Is This A First?

Last Saturday evening was the annual Metro FM Music Awards, which was broadcast on SABC1 and MetroFM.

Though the event is likely to draw millions of viewers, it was Twitter that caught my attention during the event. Take a look below:

If you don't notice it, let me tell you: Not only was the MetroFM Awards the Number 1 trending topic on Twitter, it was number two, AND three, AND four, AND, well you get where I'm going, all the way to the top ten.

Yes, the MetroFM Music Awards occupied each and every position in the top trending topics in South Africa for the entire broadcast, and a few hours after as well.

Could this be the first time this has ever happened?

What makes the feat more impressive is that the broadcast itself did not have to constantly remind viewers about social media or have a constant hashtag on screen throughout the event to 'force' the event to trend the way other broadcasters do.

Just to clear some air...

I know this is not an entertainment news blog but I just wanted to clear something up that people seem to be taking as fact even thought it is clearly made up.

As we know, the "new"  Generations debuted last night to much fanfare and was caught in a Twitter frenzy with reviews.

Earlier today, Kaizer Kganyago, an SABC spokesperson reportedly told Sowetan LIVE that over 10 million viewrs tuned in for last night's premiere episode (which aired less than 24 hours before the statement was made), which would make it the most watched episode ever.

Whether the statement is false or whether the spoeksperson really said this is unkown, but here in South Africa, we do NOT have next day tv ratings as in the US and the earliest that any viewing figures will be known is next Monday, a full week after the episode aired.

Where the 10 million figure comes from is totally unknown/

Afrikaans News Saga: Why SABC3's Footprint is Really Something to be Concerned About

In future I would like to do a full analysis of how moving the Afrikaans news from SABC 2 to SABC 3 will affect it but for now I would just like to draw attention to one of the bigger issues at hand in the whole saga: the fact that SABC 3's footprint, the locations where South Africans can receive SABC 3 using a standard aerial, dwarfs that of SABC 2.

The media have used various ways of illustrating this including the overall fewer viewers that SABC 3 has compared to SABC 2 while Thinus went as far as actually providing a count of the amount of towers each channel has.

I am going to use one simple metric: The viewership of Isidingo.

Isidingo is by far the least watched SABC soap on television during primetime. This is no secret. What people rarely know is that when Isiddingo repeats on SABC 1 in the morning, when fewer people watch tv, the viewership of the repeat in the morning beats the viewership of the prime time airing often by sizeable margins.

During the final phase of the group stages of the World Cup, SABC 3 aired some World Cup games, pre empting its schedule, meaning that Isidingo aired on SABC 2 on those days.

Simply shifting the soap from the lesser watched SABC 3 to the more watched SABC 2 caused viewership of the soap to MORE THAN TRIPLE in comparison to viewership of the same soapie in the same week on SABC 3.

Isidingo Viewership (week of 23 to 29 June):
SABC 2 - 5,244,000
SABC 3 - 1,374,000

 This makes me think exactly how many viewers will be missing news in their language while SABC 2 wants to air cheap to produce gameshows in that slot.

SABC Upfronts: Big Changes Happening Across All SABC News programming on SABC1, 2 and 3

The SABC earlier today had its media upfront where they announced major changes coming to their three terrestrial channels, SABC1, SABC2 and SABC3 after the World Cup.
Due to this, many of their news programming will be shuffled around to allow for the changes to be made.

• SABC1's Nguni News, which traditionally aired at 7:30pm, will now air half an hour earlier at 7pm. As the most watched news bulletin in the country, this is more than likely to affect viewership at eNews Prime Time, the most watched English bulletin in the country, negatively. (The difference between the two is usally greater than 1 million viewers)
• SABC2's Afrikaans News bulletin, which temporarily shifted to SABC3 for the World Cup, will be staying on that channel after the World Cup. It is unclear whether the SABC's "flagship" English bulletin, which is currently an hour long, will be cut down to half an hour permanently to accommodate the changes or will it get moved to a different time. This is, however, an extremely smart move by the SABC as it allows Isidingo, the channel's struggling soapie to get a lead-in from an Afrikaans bulletin that usually averages about 800 000 viewers more than its previous English bulletin.
• Actuality show 50/50 also moves to SABC3 permanently.

Other interesting information to come to light at the upfronts include:

• The SABC promosing to invest over R1 billion in local content.
• They have finally confirmed that they definitely are launching another channel on DStv later this year, a general entertainment one.
• SABC News, their first channel launched with DStv last year has grown to become the second most watch news channel in the country, behind other local channel eNCA.

