All News Channels Carry President Zuma's Address about the Marikana Report

eNCA, SABC News Channel and ANN7 all provided extensive coverage about President Zuma's Address to the nation about the Marikana Report.

The speech ran for 32 minutes, from 7:02pm to 7:34pm.

eNCA's coverage was anchored by Jeremy Maggs, with a 2 man in studio panel. Their analysis included in studio debate as well as live crossings to Iman Rappetti who was with families of victims of the Massacre, and Thulasizwe Simelani who was at Parliament getting reaction from the likes of DA reps. Their analysis extended for well after the actual address and the channel ended up preempting this evenings edition of Money Line.
The semi final episode of Tech Report at 9:30pm also got preempted.

SABC News Channel's coverage was simulcast on SABC 2, preempting the Afrikaans News and part of the Sotho news. Their coverage was anchored by Vuyo Mvoko. Though I love the way they use Mvoko as the anchor of their bigger news events so that when viewers see him onscreen they know its big news, constantly benching their regular prime time anchors (Vabakshnee Chety and Peter Ndoro, who anchored this morning's The New Age Buiness Brief) is starting to show a lack of faith in the duo. SABC News Channel was the first of the broadcaster to go back to scheduled programming with Sports Live at 8:30pm

ANN7 Prime with Cand Harris, Sebenzile Nkambule, Ricky Naidoo

ANN7's buildup started well before 7pm, meaning that this evening's edition of Game On! was preempted and will instead be broadcast in its traditional repeat slot of 10:30pm. The coverage was anchored by the new ANN7 Prime anchors Sebenzile Nkambule and Candy Harris. Their three man in studio panel included political editor (and host of Straight Talk) Ricky Naidoo. They also had live crossings to Kevin Brandt who was outside parliament.


If you look at stills at the top of this article, you will see both eNCA and ANN7 both actually had to get the video feed from the SABC News Channel as the state broadcaster was the only one that was allowed to have a camera present at the address.
This led to the onscreen graphics on both eNCA and ANN7 becoming messy with their graphics superimposed upon the SABC's.
When the SABC put up their full lower thirds banner, eNCA decided to black out that part of the screen, leading to nearly a third of the screen being black (though it is technically more on tv's like mine with a letterboxed aspect ratio.

Then, in what I think is a dirty tactic on the part of the SABC News Channel to get free advertising, they decided to remove the small SABC News logo at the bottom of the screen, which was covered by eNCA's and ANN7's graphics and instead put up the massive graphic where the two independent stations couldn't hide it without making the screen too cluttered. They even put a solid backing on the usually transparent logo to make it more eye catching, something they had never done before.

It is really worrying when only one broadcaster, the public broadcaster, is allowed to have a camera at an address by the president of the camera as it could lead to censorship: if that one SABC News Channel camera gets cut for whatever reason, no one outside of the venue would have access to it.

eNCA Cancels The Tech Report

eNCA has cancelled their longrunning tech-centric magazine show, The Tech Report.

The Tapfuma Makina hosted show is speculated to be the latest victim in the channel's ongoing budget cuts, though the channel tries to spin it as adjusting to trends, or something like that.

Initially The Tech Report was part of the Nicky Greenwall produced stable of magazine shows which included The Showbiz Report and The Style Report, with which it would initially alternate with in 13 week blocks for the Thursday magazine show slot.

Then The Style Report got cancelled and The Tech Report was made a year long programme.

Over the years it has seen presenters come and go, changed their on air appearance (most recently ditching their studio to do a Top Billing style on location presenting) and even changing production companies a few times.

With The Tech Report cancelled, the only techno-centric shows on South African television is the bad Networking on The SABC News Channel and the better but more talk show like Tech Busters on CNBC Africa.

The final episode of The Tech Report airs this Thursday at 9:30pm.

ANN7 Anchor Shake Up (Yet Again)

With Nzinga Qunta out as ANN7 Prime anchor, ANN7 has taken the opportunity to shake up their anchor line up.

Sebenzile Nkambule and Candy Harris. ANN7 Prime, June 22nd 2015

Firstly, and most importantly, mid morning anchor, Sebenzile Nkambule, who joined the channel late last year from Radio 702 makes the giant leap to ANN7 Prime.

Following the success of the double anchor format of Vuka Africa with Peter van Onselen and Abigail Visagie, ANN7 Prime now too becomes double anchored. Sebenzile is joined behind the desk by ANN7 original, Candy Harris, who most recently anchored weekends.

