CNNi Shakes Up Schedule

CNNi, DStv 401, announced today, September 26th that it will be making changes to the channel's schedule as it continues to refine its on air offering.

South Africa's own Robyn Curnow, the former South African-based correspondent for the network, now takes over the 4pm CAT iDesk slot, which is the one previously anchored by Michael Holmes. In addition to this, she now gets a half an hour at 6pm CAT as well. Since moving to Atlanta a few weeks ago, reviews of Curnow's anchoring skills have largely been positive so receiving a permanent slot on the channel's daily lineup does not come as a surprise to many.

A change that is surprising is the cancellation of the longrunning 7pm CAT iDesk program, that was previously anchored by Hala Gorani (who moved on to launch the World Right Now later at night) and then by Isha Sesay. This show is being dropped in favour of simulcasting a CNNUS program, Wolf, which is anchored from Washington DC by CNN's Wolf Blitzer and is said to be a US news bulletin with an international and political focus, though it is quite likely to just resemble a US news bulletin nonethless.

At midnight South African time viewers can now look forward to CNN Today, anchored by Michael Holmes, who comes from the 4pm iDesk, and Amara Walker, who joined CNN late last year as a weekend and fill in anchor. The show will be replacing CNN Newsroom live From Hong Kong, which had been a breakfast show aimed at the Asia-Pacific region anchored by Patricia Wu and Andrew Stevens (coincidentally also an Asian-American and British combination). That show was cancelled earlier this year after just 2 years on air as CNN now wants to have more shows done from their Atlanta headquarters.

The short news headlines done at the top and bottom of the hour will now all take on the CNN News Now branding, something the channel has been testing on weekends for the last few months.

All of this comes into effect this monday, September 29th 2014.

With the relaunch and moving of Connect the World with Becky Anderson and also the launch of The Business View with Nina dos Santos and The World Right Now with hala Gorani in addition to the above all happening this year, the changes at CNNi is not over yet.

Later this yer the channel plans to launch another breakfast-type show, this time for the Europe, Middle East & Africa region, though also done from Atlanta as the channel continues its NewsFirst initiative whereby they strive to increase the amount of live daily news seen on the channel

eNCA Cutting Back on After Prime Time News

(Article intended to have "Late Night" instead of "After Prime Time" in its title, but unfortunately that would then be a name of another show on the channel)

From the first of October 2014, how many hours of live news would you expect to find on eNCA between 9pm and 6am? Answer: only one.

Yes, South Africa's most watched news channel will only have one hour of live news after Newsnight ends at 9pm.

This is partially because of the introduction of eNCA Moneyline, the new 9pm business show starting on October 1st. The other reason is that the channel will now be repeating the premiere episode of their 9:30pm magazine show again 2 hours after it ends at 11:30pm (in case you loved it so much you would want to see it again). The 10:30pm slot now also has a rerun of a different magazine show.

This then leaves only the 10pm and 11pm half hours with live news bulletins, on a channel who's one of a few slogans are "Prime Time, all the Time." (If they were really smart they would have moved the 10pm bulletin out of that slot so that it doesn't air directly against eNews Late Edition on eTV)

It also means that eNCA now becomes the first of South Africa's news channels to sign off at night (11:30pm), compared to the midnight sign off on SABC News' Your World and ANN7's Night Cap.

What makes things sadder is that a large pool of on air anchors that traditionally do the late shift, including Fenly Foxen, Duduzile Ramele, Lindy Mtongana and Mabale Moloi, among others now have to share a shrinking amount of air time between them all. 

This is the second cut back of programing on the channel. Earlier this year the channel cancelled the Africa Edition program that was seen on the international feed on SKY and Livestation.com and also overnight on the DStv feed.

And then A South African Life Was Worth More...

By now, everyone who follows the news knows about the Nigerian church collapse in which 67 South Africans lost their lives. But what about everyone else?

As the news broke about 67 South Africans dying in the church collapse, I could not help but to notice how SA-centric the news coverage is. The news channels (ANN7, eNCA and SABC News) all constantly remind us that 67 South Africans have died, but did no one else die in the situation? Does their deaths not matter?

It seems as if the value of a non-South African lives does not matter to the local news channels, two of which have the word Africa in their name, which, though implies presenting African news concerning Africans other than South Africans in a fair light, they do not.

