Press release issued this morning:
MultiChoice to launch pop-up Oscar Pistorius trial channel on DStv.
On Sunday, 2 March 2014, MultiChoice will launch a 24-hour pop-up
channel on DStv Channel 199. The Oscar Pistorius Trial: A Carte Blanche
Channel will feature round-the-clock coverage of the legal proceedings,
as well as exclusive documentaries, profiles and in-depth expert
analysis.
This is the first time DStv is using a pop-up channel to cover a major
news event. “We previously added dedicated channels for special events
such as Idols and Big Brother. This pop-up channel will give our viewers
in-depth coverage of the Oscar Pistorius trial, with a rich variety of
content and social media integration,” says Aletta Alberts, Head of
Content for MultiChoice.
The channel will be put together by the producers of Carte Blanche, well
known for their excellence in investigative journalism. “The Carte
Blanche producers were the obvious choice to create and package the
channel. Their mantra of ‘You have the right to see it all’ ensures
viewers will get fair and balanced coverage of the trail,” Alberts
added.
The channel will be available exclusively to DStv Premium, Extra and
Compact customers. The Oscar Pistorius Trial: A Carte Blanche Channel
will be a conduit to the inside information on the most talked about and
controversial subject in recent South African history.
Pistorius’ criminal trial is scheduled to run in the Pretoria High Court
from Monday, 3 March to Thursday, 20 March 2014. The trial judge will
decide whether any part of the trial will be broadcast live closer to
the start date.
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Let's analyse:
First time ever something like this is put together and the Carte Blanche team involved.
It is going to be interesting to see how the Cart Blanche team will manage going from their well structured news magazine show to providing rolling coverage.
One has to wonder if these guys have enough time to man the channel AND to continue putting together such a high quality weekly show.
While the channel will be available for Compact and upwards, the show itself (and thus the brand), is premium exclusive, meaning a great deal of their potential audience is unfamiliar with their product and thus are likely to stay with their current news provider of choice. However, considring that the channel is sandwitched between both SS Blitz and Big Brother Mzansi, both of which are hugely popular on the lesser packages, they are definitely counting on people to channel surf in the region
It is also going to be interesting to see how exactly this 'pop up channel' concept will work as it is being described as the channel will "disappear" if there is nothing going on. Disappear as in go the message that says 'Service Not Available' or disappear as in a static on air graphic. The channl also cannot do these disappearing acts too often otherwise the viewers wont enjoy it.
This can only lead to greater things from these guys in the future as we gt to see what Cart Blanche is really capable of.
Wednesday, 29 January 2014
eNews Prime Time not Prime for etv? Part 2
I do understand that at 7pm the group broadcasts FOUR bulletins (eNews Prime Time on eTV, News Night on eNCA, their African News Bulletin for e Africa, eNuus op Kyknet) and has to get ready for an 8pm Zulu bulletin on eKasi+ and 9pm extended African bulletin, but is it fair that the most watched one gets the least attention? That it no longer has stability?
I mean this musical chairs of anchors (and now locations as well) really makes what is actually a very successful show seem unstable when compared to the competition on SABC 3 where there is a solid 2 person anchor duo, which is their most days wekdays, a business anchor and a sports anchor, all dedicated to this show only and not on eTV where both the anchor and sports anchor are new on a daily basis.
I mean this musical chairs of anchors (and now locations as well) really makes what is actually a very successful show seem unstable when compared to the competition on SABC 3 where there is a solid 2 person anchor duo, which is their most days wekdays, a business anchor and a sports anchor, all dedicated to this show only and not on eTV where both the anchor and sports anchor are new on a daily basis.
eNews Prime Time not Prime enough for eTV?
eNews Prime Time is by far the most watched English News Bulletin in the country, more than doubling its only competiton's (SABC 3's hour long bulletin which starts at 18:30) numbers on a daily basis .
However, it seems as if eTV and eNCA are really not giving much attention to what is definitly its most watched bulletin of the day.