I think their first broadcast together today, June 22nd, was a bit messy and can be cleaned up going forward. Then again that is what I have come to expect with ANN7 recently: things getting better with time. [I don't want to come across as old fashioned or anything, but two female anchors anchoring a news bulletin is not what I am used to, but will allow it to grow on me]

Chante Jantjies (ANN7's youngest permanent anchor), an ANN7 original who anchored the mid-morning slot before Sibenzile then moved to weekend breakfast because of her studies, takes over from Juliet Newell on Express Lunch, a bulletin Chante has occasionally anchored on Fridays. Express Lunch also changes from airing from 12pm to 2pm to airing from 12pm to 3pm, adding an hour. On leaving weekend Vuka Africa behind, she tweeted: "After a year .. my @ann7tv  @VukaAfrica Weekend journey has ended. Thank you to all the early birds who tuned in :)"

The channel's late night block, 10pm to 12am, is now anchored by a rotation of trainee anchors, most of whom are from the ANN7 Anchor Search

BREAKING: Nzinga Qunta Resigns From ANN7

The anchor of ANN7's Prime Time bulletin, ANN7 Prime, has resigned.

Nzinga Qunta announced this on her Twitter timeline earlier today (22 June 2015).

Qunta had been with ANN7 since the channel's start, initially as one of the rotating young anchors (most of whom were models, but there were great ones like Qunta among them) the channel hired. Within a few months, she was named the anchor of ANN7's Weekend Prime anchor. During the 2014 Election cycle, Qunta anchored the daily 2 hour programme, SA Decides, and also anchored the 10am block on election day. After this, she remained the channel's late afternoon block before being promoted to ANN7 Prime anchor in January of this year, filling the void left by Chantal Rutter Dros.

In addition to being ANN7's Prime anchor, the youngest prime time anchor on South African tv, Qunta has also been a full time student at Wits University this year.

Both of these, in my opinion, helped Qunta to do something better than most other anchors: connect organically with social media users.

As anchor of ANN7 Prime, Qunta has had the opportunity to anchor the channel's coverage of major events like this year's State of the Nation Address.

Her last night on air was June 19th last week.



[I won't lie, I initially wasn't the biggest fan of Nzinga's style, but then she started growing on me and it has been amazing just to see her grow in prime time. Plus she has my respect for being able to anchor a prime time news bulletin and be a full time student at the same time. Really going to miss her on screen]

Lester Holt Named Permanent Anchor Of NBC Nightly News

Lester Holt has finally be announced as the permanent replacement for Brian Williams on NBC Nightly News, which airs daily live at 12:30am Tuesday through Saturday on CNBC Africa (DStv 412).

This comes months after Lester had been filling in for Williams due to Williams being suspended, pending a now completed investigation, following making questionable statements that has caused a media storm (Google is your friend if you want to know more).

“Lester has done outstanding work for NBC News over the last ten years, and he’s performed remarkably well over the last few months under very tough circumstances,” said Andy Lack, chairman of NBC News and MSNBC. “He’s an exceptional anchor who goes straight to the heart of every story and is always able to find its most direct connection to the everyday lives of our audience. In many ways, television news stands at a crossroads, and Lester is the perfect person to meet the moment.”

Lack is, of course, the recently appointed chairman of NBC News and MSNBC tasked with repairing a damaged brand and a struggling news division.

Holt becomes the first black anchor of a major American news bulletin ever.

In a statement, Williams says, “I’m sorry. I said things that weren’t true. I let down my NBC colleagues and our viewers, and I’m determined to earn back their trust. I will greatly miss working with the team on Nightly News, but I know the broadcast will be in excellent hands with Lester Holt as anchor. I will support him 100% as he has always supported me. I am grateful for the chance to return to covering the news. My new role will allow me to focus on important issues and events in our country and around the world, and I look forward to it.”

It is speculated that Williams will end up anchoring a show on the struggling MSNBC liberal news channel, which is available on Starsat here in South Africa.

eNCA Introduces News Night Express

Along with the shortening of News Night to 2.5 hours late last month, eNCA has also introduced a new bulletin as part of the traditional News Night bulletin, "News Night Express."

News Night Express airs every evening at 7pm (the more traditional news viewing time for those that do not watch news on 2 hour news channels) and presents the day's top news, international news, sports and business headlines, along with a weather bulletin, in a 'crisp' format: no in depth pieces, no interviews, just headlines in the traditional way.

Though the on air anchors constantly refer to it as being "News Night Express," one would find it hard to exactly see what is different in this bulletins as all graphics and information makes it seem as if it is just News Night.

Either way, this format  has potential to grow into something exciting.

eNCA Hosts Guest Youth Anchors For Youth Day

Jeremy Maggs and his Youth Day co anchor anchoring News Night

All the South African news channels provided special coverage for this past week's Youth Day commemorations.

