Showing posts with label eNCA. Show all posts
Showing posts with label eNCA. Show all posts

Saturday, 20 May 2017

eNCA shakes up actuality programming

BackChat
eNCA has over the past few days announced new additions to the channel's already strong lineup of actuality programming.


BackChatis the channel's new show geared towards the country's youth encouraging them to challenge everything.

The weekly show is anchored by Busisiwe Gumede and Sia Leita.

BackChat premieres this Thursday evening at 9:30pm.

Unfortunately, the show is not live, and next Thursday's episode was already recorded the Friday before. A six day lag is massive in aever-changingng world and for a show that incorporates social media aspects.

The second new addition to the lineup is PolitiBureau, for which the channel did send out a detailed press release, found below:

"

Seasoned and senior political reporters, Thulasizwe Simelane and Xoli Mngambi bring their extensive field reporting experience to The PolitBureau studio.

The PolitBureau, hosted by Thulasizwe Simelane and Xoli Mngambi, makes its debut on eNCA this Sunday, 21 May at 10:30am. The show promises to go beyond the spin, analyse the policy, and reveal what’s really at stake in the battles between personalities and ideologies in South Africa’s political space.

eNCA Channel News Director Mapi Mhlangu says eNCA is dedicating its top talent to helping viewers navigate the choppy political waters of 2017. “Simelane and Mngambi have a record of asking the tough questions on issues that matter, of people who do not necessarily want to answer. They will now use this experience to examine South African politics on a weekly basis; what was said, who said it, what it means and sometimes what was not said, and why," she says.

Thulasizwe Simelane has more than 15 years’ experience in the media space and a regular stand-in anchor on the channel. “As a South African journalist, I feel privileged to live in a country where the media can still help citizens interpret the extraordinary political events of our time”, says Simelane. “In writing a history of our present, things look both strange and familiar. My experience as a journalist on the rest of the continent allows me to see South Africa at 23 in a special light. How do we learn from what has gone before, from our neighbours near and far, and avoid making the mistakes in Africa’s post-independence political history.”

Xoli Mngambi, who joined the station in 2008, has proven that he is ready to tackle a bigger anchoring role and the station sees his step up to The PolitBureau as a natural progression for the talented broadcaster. “I’ve been talking to politicians and ordinary people since the road to Polokwane. A decade later I am struck by the echoes, but I am also intrigued by how much has been forgotten and how much people have erased, willingly or unwittingly. To live through these events and be given the privilege to help tell these ordinary and extraordinary stories of our times on a platform like eNCA: I am honoured." says Mngambi.

Regular contributors to the show will include our team of top reporters; Karyn Maughan, Lester Kiewit, Nickolaus Bauer and Annika Larsen. The station has also secured the services of analysts, who will further enrich the show’s political offering.

The PolitBureau will premier this Sunday, 21 May, at 10:30am with a repeat at 7:30pm.

"


To make way for PolitiBureau, Maggs on Media vacates its long-held 10:30am slot for 11:30am, still on Sundays.

Tuesday, 16 May 2017

eNCA announes new News Night anchors, tweaks schedule

New News Night anchors, Cathy Mohlahlana and Vuyo Mvoko
eNCA yesterday announced that Cathy Mohlahlana and Vuyo Mvoko will take over anchoring duties on News Night.

The two have been screen testing together since April during Cathy's long running midmorning slot.

On the opportunity, Mvoko said, "Cathy and I hope to rise to the challenge of telling the story as it unfolds."

Both have been tweeting and replying to congratulations messages from colleagues and the public since the announcement was made. It is perhaps their social media presence that will be their greatest asset going in to prime time. Both are perceived highly favourably online, with Cathy having over 45 thousand followers and Vuyo with 47 thousand followers on Twitter.

Mvoko is a former contributing editor at SABC News and actually hosted a prime time news show at the start of 2016. This show was pulled from the air after Mvoko did an entire show centered on the State of Capture report. He left the SABC not too long after as part of the #SABC8 and started freelancing with eNCA earlier this year.

Cathy is a long time eNCA reporter and anchor, occupying the midmorning slot since 2014. During the election that year, Cathy was one of the channel's main reporters from the IEC's elections result centre. The midmorning slot has been where most news breaks in South Africa and Cathy has anchored coverage solo during many major breaking news stories including the Oscar Pistorius trial, protests, and of course, as is now the norm, countless press conferences.

Overall, this is the perfect choice by the channel with both being highly regarded by the public, highly competent at anchoring and coming across with a wonderful screen presence.