As you can see, the picture in this article is that of FORMER anchor Sally Burdett which I found on etv's official website. This was the only relevant picture I could find as others show even older anchors and older logos. [If you do not know, Sally left her position as eNews Prime Time anchor to take up the position of Story Editor & Head of Anchors at eNCA since th latter half of this year. She has done the odd anchor job on eNCA every now and then, like anchoring the evening of Nelson Mandela's passing].
However, since she left this position to become head of anchors, there really has been no solid anchor in this slot.
Nikiwe Bikitsha, who left News Night two years ago to complete a 10 month leadership,academic and professional development programme known as the Fulbright Hubert Humphrey fellowship in the U.S for mid career professionals deemed leaders in their field. However when she she did not return to News Night (Where Iman Rappetti hold the co anchor title now), sh instead picked up the 4 o'clock to 6 slot and later added e News Prime Time to it as well.
First question: Is it normal that the anchor of your most watched show is someone just doing double duty after another show?
It doesn't end there. As this well learned person, Nikiwe is the group's go to anchor for on location reporting, having reported from the Eastern Cape during the period of Mandela's passing, Pretoria for Politics and Davos for the World Economic Forum. This then leads to the obvious problem that now you have two shows that no longer have an anchor, e News Prime Time and the 4pm-6pm slot on eNCA. Usually, Jo-Anne Josephs filled in on both (she is, after all a former prime time anchor at SABC 3 before joining the then e News Channel).
But it doesn't end there. JoAnne these days are seen more on her actual slot (9am-1pm) alongside Gareth Edwards, leaving 7 pm empty, again.
On Tuesday, Jremy Maggs filled in at 4pm (and eventually did double duty on his usual slot to 9pm). However, due to obvious reasons, he cannot be on e News Prime Time. So who comes in? Junior anchor (and occasional fill in at 4pm or mid morning on eNCA) Duduzile Ramela. I have nothing against her, but I do think that it should NOT be a junior anchor anchoring your most watched show.
Wednesday was another story (because these people are really pushing limits). Cape Town did Prime Time (News Day's Andrew Barnes anchoring this time). As you know Cape Town only does the weekend, public holidays and late night news on eTV (and News Day on eNCA, simulcast for 30 minutes on eTV).
Tuesday, 28 January 2014
Political Tuesday Coverage: ANC Press Conference
The news channels barely had time to rest before needing to cover yet anothr political event, the ANC presser.
SABC News took this one live (unsurprisingly), though their coverage was quite bare, only having one anchor in studio and leaving the conference first at 12:30 to show taped show Question Time. At lunch time, they provided very little extra coverage.
eNCA took the conference from the start as well with a political analyst in studio. They, however, left the conference at about 12:53 to get a bit of perspective from their analyst (they do not pay him for nothing, I suppose) and thn went to yet another weather bulletin (you can never get enough weather).
Hajra Omarjee, who has seemed quite foolish in her coverage for the day thus far declared that they (ANN7) will take the conference live when they feel like there is something meaty being said (nothing like deciding for your audience I suppose). After this, the news anchor read about 2 other stories before they too decided to opt in to the conference.
SABC News took this one live (unsurprisingly), though their coverage was quite bare, only having one anchor in studio and leaving the conference first at 12:30 to show taped show Question Time. At lunch time, they provided very little extra coverage.
eNCA took the conference from the start as well with a political analyst in studio. They, however, left the conference at about 12:53 to get a bit of perspective from their analyst (they do not pay him for nothing, I suppose) and thn went to yet another weather bulletin (you can never get enough weather).
Hajra Omarjee, who has seemed quite foolish in her coverage for the day thus far declared that they (ANN7) will take the conference live when they feel like there is something meaty being said (nothing like deciding for your audience I suppose). After this, the news anchor read about 2 other stories before they too decided to opt in to the conference.
Political Tuesday Coverage: DA-Agang SA Merger Announcement
So in the early hours of today the DA and Agang-SA announced that thy will be merging. This news was of course breaking news across the local news channels, except SABC News Cahnnel, of course.
