ANALYSIS: Can eNews Prime Time survive at 20:30?

Earlier this week, eTV announced major changes to their prime time schedule, which included moving its main news bulletin, eNews Prime Time, from 7pm, where it had been for over 15 years, to 8:30pm.

But can this timeslot move for the bulletin do more harm than good?

The 7pm bulletin, which has been in its slot for 15 years, has become a sort of daily appointment for its loyal viewers: viewers plan all their television viewing around having the news at 7pm, with more dramatic programming following as the night progresses

This is why programmes on channels like M-Net start at the bottom of the hour and not the top (so that viewers don't miss the 7pm hour of programming because they missed the first half hour).

This is why the SABC moved their English news bulletin from the late 8pm hour up to 7pm (and subsequently 6:30pm), and last year their Zulu bulletin to 7pm as well.

News at 7pm just works because currently not one of more than 100 tv channels available in this country broadcasts their tentpole shows at that timeslot.

A move to 8:30pm means that not only does eNews Prime Time have to compete with a greater amount of big name television shows, but also with viewers' own evening routines (putting kids to bed, etc).

But by far the greatest challenge that the 8:30pm eNews Prime Time will have to face is not about programming outside of news, but news itself:

Will viewers wait until that late timeslot for their daily fix of news?

Not only does eNews Prime Time face the challenges that all tv news broadcasters face, like online news sources, but it is shooting itself in the foot by being the absolute last news bulletin of the day.

It is higly unlikely that viewers are going to wait until that time to catch thw day's headlines, when they can get it from other channels. Afterall, we watch the news for the news and not the news reader (or do we?).

Just under 20% of viewers that watch eNews Prime Time are doing so from a DStv decoder. This means that just over 300 000 viewers have access to SABC News Channel's Prime Time News with Vabakshnee Chety and Peter Ndoro and also ANN7's Prime with Juliet Newell and Peter Stemmet (both former eNews personalities). If these viewers subscribe to at least DStv Compact, they have acces to eTV's sister channel, eNCA, which has News Night with Jeremy Maggs and Iman Rappetti as well, meaning they can get the exact same stories (along with the exact same news anchor links) at any time they want before 8:30pm.

Very few South Africans speak only English, meaning that if they want news before 8:30pm, they are spoilt for choice (if they do not have pay tv), language wise, from the SABC before eNews Prime Time airs at 8:30pm. If viewers want to retain their schedule with news at 7pm, the SABC offers an Afrikaans and an isiZulu bulletin in that slot (with English at 6:30pm).

If they do not like the SABC and really like eNews, they can get the Sotho bulletin at 5:30pm, the new Zulu bulletin at 6:30pm and the Afrikaans bulletin on Kyknet at 7pm.

Either way, viewers will know the news before the main English bulletin
There will also be those viewers that opt to just no longer watch television news at night. They get their headlines during a morning or lunchtime broadcast, the radio is good enough or they okay with reading newspapers or online sources.

And there will be those that somehow find it in their schedule to watch news at 8:30pm as well.

At this point, the fate of the 10pm eNews Late Edition is unknown. But if it does remain, it would mean that there would only be a one hour break between English news bulletins on eTV, and not much new news breaks in the space of an hour, so it will basically be a repeat an hour later.

Viewers are also creatures of habit, they expect things to remain the same. On the weekends the English eNews Prime Time stays at 7pm, which is bound to lead to confusion among more casual viewers.

However you look at it, it seems that come March 2nd when the new timeslot comes into effect, eNews Prime Time is going to experience a dip in viewership, the size of which is unknown at present.

(also spare a thought for poor Cathy Mohlahlana who anchors the bulletin on Tuesdays and Thursday nights. She is on air from 9am already on eNCA, and will be on air at 9pm at night when eNews Prime Time will now conclude, a whopping 12 hour workday. Okay, maybe there is a big break in between but your day is still messed)

eTV Shakes Up Prime Time Schedule, Moves News and Current Affairs Programming

South Africa's only independent free to air  broadcaster, eTV, has announced massive changes to the channel's prime time schedule.

These changes seem to be a continuation of the changes the channel saw late last year with the introduction of the eKasi+ shows, Katch it with Khanyi and Lets Talk with Masechaba Lekalake, in the 6pm slot and the shifting of the Sotho news to 5:30pm, in direct competition with the Sotho bulletin on SABC 2.