Other changes to the channel include longrunning News Night anchor, Jeremy Maggs moving to News Day (1pm, eNCA) solo, with the current news Day team, Shahan Ramkissoon and Michelle Craig moving to Cathy's old 9am to 1pm slot.

Everything else remains unchanged.

Tuesday, 2 May 2017

Ayanda-Allie Paine back at eNCA

Ayanda-Allie Paine has announced that she will be rejoining eNCA, this time as weekend breakfast anchor.

Paine. who hosted eNCA's weekday morning programme, Morning News Today, left eNCA to take up the position of newsreader at the much wider watched Morning Live (SABC2, SABC News Channel). She left that position in February 2016 for a role at Power FM (I suppose the cool radio station these days) before now announcing her return to eNCA.

This will, in fact, be eNCA's first ever weekend breakfast show as the channel just did one long unbranded rolling news bulletin on weekends with rotating anchors.

The show, which is titled 'Weekend Wake Up' will air both Saturday and Sunday mornings between 7am and 10am.

It is strange that someone as talented as Ayanda will be permanently allocated weekend hours when eNCA still has a massive void to fill during weekday prime time with both Jeremy Maggs and Iman Rappetti leaving the station. Either way, I'm personally very happy to have Ayanda back on screen.

Tuesday, 4 April 2017

Vuyo Mvoko joins eNCA

The highly talented and experienced former SABC News contributing editor today resurfaced on broadcast news, this time for eNCA.

Mvoko was let go by the SABC last July for speaking out against the news organisation's editorial policy.

With both Jeremy Maggs and Iman Rappetti leaving eNCA's News Night soon, the channel does not have anyone experienced enough in house to fill their roles. Could Mvoko, who previously hosted a prime time news programme on SABC News Channel be filling the void left by them soon?

His current role ateNCA is 'Specialist Reporter,' the same title Karyn Maughn holds.

Various news personalities took to Twitter to congratulate him on the move. Here are some:
Former eNCA host,Eusebius McKaiser:
Former ANN7 anchor, Asanda Magaqa:

Eyewitness News Senior Reporter:

The news, uninterrupted

What happens when tremors are felt in studio whilst live on the air? Your conversation continues uninterrupted of course:


But seriously though, talk about a cool reaction. Makes one sadder thatIman is leaving soon.

Friday, 17 March 2017

Both Iman Rappetti and Jeremy Maggs leaving News Night

Image result for jeremy maggs iman rappetti
eNCA has unexpectedly announced that both news anchors of News Night, Senior Anchors Jeremy Maggs and Iman Rappetti, will be leaving the channel's prime time news bulletin, News Night.


The reason for both anchors leaving is that neither wants to work at night anymore. Though prime time is where any journalist wants to be considering its much larger audience, the veteran anchors are no longer willing to work their long days: both are presenters on PowerFM in the morning, then anchors at night.

Rather poetically (or coincidentally), burnout due to working radio and tv is the exact same reason why News Night's first female anchor, Redi Thlabi (then Redi Direko), left the job as well.

In recent months the two have been increasingly taking off days as well. This reached a stage where neither anchors on a Friday night and during the rest of the week it is mostly only one of them on duty.

Maggs leaves the slot after nearly nine years there, while Rappetti leaves after five. The five years that the duo have been together precedes the existence of the country's other two news channels, SABC News Channel and ANN7 and have been the constant in eNCA's lineup tweaks over the past few years, including a name change.

“It has been a heady, tough, rewarding, crazy ride,” says Iman.

“Both Jeremy and Iman have been key to the success of eNCA,” says Channel News Director Mapi Mhlangu. “We thank them for their loyalty, hard work and brilliance in bringing powerful news stories to our screens. This is a big change for the channel and our viewers, but also an opportunity to showcase talent in our newsroom and beyond.”

No word yet on who will replace the duo, but eNCA's bench of good enough anchors is not that deep so if anchors in other slots get the promotion, the channel will still have to look outside the group for new anchors in those slots. (Personally, my bets are on Joanne Joseph and Gareth Edwards, as that reduces disruption on the rest of the schedule and doesn't pull any of the quality reporters  from the field, but let's see).

Their final evening on News Night is expected in May, closer to the channel's birthday.

Tuesday, 1 November 2016

eNCA moves News Day to Johannesburg

Starting this week, eNCA moved its long-running Cape Town based news bulletin, News Day, to Johannesburg.

This comes as the news channel continues to scale back its Cape Town operations in order to control costs. Just last week the channel laid off long-time Cape Town based anchor, Amy McIver, who co-anchored the news bulletin for the last few months. Others based in the Cape Town bureau have been told to either relocate to Johannesburg or be retrenched.

