Vabakshnee Chetysigning off from SABC News for the last time

Co anchor of the SABCs flagship English news bulletin, Vbakshnee Chetty, has announced that she will be signing off from the SABC for the last time tomorrow evening, Friday, 21 January 2017.


This as she plans to emigrate with her husband, who got a job opportunity, to Chicago. At this time, she ha nothing lined up for herself on the other side of the pond, instead focussing on adjusting to the new setting and taking care of her young baby.

Vabakshnee has been anchoring Prime Time News, technically since its inception in 2013 when the SABC News Channel launched. She had conanchored the bulletin in its prior form as a one hour news bulletin on SABC3. Chetty leaving also marks the first time since March last year that a South African news channel's prime time lineup changes.

Chetty has been with the SABC since the start of her career fifteen years ago, filling various roles through the years. In addition to anchoring on SABC TV, she is also an anchor on the SABC's SAFM radio station.

Since announcing her departure, she has been retweeting farewell messages from colleagues and friends. SABC reporter, Thabiso Sithole tweeted, "Ja neh, not cool. So @vabakshnee, which one are you making your cameo on first? Chicago PD, Chicago Fire or Chicago MED. You Love TV moss.."

It is unclear who will fill her seat on Prime Time News going forward, but it is expected that Francis Herd will sit alongside her coanchor, Peter Ndoro in the interim. Herd filled her seat last year when Chettywas on maternity leave.

All News Channels Carry President Zuma's Address about the Marikana Report

eNCA, SABC News Channel and ANN7 all provided extensive coverage about President Zuma's Address to the nation about the Marikana Report.

The speech ran for 32 minutes, from 7:02pm to 7:34pm.

eNCA's coverage was anchored by Jeremy Maggs, with a 2 man in studio panel. Their analysis included in studio debate as well as live crossings to Iman Rappetti who was with families of victims of the Massacre, and Thulasizwe Simelani who was at Parliament getting reaction from the likes of DA reps. Their analysis extended for well after the actual address and the channel ended up preempting this evenings edition of Money Line.
The semi final episode of Tech Report at 9:30pm also got preempted.

SABC News Channel's coverage was simulcast on SABC 2, preempting the Afrikaans News and part of the Sotho news. Their coverage was anchored by Vuyo Mvoko. Though I love the way they use Mvoko as the anchor of their bigger news events so that when viewers see him onscreen they know its big news, constantly benching their regular prime time anchors (Vabakshnee Chety and Peter Ndoro, who anchored this morning's The New Age Buiness Brief) is starting to show a lack of faith in the duo. SABC News Channel was the first of the broadcaster to go back to scheduled programming with Sports Live at 8:30pm

ANN7 Prime with Cand Harris, Sebenzile Nkambule, Ricky Naidoo

ANN7's buildup started well before 7pm, meaning that this evening's edition of Game On! was preempted and will instead be broadcast in its traditional repeat slot of 10:30pm. The coverage was anchored by the new ANN7 Prime anchors Sebenzile Nkambule and Candy Harris. Their three man in studio panel included political editor (and host of Straight Talk) Ricky Naidoo. They also had live crossings to Kevin Brandt who was outside parliament.


If you look at stills at the top of this article, you will see both eNCA and ANN7 both actually had to get the video feed from the SABC News Channel as the state broadcaster was the only one that was allowed to have a camera present at the address.
This led to the onscreen graphics on both eNCA and ANN7 becoming messy with their graphics superimposed upon the SABC's.
When the SABC put up their full lower thirds banner, eNCA decided to black out that part of the screen, leading to nearly a third of the screen being black (though it is technically more on tv's like mine with a letterboxed aspect ratio.

Then, in what I think is a dirty tactic on the part of the SABC News Channel to get free advertising, they decided to remove the small SABC News logo at the bottom of the screen, which was covered by eNCA's and ANN7's graphics and instead put up the massive graphic where the two independent stations couldn't hide it without making the screen too cluttered. They even put a solid backing on the usually transparent logo to make it more eye catching, something they had never done before.