The first major change is the introduction of a Zulu-langauge news bulletin in the 6:30pm timeslot. What other websites and news sources would be telling you is that this is a new bulletin, but it is not. The eNews Zulu bulletin has been running for a while now at 8pm on eKasi+ (Openview HD 105).

At this point, eTV has not indicated what happens to that slot: does it fall away, does it take on another local language, does it become a repeat of the 6:30pm bulletin or does it remain as a live half hour of news?

With Zulu news on eTV at 6:30pm, viewers now also no longer need to wait until 7pm for a Zulu bulletin on SABC1, whichvis a rather competitive move by eTV.

(It is not clear whether the bulletin will air on weekends as well)

Next among the changes is the shifting of the struggling soap Rhythm City from 6:30pm to 7pm, in direct competition with SABC3's Isidingo, which has found great success (a doubling of viewership) since moving to 7pm and out of direct competition with the other 6:30pm soaps.

Rhythm City now starts a triple bill of daily soaps on eTV with Scandal following it at 7:30pm, the only show to remain in its old slot.

Scandal is then followed by eTV's new Telenovela, Ashes To Ashes, which stars a large amount of Generations alumni in it.

eTV's long running English News Bulletin, eNews Prime Time, shifts a wopping 90 minutes later to 8:30pm. [analysis to follow in an article of its own]

It is unclear whether eNews Late Edition, which airs at 10pm, a mere hour after the end of eNews Prime Time.

(eNews Prime Time's weekend slots remain unaffected)

eKasi: Our Stories now moves to the Tuesday 9pm slot, which means that current affairs programme, Check Point with Nkepile Mabuse also needs to move, but the channel has not said what will happen to that show.

Another current affairs show that is affected is Late Night News woth Loyiso Gola, which currently airs at 8pm on Thursdays, which it can now obviously no longer do.

Overall, this now means that eTV drops the weak programming they have been airing at 8pm and that they now boasts the most packed schedule of any free to air broadcaster (meaning it becomes harder for them to reschedule programming if they want to air specials like the State of the Nation Address).

It also seems as if eTV has now given up hope on their Openview HD product. Last year two talk shows, along with the rest of the magazine shows on eKasi+ were shifted to eTV, now the Zulu news bulletin follows suit. They also earlier said theyvwould down the line add a telenovela to that channel. Now they are adding a telenovela, just not on eKasi+.

The changes come into effect March 2nd.

SABC 3 Announces Cricket World Cup Plans

SABC 3, the public broadcaster's cricket channel of choice, has announced their Cricket World Cup plans, well they kind of did considering it excludes the names of hosts and commentators.

The free to air broadcaster will provide live coverage of thirty matches, including all of the Proteas' matches, the opening match, two quarterfinals, one semi final and the final.

On cricket days, the channel's breakfast show, Expresso, will not be aired, along with other midmorning repeats.

Ocassionally, the business-centric News@1 and Africa News Update will also be set aside for cricket action, though they will still be broadcast on The SABC News Channel.

For once, the channel's late afternoon and prime time schedules will not be affected by the cricket.

I will update this post when more specifics become available.

Supersport Unveils Cricket World Cup Plans

Supersport, Africa's premier sports broadcaster, has unveiled their coverage plans for the 2015 Cricket World Cup (more than two weeks before the tournament starts, in comparison to two days before AFCON 2015)

As expected, every match will be broadcast live and in High Definition on Supersport 2 (which is available on DStv Mobile as well)

The commentary team will feature the likes of Shaun Pollock and Mpumelelo Mbangwa.

Every match the Proteas play in will have three commentary options: English, Afrikaans and isiXhosa.

Supersport's build up and analysis will be done from their excellent Studio 6 in Johannesburg and will be anchored by HD Ackerman.

He will be joined in studio by the likes of Kepler Wessels, Alviro Peterson, Morné van Wyk, Neil McKenzie, Robin Peterson and Ashwell Prince, among others.

These guys will also be complimented by state of the art touch screen technology and augmented reality, as seen during the Soccer World Cup last year.

There will also be live news updates on Supersport Blitz, Supersport 2 (in the form of a weekly Friday magazine show called Cricket World Cup Special {how creative}) and social media.

