eNews Izindaba cancelled

Though etv relaunched two of their free to air satellite channels this past week to much fanfare, not much noise was made about the cancellation of eNews Izindaba, which aired its last bulletin last Friday.


When eKasi+ made way for eExtra, the channel dropped most of its local content in favour of well-dated foreign content, which is going against the grain of what the rest of the industry is doing by increasing local output.

One of the shows that were cut was eNews Izindaba, the only South African-language news bulletin not produced by the SABC.

eNews Izindaba has seen many shifts over its short life span: It started on eKasi+ when that channel started at a time when etv still aired Sotho news in early prime time (and overall still had an appreciation for prime time news). Then etv decided that the Sotho news should be canceled as they decided to shake up their prime-time lineup to make way for a third soap, but moved the Zulu news bulletin over to etv as well which has a larger viewership footprint.

However, due to both the Zulu news bulletin and the moved English news doing badly in the ratings, the Zulu news was moved back to eKasi+ with both the channel and the news bulletin this past week getting canned.

Though producing a single news bulletin is not expensive considering the expensive news gathering operations are already covered by etv's broader news division, pumping out five episodes a week for the entire year does eventually lead to high costs, something which may not be justifiable based on the small footprint of OpenviewHD, coupled of course with the fact that there are no subscription fees to depend on.

Andrew Barnes resigns from eNCA

eNCA this past week announced that senior anchor Andrew Barnes has resigned from the organisation.

This brings to the end an over 15 year journey with eNews for Barnes, where he spent most of the time anchoring News Day.

"After 23 years in broadcasting, I leave South Africa with my partner to start a new life in my favourite corner of the world, south-east Asia.  I'll be putting the years of experience I've gained in training and development to launch my own business in Cambodia.  While Brandon and I shall miss this country, we're excited that the time has come to spread our wings."

Andrew Barnes has anchored eNews' News Day since its inception when it was a thirty minute news bulletin at 1pm on etv, which replaced etv's prior 1pm news bulletin, a thirty minute international news roundup from Reuters (Remember those days?).

In 2008 Barnes'  News Day was expanded to three hours with the launch of the then eNews Channel and was paired up with Robyn Smith (three hours is a long time to be anchoring the news none stop), who ended her tenure at the group this past Monday.

Over the years (well at least since 2008), Andrew has had various co-anchors join him at News Day once Robyn Smith left that position. They were Sherezade Safla, Bhavna Singh and currently, Michelle Craig. Craig will continue to anchor the bulletin solo for the foreseeable future until a permanent co-anchor is announced, which will not be soon considering Cathy Mohlahlana has been waiting quite long already for a co-anchor to join her for Mid Morning News.

Barnes has had the opportunity to report from around the world during his time at eNews/eNCA, including reporting from Washington, D.C. for the historic 2008 election there and the royal wedding in London, among others.

Robyn Smith Leaves eNCA/etv

Long time anchor at eNCA, Robyn Smith, signed off for the last time today.

"And after fifteen years at etv, the time has now come for me to say goodbye. It has been an absolute pleasure and honour for me to bring you the news. Until we meet again, take care." Those were the words she used to sign off from today's edition of eNews Direct on etv.

During Smith's time at the channel, she anchored various time slots. In 2008 when the then eNews Channel launched, Robyn Smith was paired up with longtime anchor, Andrew Barnes, to anchor the channel's lunch time bulletin, News Day. At the start of 2011, she left News Day with Scheherazade Safla taking over from her.

Since then, Smith has been anchoring the news bulletins on the free-to-air etv which originated from Cape Town. These were the weekend and holiday edition of eNews Prime Time and the weekday editions on eNews Late Edition. However, since eNews late Edition was cancelled at the start of last year because the demand for another soap slot was greater than the demand for more news, Smith was seen primarily on weekends. She was also a deputy assignments editor at the news organisation.

Smith has said that she will soon reveal what is next for her. Stay tuned.

[In case you want to watch Smith's last news bulletin in full, eNews Direct is uploaded onto Youtube daily]

eNews Direct Weekend Broacasts From the Weather Center

So this past weekend was the first weekend of eNews Direct Weekend being broadcast. Considering how the weekday counterpart uses a new, bigger studio as well as shots from the Johannesburg newsroom, it was going to be interesting to see how the weekend edition of the shoow, which is broadcast from Cape Town, would be done.

This past weekend was Amy McIver's turn to anchor and she did the bulletin entirely from a standing screen. The screen looked familiar to me and then I realised that it is the screen used to do the weather bulletins.

Yes, the news bulletin that aims to take you to the 'heart of the newsroom' is broadcast from the weather center.

 It was going to be interesting to see what the weekend edition looks like considering the setup at the Cape Town bureau is different to that of the Johannesburg one and is not exactly accomodating to the roving the newsroom format. [This is probably why the rumour that the weekend editions would also be done from Johannesburg studio started].

This format seemed awkward as well, it seemed more like just a normal news bulletin done standing up for no reason at all. There seemed to be little movement among the anchors and really just seemed like a low budget bulletin.


It reminded me of eNCA's News Night in the earlier years when the anchors would do the headlines from the big screen then move elsewhere for the rest of the bulletin.

On a side note, the eNews Early Edition branding has also finally been retired after all these years. The weekend edition previously survived when the weekday edition was replaced by the since then cancelled Sotho bulletin. However, it is now completely replaced by a short segment referred to as eNews Direct Headlines.

eTV Cancels Sotho Bulletin, eNews Late Edition and eKasi+ Zulu Bulletin

When eTV announced a shakeup of their primetime lineup earlier this year, they announced many new local scripted shows. One thing they did not mention that the addition of the dramas and the telenovela would come at the expense of a large portion of the channel's prime time news output.

