eNCA Reluctant to Pay to Broadcast Miners Shot Down

This past weekend, South African documentary, Miners Shot Down, won big at the International Emmy Awards and buzz around the documentary film increased again, fueled by the fact that no South African broadcaster wanted to broadcast the documentary.

The film was made available for free viewing online for those who are curious about the film and now South African broadcaster, eNCA, also  wants to broadcast the film even though it did not want to earlier this year.

Problem is, the channel refuses to pay to air the documentary, saying the producer knows where to drop off a free copy of the film and they will broadcast it.

Yes, they refuse to pay a producer for his now award winning work.

The film was shown on Al Jazeera English earlier this year and a few community channels, but this has always been out of the reach of most South Africans.

COSATU Names ANN7 the Worst Place to Work

South Africa's largest trade union has named news channel ANN7 (DStv405) the worst place to work in South Africa.

I do not see how to actually take this seriously because if given the option to work in a mine or a factory (both of which exploit unskilled workers) or ANN7, I sure as hell will not go into a mine.

News sites reporting on this are citing past things like the Magaqa case to generalise the whole organisation in addition to implying that Gladys Sithole and Nzinga Qunta earlier this year left the channel due to bad working conditions. If they did their homework, they would know Sithole left due to a promotion she was offered at HotFM and Qunta left because she could not balance studying in Pretoria with being a prime time anchor in Midrand (though it would have been amazing having a student as a news anchor during the protests earlier this year).

COSATU also sayis workers at ANN7 are being 'exploited,' which may or may not be the case considering the channel's ability to attract talent away from other news channels. The money must be good.

I am not saying ANN7 is not the worst workplace to be in, as I have never been there to see for myself, but I think a Trade Union like COSATU should be focusing on lobbying for better work conditions for society's most vulnerable workers, the unskilled, underpaid and overworked sector of the workforce which they seem to be ignoring here.

RATINGS: Which News Channels Were the Most Watched for the Month Of October in South Africa?

Courtesy once again of Patrick Conroy, we now have yet another glimpse into the world of which news channel is watched the most in South Africa and DStv.

Business Channels First:
CNBC Africa has once again overtaken Business Day TV as the most watched Business News channel in the country (1.68% compared to 0.52%). During the month of October, CNBC Africa aired the 3rd Republican Debate, though it did not send out programming advisories before hand. October also brought with it the Mid Term Budget Speech on the 21st of the month with the channel providing wall to wall coverage of the speech while Business Day TV was showing repeat content.
Compared to September, CNBC Africa is up 16% while Business Day TV's ratings went down double digits, month on month.

International News Channels next and in a month filled with US Politics news and unrest in the Middle East, CNN remains in first place, though its 4.04% share is down from the 5.69% in the prior month when it had a Democrat Primary Debate on its schedule which aired live and repeated in prime time.
They are followed by Al Jazeera English and BBC World News. Combined, one in ten viewers who watched a news channel in South Africa opted to watch an international one.

Now things get interesting...
Before I continue, I want to just put a bit of context into the Month of October 2015 in South African news with a single hashtag: #FeesMustFall. Yip, that happened during October and the graph above is a perfect indicator of which channel South Africans prefer when deciding where to turn for major domestic breaking news issues.

Firstly, ANN7. The downside: In a month with a major breaking news story in South Africa that developed over a number of days, if not weeks, to which the channel dedicated a large deal of resources, Sky News, a British news channel, was watched by more South Africans than a South African news channel.  More so, the channel also aired the South African of the Year Awards during October, an event that was trending on top of Twitter's list for most of that evening.
The upside? The channel's ratings were up 14% compared to September of this year, which is a large margin.
At this point, something has got to give at the channel. They have certain bright spots, for example the in depth analysis on ANN7 Prime and the quality of GameOn! is something often spoke about, but the rest of the channel's lineup need to see a step up in quality to remain relevant.
What's more, Sky News is available on DStv Premium and Extra only whereas ANN7 is available on absolutely all DStv bouquets including the R39 Easy View as well as Commercial packages.

In the same news climate as the above, SABC News saw their ratings decrease by just over 7% during October 2015. The channel's coverage, or lack thereof, of of the #FeesMustFall movement has been widely criticized and the South African public has made their voices heard by tuning out.

With absolutely spectacular coverage of the movement, eNCA remains more than comfortable at the top of the news mountain on DStv. The audience share was up a whopping 15%  compared to September, proving that quality coverage indeed leads to quantity in terms of viewership figures. The channel also trended on Twitter alongside #FreesMustFall and traffic to their website was up during the month of October.





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With breaking news of terror attacks coming out of Paris this past Friday night, November 13th, South African news channel, ANN7 (DStv 405), decided to carry the live feed of French news broadcaster, France24 for hours on end on Saturday.

France24, which is an international news channel based in France, is a free to air news channel in most countries and is available on South Afria's smaller paytv platform, StarSat.

