SONA2015: My Last post

This will be my last post around the 2015 SONA Address. Here you will find pictures of every channel that carried the President's address live, with the exception of etv, which I did not get to.

All in all, the 2015 SONA Address was broadcast over 7 channels:
2 were free to air: SABC 2, eTV
5 were pay tv: of which one was a continental broadcaster (CNBC Africa) and the other four local news channels (eNCA, The SABC News Channel, ANN7 and The Parliamentary Service)

All five pay tv channels also streamed the event online for free:
eNCA, SABC News and the Parliamentary Service through Youtube
ANN7 and CNBC Africa through their own websites

Business Day TV was the only local news channel to not cover the event.

(Again, apologies for the poor quality as I am still having to use my cellphone to blog as MTN are dragging their feet to repair my computer. One month now)

SONA2015: SABC News and their Vanilla Reporting

By far the most disappointing coverage of the SONA Address, the SABC really did nothing to distance themselves from their reputation as the 'mouthpiece of the ANC.'

They were the last channel to go an air with rolling coverage of the event at 5:30pm with anchors Ayanda-Allie Paine and Vuyo Mvoko, and were the first to stop covering the event not too long after President Zuma stopped talking (probablyvso that Ayanda could get enough sleep to throw softball questions at the president at the next morning's The New Age Breakfast Briefing).

The channel did not have any independent or other form of analyst in studio, with the two anchors providing a very lightweight preview of the adddress and just letting viewers enjoyvthe view of what they are seeing.

This would have been okay during any other year, but for the broadcast to nearly flat out ignore the elephant in the room in the preview was rather pathetic.

What makes things worse is that they completely ignored the arrival at the EFF at parliament or the chaos around the blocking of the signal, which included the protest that took place in Parliament.

If you are one of the millions of viewers that make the SABC the most watch channel during events like this, you.would have had no idea of what was really going on.

I have nothing further to say.

SONA2015: eNCA Shines

By far the channel with the best coverage of the 2015 Sate of the Nation Address, eNCA showed viewers what they are really capable of.

The coverage was anchored.from 4pm by Oman Rappetti and Ben Said, who were at the Parliamentary precinct. They were joined in their makeshift studio by a different political analyst every hour, as opposed to having a whole panel sittimg there for a full hour (even though the analysts were great, eNCA viewers missed the usual duo of Justice Malala and Angelo Fick).

The 6pm analyst, Judith February, stayed with them through the rest of the evening as well and provided great analysis to whatever was happening in parliament and, when needs be, did the anchor's job of providing a 'play-by-play' commentary as well.

eNCA, whose coverage was broadcast on free-to-air broadcaster etv as well, provided comprehensive coverage of what happened outside of parliament as well, be it the moment the EFF was thrown out of parliament and the DA left. However, trying to juggle way too many things did kind of bite them in the butt when they opted to cover remarks from the DA on why they left while President Zuma was speaking already. In a perfect world and in a situation like this, a news channel would realise that they are not the only channel airring the same thing and in this situation they could've covered what was going on outside more because President Zuma's speech was being seen on five other channels as well, none of which had the rrsources eNCA had to cover what was goingvon outside, or as in the case of the SABC, flat out ignoring it.

Way too much Sample Group
The evening before SONA, eNCA announced that they would do a first of its kind in South Africa experiment by having a sample group of thirty urban middle class Gauteng residents, a way too specific and unrepresentitive demographic, provide minute by minute feed back on the address.

The group were hosted in the eNCA studio used by Maggs on Media and the Afrikaans eNuus bulletin (which relocated to the eNews Prime Time studio for the evening, see picture below), the only studio equipped to have an audience (the last time I remember them having an audience there was back when they hosted a debate between political parties during the 2011 Election season).

The segments were hosted by News Night anchor, Jeremy Maggs (for some reason this guy never goes to Cape Town for the SONA or the budget speech) and he was joined by Social Media Editor Gareth Edwards who acted as a sort of roaming reporter in the crowd. It would have been better if they had Siki Mgabadeli doing these segments as she is the host of a similarbstyle show, The Big Debate.

However, it soon became apparent that the channel would focus way too much on this focus group, dedicating way too much time to it and doing way too many inserts on it.
Guess where eNCA was the once President Zuma stopped speaking? No, not outside Parliament where the other news channels were where there were so many great potential guests, but in Johannesburg speaking to a group of people taken off the street.

Yes, doing thatvkind of thing can have value, but eNCA should have followed CNN's footsteps whereby they only cross to the group at the end of the evening when all the events are said and done and there is not any other more news worthy things happening.

No More PowerFM
This was the first time in a while that eNCA did a special broadcast from parliament without the guys from Power FM, which is something that was not missed at all, with thebexception of Ursula Tshikana's red carpet expertise.