SABC News Channel simulcasted SABC1's special Youth Day broadcast (which was produced by SABC News) and anchored by SABC News' younger reporters, who did a good job at covering all the events happening concurrently which included interviews with other young people and in studio debates. It also included special reports on relevent topics by reporters like the excellent Chriselda Lewis.

ANN7's cameras were everywhere where major Youth Day commemorations were being held in addition to small information pieces that aired throughout the day. ANN7 boasts the youngest overall anchor lineup of all the local channels: youngest anchor (Chante Jantjies, Weekend Vuka Africa anchor), youngest breakfast show anchor (Abigail Visagie, Vuka Africa) and youngest prime time anchor (Nzinga Qunta, ANN7 Prime).

But my personal favourite has to be eNCA. In addition to the usual live coverage and in studio debates that the others had, eNCA decided to do something less gloomy than to mention things like high youth unemployment, they had school children as co anchors throughout the channel's programming.

Though the school children seemed a bit nervous (though they were quite far from being as bad as those people ANN7 unleashed on us when they launched), it was an experience they would never forget. They got to read and introduce stories, have a bit of banter with the 'senior' anchor, got to interview guests and themselves also got answer relevant questions.

Njabulo Moyo, Duduzile Ramile's co anchor for Youth Day, presented the idea that eNCA have youth anchors co anchor their Youth Day coverage, an idea thatthe channel took up.

Lindy Mtongana Moves From eNCA to CCTV Africa

With the recent closure of eNCA's African news division, many staff were let go as part of the budget cutting measures or left the channel on their own for greener pastures, like Robyn Kriel.

Lindy Mtongana is another person that left eNCA for opportunities elsewhere.

Lindy has been with eNCA long before the now failed African expansion. She was initially a late night, weekend and fill in anchor for the channel before thinking that joining the African division would do wonders for her (hint: it did not). At eNCA's Africa division, Lindy anchored Africa Edition which aired Monday to Friday at 7pm GMT on the eNCA feed seen outside South Africa as well as on eTV's eTV Africa service which is available on DStv outside of South Africa and also Openview HD's eAfrica+, in additionto being aired on eNCA after midnight here in South Africa.

In addition  to this, she took up the position of senior producer at eNCA's now cancelled Africa 360, where she often filled in as anchor.

Then the African news division closed, people were laid off and Lindy had the opportunity to do what she did in the beginning before moving to the Africa division, anchor late nights and weekends.  However, Lindy was seen less frequently than before because Florence Letoaba has now become the first choice for anchoring the late night shift.

In May this year, Lindy left eNCA and headed to CCTV Africa's Kenya bureau, because Chinese broadcasters are unfortunately more capable of giving African people an opportunity to tell African stories than actual African broadcasters.

Time for the News Channels To Get Starsat?

There once was a time when all one needed for sports in South Africa was Supersport. If Supersport did not have it, it did not exist.

However, now Starsat's sports offering, made up of a pair of Fox Sports Channels and StarTimes Sports, is starting to slowly eat away at Supersport's sports rights, meaning only the approximately 100 000 Starsat subscribers have access to sports events like the Women's World Cup, the under 20 World Cup and, from next season, the Bundesliga, among others.

However, not only do most viewers not have access to Starsat, but it doesn't seem as if the South African news channels, eNCA, SABC News Channel and ANN7, have Starsat either. Instead the only highlights they will show are highlights of matches that aired on Supersport or the SABC's sports offering.

The result? When the sports bulletin now comes on on these channels, any sports that airs on Starsat is now treated as merely being an after thought.

A prime example of this would be the Women's World Cup. Back in 2011 when the tournament aired on Supersport (with select matches on SABC1), the tournament was treated as any other part of the sports bulletin getting the full highlights package treatment.

This time around, Supersport ditched the Women's World Cup and the Under 20 World Cup in favour of showing the Copa America and the Women's World Cup has merely become an afterthought in the sports bulletin, usually lucky if the scores are mentioned.

Another major sporting event that is currently taking place that is not being aired on Supersport is the inaugural European Games being held in Baku. However, neither ANN7, eNCA or SABC News will be reporting on that (and neither will 24 hour sports news channel, Supersprt Blitz) because it is being aired on Fox Sports and not Supersport. 

Though it may seem like something small that sporting events shown on Fox Sports Africa and StarTimes Sports is being ignored by the 'mainstream' South African news channels, it is just a matter of time before one of these two broadcasters nab a major South African sporting event and that event could really suffer if the news channels and the rest of the media in South Africa are going to continue to nearly ignore any sports that does not air on either Supersport or the SABC.