eNCA announes new News Night anchors, tweaks schedule

New News Night anchors, Cathy Mohlahlana and Vuyo Mvoko

eNCA yesterday announced that Cathy Mohlahlana and Vuyo Mvoko will take over anchoring duties on News Night.

The two have been screen testing together since April during Cathy's long running midmorning slot.

On the opportunity, Mvoko said, "Cathy and I hope to rise to the challenge of telling the story as it unfolds."

Both have been tweeting and replying to congratulations messages from colleagues and the public since the announcement was made. It is perhaps their social media presence that will be their greatest asset going in to prime time. Both are perceived highly favourably online, with Cathy having over 45 thousand followers and Vuyo with 47 thousand followers on Twitter.

Mvoko is a former contributing editor at SABC News and actually hosted a prime time news show at the start of 2016. This show was pulled from the air after Mvoko did an entire show centered on the State of Capture report. He left the SABC not too long after as part of the #SABC8 and started freelancing with eNCA earlier this year.

Cathy is a long time eNCA reporter and anchor, occupying the midmorning slot since 2014. During the election that year, Cathy was one of the channel's main reporters from the IEC's elections result centre. The midmorning slot has been where most news breaks in South Africa and Cathy has anchored coverage solo during many major breaking news stories including the Oscar Pistorius trial, protests, and of course, as is now the norm, countless press conferences.

Overall, this is the perfect choice by the channel with both being highly regarded by the public, highly competent at anchoring and coming across with a wonderful screen presence.

Other changes to the channel include longrunning News Night anchor, Jeremy Maggs moving to News Day (1pm, eNCA) solo, with the current news Day team, Shahan Ramkissoon and Michelle Craig moving to Cathy's old 9am to 1pm slot.

Everything else remains unchanged.

Joanne Joseph Returns to eNCA's Afternoon News

Veteran South African anchor, Joanne Joseph, today moved back to her former 4pm slot on eNCA.

This comes hot on the heels of Afternoon news' anchor, Duduzile Ramile, prermanently moving to anchoring eTV's eNews Direct.

Since the launch of eNews Direct on January 18th, a rotating cast of anchors have been filling in for Dudu, including the likes of Florence Lotoaba. That rotation now wends as Joane returns to the first slot she occupied when she moved from the SABC to eNCA.

This also means Cathy Mohlahlana will be solo anchoring the Mid-Morning News block, where Joanne used to anchor alongside her, until a replacement is named. This is also eNCA's biggest news block as the anchor in that block sits for a grueling four hour block from 9am.

This is a sort of pace change for Joanne, as she now goes from mainly anchoring live events like protests and major court cases (like Oscar Pistorius') to a more reflective news programme with interviews about the days biggest stories.

ALL News Channels Cover the DA's Federal Congress

As one would expect, each of South Africa's24 hour news channels covered the election of Mmusi Maimane as the new leader of official opposition, the Democratic Alliance.

eNCA's coverage was anchored by Cathy Mohlahlana in Johannesburg, who was joined in studio by eNCA Commentator, Angelo Fick, who has been providing analysis all weekend long already. Joanne Josephs anchored things from Port Elizabeth. After Maimane's inaugurate address, eNCA was the first to interview him immediately after.

ANN7's coverage of the event was anchored by Vuka Afrka anchor, Peter van Onselen in their studio. Reporter, Ken Brandt was on the ground for the channel.
 
While eNCA had the first interview with the newly elected Mmusi Maimane, SABC News Channel (which was simulcast on SABC2) had the first interview with out going DA leader, Helen Zille. Though the interview had what one would expect about the transition of power in the DA, the crux of the interview came down to Allistair Sparks' controversial comment when he mentioned Apartheid architect, Hendrik Verwoed as one of the 'smartest politicians' he knew. One comment from Zille that stood out in this damage control interview was "Evil people are not necessarily stupid people" and that was, as she termed it, 'scary.' The interview was conducted by the SABC's anchor for the day, contributing editor, Vuyo Mvoko, who was also in Port Elizabeth

Pat Pillai Resigns From eNews Prime Time

Pat Pillai, the longtime anchor of eNews Prime Time, has announced in a statement released this morning that he will be leaving the organization.