SONA2015: ANN7 Focusses On Analysis

ANN7 covered the State of the Nation Addres with three reporters in Cape Town and everyone else in the comfort of the studio in Midrand.

The reporters in Cape Town were Cape Town-based Kevin Brandt, along with Avumile Qunu and Clement Manyathela.
Though they had fewer reporters than the other channels on the ground, viewers would not have noticed.

Their coverage was anchored by Nzinga Qunta, who took over at 6pm. She was joined by analysts Themba Dlamini, Dr Wally Serote and also economist Francois Stoffberg.

They had more live visuals than any other channel, actually showing the anchor and studio guests very rarely, with them.playing a mainly commentary role. 

They also covered the arrival of the EFF and all controversies in the parliament, something only they and eNCA aired.

Their constant use of on screen graphics and split screens finally had value as they showed what was happening in twobplaces at the same time, like the chaos in parliament and the president arriving concurrently.

ANN7 was the last channel to stop rolling coverage of the event at 10pm, with a special Night Cap hosted by Gladys Sithole following immediately after.

SONA2015: The Parliament Cries 'Bring Back the Signal' As the President Arrives

At about 6:45pm on the evening of the State of the Nation Address, news channels had two major developments to cover at the same time: thevarrival of the President, and all the bell and whistles asspciated with that, and a major 'Bring Back the Signal' chant from within parliament.

Both ANN7 and eNCA covered the developments from inside the chamber, with ANN7 doing what they do best, using split screens to show both events happening at the same time while the audio was solely from inside parliament. This was a very powerful visual when one contrasts the calmness amd pomp and circumstance from outside parliament with the chaos from within, which was very reminiscent of what American cable news channels did last year when they decided to run a split screen of President Obama calling for calm in Fergueson on the one side with the chaos of Fergueson on the other.

eNCA had the visuals from within parliament with an occasional cut in of the President's arrival, though also staying soleley with the audio from insode parliament.  All the while, they had their graph of their focus group on the screen, which was largely in the red throughout.

Interestingly, both SABC News and the Parliamentary Service chose to cover just the President's arrival, flat out ignoring what was happening inside the parliament, meaning their viewers had no idea what was going on inside at that very moment.

SONA2015: ANN7's Clement Manyathela Robbed

Clement Manyathela was the first tv journalist to break the news of the chaos at the EFF Press Conference today, but what happened next to him is rather newsworthy on its own.

While reporting on the events unfolding at the press conference, an unknown EFF supporter snatched his back pack, along with City Press's Adisiwe Makinana's iPad cover.

On their way out, they dropped the iPad cover (probably realising there was nothing in it) but ran with the bag.

Thisbis the second incident of bad luck experiwnced by an ANN7 crew this year as earlier in January senior reporter Kalden Ongmu was attacked by a group of rioters.

SONA 2015: 4pm News Review

From 4pm, ANN7 and eNCA were moving fullsteam ahead with covering the SONA debate.

On eNCA Iman Rappetti and Ben Said co anchored coverage from their makeshift parliamentary studio with Paula Chowles on the ground. Their coverage remains mainly in their makeshift studio talking to their analyst, Abdul Waheed. This is the first time eNCA did the full 4pm hour from Cape Town as previously they would do the hour from both Johannesburg with the normal anchor and Cape Town, once again sidelining Duduzile Ramile, who does Afternoon News. (The more I see Ben Said anchoring this evening the more I wish we saw him more often)

On ANN7 Karabo Yibe anchored from the studio with their political editor Ralph Mathekga, analyst Frank Meintjies and
another professor. Avumile Qunu was at the red carpet getting details on what people were wearing with Kevin Brandt in a building nearby looking down on parliament, though the cross overs between the studio and parliament did not go very smoothly (Avumile is a hard news journalist, but interestingly this is not the first time she does red carpet duty). Initially I was skeptical about them doing things based from their Midrand studio but things aren't that bad as they are staying mainly with live visuals with the studio guests acting mainly as voice overs.
As the time passes, the crossings to Cape Town become more and more silly due to the in studio guests interrupted mid sentence by Avumile talkong to someone. This also leads to sound issues. What makes things more annoying is that these interruptions stop people talking about actual news issues to talk to guests about clothing.

At 4pm, The SABC News Channel was still doing their standard schedule with PM News covering the SONA amongbmanyvother stories. Though it may seem odd, it could be quite competitive in attracting viewers not that interested in 24/7 coverage of the address.

SONA Lunchtime BulletinReview

The 1pm hour is a popular hourbof news as people are on their lunchbreaks.

As such, the news channels had a packed 1 hour bulletin in the buildup to tonight's SONA speech by President Zuma.

Just before 1pm, ANN7 was the first news channel to break the news of chaos at an EFF Press Conference. Clement Manyathela reported byvtelephone from the scene.