It is really worrying when only one broadcaster, the public broadcaster, is allowed to have a camera at an address by the president of the camera as it could lead to censorship: if that one SABC News Channel camera gets cut for whatever reason, no one outside of the venue would have access to it.

SABC News Celebrates One Year on the Air

 

At 6pm on the 1st of August 2013, the SABC News channel went live on DStv Channel 404 with a live (and very laid back) interview of President Jacob Zuma conducted by Prime Time News anchors Peter Ndoro and Vabakshnee Chetty.

A News Channel From The SABC: Attempt Number 3
It was not the SABC's first attempt at a news channel. It was not even their second. First was their primarily news with a bit of entertainment channel, SABC Africa, which aired exclusively on the DStv platform before being cut from the platform in 2008 due to low viewership. (That channel ceased broadcasting on August 1st as well)

Next was SABC News International which they launched on Sentech's Vivid platform in 2007. However, that platform in itself was never quite popular and the channel shut down soon after, even though the SABC slated it for their bouquet of channels when Digital Terrestrial Television finally takes to the air. The channel itself, which cost a reported R85 million per year,  was silently closed in 2010.

The SABC News Channel: The Start
Though it was pushed out multiple times since a launch in April 2011, the SABC's third attempt at a news channel finally went live on the 1st of August 2013.

Many were skeptical about the launch of the channel, saying things like it would end up being a propaganda channel while others questioned why the SABC would attempt to launch another news channel after the previous two failed and considering the financial position the SABC was in at the time of launch.

Though the channel was relatively dull compared to other news channels on DStv, when yet another local news channel, ANN7 went live two weeks later with all their on air errors, people started realising the SABC News channel is not too bad afterall.

Over their first year on air, the channel has slowly expanded and improved their lineup from what it was at launch. At launch, the channel's schedule was filled with wildlife shows and even the kids news show that airs on SABC1 as well as a way to ensure they have something to air at all hours.

However, these soon fell away as the group expanded news programs like the excellent Newsroom with Eben Jansen (which is also the only news show in the country simulcast live on Youtube daily )to ensure more live news throughout the day.

Francis Herd joined the SABC news channel as prime time business anchor from rival news channel, eNCA

The on air talent seen on the channel were primarily part of the SABC before the channel launched. If not as part of  the SABC's television news division, they came from SABC Radio. There are, however, two anchors that were poached from eNCA: Morning Live's news anchor Ayanda-Allie paine and prime time business news anchor, Francis Herd. 

The channel does, however, have a rather weak primetime to late night schedule. Its main prime time block from 6pm and 9pm was recently adusted to make way for more live news at 8pm, where there was previously a business bulletin.

Their main news bulletin, Prime Time News with Vabakshnee Chetty and Peter Ndoro, which at 90 min was already the shortest of all prime time news bulletins on South African news channels (eNCA's NewsNight is three hours long while ANN7's Prime is 2 hours and has only one anchor) was recently shortened to 60min, from 6:30pm-7:30pm. with rest of prime time filled with a daily sports show, a business show (the only one on the 3 news channels), a 30 minute News @ 8 bulletin then reruns of the SABC's African language bulletins that were broadcast earlier in the night on their free to air channels.

The SABC News Channel: The News as Seen on SABC 1, 2 and 3
The one issue I do have with the channel is the near lack of original content: Its breakfast show, Morning Live, is just a simulcast of the show that existed before the channel on SABC 2, with only one hour exclusively on the channel, which is basically free considering its the same staff just staying on air another hour. Its lunch time hour business-centric bulletin is the same as on SABC3, so no additional costs there, their primetime show is simulcast on SABC3 as well, and so is their Afrikaans news bulletin.

After their final live news bulletin ends at 8:30pm, much earlier than the midnight benchmark set by the other news channels, they rerun African language news bulletins that aired earlier in the evening on SABC 1 and 2 and finally at 11pm they have a pretaped one hour news bulletin.

With a schedule like this, one can clearly see why this channel is not exactly the most expensive news channel around.