What makes things worse is that SA online news services take their lead from the news channels, so almost no local news website acknowledges the amount of non-South Africans who died in the incident. Just try to google how many people died in the tragedy in total and see what an effort it is to find this amount. 

This is very similar to CNN who, during a crisis that involved people from many different countires, choose rather to focus just on the Americans involved, even though that channel bills itself as an "international" broadcaster.

This is not the first time a tragedy occured involving SOuth Africans and non- SA citizens, but this is the first that it seems as if the non-South African victims are not important, something that I hope does not become a trend over time.

Former eNCA Meteorologist, Derek van Dam, Makes CNN Debut

Courtesy: Tara Hossack

Former head of eNCA's weather department, Drek van Dam, made his long awaited debut on CNNi, DStv 401, this past Sunday, September 14th.

He made his debut during the 7pm (South African time) hour of iDesk, which was hosted by veteran CNN anchor Ralitsa Vassileva. Early reviews of van Dam are positive, describing him as relaxed and well presented.

Along with a new network, he also gets a new Twitter handle in line with that of the rest of CNN's personalities: @vanDamCNN

eTV Shifts Sotho/Zulu News Bulletins Up Half an Hour

(c) eTV

From Monday, September 15th, eTV will be adjusting its early prime time schedule. One of the shows affected is the channels current Zulu/Sotho bulletin, which currently airs at 6pm.

That show will now air at 5:30pm, which means that if you do not have pay television in South Africa, you will be subjected to news bulletins on three of the four free to air channels that broadcast nationally: Xhosa News on SABC1 (which is Siswati and Ndebele on some days), Venda/Tsonga News on SABC2, and now the Sotho/Zulu news on eTV.

This is the first time that eTV has ever changed the time at which any of its news bulletins air. Prior to the introduction of the Zulu/Sotho news, eNews Early Edition was a short English news bulletin that aired at 6pm that served as a promo for what to expect in the 7pm Prime Time news.

eTV will now be airing chat shows from sister channel, eKasi+, at 6pm, with Katch it With Khanyi airing on Mondays with the addictive (at least to me) Eksê: Let's Talk with Masechaba Lekalake airing Thursdays to Fridays. Some of the programming that has been airing during the 5:30pm slot, which has not been doing too well in the ratings, on eTV now airs on Fridays at 6pm.

This now also means that with the exception of the 30 minute Zulu news bulletin, Trevor Gumbi's comendy and a fitness show, all of eKasi+'s original programming now also airs on eTV. This therefore does not give potential viewers any incentive to subscribe to the OpenviewHD platform, where eKasi+ exclusively airs on, as that channel was seen as the best channel available on the platform exclusively.

It is to be seen how shifting the bulletin up 30 minutes affects its viewership (which is usually about 1 million viewers), or the viewership of the rest of eTV's early prime time schedule, which hasd been performing sluggishly since SABC1 converted their series Skeen Saam into a soap to compete with Rhythm City, a show that has usually been either eTV's show with the highest viewership or second highest viewership, alternating with Scandal.

Trudi Makhaya Joins eNCA

Micro Economist Trudi Makhaya has joined eNCA, DStv 403, and enca.com.

At enca.com, she will, or has already started, writing articles primarily based on the economy, of course, covering things like unemployment and international trade.

She will appear on eNCA as a commentator in the same manner as the excellent Angelo Fick does, providing expert analysis in her field of specialisation. Just speculation here, but I am sure she will be appearing quite frequently on Siki Magabadeli's new business-centric show that launches October 1st.

Articles written by Trudi has appeared in various academic publications and also commerce newspaper, Business Day, which she was a part of up to July earlier this year. Trudi also previously served as the Deputy Competition Commissioner.

ANALYSIS: ANN7's South African of the Year Awards

ANN7's South African of the Year Awards 2014

Britsh singer Ella Henderson's voice welcomed viewers to ANN7's inaugural South African of the Year Awards. She, along with Nicole Sherizinger, joined a star studded South African lineup of performers for the event that was broadcast live on ANN7, DStv 405, www.ann7.com/livetv

The only major on air error at the Awards was when the presentation of blazers to all nominees, something not meant to be broadcast on television, ended up being broadcast 

The event went was overall a resounding success and it is now safe to say that these awards now set the benchmark in terms of quality when it comes to South African, and African awards shows. Many may argue that the MTV Africa Music Awards were much better produced, but then one has to remember that those awards were NOT even produced by people from Africa, rather the people that produce the MTV European Music Awards.