First on the chopping block: The Sotho news bulletin that was moved to 5:30pm late last year when Katch it with Khanyi and Ekse Let's Talk With Masechaba Lekalake were moved from struggling channel eKasi+ to the main eTV channel.

Next, the exclusive live Zulu news bulletin that aired on eKasi+ daily at 8pm has been cut as well, with that channel now simply simulcasting eTV's 6:30pm bulletin.

With these bulletins cut, it is not known what will happen to the anchors of those shows: Mabutho Ngcobo, Segametsi Moiloa and Vusizwe Langa. Mabutho and Vusizwe are both Zulu anchors, but when eNews announced the anchors of the new Zulu bulletin, these guys were not even mentioned, instead being replaced by Khanyisani Nhlangulela and Zama Zungu.  

The eNews Late Edition bulletin? Yip, canned. The bulletin that is, or was, broadcast from Cape Town has also been cancelled. I am not sure when the bulletin started broadcasting on eTV because it seems to have been on air for as long as I can remember, but I do know it was expanded from 15 minutes to 30 minutes in September of 2008 when the now also cancelled Sotho bulletin started. It most certainly is the end of an era in this regard.

Though eTV may have given up on Sotho in Prime Time, one language they have not given up on is sign language, which is now moved to the 6:30pm Zulu bulletin after the cancellation of eNews Late Edition, the bulletin it had been seen on before.

Other current affairs and actuality programming at the channel is also suffering due to the new schedule. Checkpoint with Nkepile Mabuse now moves to the late 10pm slot on Tuesdays.

With eNews Prime Time now at 8:30pm, that bulletin will now suffer regularly from something it has literally only suffered from a handful of times: sports pre-emptions. With UEFA Champions League matches starting at 8:45pm at certain parts of the year when the Northern Hemisphere observes Daylight Savings, eNews Prime Time will either be very short on a Tuesday or cut completely if they plan on having a buildup for the match.

ANALYSIS: Can eNews Prime Time survive at 20:30?

Earlier this week, eTV announced major changes to their prime time schedule, which included moving its main news bulletin, eNews Prime Time, from 7pm, where it had been for over 15 years, to 8:30pm.

But can this timeslot move for the bulletin do more harm than good?

The 7pm bulletin, which has been in its slot for 15 years, has become a sort of daily appointment for its loyal viewers: viewers plan all their television viewing around having the news at 7pm, with more dramatic programming following as the night progresses

This is why programmes on channels like M-Net start at the bottom of the hour and not the top (so that viewers don't miss the 7pm hour of programming because they missed the first half hour).

This is why the SABC moved their English news bulletin from the late 8pm hour up to 7pm (and subsequently 6:30pm), and last year their Zulu bulletin to 7pm as well.

News at 7pm just works because currently not one of more than 100 tv channels available in this country broadcasts their tentpole shows at that timeslot.

A move to 8:30pm means that not only does eNews Prime Time have to compete with a greater amount of big name television shows, but also with viewers' own evening routines (putting kids to bed, etc).

But by far the greatest challenge that the 8:30pm eNews Prime Time will have to face is not about programming outside of news, but news itself:

Will viewers wait until that late timeslot for their daily fix of news?

Not only does eNews Prime Time face the challenges that all tv news broadcasters face, like online news sources, but it is shooting itself in the foot by being the absolute last news bulletin of the day.

It is higly unlikely that viewers are going to wait until that time to catch thw day's headlines, when they can get it from other channels. Afterall, we watch the news for the news and not the news reader (or do we?).

Just under 20% of viewers that watch eNews Prime Time are doing so from a DStv decoder. This means that just over 300 000 viewers have access to SABC News Channel's Prime Time News with Vabakshnee Chety and Peter Ndoro and also ANN7's Prime with Juliet Newell and Peter Stemmet (both former eNews personalities). If these viewers subscribe to at least DStv Compact, they have acces to eTV's sister channel, eNCA, which has News Night with Jeremy Maggs and Iman Rappetti as well, meaning they can get the exact same stories (along with the exact same news anchor links) at any time they want before 8:30pm.

Very few South Africans speak only English, meaning that if they want news before 8:30pm, they are spoilt for choice (if they do not have pay tv), language wise, from the SABC before eNews Prime Time airs at 8:30pm. If viewers want to retain their schedule with news at 7pm, the SABC offers an Afrikaans and an isiZulu bulletin in that slot (with English at 6:30pm).

If they do not like the SABC and really like eNews, they can get the Sotho bulletin at 5:30pm, the new Zulu bulletin at 6:30pm and the Afrikaans bulletin on Kyknet at 7pm.

Either way, viewers will know the news before the main English bulletin
There will also be those viewers that opt to just no longer watch television news at night. They get their headlines during a morning or lunchtime broadcast, the radio is good enough or they okay with reading newspapers or online sources.

And there will be those that somehow find it in their schedule to watch news at 8:30pm as well.

At this point, the fate of the 10pm eNews Late Edition is unknown. But if it does remain, it would mean that there would only be a one hour break between English news bulletins on eTV, and not much new news breaks in the space of an hour, so it will basically be a repeat an hour later.

Viewers are also creatures of habit, they expect things to remain the same. On the weekends the English eNews Prime Time stays at 7pm, which is bound to lead to confusion among more casual viewers.

However you look at it, it seems that come March 2nd when the new timeslot comes into effect, eNews Prime Time is going to experience a dip in viewership, the size of which is unknown at present.

(also spare a thought for poor Cathy Mohlahlana who anchors the bulletin on Tuesdays and Thursday nights. She is on air from 9am already on eNCA, and will be on air at 9pm at night when eNews Prime Time will now conclude, a whopping 12 hour workday. Okay, maybe there is a big break in between but your day is still messed)