to move on, so she can embark on the next chapter of her already prolific career. As difficult as it is for us to imagine CNN without Candy, we know that she comes to this decision thoughtfully, and she has our full support. There will be more time in the weeks ahead for all of you who have been lucky enough to work with Candy to share your own thanks for all she has done. But for now, on behalf of everyone at CNN, I want to extend my sincere gratitude and appreciation.

Jeff

All local news channels cover the first anniversary of the passing of Nelson Mandela

eNCA, SABC News and ANN7 all had rolling coverage today of the first anniversary of the passing of former president Nelson Mandela.

While the 24 hour news channels devoted vast resources to cover the event, the free to air channels that usually carry major local news and 'offical events,' SABC 2 and eTV, decided not to touch their regular schedule to cover the event, opting to stick to its normal news bulletins. Not even for the 10am moment of silence did any free to air broadcaster hold their schedule to inform the nation that it is now the moment of silence.

On the news channels, all anchors anchored heir usual slots, with much more reporters on the ground at various key points. All news channels also carried the proceedings at the Union Buildings live and for the great deal in its entirety.

Cyril Ramaphosa on eNCA, ANN7 and SABC News at same time

The official programme at the Union Buildings, which were emceed by Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa ended at 12:55 with Joanne Joseph picking things up for eNCA, Abigail Visagie picked things up  at ANN7 while SABC News stayed with live visuals for a while longer. All channels went to an ad break just before one, with all regular lunchtime shows picking up at 1pm.

SABC News
On SABC news, Chriselda Lewis reported from the Centre of Remembrance this morning while Vuyo Mvoko and Matiba Mutheiwana were at Freedom Park (Side note: I must say I absolutely LOVE the way the SABC uses Mvoko only on special occasions. When he is on tv, you know something major is happening)

SABC News'Vuyo Mvoko was at Freedom Park

SABC News was the first broadcaster to break away from memorial coverage to show other news, which today included news on the SABC Chairperson and Eskom, and even sports news. Though you could say it is their responsibility as the state broadcaster to broadcast state affairs, one has to remember that the one oçlock bulletin is available to people that do not have access to a 24 hour news service and therefore it is their job to inofrm about other news as well, while eNCA instead opted to focus the entire part of their bulletin that is available to non DStv subscribers to Nelson mandela, with sports in its normal slot, leaving free to air viewers in the dark when it came to news from Eskom.

eNCA
eNCA's regular anchors did their regular slots, only with Joanne Joseph using the main side of eNCA's set and not the side where her slot is usually done from (She also looked rather nice today, I might add).
As has become tradition at eNCA with major news stories, any double anchored show will have one anchor in studio whilst the other is on location. For Morning News Today, Uveka Rangappa was in studio while Dan Moyane was at Freedom Park.
For News Day, Bhavna Singh (who I now notice does very little, if any actual reporting and interviews) was in studio while Andrew Barnes was on Robben Island.

Other reporters for the channel included Thulasizwe Simelane, who was at the Union Buildings where he was the channel's on the ground reporter at the official proceedings while Xoli Mngambi is in Qunu. Lester Kiewit was at the V & A Waterfront and social media editor, Gareth Edwards, covered the Mandela Legacy Cup, which is to be contested between the Proteas and the Springboks.
The channel also featured historical poets adding a bit of variety between all the interviews.

eNCA anchor, Dan Moyana, recorded an interview with Nelson Mandela's former personal assistant, Zelda le Grange. The interview was featured throughout the day.

ANN7
Hajra Omarjee, who tweeted that she woke up at 1am,was at Freedom Park along with Kalden Ongmu while Avumile Qongqo is in Qunu. Clement Manathela was at the Union Buildings as well.
ANN7 was the only channel to have broken out of live coverage of the proceedings at the Union Buildings for a short interview in studio, which was rather silly of them to do.

ANN7's Nzinga Qunta in studio while Paskiekar Modliar was at the wonderers and Avumile Qongqo was in Qunu.

As the day progressed, ANN7 eased into more long format reports on the life and passing of Mandela. I must say I hate these massive borders ANN7 uses.