Hosts

Bonang Matheba and Chantal Rutter-Dros served as co hosts at the inaugural South African of the year Awards, that was broadcast live on ANN7

Bonang Matheba at #SATY2014

The hosts for the evening were ANN7's Chantal Rutter-Dros, and Bonang Matheba, who, after watching last nights awards, can do no wrong in my eyes. When it was announced Bonang would be hosting the awards, I thought the channel had made a mistake in choosing her for the event as Hulisani Ravele, who hosted the Awards' companion show, I Am South African, should have been chosen. After Bonang's  performance I knew why they opted to go with her: she is a safe bet. During the frequent technical errors, though nothing major and even when the usually perfect Chantal Rutter Dros made a mistake every now and then (the silliest was calling Men in Black 3 "Men in 3 Black," even though she was reading off a teleprompter), Bonang would be that consistent reassuring on screen presence that was basically the glue that kept everything together.

Cameras at the South African of the Year Awards occasionlly cut to crowd shots during on stage presentations. The above shot was shown several times throughout the broadcast and was one commented on by many Twitter users

Prizes
They announced the prizes for the various awards. The winner in each category would receive a Acer laptop, courtesy of Sahara Computers. Each of the five Lifetime Achievement Awards Recipients would receive R25 000, while the South African of the Year would receive R100 000. All the cash prizes were sponsored by ANN7. I think it was rather inappropriate to announce the prizes at the event.

Production Values

UK singer Ella Henderson opened the inaugural South African of the Year Awards on ANN7

The production values of the show blew everyone away. Yes there were moments when the sound experienced errors, but the overall broadcast went completely smooth when one considers the amount of errors usually seen on a live South African awards show. While watching the presenters seamlessly reading their script off the teleprompter, I struggled to believe that this was the same channel that just a year ago could barely operate a teleprompter.

Section of the stage at the SOuth African of the Year Awards during one of a few performances highlighting South African heritage.

The stage was perfect for the evening with its 4 presentation points. Nothing too extravagant like a music awards show, but not dull either. One could also see that attention was paid to detail when you consider the appropriateness of the background pictures on the major curved screen: an amazing picture of the National Stadium for the Sports Award, or the Johannesburg skyline during speeches.

Dance, Dance
One thing that stood out for me, and many tweeters as well, was the excessive dance items, which were just too long. The show could have done with less, and shorter dance items and should also have tried to have more South African and current songs.

When the first award of the evening, the Young Person of the Year Award finally took place, the channel made a very safe bet by having just Bonang and Chantal doing the introductions while the actual presenter of the awards just announced the winner. The wait until Dr Sandile Kubheka finally went up to receive the first award of the evening was just too long.

Zahara performing at the inaugural ANN7 South African of the Year Awards. She performed at the nominations announcement event as well

Fikile Mbalula, the entertainer
By far the best presenter of an award for thee evening was the presenter of the Sportsperson of the Year Award, Minister of Sports Fikile Mbalula who really worked the usually dead crowd as if he was a professional entertainer.

The wait between awards were just too long as it made the show less about the actual work of the nominees and seemingly more about the musical performances. Some performances were more appropriate than others, Lira's comes to mind as being perfect for the evening.

Host of ANN7's Between the Lines, Asanda Magaqa presented an award at #SATY2014

Top of the tweets
Though I may not have enjoyed the excessive musical performances, those performances fulfilled their role prefectly of attracting a young audience to the event. Throughout the event, #SATY2014 was the number one Twitter trend for South Africa, beating out X Factor SA that ws broadcast on
SABC1, a channel with viewership much higher than ANN7's.

When it comes to intergrating Twitter, the Awards must have done something right. There was really minimal mention of the social network, but the awards somehow managed to stay on top in the Twittersphere. How did they do it? They marketed the awards to the Twitter audience in the perfect way: on Twitter and not on television. If someone wants to Tweet about something, they would already be on Twitter, so in order to get people to tweet about the event, the channel's official handle, and many personalities, including nearly all celebrity nominees tweeted about the event.

