SONA2016: Coverage Notes

eNCA
- Cathy Mohlahlana did her usual slot with a few live crossings to parliament. Following her, Amy McIver filled in on News Day with regular anchor Michelle Craig at parliament.

-Iman took over from Amy McIver at 4pm, with coverage switching to parliament alone.

-Live visuals of protests whilst providing in studio analysis by Judith February with Iman Rappetti

- The etv simulcast started at 6:57, because viewers needed to watch Rhythm City and Scandal first

- When the EFF were thrown out, eNCA's audio feed was suspiciously cut, then the video feed. They then were forced to use the feed proivded by the Parliamentary Service until 8:14pm when things normalised.

- As soon as the president was done speaking, Iman Rappetti said goodbye to etv viewers, because some Valentines themed movie must be more important than SONA analysis. eNCA also went to a commercial break immediately, something the other news channels did not do.

- Post SONA, eNCA's first interview (by Thulasizwe Simelane) was with ANC secretary generay, Gwede Mantashe

After the State of the Nation Address, the channel swapped their analysts, with Mcebisi Ndletyana and Angelo Fick providing analysis from the Parliamentary precinct.

- Mmusi Maimane spoke to eNCA's Thulasizwe Simelane only after speaking to SABC News and ANN7 already.

Later, Lester Kiewit speaks to Trade and Industry Minister, Rob Davies.

-eNCA is the second channel to sign off at 10pm.

- Florence Letoaba, who is now simply just Flo Letoaba for some reason, took over just after ten pm from the Johannesburg studio.

SABC News
-Newsroom anchor, Ebem Jansen and primetime business anchor, Francis Herd started anchoring from Auckland Park at 3pm, with Vuyo Mvoko and Leanne Manas doing live crossings at parliament with the latter pair anchoring more coverage as time passed.

- Near complete ignorance of protests, once again opting to cover the state of the nation from the parade on a blow by blow basis, providing in depth analysis on the parade instead of the protests.

- The faint sound of protesting is not even mentioned. When the protesting EFF MP's were shown on screen, Leanne Manas said, "We letting the pictures speak for themselves," as if she was prohibited from mentioning what was happening.

- The 6:30pm English bulletin on SABC3 went ahead, being broadcast from the studio usually used for SABC2's news programming.

- The insert on the English news bulletin that covered the SONA address seemed to emphasise the strength of the security, not even mentioning why security has been beefed up

While ANN7 and eNCA have experts on discussing what they want to hear in the address, SABC News is covering the cheers and excitment and the celebration of the evening.

- Post SONA, SABC News had the first interview with DA leader, Mmusi Maimane

SABC News' post SONA coverage is really on the ground with reporters doing interviews and then just throwing to each other for the next interview without an anchor between them or analysis.

Afterall, you have a long time to do anaylisis but only a few minutes to get 'exclusinve' responses.

- SABC News' Vuyo Mvoko got the first interview with Finance Minister, Pravin Gordhan, post SONA. They really covered a lot of topics comprehensively.

- Coverage on SABC2 ends at 9:30pm, for today's edition of 7de Laan.

- After the Finance Minister, Gwede Mantashe joins Mvoko in his lounge for a nice softball filled long interview.

- SABC News has the first interview with the Public Protector, who stated she would have liked more to have been said about governance.

SABC News channel signs off at 9:57pm with Your World picking up just after ten pm from Auckland Park.

ANN7
-Vuka Africa anchor, Abigail Visagie anchored for four hours, followed by Karabo Yibe for four hours, then Chante Jantjies took over into prime time until after 10pm. Wow these people, along with their reporters, worked long hours, especially Chante. While other news channels had a morning team and an evening team at parliament, these guys did the whole day.

-Live anchoring from parliament was covered by Peter van Onselen and Clement Manyathela, who also did red carpet duty.

- Kalden Ongmu has  been doing excellent coverage on the protests, speaking to protestors on the ground and providing updates as they happen.

- Post SONA ANN7's first interview was with Dr Groenewald from the Freedom Front Plus

- After speaking to SABC News, Mmusi Maimane spoke to ANN7.

- ANN7 had more accredited staff for SONA than eNCA, but for some reason their broadcast is once again being done from their studio in Midrand, whilst their prime time anchor, Peter van Onselen, are doing interviews at parliament.

- Their transitioning from one reporter to another needs improving. Too much silent air.

- After speaking to SABC News, the public protector speaks to ANN7, again highlighting issues surrounding governance.

CNBC Africa
- The channel will cover the state of the nation address once Janet Yellin is done delivering her monetary policy report

- Was the only broadcaster to not carry the live national anthem

- Post SONA, CNBC Africa focused, once more, on financial analysis of the debate from the Joburg studio.

- Ralph Mothekga, who just doesn't seem able to stay off tv, is part of the panel.

BDTV
Business Day TV is once again not covering the event at all.