Your Ultimate 2014 FIFA World Cup Coverage Guide (SABC 1)

SABC 1 left it to the eleventh hour to to announce its world cup broadcast plans for the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil, announcing details on a very lighthearted edition of its Sport@10 chat show, hosted by Thomas Mlambo.

Below is a list of their announced magazine shows:

Good Morning Brazil
When: Every Day at 6am (1 hour)
Hosted from a purpose built set at the SABC's Auckland Park studios, this show will give the early risers a recap of the prior night's action as well as previewing that days action. The show, with the name of a Brazillian breakfast show even though it is hosted by South Africans, from South Africa, to South Africans, is obviously modeled around SABC1's 2010 World Cup show Good Morning Mzansi, which was hosted by the then Carol Manana (now Tshabalala) and comedian Trevor Noah.

It is to be hosted by the winner of SABC Sport's Presenter search, Xoli Zondo, self proclaimed football lover Lerato Kganyago (Presenter of entertainment and Lifestyle show The Link on SABC 1), along with Andile Ncube, who is apparently supposed to keep things football focused, even though his own background is in shows like Live Amp. When Lerato says she loves football very much, she means she loves many things about it: Neymar, Messi, Spain, Germany Argentina Brazil, along with having "faith" in Nigeria. Xoli stated in their interview with Mlambo that she will be waking up at 2am every day, and by every day she means 32 days straight as she is planning on being on the show each and every day. Thomas also stated he will wake up to hashtag along with them at #GoodmorningBrazil

Lets Talk Brazil
When: Every Evening When there is Now World Cup Action(1 Hour) 
This talk show co-hosted by Thomas Mlambo and Minnie Dlamini will be broadcast every day when there is no matches scheduled. The two say they will analyse the ins and outs of soccer, with Mini stating that this will be a “Real” talk show analysing what is going down, what is fact and what is not. The show is said to not at all be a lifestyle shows, like the others areThey also spoke about Minnie's now one year tenure of being part of SABC Sport and what it was like.
They emphasised that Minnie will be an 'equal' co host with Thomas sitting right beside him, and not in the smaller role she plays on Soccer Zone.

 Kasi to Favelas
When: off days as well
Hosted by Maps Moponyane and Pearl Modiade, this lifestyle show will get viewers behind the action: the culture, the food and the atmosphere of Brazil straight from the Favelas of Brazil to the townships of eKasi. It will showcase things like superfans, though it is meant more for casual viewers, as Pearl herself confirmed that she is not a great fan of soccer but will hopefully grow. Thomas then asked her to identify a player onscreen, Dzeko, and she cound not identify him, instead thinking it is Shinji Kagawa, a Japanese footballer. The next person in the little game was Kagawa but Pearl yet again got this wrong, so the guys helped her get it right, making it seem as if she was 'mixing up her research.' Lets blame this on the lack of foreign football leagues on the state broadcaster because having a host that herself confessed to not beeing a big fan of the show is really something.

Build-Up, Half time and Post Match
The SABC Sport Studio was slightly expanded for the world cup to include a seperate area with a couch and soft seating, though the expansion is rather disappointing.

The star or their coverage will be current, yet already axed, Bafana Bafana head coach Gordon Igesund, which is not bad but is a considerable downgrade from Pele last time around. They failed to reveal any other analysts as part of the special reveal episode of Sport@10.

Their main coverage will be anchored by Tshepo Mabona, Thomas Mlambo and Lebo Motsoeli, who was heavily hyped on the show this evening as being the first ever female anchor of a world cup in South African history, which I wanted to say was incorrect as Carol Tshabalala must have anchored before, but unfortunately she did not ever anchor a World Cup game, despite being billed as "South Africa's First Lady of Sport). Considering both these women are playing a relatively large role in their respective broadcasters' plans, SABC Sport and Supersport, respectively, it could actually turn out to a race to see exactly who gets the honour of being the first woman in South African history to anchor a World Cup Match.

Overall, though the SABC's coverage plans seem disappointing, considering the effort Supersport is putting i.

Side note: Sport@10 takes a hiatus for the full duration of the World Cup.

Coverage Updates

Coverage has slowly decreased as the time passed by.

eTV has gone back to their near regular schedule (with the exception of Friday's Rhythm City and Scandal airing in their standard timeslots, but on a Sunday). Andrew Barnes anchored eNews Prime Time.

SABC 1 went back to a near standard schedule. What is curious here is that from 17:30 to 19:30, they produced their own memorial coverage, anchored by Robert Marawa and Unathi, both presenters on other channels (SuperSport and Idols, respectively). Their coverage is less newsy than the continues SABC News feed on SABC 2.

SABC 3 has long gone back to their regular schedule.

Channels have returned to airing commercials, something that was suspended on Friday, though they retain their black logos.