They were followed by eNCA, who had a report, though no live crossing to someone on the ground.

Andrew Barnes co anchored News Day from parliament, with Bhavna Singh in studio (which is a reverse from what we had seen this whole week whereby Bhavna had been reporting from the Mining Indaba down the road at the Cape Town Convention Centre) .
Andrew introduced a report, and was then  interviewed by Bhavna, highlighting things like security issues, noting that he had never seen this level of security ever before. (It is interesting to see that Bhavna was in studio as she herself is accredited to be in the parliamentary precinct)

Over on ANN7, Abigail Visagie hosted two analysts in studio, highlighting what to expect in the actual speech, focussing on economic issues and touching on energy issues.

This was then to be followed by an interview with the EFF's Andile Mngxitama, which would have been a major get for the channel, but, as ANN7 struggles to shake of their reputation of suffering rom difficulties, did not takeplace.
Luckily they improvised and had Clement Manyathela back on providing an update on the situation. Eventually, Andile was on air, but he did not provide any value.

Just before 1:30 pm (when the news on eTV ends), eNCA was first to  actually air footage of what happened at the presse conference.

If the SABC News Channel is your channel of choice, you might not even.know today was the State of the Nation Address. They had theirbstandard business centric 1pm.bulletin and featured the SONA as if it was just any other story.

eNCA Employing Live Approval Ratings for SONA Debate

In what is described as a "a first for South African tv," eNCA (DStv 403) will be using a live tracking system for this year's SONA debate, taking place tomorrow, February 12th.

The system will be providing live feedback from a 'special' sample group that will react to evwry comment being made by the president, or to whatever disruptions happen in parliament.

The sample group were chosen randomly by an independent firm, though they contain only urban Gauteng residents, meaning they are not representitive of the entire South African population, though they do give a sort of snapshot.

They will be using a remote-like device
on which they will a knob based on what the president says: ofbtheyvlikebwhat they hear, turn up, if they don't turn down.

These fluctuations will then be added up and tracked on a minute by minute basis, providing real time perspective on what urban Gauteng residents are thinking.

If the technology seems to ring a bell to you, thatvis because it is often used by CNN during coverage of major political events like debates. At CNN, they have a live onscreen graphic throughout speeches reflecting the approval ratings, they discuss the sample group's reaction with their analysts and they actually talk to the sample group afterwards to get more in depth analysis.

It is unclear which of the above eNCA will be doing, but either way, the project that the channel is referring to as a "social experiment," seems rather exciting.

The Parliamentary Service Starts Broadcasting In Widescreen

In anticipation of Thursday's State oth the Nation Address, the Parliamentary Service, the video broadcasting platform of the South African Parliament that is shown on DStv channel 408 and Youtube, has started broadcasting in widescreen.

This is part of the 'upgrades' to the Parliament's audio-visual equipment that the media were told about about a week ago.

The actual video quality is also better, as seen in Tuesday's pre-SONA press conference.

The widescreen broadcast now means that the three local news channels, eNCA, ANN7 and The SABC News Channel, all whom broadcast in widescreen, will now no longer have to usethe odd aspect ratios that they have used in the past, which included squashing the picture, using black bars on the side of the screen and cropping the feed.

This now also means that CNBC Africa is the only local news channel not to broadcast in widescreen.

#SONA2015: Parliament Releases Media Accreditation List

With the State of the Nation Address occuring on the 12th of February, Parliament has released the list of people in the media that will be covering tje proceedings from the Parliamentary Precinct.

Here are some highlights from the list:

What is ANN7 thinking?
South Africa's youngest, and most troubled, 24 hour news channel is going to be covering the event with a mere 9 people.
This is comprised of one reporter, the Cape Town-based Kevin Brandt, one analyst and... entertainment reporter Avashnee Vandier (yip, the red carpet itself is now that important), along with 6 behind the scenes workers.

What makes this situation sadder is that certain international organisations like the BBC, that will just be covering the event in a segment or two will have more staff there than a South African channel that is clearing its schedule for the event.

For interest sake, I looked at what their list looked like for last year's SONA address (the channel's first as they were not on the air before then) and their lineup looked so much more promising than the crime reporter covering parliament: the excellent Hajra Omarjee as anchor with the likes of Asanda Magaqa, among others, as reporters in the crowd, along with decent analysts.

Left out of their list for this year (who is the rest of the channel's staff but I will only focus on one) is Nzinga Qunta who has been pretty vocal on Twitter about wanting to cover the event. She, of course, anchored the channel's coverage of the ANC's birthday celebrations earlier this year. Earlier this week she tweeted what seemed to be disappointment around not getting to cover the SONA address.