Providing the live updates will ne the excellent Mike Haysman, who will be joined by Supersport reporter, Crystal Arnold.

Guests that will be featured on the interviews done from Australia include Mark Nicholas, Rahul Dravid, Tom Moody and Ian Bishop.

Noticeably absent from the information Supersport released is which matches, if any will be shown live on a channel available on DStv's lower-tiered bouquets. With the last World Cup, all Protea games, along with other key games were available to lower-tiered subscribers, along with a daily one hour highlights show.

CNNi Adds New Weekend Show from Erin Burnett

CNNi, DStv 401, has added a new taped programme from Erin Burnett to the channel's weekend schedule.

The show is called Erin Burnett Outfront, the exact same name as her weekday show on the US version of CNN.

It will feature mainly in depth interviews with international news makers, most of which would just be interviews that was on her weekday show but has not yet been seen by the CNN audience outside of the US.

Because most of the interviews are just airings of interviews she did on her US shows, the topics discussed does come across as very US-centric, even though it is billed as taking on international issues.

It will also feature some exclusive interviews as well.

The earliest hints of a show on the international CNN came last year, when she renegotiated her contract with CNN, which stipulated that she would get a show on CNN International as well. At the time, most media outlets assumed that the show would be a weekday, primetime show, but that is obviously not the case now.

Erin Burnett Outfront airs at 4pm Central African Time on Saturdays, and then gets repeated at 10pm the same day and then a new episode airs on Sunday at 5pm and then gets repeated at 2:30am Monday morning again

It's Official: Juliet Newell is the new ANN7 Prime Anchor

A few weeks ago I published an article asking whether Juliet Newell will be ANN7's permanent new anchor for ANN7 Prime after she started anchoring the show at the start of the festive season, though in rotation with other anchors.

Well, it seems as if the answer to that question is now yes.

Juliet Newell is now featured in promotional material for ANN7 Prime, appearing alongside Vuka Africa's Petet van Onselen and Express Lunch's Abigail Visage.

Juliet replaces Chantal Rutter Dros who anchored her final show on December 3rd 2014.

Juliet is a former anchor of etv's breakfast show and has also anchored on what is now know as BDTV.

In addition to that, she also has acting experience and is a former presenter at the Home Channel as well.

She now joins Peter Stemmet, who is ANN7 Prime's sports anchor (himself a former eNews guy). A business anchor is yet to be named after Tirrin Cosway departed from the channel last year (though my money is on former CNBC Africa anchor Natassia Arendse who herself has started anchoring on ANN7 in recent weeks).

When the Weather Anhor Joins the Regular Anchor

So today I was watching The SABC News Channel (I finally discovered that that is the channel's official name) and I saw something I haven't seen on South African news before: the weather anchor joining the news anchor to discuss the weather.

Though this may be common practice on international channels like CNN, but not on South African news.

In the case on eNCA, their weather department is located in Cape Town while the actual studio from where the anchor does the anchoring is in Johannesburg. The only time the weather anchor would actually talk about the weather outside of the weather report would be in a recorded news report about weather.

On ANN7, in the other case, the channel's only weather girl when the channel started, Suri Smit, is now doing some weekend magazine show on the channel (which has absolutely nothing to do with weather, if you wondering), meaning that the 24 hour news channel has no on air weather personality at all.

The SABC News Channel is the only local news channel that has the weather anchor doing the weather report live and, in the case of English broadcasts, in the same studio with the news anchor, which is why an informative sit down interview like today's could take place.

Chante Jantjies Moves To Weekends

ANN7's Chante Jantjies

ANN7's midmorning anchor (9am-11am), Chante Jantjies, has now been moved to the weekend breakfast slot(6am-9am/12pm) on the channel.

Usually in the broadcast industry, being moved from a channel's week schedule to the weekend will be seen as a demotion, but in the case of Chante, who also happens to be the channel's youngest anchor (as she keeps reminding us on Twitter), she will be studying this year.

Chante is also a model on the side from her now weekend job, winning the 2009 Miss SA Teen crown. Her highlights at ANN7, thus far, include anchoring the channels overnight coverage on Election Day last year.