News Day, which is older than even the channel it broadcasts on, started airing on 4 October 2007 as Lunchtime Live based in Cape Town at a time when e.tv was still expanding news hours on the free to air a channel. Being based in Cape Town meant that the anchors could simply drive, or even walk, to parliament to cover events happening there.

Moving the bulletin to Johannesburg also means that not one of the three South African news channels have news bulletins originating from anywhere outside that city. The move also means that the handover from Cathy Mohlahlana to News Day will be much more smoother as breaking news in her slot often overran into News Day's slot, which required a long ad break to get the Cape Town anchors up.

It is unclear how the change affects News Day's actual anchor, Michelle Craig, who is currently on maternity leave. Would she move to Johannesburg to coanchor the bulletin with Shahan Ramkissoon, who is anchoring it solo now, or would she simply go back to being a weekend anchor.

Friday, 28 October 2016

Amy MacIver leaves eNCA/eTV

Amy MacIver announced that she would be leaving eNCA today, the same day she actually signs off for the last time. eTV, lacking taste, did not even mention beforehand that she was leaving, in contrast to the hero's send off Andrew Barnes received.

The reason for her leaving? She was retrenched from the organisation which continues to scale back its Cape Town operations.



The emotional Amy shed a tear at the bottom of the first half hour of News Day when she said goodbye to her eTV viewers for the last time (the first half hour of the lunchtime broadcast is simulcat on eTV). That is where she got her start with the organisation way back in 2005. When she joined eTV in 2005, there was no eNCA yet, just the news bulletins on eTV, back when eTV cared about news. She regularly did the Early Edition news bulletins (back when it was in English), the Late Edition news bulletin (back when eTV cared about news) and the weekend editions of eNews Prime Time (and subsequently eNews Direct Weekends), all of which originated from Cape Town.

Just last month she was temporarily promoted from weekend anchor to News Day anchor, filling in for Michelle Craig who is still on maternity leave. In 2015 she also produced and presented eNCA's magazine show, Earth Watch. Occasionally on big news events, like on election day, she would do reporting as well.



Friday, 26 August 2016

eNCA interviews Trevor Noah

eNCA this weekend will be featuring an in-depth interview with Trevor Noah, the first interview of its kind since Noah took the reigns of Comedy Central's The Daily Show.

eNCA senior anchor, Jeremy Maggs, flew to New York City to interview Noah at The Daily Show's New York Studio.

The wide-ranging interview, titled as if it is a standup comedy special, "Trevor Noah: Unplugged and Plugged In," covers topics including Noah's pressure to succeed and what it is like covering American politics at this strange point in time.

"For me being able to pay the rent doing comedy in South Africa, that means I'd succeeded and now successfully touring the country, that means I've succeeded and if I tried to go international and I failed, I wouldn't call it a failure of myself," says Noah.

The interview is also available on eNCA's website and will be featured on the channel throughout the weekend.

Saturday, 13 August 2016

eTV to cut newsroom staff

Image result for e news cape town
This has been a horrible year to be in broadcast news.

etv  today informed staff in their Cape Town newsroom that they would basically all have to reapply for their jobs, except for journalists and cameramen.

This as the group continues to streamline operations (which they started a year ago by shutting their African news division, among others) and shifting their operations mainly to Johannesburg. The Cape Town newsroom will simply become just another bureau within the group.

Currently, News Day (eNCA), eNews Direct Weekend (etv) and the Zulu news bulletin (eKasi+) originates from Cape Town. The group's weather team is Cape Town based as well.

When etv started a news division, they started out of Cape Town solely, opening a Johannesburg Newsroom after facing criticism of being to Cape Town-centric.

eMedia Investments says “the current function is spread across two cities and two companies; Johannesburg and Cape Town, e.tv and eNCA”.

“It is critical for a restructure to happen, however, no decision has been made, and will not be made without open, honest and full consultation with employees who may be impacted. e.tv and eNCA are committed to ensuring that employees are treated fairly through this difficult process”.

Friday, 5 August 2016

Motheo Khoaripe named new eNCA prime time business anchor

Motheo Khoaripe
eNCA this past week finally announced a new prime-time business anchor, months after Arabile Gumede left.Motheo Khoaripe will take up this position once the election season dies down.

Khoaripe's appointment marks the first time the channel has promoted someone from within its ranks to the prime time business anchor role. He has been producing and reporting for the channel since late 2014, doing mainly financial stories, most prominently for Moneyline.

Prior to joining eNCA the University of Johannesburg graduate reported for the Kasi Times.

