Is South Africa Becoming Obsessed with Broadcast Trials?

On March 3rd, South Africa, and the rest of the world, tuned in to the trial of Oscar Pistorius, a trial that made history by becoming the first ever South African trial to be broadcast in its entirety on television. As time progressed, the trial got prolonged for various reasons. But, instead of all the hype for the trial fuzzing out, it seemed to just increase as South Africans became increasingly obsessed by the trial.

In the courtroom itself, 40 seats are reserved for local media, 40 for foreign media, an overflow room for others and many more crowding outside.

The proceedings of the trial are covered on so many channels, they are spoilt for choice. There is the three news channels, eNCA, SABC News and ANN7, all of which carry the proceedings live and also all of which have their own daily wrap shows. The international channels carry proceedings live as well including CNN, Sky News (which has a nightly highlights show on trial days) and BBC World News are just as obssessed with the trial. Openview HD, South Africa's first commercial free-to-air satellite platform started Trial TV: The State vs Oscar Pistorius, a special channel dedicated to the trial that was to run daily until 6pm. Problem was, demand for the trial was so high and, after a large amount of requests, the platform extended its broadcast hours to well into the evening to allow viewers who cannot see the trial during the day the opportunity to catch  up at night. 

However, the most successful channel, by far, must be The Oscar Pistorius Trial, a Carte Blanche Channel on Multichoice's DStv platform. Though the channel was expected to be a success, the degree of success it has achieved has far exceeded expectations, drawing more than 190 000 viewers during live court times during the middle of the day, easily ranking as the most watched channel among DStv's over 100 channels on the platform.

This all excludes the success seen by various websites that broadcast the trial live, many of which see traffic numbers peak when court is in session.

But now it seems as if South Africans are finally realising that this trial wont last forever and are already looking at what trials could consume their attention in the future.

The first such one is the trial of Shrien Dewani, due to start later this year. The team behind the Oscar Pistorius channel on DStv have already polled viewers to gauge interest on whether they would watch that trial as well, a staggeringly large amount said yes.

But, as it seems as if  South Africa might be in for a change in their tv diet to include some court tv, the first channel to get ahead of the curve is surprisingly the SABC's SABC News, which now runs a daily half hour recap show at 9pm on the trial of Radovan Krejcir, hosted by Dumile Mateza. What makes this move more smart is placing this show in exactly the same slot occupied by the Oscar Pistorius trial when it is on, daily at 9pm, developing a sort of culture in which at 9pm viewers are to make appointment viewing for the broadcast proceedings of a trial, no matter who the trial may be about, but they know that at that time, there will be trial tv to watch.

The next few months will be interesting to see exactly where the broadcasters go with broadcasting  trials when the Oscar Pistorius trial finally ends.

Oscar Pistorius: Media Review, Week 1 (Introduction)

Multiple tv channels created just for it. Specialists in the field being brought in at top dollar just to cover it. New state of the art broadcast studios, graphics and cameras. Rolling coverage on tv and online. Special reports.The world's eyes on South Africa.

Reeva Steenkamp during the 2010 Soccer World Cup

If you were in a coma for slightly more than a year, you would be thinking I am talking about the 2010 Soccer World Cup. But I am not. The tv channels are dedicated to a court case, not a sport. The specialists are lawyers and not retired sports legends. The state  of the art studio is not for Supersport. The media is not here for sport. They here for a court case. The court case of Oscar Pistorius, once a hero to countless people and the mood is not exactly festive either.

(C) SAPA

Here is a summary and review of the first weeks court proceedings, as covered in the media.

I always wondered why exactly the media was so excited about covering the trial. And then I realised the real answer: They were excited about covering each other. Monday night I struggled to find courtroom coverage on tv, yet the Oscar trial was on ALL news channels. What was on? Media, covering media. The Carte Blanche channel dedicated to covering the trial was in the midst of a 1 hour program covering how the media was  covering the event. Switch to eNCA: An insert by the head of news (Ben Said) on the media. The insert spoke of the journalists, the cameras, the helicopters, even the drone camera (which was from Carte Blanche, the first time a drone has been used in South African coverage) but no coverage. I switch to the dedicated 10pm slot on SABC News and what do I find? Lo and behold, coverage on the news (I was impressed, however, that they acknowledged that 'three' local news channels covered it. Usually they tend to not even acknowledge the existence of competition).

However, soon things regulated and focus shifted back to the trial.

ANALYSIS: ALL ABOUT THE OSCAR PISTORIUS TRIAL CHANNEL

This comes from the channel DStv is planning on launching to cover the Oscar trial. As always, analysis follows the press release:
26 FEBRUARY 2014

On 3 March the world’s media will descend on Pretoria to cover the murder trial of Oscar Pistorius. However, only one media platform will provide 24-hour coverage of the trial’s progress, with in-depth analysis and informed commentary from key personalities.

