Election day broadcast plans: ANN7

ANN7, along with the other domestic news channels, will be going with wall-to-wall election coverage.

On election day (August 3rd), the channel's entire broadcast day will be branded as 'SA Decides,' which is the name of the channel's running election programme.

As has been the focus of SA Decides, the channel's focus will continue to be on on the ground reporting, with the nine regioinal SA Decides teams all being deployed to each province's respective Regional Results Center.

In addition, the channel's main anchoring will be broadcast from their usual studio in Midrand as well as the main results center in Pretoria. Because South Africa still takes a while to count votes, the channel will continue coverage from this center for the rest of the week as well.

The channel will also be live overnight on Wednesday. The usual anchors will anchor extended hours with Sindy Mabe doing her first ever prime time election night coverage.

ANN7 is available on all DStv bouquets on channel 405, streamed live at ann7com

SA Decides is back on ANN7's schedule

Now that all the major political parties have held their election manifestos, ANN7 will be kicking its political news coverage into overdrive (as if it has not been there already).

Today (May 2nd) political news show, SA Decides is back on the channel's schedule daily at both 10am and 5pm.

The political news show premiered back in the 2014 election cycle, and featured nine teams crisscrossing the country's provinces to get an on the ground feel of the South African electorate. One thing that wont be back when the show returns is the anchor of the first season, Nzinga Qunta, who has since left the channel.

This time around, the channel is deploying eleven teams of 'media professionals' (55 individuals in total) across the country to cover the local elections. Most of these individuals will be young and aspiring journalists looking for an opportunity to get their foot in the door.

“The teams will travel the length and breadth of the country to reflect on ordinary people’s challenges and enable community engagements in order to provide a platform for ordinary people to tell stories about their own developments, hopes and aspirations,” the Channel’s News Editor Abhinav Sahay said.

In addition, the channel promises interviews with political heavyweights daily and in depth analysis on the issues shaping this election.

ANN7's SA Decides set to return later this year

SA Decides, ANN7's daily election programme that aired during the last election cycle, is set to return later this year.

As with the last 'season' of the show (the channel refers to its shows as seasons, as if it is episodic fare) the show aims to deploy a team to each of the nine provinces in the country getting the on the ground sentiment from ordinary South Africans.

Therefore, anyone wishing to be a part of these teams and want to get both experience and exposure on a platform as such should contact the channel.

The show will also continue to get the opinion  of various political commentators and party representatives in the lead up to the local elections taking place this year.

Like the elections, no set date has been given for the return of the show but one thing we do know is that its former anchor, Nzinga Qunta obviously wont be back considering that she has left the channel, and it is unlikely to air in its former timeslot as GameOn! airs in part of that block.

Election Coverage Review: ANN7

The youngest news channel in the country, ANN7, has really gained popularity for what has been very in depth election coverage. One could argue hat building up to the elections, they had more coverage than both eNCA and SABC News.

The channel, who has mainly previously unknown on air talent (along with quite a few people that jumped ship from the likes of eNCA), has really put on excellent coverage from the crack of dawn, when usual breakfast anchor Peter van Onselen carried the hours 6am to 10am after doing prime time anchoring just the night before. Their coverage consisted of a decent mix of broadcasting from their studios in Midrand and the IEC Election Centre. They also mainly used the graphics package associated with one of their main election programs, SA Decides



From 10-12pm, the host of their daily elections program, SA Decides, took over from him in the studio. I really liked that they had her play a pivotal role throughout their coverage. They really shouldn't drop the ball on this.

I was however disappointed in the role played by editor in chief Moegsien Williams' role in the coverage. He was just a panelist during the 12-2pm slot. Gladys Sithole, the channel's weekend prime time anchor was up next, anchoring from 2pm-4pm
Senior Anchor Chantal Rutter Dros anchored from the IEC Election Centre from 6pm to 9pm where she had an exceptional panel with her, along with senior political Hajra Omarjeee anchored from their studio. Hajra had a particularly busy day: part anchor, part analyst and part reporter. She really has been one of the bigger stars of this election.