It is not uncommon for news channels to carry the feed of another news channel for breaking news coverage. For example, CNN (DStv 401) frequently carries the feed of CNNUS during breaking news events, or carries eNCA's feed for breaking news events in South Africa (which happens rarely).

However, the problem with one channel carrying another's feed on theirs is that you now have two sets of graphics on screen, which becomes messy for viewers. In the above you can see the France24 graphics under the areafy big ANN7 graphics.

Carrying France24's feed is also a very safe bet by ANN7 on a Saturday when most of the channel's anchor lineup consists of models and aspiring actors, not journalists, who probably does not have the skills required to carry a breaking news broadcast like this that requires a firm grasp of the dynamics of terrorism. (Don't look for ANN7's weekend anchors at a journalism awards show soon, you will instead find them on a red carpet somewhere, or on Big Brother, or on BET)

The simulcast also replaces the channel's taped programming that would have aired. In contrast, both SABC News Channel and eNCA are carrying taped shows like eShibobo and Health Talk while all other news channels, including ANN7 now, are providing rolling coverage from Paris.

[Not a diss to anyone at ANN7, but this broadcast was the best quality broadcast I have ever seen on ANN7]

eNCA's Carmen Reddy Shot At Home

eNCA sports anchor, Carmen Reddy (who is a DJ at 5FM as well) was shot and wounded in her home in Centurion last night, November 11th.

This was a result of an attempted armed robbery of the house where she was celebrating the festival of Diwali along with two colleagues. The fireworks reportedly blocked out the screams coming from the house.

 The bullet was lodged in her shoulder.

eNCA's outgoing head of news, Ben Said, said, "She is doing well but is in hospital receiving surgery to have the bullet removed. She will make a full recovery.”

ANN7 Redesigns Website

ANN7 (DStv 405) has redesigned their website, which can be found at ann7.com.

The new design is in line with modern trends in web design: clean and (largely) simple. It has also removed certain subsections that had few articles published in them and removed links to information and videos about stale content.

The new look is also inline with the channels recent on air refresh.

With all the changes, some things remain the same, like having the ability to live stream the video feed of the channel, continuing to be the only South African channel to make their video feed available online for free (SABC News, which is supposed to be a public broadcaster, has their live video stream available only to DStv Premium subscribers).

Keeping all things Gupta, the design was done by Sahara Systems.

CNN and MTN Launch New Africa-Centric Mobile App

CNN, the world's news leader, and MTN, the biggest cellphone network on the continent, have today announced plans to launch a new app together called "Africa View."

The app is only one part of a new, larger deal between the two organisations, which also covers sponsorships, advertising and also other digital components, to be revealed at a later date.

The ‘Africa View’ app curates CNN’s extensive Africa content, including the network’s ‘Africa View’ weekly infographic content (which airs during commericals), providing background and context to trends, figures and initiatives shaping the African continent. Furthermore, it will feature content from CNN's African shows, "Inside Africa" and "Marketplace Africa." Being a CNN app, "Africa View" will of course also feature the latest breaking news and analysis from across the continent pushed to subscribers'  phones.

The content of the app is said to be 'editorially independent,' (whatever that means in this case: independent from MTN? CNN? Some other organisation) and will feature prominent advertising from MTN.

MTN has been a part of the Africa View programme since February this year, when it started sponsoring the Africa View Segments that air during Connect the World.

Features of the Africa View app include:
Latest Africa news and headlines
Weekly updates of ‘Africa View’ segment content
Premium content of CNN International’s Africa features shows ‘Inside Africa’ and ‘CNN Marketplace Africa’
Customised push notifications
Ability to save favourite stories and continue reading offline (which comes in handy in some locations where coverage is patchy)

The app is initially available for Apple devices and Android devices, and can also be found in the MTN Play Store.

Ben Said Out at eNews

eNCA last week announcd that longtime Group News Editor, Ben Said, was leaving the organisation. 

Said has been part of the eTV family since 2000, helping to start the channel's news division that started simply as a thirty minute daily news bulletin (eNews Prime Time), and has since gone on to grow into things like the breakfast show, Sunrise, the zulu news bulletin on eKasi+, the Afrikaans bulletin on Kyknet and, of course, South Africa's most watched news channel, eNCA, along with its successful website.

He started out as a reporter, before climbing up the ranks to senior reporter, covering major stories like the election of the US's first black president, Barack Obama, from Washington D.C. Eventually, he was seen on air less frequently as he continued to ascend to the position of Group News Editor.

"After more than 15 years, I will leave with much sadness but also pride that I have played a role in the growth of Africa's finest news channel. Indeed I believe that eNCA ranks as one of the world's greatest regional news channels and is a credit to South Africa," said Said (oh funny) in a statement released last week. 

Th next step of Said's journy takes him to Turkey, where he joins that state' s public broadcaster's new international news channel, TRT World. [I have no idea why someone will leave an established and successful independent news organisation to join a state broadcaster]

Ben Said's last day with eNCA will be 25th December 2015.