Among his duties as anchor, Khoaripe will anchor the business segments during News Night and Afternoon News and also fill in as anchor on Moneyline. In addition, he will continue reporting on major financial stories.

eNCA announces new anchors for News Day

Image result for shahan ramkissoon enca
eNCA this week announced that Amy McIver and Shahan Ramkissoon  will take over as anchors of the channel's lunchtime show, News Day.

They replace Andrew Barnes, who left the channel earlier this year, and Michelle Craig, who goes on maternity leave in September.

McIver has been the anchor of eTV's weekend bulletin for years now as that bulletin originates from Cape Town and has been the main fill-in anchor on News Day as well.

Shahan, who was previously a longtime reporter at the channel, left eNCA in 2014 to become the US-based correspondent for then new African news channel, Arise News. However, since that channel fell apart early this year, he has been freelancing at eNCA, mainly fill-in anchoring for their Johannesburg-based bulletins. He has slowly also been transitioning to reporting in a similar style as the now departed Yusuf Omar.

News Day airs on eNCA weekdays  from 1pm-4pm CAT.

Tuesday, 2 August 2016

eNCA unveils elections set

Take a look at eNCA's set that will be used for the local elections tomorrow.
It is just their regular studio with a few tweaks which does at least make it feel as if they taking things seriously.
What is missing? A desk

Monday, 1 August 2016

Election day broadcast plans: eNCA

Image result for enca election\
eNCA's election day coverage starts bright and early on election day at 5am (who really wants to wake up early on a public holiday?) with the Morning News Today team.

This will only be the start of what will eventually be 48 hours of live, non-stop rolling coverage of the election on the channel that calls itself "Your independent elections channel."

The channel's large team of reporters will be deployed to each and every province, with a major part of the channel's coverage originating from the main IEC Center in Pretoria.

eNCA will continue to use the same formula that they have used with the previous few elections: one anchor in studio and one anchor in the results center, with both of them working extended hours on air. In addition, News Days, which airs from Cape Town, will not be on air this election day.

In addition, the channel will feature exclusive political commentary and analysis from both in house commentators like Angelo Fick and Justice Malala as well as external analysts.

As the channel this year officially launched their own polling platform with Ipsos, they will also have statisticians and social media analysts on air

eNCA is available on DStv 403, and is streamed live on their website for viewers outside of South Africa. No word yet if the channel is planning to live stream the day in its entirety on Youtube as they had done in the past



Tuesday, 12 July 2016

Yusuf Omar out at eNCA

Yusuf Omar has left eNCA as the channel continues to lose highly talented on air personell.

Earlier this year Omar's unique style of reporting landed him on Cliffcentral's inaugural #Kellman20. Reporter,Ruby Chikwiri wrote, "A forerunner in his industry, Yusuf is not constrained by the norm. He is instead breaking barriers by marrying technology together with journalism. A true storyteller. He lives through his journalism and has immersed himself in the art of “snack media”."


He leaves eNCA to take up the position of editor at the Hindustan Times, overseeing in excess of 700 mobile journalists.

Friday, 8 July 2016

South African Communist Party protests at eNCA

eNCA reporter, Phakamile Hlubi, particpated in the protest
One really has to consider the state of South African broadcast media when there has been a protest at every single domestic news channel in the past 10 days. Every. Single. One. Of. Them.

One of the major issues that were protested today were the IPSOS polling eNCA has been carrying out, and broadcasting, over this last month. The organisation and those who marched along with them want eNCA to immediately pull the polling as they feel it is deceiving.

The major so called deception? The claim by the polls that the ruling African National Congress will lose the Tshwane metro in the upcoming local elections. The party has also given ETV 48 hours to explain why they, the party, should not take etv to the electoral court. They further accused the channel of having a political agender behind the polling.

Electoral polling is considered a highly controversial issue where ever such polls are conducted. In the United States, where polls determine who gets to participate in presidential debates, the polls have been accused of influencing who gets elected considering those who do not meet the made up criteria to enter the debate stage do not get the free and highly valuable publicity that comes along with being on the debate stage.

For example, to be on a presidential debate stage, candidates have to average 15% in polls. The current major third party candidate from the Libertarian Party only has 9% and will not get the exposure of an audience exceeding 60 million.

In India, the same company that carries out the polls for ANN7 was accused of faking the results of the polls in order to influence public perception.

The other major point of contention at the protest was the freedom (or allegedly the lack thereof) of etv staff to join trade unions. Protestors held up placards stating that 'Workers are not free at e,' a play on words with the red letter channel's slogan.

Furthermore, the protest aimed to stop gender discrimination at the channel, due to female staff being prohibited from wearing head scarves on air. In addition, the protestors wanted to address the lack of transformation at the channel, due to allegations that senior positions are always just filled by white individuals.