This comes as eTV prepares for its biggest ever prime time shakeup that would see the English bulletin pushed back to 8:30pm.

Other than anchoring the Tuesday and Thursday editions of eNews Prime Time, Pat also hosted the chat show, Inside Out with Pat Pillai, which aired on the then eNews Channel during the channels early years.

No replacement has been named yet, but Cathy Mohlahlana continues to anchor the Monday and Wednesday editions of the bulletin.

The timing of the departure cpuld not have been worse: viewers will now not only have to adjust to a major time change, but will also have to get used to a new on screen product as well, which could alienate viewers that are used to things being a certain way. With a time change alone, you would try your best to keepbsome sort of consistency going.

Pat Pillai anchors his final bulletin on Thursday, February 26th, about a decade since first joining.

ANALYSIS: Can eNews Prime Time survive at 20:30?

Earlier this week, eTV announced major changes to their prime time schedule, which included moving its main news bulletin, eNews Prime Time, from 7pm, where it had been for over 15 years, to 8:30pm.

But can this timeslot move for the bulletin do more harm than good?

The 7pm bulletin, which has been in its slot for 15 years, has become a sort of daily appointment for its loyal viewers: viewers plan all their television viewing around having the news at 7pm, with more dramatic programming following as the night progresses

This is why programmes on channels like M-Net start at the bottom of the hour and not the top (so that viewers don't miss the 7pm hour of programming because they missed the first half hour).

This is why the SABC moved their English news bulletin from the late 8pm hour up to 7pm (and subsequently 6:30pm), and last year their Zulu bulletin to 7pm as well.

News at 7pm just works because currently not one of more than 100 tv channels available in this country broadcasts their tentpole shows at that timeslot.

A move to 8:30pm means that not only does eNews Prime Time have to compete with a greater amount of big name television shows, but also with viewers' own evening routines (putting kids to bed, etc).

But by far the greatest challenge that the 8:30pm eNews Prime Time will have to face is not about programming outside of news, but news itself:

Will viewers wait until that late timeslot for their daily fix of news?

Not only does eNews Prime Time face the challenges that all tv news broadcasters face, like online news sources, but it is shooting itself in the foot by being the absolute last news bulletin of the day.

It is higly unlikely that viewers are going to wait until that time to catch thw day's headlines, when they can get it from other channels. Afterall, we watch the news for the news and not the news reader (or do we?).

Just under 20% of viewers that watch eNews Prime Time are doing so from a DStv decoder. This means that just over 300 000 viewers have access to SABC News Channel's Prime Time News with Vabakshnee Chety and Peter Ndoro and also ANN7's Prime with Juliet Newell and Peter Stemmet (both former eNews personalities). If these viewers subscribe to at least DStv Compact, they have acces to eTV's sister channel, eNCA, which has News Night with Jeremy Maggs and Iman Rappetti as well, meaning they can get the exact same stories (along with the exact same news anchor links) at any time they want before 8:30pm.

Very few South Africans speak only English, meaning that if they want news before 8:30pm, they are spoilt for choice (if they do not have pay tv), language wise, from the SABC before eNews Prime Time airs at 8:30pm. If viewers want to retain their schedule with news at 7pm, the SABC offers an Afrikaans and an isiZulu bulletin in that slot (with English at 6:30pm).

If they do not like the SABC and really like eNews, they can get the Sotho bulletin at 5:30pm, the new Zulu bulletin at 6:30pm and the Afrikaans bulletin on Kyknet at 7pm.

Either way, viewers will know the news before the main English bulletin
There will also be those viewers that opt to just no longer watch television news at night. They get their headlines during a morning or lunchtime broadcast, the radio is good enough or they okay with reading newspapers or online sources.