Amazing pic from Hajra Omarjee's Twitter

At 9pm when the votes closed, they brought the too large and distracting election graphics that have been used for Election Tracker back, for the first hour or so just flashing zeros.

Desmond Tutu voting live. While he had usually been covered as a prominent politician would when they voted, this time around only ANN7 covered him voting live.

Overall, I must say that their panelists that they had on during the day weren't all that bright, though some were quite good and they had too few of them on to the point that they had been on air for quite a few hours and after a while one can notice that they have screen fatigue. But they more than made up for this on their live shots and inserts(even though some were done using internet connections, which I am not too fond of), including showing all of the bigger politicans voting live. They were also the only channel to show Desmond Tutu voting live as the others were showing a largely uneventful news briefing from the IEC Centre. They had exceptional shots of the voting lines from their chopper and reallyu gave you a on the ground feel of the elections. At the end of the night, they had a sort of highlights package of the days events that was well produced considering the amount of content that had to be editied in that short period of time. It is really hard to think that the same channel that was so horrendous just a few months ago could produce election coverage of the calibre that they did.

They were also able to get guests of quite a high caliber on the channel, including Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe and even Police Commisioner Riah Phiyega to give an update of if there had been any incidents thus far. Her interview was quite a while.

Watching their coverage of the build up to and post elections has really made me question whether Ann7 might just be the place to go for politics in the South African media. They have gained great momentum during the elections coverage, it is now up to them to build on it. Them building on it is going to be a news junkies dream to follow.

Desmond Tutu Votes

ANN7 was the only news channel that showed Desmond Tutu voting LIVE.

SABC News and eNCA instead opted to broadcast a press conference at the IEC Central Operations Centre. eNCA used SABC News' feed for the presser because at the end they accidentally broadcast the SABC panelists.

In prior elections, Demond Tutu's vote used to be covered with the same level of coverage given to the president.

ANN7 Election Plans

South Africa's newest news channel has released their election coverage plans ahead of tomorrow, May 7th, election day.

Their coverage will originate mainly from the IEC's National Results Operations Centre, though their studio back in Midrand wil also be used.

Like the rest of the news channels, they will be providing none stop rolling coverage from 6am to 11pm.

Their 9 teams around the country that has been featured in their special SA Decides program will provide updates throughout the day and the rest of the week as results start trickling in. They also have reporters stationed at ALL provincial IEC nerve centres.

Their coverage will be led by chief editor (and co host of Election Tracker) Moegsien Williams, along with senior anchor of ANN7 Prime (along with Election Tracker) Chantal Rutter Dros, senior political analyst (Host of Political Edge and gem of their election coverage) Hajra Omarjee and senior political editor Ricky Naidoo. Expect the likes of Vuka Africa host Peter van Onselen to be featured prominantly.

Special Election Programming as eNCA, SABC and ANN7 Ramps Up Coverage with May 7th Election Date Nears

As the May 7th Election draws nearer, South Africa's three news channels are all running special coverage building up to the event.

(c) eNCA

eNCA, the most watched news channel in the country, has a special series of election debates running Wednesday evenings, the last of which was solely on the province of Gauteng, the first of which included the likes of Helen Zille.

 They also running special election coverage in their standard news bulletins,  along with an increasing amount of interviews with analysts approaching the elections from different perspectives, tending to focus on mining.
They also have short inserts where political heavyweights answer questions set by the youth in a set time frame.

The other news channels seem to be going all out as well.

You could argue that the channel with the most election coverage thus far is ANN7.

Here, Moegsien Williams, Editor in Chief of ANN7 is seen along with the team of their daily two hour show, SA Decides. Coutesy: ann7.com

They have dedicated hours upon hours of their schedule to the elections and, when one looks at the substance of their coverage, you could argue that they have invested a great deal of resources into this election, I would argue more than any channel.
They have their daily election program, SA Decides from 5pm to 7pm where they catch up with fifty journalists spread around the country covering the elections solely.