The Oscar Pistorius Trial - A Carte Blanche Channel on DStv Channel 199, will feature interviews with a large variety of expert guests from around the world throughout the course of the daytime and evening programming. These guests will offer insight and commentary on what happened in court. Experts will include senior legal minds, psychologists, forensic experts, social commentators, brand gurus, social media analysts, news and media heavyweights.

“The channel has secured exclusive access to acclaimed international experts, who will feature as regular guests. These include criminal defence attorney, Robert Shapiro, famous for his defence of OJ Simpson, American forensic experts and police consultants to hit TV shows likeDexter, who provide fascinating insights,” said George Mazarakis, Executive Editor of the channel.

The editorial team responsible for the channel’s conception and content are the very same journalists who have brought the world 25 years of credible, award-winning investigative reporting on news magazine show, Carte Blanche. The presenters are veteran news journalists Derek Watts, John Webb, Bongani Bingwa and Devi Sankaree Govender, top social media lawyer Emma Sadleir, experienced radio talk show host Leigh Bennie, heavyweight legal journalist and radio talk show host, David O’Sullivan and ex BBC presenter, Subniv Babuta.

In a landmark judgment today, Gauteng Judge President Dunstan Mlambo found in favour of MultiChoice’s application to broadcast audio of the full trial and to televise parts of the trial, including opening arguments, state expert witnesses’ testimony, police officers, any other state witnesses (unless they object), closing arguments, judgement and sentencing. “We are thrilled that the SA judiciary has matured to this ground breaking decision. It is a seminal moment and will make South African television and legal history as visual access of this nature has never before been granted in a South African court,” said Mazarakis.

The channel will be hosted from a studio in Johannesburg, with regular live crossings to a team of top journalists who will be based at the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria. This team, led by field anchor John Webb, will provide live commentary via on-camera crossings and social media as events unfold in court.

Top local and international journalists will also join in-studio and field anchors to offer insight and analysis. This partnership between news channels and platforms is also a first of its kind.

The Oscar Pistorius Trial - A Carte Blanche Channel will feature daily analysis on the global audience’s reaction to the case on social media, with a live Twitter feed displayed on screen and engaging public polls run on social media.

The channel will also have daytime and night time programming, which will run from 7:00 to 22:00 daily, with content repeated from 22:00 until 7:00 the following morning when the channel goes live again from the North Gauteng High Court and the channel’s Johannesburg studio.

Pistorius’ criminal trial is scheduled to run in the North Gauteng High Court from 3 March to 20 March.
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ANALYSIS:
-DStv is really going all out with the trial. They are really investing what I am sure is millions into this trial, in the form of talent, on screen and off, which comprises of Carte Blanche personalities, Eye Witness News reporters (which I am sure did not come a t a cheap cost) and international 'starts' that are being brought in to cover the trial of a century. Howver, one has to wonder on the type of return they plan on seeing. As they say in business, there is no such thing as a free lunch. So, with this in mind, one has to wonder what DStv expects in return for their investment. I mean, yes, many people are likely to tune in to the channel, which could be a good source of ad revenue. But DStv is not in the business of Ad revenue. They need sunbscribers and though this may generate a lot of interest, I do not see any potential subscribers signing up to DStv to see the trial or the channel. I cannot even imagine many people on smaller packages upgrading to at least the Compact bouquet so that they can gain access to the channel.

- The partnership between Eye Witness News and Carte Blanche is equally as promising as it is interesting. Promising as in the fact that this can lead to many more great projects coming out of this partnership in the future (should it succeed). Before the launch of ANN7 and SABC News, I always thought the first competitors eNCA would have would be either a channel from Carte Blanche or EWN.
Interesting in exactly what each party gets out of the deal. Before this announcement, I wondered as to how Carte Blanche planned on running a full channel based on only the staff of a one hour show. Now we know that they will have EWN reporters as well to fill the schedule. But what does EWN get out of the deal? Free advertising? Carte Blanche talent, who are rather quite popular, going on radio? This talent sharing deal could actually in the end be bad if talents are forced to pull double duty for both radio on EWN and tv for this channel.

-Does the country come to a stand still for this trial? What I mean with this is is there really not going to be any other news for Carte Blanche, who usually does a multi-story show, to cover during the trial as it seems the award winning weekly show will be exclusively focus on the trial for the next few weeks and not other issues in the country like, say, the elections.

-The studio being built for this channel is rather nice I might say. (See below)