Today, May 22nd, the SABC News Channel expanded their footprint on the DStv platform by the platform now making the channel available in all territories in which the platform operates.

To celebrate the launch, or expansions rather, the channel held an event similar to the one just the other day about the launch of the SABC Encore channel aand was broadcast on the SABC News Channel. 

However, President Zuma was in attendance this time and spoke about the expansion.

The coverage on the SABC News Channel was anchored by Peter Ndroro and Ayanada-Allie Paine.

 The President's speech was also carried on ANN7, which was interesting considering the event was about a direct competitor of theirs.

Among the topics covered were the SABC's plans for the long delayed Digital Migration, though he did not mention anything new.

President Zuma also spoke about the SABC News Channel's coverage of the Pan African Parliament this past week. They were the only channel to provide rolling coverage of the event. He also spoke about how the channel is an excellent way to celebrate Africa month and that the channel helps to reinforce African union and development, among other things. Also on African coverage, Zuma spoke about the channel's plans to provide in depth coverage of the World Economic Forum on Africa, and the African Union Summit.

Zuma spoke about how the channel can be used as a self-educational vehicle of patriotism and African identity and also how it allows Africans to now sell Africa better by giving news from an African perspective and not the negative way international broadcasters have been selling Africa. He further said that this doesn't mean that bad events won't be covered.

Strange things Zuma mentioned included that the SABC News Channel 'reached 24 million'  South African households per week, which is strange considering that DStv, the only carrier of the channel, has about 5 million subscribers in SA.

Furthermore, he said that the channel will now be available in 50 countries now, which I found very strange as DStv doesn't broadcast to many Northern African countires. But I do not blame Zuma for this blunder because DStv themselves have punted the shady claim of being in '50 countries' when speaking about the coverage of the Channel O Awards, among other events.

After President Zuma spoke, the SABC's head of news, Jimi Matthews also spoke