CNN's Christiane Amanpour and Anderson Cooper Question Boss Over Refusal To Show Cover of Charlie Hebdo

Christiane Amanpour, CNN's Chief International Correspondent and host of the daily Amanpour (9pm CAT) as well as "Golden Boy" Anderson Cooper, who hosts Anderson Cooper 360 (3am CAT) both questioned CNN Worldwide President, Jeff Zucker, on the network's refusal to show the cover of the French satirical magazine, Charlie Hebdo.

They questioned Zucker infront of all CNN's staff internationally at the organisation's annual town hall special that is broadcast to all its bureaus.

Politico has more:
CNN's Christiane Amanpour questioned network president Jeff Zucker in front of CNN's global staff on Wednesday over his decision not to air images of the Islamic prophet Mohammed, sources at the network told POLITICO.

In a "town hall" simulcast to CNN bureaus worldwide, the chief international correspondent informed her boss that the Quran does not prohibit showing images of Mohammed and questioned the network's refusal to show the most recent Charlie Hebdo magazine cover on the grounds that it might offend Muslims. Despite conventional wisdom, many Islamic scholars say that the Quran does not explicitly prohibit images of the prophet Mohammed. The view that such depictions should be prohibited is one that has evolved over time in certain strands of the religion. (More on all that here, here and here.)

In response to an earlier question about the depiction of Mohammed, from Anderson Cooper, Zucker had cited staff safety as a key reason for not showing the cartoons. On air, however, CNN has attributed the decision to a network policy "not to show potentially offensive images of the prophet."
Unfortunately for our readers, Zucker's response to Amanpour was unmemorable, several sources said. "Basically he had no response," said one staffer. CNN declined to comment for this piece. We've invited Zucker to respond to Amanpour's point about the Quran, and will update if and when we hear back.

You can read the rest of the article, which includes the rest of what was said at the townhall here.

Cyprian Ndlovu Departs Vuzu

Cyprian Ndlovu is no longer a presenter at MNet's Vuzu channels, where he was one of the hosts of V Entertainment and V Prime.

He departs from Vuzu roughly a year after starting early in January 2014 at just 20 years old.

Prior to being a Vuzu presenter, Cyprian was a finalist in the 2013 edition of MTV Base's VJ search.

Fans wont have to wait long to see him again, though, as he will start appearing in eTV's Rythm City from March this year.

Siyabonga Ngwekasi, who returned to the show late last year when it relaunched to host an episode every now and then will now appear more frequently to fill the gap left by Cyprian.

Supersport [Finally] Releases AFCON Broadcast Plans

Supersport, Africa's premiere sports broadcaster has finally released details around its broadcast of the 2015 African Cup of Nations that kicks off this weekend.

Each of the 32 matches will have four commentary languages available: English, isiZulu, seTswana and Portuguese. (seTswana replaces Sotho, which was always used for AFCONs and World Cups)

The matches will be broadcast, mainly simulcast, with the exception of when there are concurrent games, across a whopping five channels. This is to allow "all Multichoice's customers to see the matches," which could be seen as them being generous, maybe. Lets see:

• Supersport 4: This is for HD customers throughout the continent as SS7 is not available in HD on DStv's other satellite. This channel is also available in many customers as part of DStv Compact.
• Supersport 7: which is part of DStv Compact and Compact Plus outside of South Africa.
• Supersport 9: which is available on even cheaper DStv packages like Access. Is also DStv's premiere African sports channel.
• Supersport Maximo: For those in Portuguese speaking territories like Mozambique and Angola.
• Supersport Select: This channel is available on Multichoice's GOtv terrestrial television product in other African countries.

That covers every Multichoice subscriber, with the exception of the R29 Easyview subscribers, so the statement that "Afcon to be enjoyed by all Multichoice subscribers" is therefore flawed.

Anyway, back to the coverage plans:
Supersport 4 and SS4HD will be a 24 hour AFCON channel for the duration of the tournament.

SuperSport’s social media platforms and Blitz’s rolling coverage will offer viewers up-to-the-minute match updates, team news and player reactions as well as post-match press conferences.

Supersport's star-studded lineup of experts will be headlined by Marcel Desailly (Ghana), and will include the likes of Daniel Amokachi (Nigeria) and Neil Tovey (South Africa). Samuel Kuffour (Ghana), a Supersport regular, will also be a part of the panel, and so will Benni McCarthy (South Africa), whose performance on Supersport's panel for the last AFCON tournament ensured he did not get a call back for the world cup (but then again everyone deserves a second chance, even if they do not do their homework before a broadcast).