And there will be those that somehow find it in their schedule to watch news at 8:30pm as well.

At this point, the fate of the 10pm eNews Late Edition is unknown. But if it does remain, it would mean that there would only be a one hour break between English news bulletins on eTV, and not much new news breaks in the space of an hour, so it will basically be a repeat an hour later.

Viewers are also creatures of habit, they expect things to remain the same. On the weekends the English eNews Prime Time stays at 7pm, which is bound to lead to confusion among more casual viewers.

However you look at it, it seems that come March 2nd when the new timeslot comes into effect, eNews Prime Time is going to experience a dip in viewership, the size of which is unknown at present.

(also spare a thought for poor Cathy Mohlahlana who anchors the bulletin on Tuesdays and Thursday nights. She is on air from 9am already on eNCA, and will be on air at 9pm at night when eNews Prime Time will now conclude, a whopping 12 hour workday. Okay, maybe there is a big break in between but your day is still messed)

All News Channels Carry Jacob Zuma Announcing His New Cabinet

As expected, ANN7, eNCA and SABC News all carried Jacob Zuma announcing his new cabinet live from Pretoria. For many of the reporters and anchors, there was no such thing as a weekend as many of them worked both the inauguration and tonight's coverage.

I must say I am not liking Jacob Zuma developing the disgusting habit of US President Barack Obama in his inablity to start a press conference/media event on time, expecting the whole country to patiently wait until he is ready to speak. All news channels informed viewers at 6:30 pm, the scheduled start time, that things were running late (something viewers could see for themselves), but could offer no further details. Nonetheless, things started a few minutes after that.

On eNCA, Cathy Mohlahlana anchored coverage from their Hyde Park Studio along with Nickolaus Bauer live on the scene. They carried absolutely no ad breaks for the duration of their build up while Cathy hosted an in studio panel from about 6pm.

SABC News carried the event live as well, but, ironically, the state-run news channel provided the poorest coverage of the event, with Peter Ndoro promptly starting the scheduled 7pm Prime Time Bulletin that is simulcast on SABC 3. The excellent Vuyo Mvoko did do a live report from the location, but was cut short due to time constraints.

On ANN7, Between the Lines Anchor Asanda Magaqa anchored along with Senior Political correspondent Hajra Omarjee. For Asanda it has been a particularly long day, having anchored her show live this morning at 9am, and then doing the coverage this evening. Hajra did a full, in depth analysis of the new show on her Prime Time show, Political Edge with a full panel, including a call-in from DA Spokesperson Mmusi Maimane and Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula.

Black Finance Minister 
One of the bigger newsbits coming out from the new cabinet is the new Finance Minister, Nhlanhla Nene, the first black Finance Minister in South Africa. This was mentioned on both ANN7 and eNCA. On ANN7, it was brought up as a first black Finance Minister, but within a few minutes Hajra Omarjee "corrected" the discussion, stating that Trevor Manuel was the first "black" Finance Minister (in a side note, Indian Pravin Gordon also qualifies as "black" in South Africa's racial classification, so this should have been a none issue). eNCA just mentioned Nene as the first Black "African" Finance Minister, avoiding any mistatements (though this can be contested as a coloured Trevor Manuel, it could be argued, is as African as Nene).

eNCA Inaugaration Plans

As Jacob Zuma prepares to be inaugurated as president for his second term, eNCA is preparing to bring viewers unrivalled coverage of the event.

Their coverage starts with live crossings from the start of the broadcast day, at 6am with coverage continuing in full earnest until 1pm, along with updates thereafter.

Anchors Gareth Edwards and Cathy Mohlahlana and Gareth Edwards will be stationed at the south lawns to give viewers a feel of exactly what approximately 20 000 ordinary South Africans would be experiencing. Senior Anchor Iman Rappetti will be stationed at the recently renamed Nelson Mandela Amphitheater, where all the action takes place.

As has become the tradition recently, the event will be live streamed in its entirety at enca.com