However, it should be noted that just because they will only have three on screen reporters inside parliament's walls for the event that there wont be others. The channel's coverage will probably just be done from their studio in Johannesburg, which would be rather disappointing.

eNCA
eNCA will be broadcasting live from parliament from at least 1pm as both Andrew Barnes and Bhavna Singh, the anchors of the Cape Town-based News Day, are accreditted for the the event, though Andrew is expected to contribute outside of News Day's typical broadcast time.

Conrad Koch (the man that pulls Chester Missing's strings) is also listed as part of eNCA's team, so we can expect a few appearances from Chester on the broadcast. Last year, Chester Missing's name was listed on the Media Accreditation list, but his organisation was listed as Late Nite News and not eNCA due to last year he was there mainly to record material for LNN.

It seems as if all of eNCA's Cape Town based talents will be workong that eveing, with the likes of Leigh-Ann Jansen, Lester Kiewet, Michelle Craig and Annika Larsen all working the event. Even Tanya Nefdt, the lady thatvdoes the feel good story at the end of a news bulletin, will be on hand.

An interesting name on eNCA's list is investigative reporter Nkepile Mabuse, host of Checkpoint. Can't wait to see how she will be used, if she will even be used as she might just be there to tape something for her show.

As always, Iman Rappetti will be anchoring the primetime coverage, which will be simulcast on eTV as well

Siki Mgabadeli is also listed as a member of eNCA's team for the SONA address. This is her first year as part of eNCA's team, but she is not new to eNCA's broadcast of the State of the Nation Address as she has appeared in the past when she was part of PowerFM's team that did crossovers with eNCA for the broadcast in the past.

Could we see Hajra Omarjee back on eNCA?
It is unclear whether the relationship with  PowerFM will continue this year, but if it does, it could mean that eNCA viewers could see former political reporter, Hajra Omarjee back on their screens, though for one night only.

Omarjee left eNCA for ANN7 back in 2013, where she was their senior political reporter until late 2014 when she resigned.

She has now reappeared on PowerFM and is listed on their list of talent that will be there for SONA2015, so look out for her on the eNCA broadcast, it will be interesting to see whether she would be acknowledged as a former eNCA reporter.

SABC News
The SABC's broadcast will be simulcast on both the SABC News Channel (I still love that name, for some weird reason) and SABC2. But as you expect, they will have reporters covering the event in all eleven official languages for other broadcasts and radio as well (along with their website). As such they have the largest group of people accredited to cover the event, more than 100 (*coughs*ANN 7 *coughs again* I mean nine).

Looking at their list, it is hard to see who would be anchoring the broadcast as the likes of Vuyo Mkvoko and Leanne Manas are not included. Not even Peter Ndoro, who will be emceeing the now annual The New Age breakfast briefing with the president the next day is listed.

It will be interesting to see how they going to get this broadcast perfect without the big names listed.

Other Broadcasters
Other tv broadcasters that will be having a presence at the State of the Nation Address is CNBC Africa, who will have a skeleton staff at parliament whilst hosting a panel in their Johannesburg studio. BDTV is expected to do the same, though the list does not distinguish BDTV staff from their counterparts at the Business Day newspaper.
Kyknet's news and current affairs brand, Kyknet Aktueel, will also be represented.
Even religious broadcasters Faith Broadcast Network, iTV Networks and Loveworldsat will have representitives covering the address from parliament.

But whichever channel you decide to watch, or listen to if you prefer listening to the radio for whatever reason, the ultimate message will be the same despite how certain channels may spin it: an address by President Jacob Zuma on the State of South Africa, ph and a bit of fireworks is expected as well.

(the full list of accredited media can of course be viewed at parliament's official website and includes not only the listed organisations above but the newspapers, radio stations and even online platforms, like The Daily Maverick, as well)

SONA2015: Officials and Media Meet Over the Parliementary Broadcast Feed

Parliamentary officals met with the South African National Editors' Forum (SANEF), the Press Gallery Association (PGA) and all majpr broadcasters (SABC, eTV, ANN7 and radio group Primedia) to discuss the broadcast feed of the National Assembly ahead of the February 12th State of the Nation Address and the parliamentary year.

The move comes a few months after concerns were raised over the intermittent 'feed cutting' that occurred whenever things got heated in parliament, which happened more frequently once newcomers, the EFF joined the National Assembly.

The meeting agreed that Sanef will make a written submission motivating parliament to review its policies.

These actual policies, framework and constitutional obligations were outlined at the meeting.

Also announced at the meeting was that the actual broadcast equipment inside the National Assembly has been upgraded, which is a welcomed announcement considering the less than stellar picture quality of the feed, most visably that the feed is broadcast in the old 4:3 'square' aspect ratio and not the more modern 16:9 'letterbox' ratio that the news channels, and most channels not showing old tv shows, are broadcasting in. The SABC reports that "the infrastructure will enable parliament to provide greater variety of audio visual feed." [whatever that means]

(h/t News24)