 Supersport will also be running two weekly magazine shows:
Longtime magazine show brand, Masterplan, which was used since the 2010 Soccer World Cup and then subsequently brought back for every major soccer tournament and rugby world cup, will return on Sundays at 4pm. The show will unpack the matches from a more tactical point of view and is for the die hard fans. Supersport stalwart Robert Marawa host.

The other magazine show Supersport will have will be a revival of a brand last used for the 2010 World Cup,The Harambee Show, which will now air Saturdays at 4pm. The show will focus on the fans and the happenings on social networks and also get viewers closer to Equatorial Guinea, the AFCON 2015 host nation. Carol Tshabalala to host.

Every match will be preceded by a one hour build up and followed by a one hour wrap up, where possible (if matches aren't scheduled too close together).

South Africa's Carol Tshabalala and Robert Marawa will anchor the broadcast from Supersport's impressive studio in Johannesburg while Yaw Ampofu-Ankrah (Ghana), host of Supersport's Ghana Premier League show, Franklin Tembo Jnr (Zambia) and Sizwe Mabena, who also anchor's Supersports only weekly pan-African soccer chat show, Soccer Africa, (South Africa) will be providing on the ground coverage, which will include pre- and post match interviews.

Noticeably absent from the Supersport presenter list is Supersport's Nigerian presenter, Charles Anazodo, who usually flies to South Africa to present a few games but it seems as if he will be staying home, along with the Nigerian football team.

Overall, the coverage seems decent, but not all that impressive.

CNN To Start Using Drones

 

CNN (DStv 401) has reached an agreement with the US's FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) which would allow them to start using unmanned drones with cameras on board.

The move follows the FAA's decision back in September to allow movies to use the technology but, at the time, not any news organsisation or any other media entities.

Drones have been mostly banned for commercial use since back in 2007 and it is only now that restrictions on their use are being eased, following heavy debate.

In South Africa, drones had been used to provide breathtaking visuals in news coverage, like Carte Blanche's coverage of the Oscar trial, documentaries, like the ones made by eNCA (which I must say were the best drone images I have ever seen, especially the ones floating over the scenic Eastern Cape), and movies, including a Leon Schuster prank.

But the drone trend came to a grinding halt when the South Africa by the South African Civil Aviation Authority (SACAA) banned all use of the technology at the start of June last year.

That move was met by great outcry by many in the affected industries, especially highlighting how it would make South Africa a less atractive location for foreign film projects.

The reason for the ban was apparently due to a "lack of regulations."

It is unclear when drones will return to the skys of South Africa, but here is CNN's full press release on their new agreement to start using the technology in the US:

CNN has entered into a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRDA) with the Federal Aviation Administration to advance efforts to integrate Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) into newsgathering and reporting.
The cooperation arrangement will integrate efforts from CNN’s existing research partnership with the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI). Coordination between and among CNN, GTRI and the FAA has already begun. The FAA will use data collected from this initiative to formulate a framework for various types of UAVs to be safely integrated into newsgathering operations.

“Our aim is to get beyond hobby-grade equipment and to establish what options are available and workable to produce high quality video journalism using various types of UAVs and camera setups,” said CNN Senior Vice President David Vigilante. “Our hope is that these efforts contribute to the development of a vibrant ecosystem where operators of various types and sizes can safely operate in the US airspace.”

“Unmanned aircraft offer news organizations significant opportunities,” said FAA Administrator Michael Huerta. “We hope this agreement with CNN and the work we are doing with other news organizations and associations will help safely integrate unmanned newsgathering technology and operating procedures into the National Airspace System.”

Reza Sayah Departs CNN

 

CNN's Cairo-based correspondent, Reza Sayah, has left the news organisation.

Sayah has been with CNN since 2008 but was only moved to Cairo in 2012 and has been based there until now.

In March of 2014, Sayah reported for Al Jazeerah, with full support from CNN, at a time when Al Jazeerah could not report from within Egypt themselves.

It is unclear at this time whether he left out of choice or was pushed out, which many is speculating to be the case as CNN continues its cost-cutting programme, which is currently being experienced by the Cairo bureau which is said to be "downsizing."