etv wants to move news out of prime time: Was that the plan all along?

By now you have probably heard about etv applying to the broadcast regulator for permission to move its daily evening news bulletin out of the highly lucrative and competitive prime time slot. You have heard their reasons: It doesn't make money (or it is losing them money), it is an outdated model and they could be airing highly profitable programming in that slot. But was moving news out of prime time their plan all along?

First of all, let's make one thing clear: They are not cancelling the news bulletin, they just want to move it out of prime time, which is currently defined in South Africa as being 6pm-10pm (which is relatively long by international standards).

The whole rebranding exercise eNews Prime Time underwent to become eNews Direct now seems to make sense in a whole new way since news about the channel's ambitions became public. There is absolutely nothing 'Direct' about eNews Direct and it wanting to bring up to the minute news to South Africans. By the time the bulletin airs, the markets are closed, press conferences are already done, sporting events only take place later in the evening, the only thing trending on social media in reall time is V Entertainment, parliament is usually out of session, and so are major court cases that might warrant air time. So there really are no up to the minute updates to provide in a 'direct' way.

It seems more likely that the reason the name was changed was so that it could drop the 'Prime Time' part, so that a few months later when the program is epected to move again, viewers are already familiar with an 'eNews Direct' brand, and not a 'eNews Prime Time' brand even though it is not in prime time.

Another suspicious activity is that when eNews Direct launched in January this year, Duduzile Ramela oddly gave up her 4pm-6pm Afternoon News slot on eNCA to anchor the bulletin, even though she has previously been able to manage anchoring both slots before (4pm-6pm on eNCA, 6:30pm on etv). If etv wants to move the prime time bulletin, its most likely slot would clash with that 4pm-6pm block, probably at 5:30pm.

A similar argument can be made for Gareth Edwards who now hosts a social media segment on eNews Direct, which airs at the same time as News Night on eNCA, a bulletin he traditionally anchored on Fridays.

When tv channels launch new concept programming, like swapping eNews Prime Time for eNews Direct, they usually allow quite a few months for the new show to catch on before deciding whether it is a success or failure. The fact that the channel is saying that the bulletin is losing them money without giving it much chance to gel with audiences makes it seem as if eNews Direct was destined to fail.