International Superstar
Nicole Scherizinger's performances was somewhere in the middle of the show, which is the perfect place to put a hyped performance so as to keep the closing performace for someone that actually is South African. Her medley lasted over 15 minutes and included some of her hits, old and new, and some songs by other artists as well. Having singers sing more than just one song adds a certain dynamic to a television event not usually present when it is an overproduced single song. Her performance at the SATY's was by far the best one I had ever seen from her.

Nicole Scherizinger was the headline performer at the inaiugural South African of the Year Awards

South African of the Year
The main award of the evening (the one that was unnecessarily disclosed to be worth R100 000), the South African of the Year Award, went to the Public Prosecutor, Advocate Thuli Madonsela, who was loudly applauded at the announcement and subsequently made a wonderful speech on our country.

Public Protector Advocate Thuli Madonsela was awarded the South African of the Year Award at the #SATY2014 Awards hosted by ANN7

This was followed by a wonderful closing song by the South African artists and then a short goodbye from the hosts, Chantal and Bonang.

No adverts!!!!
The awards show did what so few South African awards shows, and even other live events rarely does: end on time. And it did this by doing what every awards show, and even a live event like the Idols finale, on DStv should do, and that is to completely drop adverts. It was only after watching the show for a full hour and then asking myself why I, a usual channel hopper had not checked what is on other channels yet, and then I realised that there were not any commercial breaks during the show.
However, not having commercial breaks does create a greater sense of risk because usually when a live production experiences a technical error, they get to correct these during a commercial break when viewers aren't watching. However, the total absence of commercials meant that the SATY Awards did not have that benefit, and it was a gamble that ultimately worked out well when it came to the flow of the program as commercials tend to interrupt the pace of an awards show.

Overall, it was a much better than expected awards show. Everything ran smoothly, it just felt special, the calibre of performers, who are A-Listers, and Presenters, who include current and former Members of Cabinet, gave a brand new awards show much needed credibility as it tries to establish itself as the premier national awards show.

One could really see that the channel spared no expense when it came to the awards show and that the awards gave the channel some much needed exposure. it is now up to ANN7 to properly capitlise upon that exposure.

ANN7's South African of the Year 2014 Red Carpet

Title card for ANN7's SOuth African of the Year Awards 2014 Red Carpet Special

It has been an event months in the making and last night, September 6th 2014, ANN7's inaugural South African of the Year Awards took place.

The first event in the buildup to the awards show was the highlights of the prior evening's nominee's dinner, which was also attended by president Jacob Zuma. Though the programme was originally slated for a 6pm start time (shown on the DStv programming guide as such and also by various ANN7 personalities on their respective Twitter accounts on the actual day), the special aired at 5pm, meaning many who expected it to air at pm would have missed out

Liezle Wilson, Clement Manyathela and Avumile Qongqa hosted ANN7's South African of the Year Awards' red carpet special that aired 30 minutes before the start of the actual #SATY2014 Awards

The red carpet show went on air at 7pm with Buzz ANN7 anchor Liezle Wilson, Clement Manyathela, and Avumile Qongqa welcomed viewers to the Sandton Convention Centre. It is evident from the beginning that the red carpet special is not live, instead comprising of smaller segments recorded throughout the early evening with various guests, which is not necessarily bad considering the amount of interviews included in the special.
 

Miss South Africa, Rolene Strauss, talks to Clement Manyathela on the Red Carpet at ANN7's SATY 2014

The first guest on the Red Carpet Special was none other than reigning Miss South Africa, Rolene Strauss, who also appeared on the main show

As interviews were being conducted on the red cart of ANN7's South African of the Year Awards, the camera would cut to pictures of guests arriving at the Sandton Convention Centre for the Awards.

The exterior of the Sandton Convention Centre was all decked out for ANN7's South African of the Year Awards

 

9 Year old Afeefah Patel and her family speaking on the red carpet of ANN7's Inaugural South African of the Year Awards. Her parents stated they were very proud of their daughter. Afeefa said it was amazing meeting President Zuma at the prior evening's nominees dinner, a prime example of how these awards not only recognises people for their contribution to society but also motivates them to work harder.