Vabakshnee Chetty and Peter Ndoro anchors the SABC News channel's Prime Time news bulletin that is also seen on SABC 3

The Way Forward
As the SABC News channel celebrates one year on air today (though one wouldn't know as there was no mention of it on air nor did any anchor tweet about), I can't help but wonder where it goes from here.

It has been said that when Digital Terrestrial Television eventually launches in South Africa, the channel will be part of the SABC's free-to-air bouquet, though there is the possibility that this might not happen considering the large price tag the channel has and particular wording in a recent press release that made me question whether the channel will go free-to-air.

One thing that one cannot ignore is exactly how cramped up the channels prime time schedule is as it tries to squeeze in as many languages as possible. By doing so, the overall quality of the news content suffers as this means the last news bulletin with fresh content ends at a very early 8:30pm to accomodate the other languages. If it was up to me I would launch a second SABC news channel dedicated to African languages, which is only fair if you think about the fact that the SABC lacks African laguage news in the morning and for most of the day, and make this channel the best English service it could be considering the vast resources already under the control of the SABC.

One thing I would like to see is the improvement in the channel's on air presentation not only in its news but also its magazine programming. When one looks at the SABC Africa magazine shows that still air after midnight on SABC 2 (SIX YEARS after that channel closed) and compare them with the magazine shows on the new SABC News channel, you will easily see how superior the older shows are to the magazine shows on the new SABC News channel. These include everything from production values, includuing the graphics, to the better presenters on the older SABC Africa shows.

There are also some bright spots on the channel as well. The main one, for me at least, by far is its excellent coverage of live events. Be it the passing of former president Nelson Mandela, the elections, the opening of parliament or any other live event covered by the channel, one really go an all hands on deck kind of feel to the coverage and they really go all out. It is coverage like this that I would like to see from the channel moving forward. Think about it: More and more people are getting their news from the internet instead of watching television. It is because of this that international channels like CNN are slowly moving away from generic news bulletins towards providing rolling coverage of live events and happenings. SABC News is in the perfect position to lead that trend in the South African market considering the resources under their control and their abilities to provide amazing live event coverage.

Since launching a year ago, the SABC News channel has grown to become the second most watched news channel on the DStv platform, behind eNCA and is expected to bring in R25 million in ad revenue to the SABC this year alone.

Though the channel has come a long way since launch exactly one year ago, the only way the channel can go from here is still up. With the three South African news channels on the air at the moment, each needs to find their perfect identity that distinguishes it from the rest of the pack.

SABC News Adjusts Prime Time Schedule

 

SABC News (DStv 404) silently made adjustments to their schedule on Monday, 2 June 2014, with absolutely no announcement beforehand.

Their new prime time line up now kicks off with Business Review, hosted by Francis Herd, at 6pm, moving up from 8pm. This also means Francis' day now ends at the end of Prime Time News at 7:30pm, an hour earlier than when it used to, at 8:30pm. Francis was also the only anchor who mentioned the new slot for her show on Twitter, with the rest of the anchors not mentioning it at all.

Their flagship English bulletin,  Prime Time News, hosted by Vabakshnee Chetty and Peter Ndoro, now starts at 6:30pm, losing the 6pm half hour. This show, initially, was born out of SABC 3's 1 hour News show at 6:30pm then expanding to include the earlier half hour when the channel launched. Now it is being scaled back to an hour again.

The 7:30pm Afrikaans bulletin stays unchanged.

In the 8pm slot is a newly launched 30minute English News Bulletin, aptly titled News at 8, that is meant to review the days top stories. The camera angles in this bulletin also resemble a more of a 'classic' news bulletin's camera angles, giving it a different feel compared to the earlier English slot done from the same studio.

The 8:30pm Sports Live stays unchanged.

Overall, this is a major improvement because prior to the changes, one had to wait from 7:30pm all the way to 11pm between English news bulletins on the channel. The 11pm news bulletin, Your World, is not live in any case so the channel basically could not provide fresh news in English after a very early 7:30pm. Now with the changes, live news ends an hour later at 8:30pm