I watched the 11:30 bulletin on eNCA, which was quite neutral in tone anchored by JoAnne Josephs and Gareth Edwards (both quit talented and supposed to have anchored this slot together for quite a few months now but hasn't been the case due to them being the go-to fill in anchors on other slots, meaning one usually anchors solo). They only covered it for a few minutes though before playing an extended report by Cathy Mohlanhlana took them to the top of the hour, followed by weather.
On News Day, Andrew Barnes is co-anchoring from outside the Townhouse where the announcement was made, providing more perspective.
On ANN7 though, I was quit shocked to see exactly how critical in tone Senior Political Correspondent Hajra Omarjee was of this merger, ridiculing it in anyway she could and mentioning things like this means Mamphela cannot stan by her word, etc. which is quite silly as politicians are known to change their views more drastically.
I watched the 11:30 bulletin on eNCA, which was quite neutral in tone anchored by JoAnne Josephs and Gareth Edwards (both quit talented and supposed to have anchored this slot together for quite a few months now but hasn't been the case due to them being the go-to fill in anchors on other slots, meaning one usually anchors solo). They only covered it for a few minutes though before playing an extended report by Cathy Mohlanhlana took them to the top of the hour, followed by weather.
On News Day, Andrew Barnes is co-anchoring from outside the Townhouse where the announcement was made, providing more perspective.
On ANN7 though, I was quit shocked to see exactly how critical in tone Senior Political Correspondent Hajra Omarjee was of this merger, ridiculing it in anyway she could and mentioning things like this means Mamphela cannot stan by her word, etc. which is quite silly as politicians are known to change their views more drastically.
Sunday, 12 January 2014
ANC Manifesto Launch Coverage
All 3 news channels covered the ANC's Manifesto launch on Saturday (11 January).
The SABC's feed was also shown on SABC2, which is quite a downstep as the last ANC Manifesto launch was shown across all channels. Their coverage was just a feed of the actual events on stage the whole time, which at times weren't exactly appropriate for the whole nation to see (eg. reading out the names of the children performing and then their parents so that their parents can collect them afterwards).
eNCA's feed was anchored from a media suite/box in the Mangaung based stadium, where Justice Malala provided analysis along with a new analyst and senior anchor Dan Moyane anchoring from the studio. However, this analysis seemed to take more screen time than the actual event itself, which was quite frustrating as people tuned in for the event and not talking heads as it was happening. This drew some reaction from the online community as people took to Twitter to complain.
The station that made the most of these complaints is ANN7, who really seems to take advantage of others mistakes (because everyone laughs at theirs). They had their reporters retweeting complaints of people tweeting about what was happening on eNCA. Their coverage was quite welldone, anchored by Hajra Omarjee, a senior political analyst. However, one thing that did work in their favour is that they provided live coverage of the stampede outside of the stadium, which was a refreshing alternative to what was on the other stations.
The SABC's feed was also shown on SABC2, which is quite a downstep as the last ANC Manifesto launch was shown across all channels. Their coverage was just a feed of the actual events on stage the whole time, which at times weren't exactly appropriate for the whole nation to see (eg. reading out the names of the children performing and then their parents so that their parents can collect them afterwards).
eNCA's feed was anchored from a media suite/box in the Mangaung based stadium, where Justice Malala provided analysis along with a new analyst and senior anchor Dan Moyane anchoring from the studio. However, this analysis seemed to take more screen time than the actual event itself, which was quite frustrating as people tuned in for the event and not talking heads as it was happening. This drew some reaction from the online community as people took to Twitter to complain.
The station that made the most of these complaints is ANN7, who really seems to take advantage of others mistakes (because everyone laughs at theirs). They had their reporters retweeting complaints of people tweeting about what was happening on eNCA. Their coverage was quite welldone, anchored by Hajra Omarjee, a senior political analyst. However, one thing that did work in their favour is that they provided live coverage of the stampede outside of the stadium, which was a refreshing alternative to what was on the other stations.
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