At this point the fact that the show was not live had become a problem: people that had spoken on the red carpet before entering the actual theatre were then shown getting out of their car on the outside of the venue before entering the red carpet section

ANN7 Prime anchor, and co host for the evening, Chantal Rutter-Dros (In a David Johan Dress) along with her husband speaking to Clement on the South African of the  Year Red Carpet. Says her on stage dresses are by Black Coffee and that she feels "beautiful" in those dresses

A view of the ANN7 South African of the Year Awards Red Carpet at the Sandton Convention Centre

One thing the special lacked and could do with was to have tags for the guests they are speaking to as viewers would be unfamiliar with many of the nominees if they wanted to, say, follow them on social media or so to find out more about their work.

ANN7 Sports Editor, formerly of eNews, Edwin Kgaswe played door man for the night

Another Young South African of the Year nominee,

Young South African of the Year nominee, and subsequent winner, Dr Sandile Kubheka, speaking on the red carpet.

The first, and only ad brak for the ENTIRE EVENING took place at 7:15pm. Up to this point all nominees echoed the same sentiment of being thankful for the recognition they have received.
When asked, most guests feel as if Bonang Matheba, co host for the evening, will win Trendsetting Celebrity of the Year.

Parents of yet another Young South African of the Year nominee, pianist Kyle Shepard, on the ANN7 South African of the Year Awards Red Carpet. Kyle was unable to attend the event due to being on tour outside of the country at the time of the awards. The mother mentioned that all nominees stayed at the same hotel where international superstar Nicole Scherizinger stayed.

ANN7's midmorning/early afternoon anchor, Abigail Visage, interviewing a guest. As seen in one of the first pictures, she was not meant to be a part of the red carpet coverage, though her contributions were quite well done (though her attire might not be, uhm, event appropriate)

One thing that I did not enjoy about the red carpet was that the presenters tried to make the whole event about the performances, which, though is nice, is not the primary focus of the evening. Every guest on the red carpet was asked who they were looking forward to seeing perform on the actual event and when someone mentioned names and one name was not Nicole Scherzinger, the presenters went and reminded them that she would be performing. If the awards take place again in the future, the presenters need to focus on the actual nominees and their work and not whatever celebrtiy will be performing. the celebrity will always get another platform to showcase their talents, but not all the nominees will have that same opportunities.

The representative of Dr Imtiaz Sooliman (Nominee in the Spirit of Humanity Award category at ANN7's South African of the Year Awards) was the first person to actually speak about the work the organisation does. He mentioned Dr Sooliman was currently working in Gaza.

Representative of Lucas Sithole, a wheelchair tennis personality, and nominated in the sports person of the year category at ANN7's South African of the Year Awards

Strictly Come Dancing SA host Katlego Moboe enjoying himself on the red carpet of ANN7's South African of the Year Awards AT THE SAME TIME that his show is being broadcast on SABC3

Mafikizolo, who was nominated, and subsequently won, Trendsetting Celebrity of the Year at ANN7's South African of the Year Awards. The duo also performed in a "battle" with Mi Casa

The host of I Am South African, the main show in the SATY 2014 campaign, Hulisani Ravele. She said the awards "represent all that is South African." She feels that as a host, your duty is to be in between, facilitate conversation, teach people and learn yourself and that the journey left her inspired. She also felt that the best is yet to come. [I personally feel it was a real shame that she was completely ;eft off the actual awards ceremony considering that she has basically been the face of the show]

The presenters of the red carpet signing off. From left to right, Liezle Wilson, Clement Manyanthela and entertainment editor Avashnee Vendiar. The oddest thing about this picture is that the three presenters that signed off from the red carpet special didn't all exactly sign on, see the pic above.

And like that, the red carpet special of ANN7's inaugural South African of the Year Awards has come to an end, the presenters have said goodbye and everything, and then... another guest...

And if that was not enough, the first few interviews re aired, leaving viewers confused as the main show had to start already. Added to this was when Clement mentioned that the show will be going "live" at 7pm, despite the fact that it was 7:36pm already. Thanks editing team...

Either way, it was not a bad red carpet special, though there is growth room for the future both in quality and duration as well.
The near total lack of mention of Social Media was a welcomed refresh from the usual builup shows awards have these days plugging twitter as if they are paid to.

Main show analysis here

Preview: ANN7's Inaugural South African of the Year Awards to Take Place this Saturday, September 6th

The inaugural South African of the Year Awards are set to take place this weekend at the Sandtion Convention Centre.