Special Mention: Islam TV Networks (DStv 347) provided wall to wall coverage on the event. I unfortunately realised this too late. They are, however, hosting a presidential debate later this year which will be covered here. So far, Mmusi Maimane has been confirmed to attend that event

SONA2016: Media Accreditation List Highlights

With the State of the Nation Address coming up this week on the 11th, news fans like myself are often excited to see how the broadcast news channels will be covering the event. The media accreditation list, which was released this past week, is often a good indication of whaat the channels have planned.

ANN7
Last year ANN7 decided to go against the trend and anchor their entire broadcast from their studio in Midrand. Though they had about two reporters on the ground, and good analysis in studio I will admit, it just seemed very disjointed.
Well this year, the channel will be broadcasting completely from Cape Town with new ANN7 Prime anchor, Peter van Onselen anchoring from within the parliamentary precinct.
ANN7 must be planning fireworks because their 61 personnel accredited for the SONA eclipses even eNCA's 32.

Express Luch anchor, Chante Jantjies will also be making her SONA debut this year. So too will late afternoon anchor, Karabo Yibe.

Like last year, Cape Town based reporter, Ken Brandt, will be in the precinct as well, as will Clement Manyathela.
Their reporters that will also be at the precinct include Michael Appel, Sinazo Cele, Nobuhle Nkhoma and senior reporter Kalden Ongmu.

Assignments editor, Cecilia Russel, will also be on hand. Remember last year Russel did something which I have never saw before, a breaking news story being anchored by telephone. She has also not shied away from giving what is really insightful commentary on air.

News channels often have various analysts from different fields present at their SONA coverage. ANN7's list includes Pumeza Bam, Dennis Cruywagen (Political commentator that has appeared on SABC News and Kyknet's news programming before) and Professor Sipho Seepe.

Surprisingly, ANN7 wont have any entertainment reporters covering the often controversial red carpet.

eNCA
As previously stated, eNCA will have roughly half the amount of accredited personel in the parliamentary precinct compared to ANN7, though quantity does not always equal quality ad I am sure we can expect something high quality from eNCA.

It seems like the channel will be broadcasting from the parliamentary precinct for hours: all anchors from 1pm are accredited to be there (Andrew Barnes and Michelle Craig from News Day, Joanne Joseph and Iman Rappetti. Jeremy Maggs will probably be, once again, based in the Joburg studio with whatever fad the channel is planning for this year)

Being based in Cape Town means you will probably be working on SONA night. Cape Town based reporters that will be at the precinct include Percivale Young, Leigh Anne Jansen,Lester Kiewit and Annika Larsen. Reporters being brought in include Thulasizwe Simelane, Dianne Hawker, Athi Nthongana and Bonga Dlulane.

Analysis and commentary will be provided by the likes of Judith February and Angelo Fick.

Notable exceptions include the exciting Yusuf Omar and Siki Mgabadeli. I am also going to miss Chester Missing, who always attracted a crowd on the precinct whenever he would interview someone.

SABC News
SABC News, being the public broadcaster at a state event, has the biggest team planned to converge on the precinct, as one would expect. 219 individuals are registered to represent the broadcaster at the event, excluding anyone who might have registered in the name of their SABC radio station.
Morning Live's Leanne Manas will be broadcasting live from parliament.

It seems like once again, Contributing Editor, Vuyo Mvoko, will be anchoring the prime time broadcast. Though many names are listed, its the ones that are not there that stand out. These include Ayanda-Allie Paine, who coanchored the broadcast last year, along with the entire prime time news team (Vabakshnee Chetty, Peter Ndoro and Francis Herd, the business anchor). Ndoro traditionally anchors/moderates the The News Age Business Briefing the next morning.

The actual head of news, Jimi Matthews, will be there too.

CNBC Africa
CNBC Africa, who usually covers the address live with analysis from their Joburg studio, will have Benedict Pather, Wandile Tonqa and Andile Tukwayo on  the ground.


Religious Broadcasters
Yes, you read it right, religious broadcasters are continuing to increase the size of their news divisions with many of them represented at the State of the Union Address, even though they do not carry the address live.
Faith Broadcasting Network (DStv341) will have five reporters covering the event from parliament.
LoveWorldSAT (Free To Air satellite), who I must admit can put on a high quality news bulletin, will have two reporters present with Islamic TV having four present.
In other words, religious television channels will have more represetitives present at the SONA Address than  both the Business news channels.
[These exclude the religious radio stations that will be there.]

International News Channels
International networks will be represented as well. Al Jazeera will have six individuals present, the same amount as ANN7's whole team last year. The BBC will have ten more than that.
Bloomberg, which shuttered Bloomberg Africa last year, will have two reporters on hand. So too will the news organisation that covers African news better than African news organisations do, CCTV Africa.
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Kyknet Verslag will also be represented