At 4pm, SABC News and ANN7 seemed to go with 'regular' news instead, with Eskom's power outages as the main headline.

All of MNet's channels, including the Afrikaans Kyknet had the Hashtag #RememberingMadiba onscreen throughout the day, while eNCA's #RememberMandela was the number one Trending Topic in SA throughout the day.

Supersport's news channel, Supersport Blitz, aired inserts on Mandela and sports throughout the day, and had an in memorium banner intergrated into its graphics. They also re aired a documentary on Mandela throughout the day on various Supersport channels that did not have any live sports to show.

Local Channels Planning Wall-To-Wall Coverage for the First Anniversary of Mandela's Passing

eNCA, SABC News and ANN7 are all planning rolling coverage for the first anniversary of the passing of former President Nelson Mandela tomorrow, December 5th 2014.

All channel will for some odd reason be starting their broadcasting day one hour earlier at 5am instead of 6am with their breakfast shows manning the extra hour.

eNCA, who will be using the Hashtag #RememberMandela, will have reporters live at all the key points around the country, including the Eastern Cape and Freedom Park. They will also be live streaming their coverage at enca.com

SABC News' star reporter Chriselda Lewis is already providing live reporting from Houghton.

ANN7's Vuka Africa will have reporters Hajra Omarjee at Freedom Park in Tswane and Avumile Qongqo reporting live with the likes of Clement Manyathela also contributing

All channels' coverage will consist mainly of tribute videos and interviews.

The Springboks vs Proteas in a T20 match will be broadcast live on Supersport 2.
===========================================================================

Chantal Rutter Dros Resigns From ANN7

Chantal Rutter Dros, the anchor of ANN7’s Prime bulletin, and face of the channel, is leaving the channel after just more than a year.

She anchors her last bulletin for the channel tonight, December 3^rd.

She joined the channel at inception and, along with Gerry Rantseli-Eldson, were the ‘faces’ of the channel that features mainly young, inexperienced on air talent. Gerry left after just a few months, and now Chantal is headed for the door as well.

The channel has constantly been going through major changes, and even greater problems, but one thing that has been constant was that when you tune in to ANN7 between 7pm and 9pm, Chantal would always be there providing a very high quality news bulletin.

This comes as a major blow to the channel that was just starting to find its groove and settle on a decent presentation. Though its on ait talents have been improving lately, no one at the channel is exactly good enough to be put in prime time. 

 Chantal also co-hosted the channel’s South African of the Year Awards earlier this year with Bonang Matheba, which was greatly praised by viewers.

Her departure is yet another in what has been a slew of departures from the channel’s more senior off air staff, who include Clintin Magoor, that worked mainly as an assignments editor for the channel.

She cites ‘personal reasons’ for leaving the channel and plans to take December off. When asked what her future plans are beyond that, she says she has yet to decide. 

She tendered her resignation around November 24th, around the same time Asanda Magaqa left the channel.

It is expected that her main fill in anchor, sports anchor Peter Stemmet, will be at the helm of ANN7 Prime until a permanent replacement is named. 

Some tweets on the departure:

Well it's my last Prime bulletin on @ann7tv tonight. Feeling quite emotional. Thank you to everyone for sharing this journey with me.
— Chantal Rutter Dros (@ChantalRutter) December 3, 2014

Michael Appel, who she did a lot of field reporting with, most notably the Oscar trial:

Goodbye to a mentor&colleague @ChantalRutter. "Tell me&I forget, teach me&I may remember, involve me&I learn" @ANN7tv pic.twitter.com/7IpfV7MnGd
— Michael Appel (@TheMikeAppel) December 3, 2014

An ANN7 parody account:

@TheMikeAppel @ChantalRutter @ANN7tv thanks for all the pep talks in the canteen! You'll be missed.
— 24/7 & all day (@ann7news) December 3, 2014

ANN7 Prime' s business news anchor, Tirrin Cosway:

Our last #ANN7Prime diary meeting with @ChantalRutter - @varupand @ThisLifeJhb @LaytonBeard @SnazoC & Pumeza all here for old times' sake.
— Tirrin Cosway (@Tirrin) December 3, 2014