The awards will be broadcast live on ANN7 (DStv 405, www.ann7.com/livetv) from 7pm this Saturday, 6th September with buildup taking place throughout the day on the channel.

The lineup for the awards show has become increasingly stellar as the date has neared.
The show is to be hosted by the excellent Bonang Matheba, host and presenter on shows like Mzansi Magic's Clash of the Choirs SA and SABC3's Top Billing. [Though an exceptional choice for host, I think Hulisani Ravele should have had the honours considering she has basically been the face of the SATY campaign].

Former Pussycat Dolls lead singer, Nicole Scherzinger is to be the headline performer. She, along with other international act Ella Henderson landed on South African ground early Friday morning.

They are to be supported by local acts including the likes of Lira, Mafikizolo, Mi Casa, Junior Mambazo and Zahara, among others.

Prior to the actual awards show going live, Ann7 entertainment editor, entertainment anchor on ANN7 Prime and host of Sizzle, Avashnee Vandiar will host a Live From the Red Carpet special on the channel from 7pm

She is, in turn, preceded by a SATY Awards preparty show at 6pm (the usual slot of I AM South African) that is to be hosted by none other that Hulisani Ravele who will be building up to the event, as she has been doing whole week on I Am South African, and also look at highlightrs of the nominees party taking place this Friday night, though not broadcast on television.

Other ANN7 personalities like  Chantal Rutter-Dros and editor in chief Moegsien Williams are expected to make appearances on the awards show. Host of ANN7's media monitoring show, Betweem the Lines, Asanda Magaqa, is to present an award as well.


More than 500 000 votes have been cast by the public in the 7 categories recognising the work done by celebrities and non celebrities, young and old, sports people, bussiness people and politicians in making this country great. (For the full nominations list, click here).

Siki Mgabadeli to Host New Daily Business Show on eNCA

Former CNBC Africa and SAfm anchor, Siki Mgabadeli is set to begin hosting a new daily business show to launch on eNCA (DStv 403, SKY 517), South Africa's most watched news channel, on October 1st 2014.

The show, airing at 9pm Monday to Friday for 30 minutes will be hosted by Siki from Monday to Thursday with current eNCA business anchor, Arabile Gumede (himself a former CNBC Africa personality) at the healm of the show on a Friday.

Along with hosting the new show, Siki now also takes on the role of senior business anchor, which is a snub to Gumede who has been with the channel since December 2013 doing business news as part of News Night.

Siki is, of course, no stranger to eNCA audiences. She anchored the channel's election day coverage earlier this year from 12pm-6pm, hosted the Big Debate that jumped from the SABC to eNCA, and also frequently appears on air as part of cross overs eNCA has with the radio station she is currently with, Power FM, during events like the State of the Nation Address or the Opening of Parliament.

The only problem I have with the new program is its timeslot. It airs 2.5 hurs after SABC News' business show with Francis Herd has ended, BDTV and CNBC Africa's decent primetime business schedule has begun to draw to a close and Tirrin Cossaway has done indepth business reports on ANN7 Prime.

But eNCA is doing their best to make sure that the new program will still be appointment viewing to the business audience. They are doing this by basically removing all the interviews and in depth analysis from Arabile Gumede's business news inserts on Afternoon News and Newsnight and adding them to this show to ensure that it is not old news to the eNCA audience. This will then lead to the problem that Gumede's inserts on Newsnight and Afternoon News will be very vanilla considering the channel now no longer want to give the big business news stories away in those slots, which is a mistake on the part of the channel.

The 9pm slot is als a slot that eNCA has traditionally avoided to program anything but general news bulletins in. The reason for this is that at 9:30pm the channel has shows like The Tech Report and Late Night News with Loyiso Gola, which is basically non-"real" news for 30 minutes before another general news bulletin at the top of the hour. Adding a daily business bulletin at 9pm means that viewers would have to wait a full hour before having another proper news bulletin on eNCA.

Not only does it mean a full hour without news on eNCA, but it also means that in the 9pm hour there would be no english South African news on, well, any South African news channel as SABC News runs stale non-live African language news in that hour and ANN7 has an old I Am South African in that hour.

Other than the timing of the new business bulletin, which is yet to receive an official name, this is an interesting move by a news channel that has generally avoided niche news bulletins.