The protestors delivered a memorandum to management, who actually took time tolisten to them (unlike at ANN7 where the management just looked at them, or at the SABC where Chief Operating Officer Hlaudi Motsoeneng did not come out to see them at all).

eNCA's editor-in-chief, Anton Harber, signed the memorandum and stated that they will read it and consider it carefully.

Wednesday, 6 July 2016

eNCA launches new onscreen graphics

eNCA this past  Monday launched a new graphics package, its second major change since  relaunching under the eNCA name.

The channel's new on air graphics style reflects the growing trend by broadcasters internationally to take on a graphics style similar to the one made famous by Windows 8, referred to as the "Modern User Interface" or simply Metro: flat graphics, bright colours.

The clock is now at the bottom of the screen and both the channel logo and web address are now permanently on the screen as well.

The biggest thing I Noticed about the change is that eNCA no longer caters for viewers with older 4:3 televisions anymore: the graphics only fit fully into a 16:9 widescreen setup, meaning viewers with older television sets will have the graphics cut off at both ends. Also, the onscreen ticker now has a smaller font, making it harder to see on smaller televisions and older televisions.

Its quite common for news channels to refresh their graphics package close to election season.

The channel's weather graphics got a face lift as well, though most of the map's graphics are unchanged.

As always, the age old eNCA tune has been tweaked and modified to go along with the new graphics.

Thursday, 23 June 2016

eNCA announces new media show with Eusebius Mckaiser

After 8 years on the air, eNCA is finally launching a show analysing the local news media.

The often controversial Eusebius Mckaiser joins the channel to host the weekly show, titled ''Meet the Media With Eusebius Mckaiser," which will be broadcast live every Sunday morning at 10am.

The launch of the show comes hot on the heels of the SABC's COO, Hlaudi Motsoeneng, swiftly cancelling all the public broadcaster's programming that featured editors from external media houses.

Editors and journalists from news organisations from across South Africa will be invited to give insight into their editorial decisions and the week’s main stories

“We want to show how the sausage is made, for better or for worse”, said eNCA Editor-in-Chief Anton Harber.

“This show will push journalists to explain what lies behind the decisions they make that affect others – in other words, to practice the transparency they preach to others. I hope that will help people understand better what we do. I think it will be fascinating.”

“I am delighted to be joining eNCA because it is an excellent platform for unashamedly celebrating what works in our country and analyse what's going awry. I look forward to drilling down into the top stories in the media weekly, sparking debate and having plenty of on-screen fun at the same time,” said Mckaiser.

When it comes to political analysts, Mckaiser is among the country's elite. He has hosted radio shows and written for various local and international publications, including the New York Times.

It us uncertain how this new show launch will affect longrunning 'media' show (It's more about advertising), Maggs on Media, which currently airs at 10:30am.

'Meet the Media With Eusebius Mckaiser' premieres live on July 3rd.

Thursday, 16 June 2016

Both eNCA and ANN7 launch election polls


eNCA
Image result for enca poll
eNCA's poll will be launched with the help of research company, Ipsos.
eNCA's focus is on what they term the 'battleground cities' of Johannesburg, Port Elizabeth and Pretoria. The data is first checked for validity before it gets added to the cumulative results to provide an aggregate picture of what the voter sentiment in these three cities are like.
Instead of just asking voters which party they voting for, the polls are asking them other political questions as well. One question also asked if the voters will actually be voting, to which 15% said they would not be voting this year.
The results from the latest poll will be revealed tonight (Youth Day) at 6:30pm on News Night.

ANN7
Image result for ann7 poll
ANN7 has been advertising the launch of their poll as the 'The poll pundits are back.' The channel is further stating that their polls were the only polls that got it right in 2014, even though they were the only channel running these kind of polls in 2014.
ANN7 is planning to broadcast their weekly poll projections every Friday night during SA Decides at 5pm and ANN7 Prime at 7pm.

Tuesday, 14 June 2016

eNCA to once again feature junior anchors this Youth Day

eNCA today revealed that the channel will once again feature 'junior anchors' co-anchoring the news on Youth Day this year.

The school learners will sit alongside usual eNCA anchors and present a few segments during the bulletin they part of. The channel will also feature debates around issues pertaining to the youth throughout the day and will allow their 'Junior Anchors' to get a few questions in as well.

In addition, the channel will also have school children who want to work in the industry doing various behind the scenes roles as well.

The channel did the same last year and it wasn't too bad. Quite nice actually, even though a few of the anchors were a bit reserved.

All the local news channels tend to feature younger talent on Youth Day. Last year, the SABC produced a live Youth Day special anchored primarily by their younger reporters and anchors.