Courtesy: ann7.com

In addition to this, they conducted a never before seen in South African history poll on election trends. Every Thursday at 8pm they catch up with the latest trends in their Election Tracker program, that is repeated several times over the weekend, along with new editions being broadcast on Saturday and Sunday. The Thursday edition is anchored by chief anchor Chantel Rutter Dros, along with editor in chief, Moegsien Williams and a really exceptional panel, seen above.
 One of the stars of their election coverage, if not the biggest, has to be Hajra Omarjee. She anchors the weekly show Political Edge on Sundays at 8pm. It was initally a half an hour show, but since it tends to always run over time (one week over an hour overtime) it has since been extended to an hour. She has really developed in her abilities to act as a moderator of debate, often calling guests out on their claims and sticking to an issue until it is answered to a satisfactory level.
There have also been special editions of that show aired throughout the week.

The SABC has also had special election coverage on their SABC News channel.
They have the Democracy20 program that airs right in the middle of their flagship 6pm newscast from 6:30pm to 7pm (simulcast on free-to-air channel SABC3) that looks at how the country has developed since 1994.
They have an Election Round Up program daily at 10 pm that looks at the days to election news (this program replaces reruns of news bulletins that ran earlier in the evening on other SABC channels).

They have also had election debates that airs at 6pm on Sunday (simulcast on SABC1 during the slot held by well done news show Sunday World).

With so many options you spoilt for choice when it comes to election programming and deciding wh to vote for. I must say I am impressed by the heavyweights that have came out to appear on these programs, often multiple times and on channels that do not have high viewerships.

ANN7 Goes All Out with Election coverage

It is shaping up to be a David vs Goliath battle this election season: The couragous David, ANN7, taking on a somewhat arrogant Goliath, eNCA (arrogant in the way how chief Patrick Conroy constantly ridicules ANN7's tiny viewership figures on Twitter, showing a great degree of unprofessionalism).

What ANN7 lacks in overall production values is more than made up in how they covering the elections (and their presentation overall).

Their main political show, Political Edge with Hajra Omarjee has been extended to a full hour on Sundays (8pm).

 

Another addition to their schedule is a daily two hour show called SA Decides at 5pm, where a total of 45 "media professionals" (I am using the term in quotation marks as that is the term referred to by the channel and I am unable to verify its validity at this point) has spread out to all nine provinces (5 per province) to get a feel of what the mood in the country is like ahead of the elections and ensuring that people have their voices heard. I really admire their efforts, but thi production comes across very much as a travelshow/educational-show-on-SABC/community tv show type of a program and not a professional news production. Maybe it is because the 'journalists' are not formally attired or just the overall presentation, but for now I am going to see how things go

 

"It's my first time doing this. For me it's gonna give me the exposure that I need." Statements like this by the journalist above is sure to raise skepticism on the show.

This past week, they ran special programs in prime time from 8pm to 10pm, Election Tracker, co-anchored by prime time anchor Chantal Rutter Dros and Editor-in-Chief, Moegsien Williams. I hadn't heard of Mr Williams before this week as I had not seen him on the telly before, so a quick Google search revealed that he has quite a journalistic pedigree behind his name having previously been editor at Independent Newspapers. The special were about a first-of-its kind in South Africa poll on election projections and were quite well done. 

“SA Decides” Election Tracker. Picture: TNA

I really have to give it to these guys with the guests that they had on these shows (and on ANN7 Prime in general) as all larger political parties were represented, and some smaller ones as well took part in this debate. I really found it nice that they openly debated the lack of tv time the smaller parties are receiving on SABC News, as usually eNCA and SABC themselves often do not often even acknowledge the existance of their competition (at least on air). They had so much guests, that they could not fit everyone onto the main set and had to instead cross over to people that were in the same newsroom as themselves. 

I also enjoy how journalists and anchors now walk through the newsroom during presentations, talking to statisticians, , adding a very lively dimension and a feeling of immediacy to their presentations.