ICASA rules etv cant dump primetime news

The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa announced today that etv will not be permitted to drop news from the channel's prime time schedule, stating that doing so would not be in the public's best interest. (etv's intention was to move eNews Direct to an earlier time slot away from the potentially highly profitable 6:30pm slot)


"e.tv is disappointed that its application to broadcast its 6.30pm eNews Direct bulletin outside of prime time has been refused," the broadcaster's head of corporate affairs, Vasili Vass stated, before saying that etv awaits an explanation from ICASA as to why their application was denied.

They made the application in response to what they said is the changing media environment and how South Africans are now consuming news in different ways.

What they conveniently forget to state is that, firstly, the SABC's news bulletins are doing as well as ever, even the ones that air later at night (including the SABC's English news bulletin finally starting to build a decent audience). In addition,  the only reason why eNews Direct is attracting so few eyeballs (viewership is less than a third of what eNews Prime Time earned not too long before eNews Direct launched) is because they moved the bulletin to 6:30pm (which may not seem like much considering its predecessor was at 7pm but it did require a large lifestyle change from regular viewers, something they were not willing to do) and tweaked its format into something its viewers could barely recognise.

Though the timeslot swap with Rhythm City proved beneficial to the soap, the drastic drop in viewers for the news bulletin actually absorbs any benefits created by the increased viewership of Rhythm City. However, at this point, it is virtually impossible to put Rhythm City back at 6:30pm as it would struggle greatly against the SABC's soap that filled the void left by City in that slot, Skeem Saam.

Just for interest's sake, etv's license stipulates that the broadcaster is to broadcast at least two hours of news per day, of which thirty minutes is to be packaged as a single programme to be broadcast during primetime.

etv wants to move news out of prime time: Was that the plan all along?

By now you have probably heard about etv applying to the broadcast regulator for permission to move its daily evening news bulletin out of the highly lucrative and competitive prime time slot. You have heard their reasons: It doesn't make money (or it is losing them money), it is an outdated model and they could be airing highly profitable programming in that slot. But was moving news out of prime time their plan all along?

First of all, let's make one thing clear: They are not cancelling the news bulletin, they just want to move it out of prime time, which is currently defined in South Africa as being 6pm-10pm (which is relatively long by international standards).

The whole rebranding exercise eNews Prime Time underwent to become eNews Direct now seems to make sense in a whole new way since news about the channel's ambitions became public. There is absolutely nothing 'Direct' about eNews Direct and it wanting to bring up to the minute news to South Africans. By the time the bulletin airs, the markets are closed, press conferences are already done, sporting events only take place later in the evening, the only thing trending on social media in reall time is V Entertainment, parliament is usually out of session, and so are major court cases that might warrant air time. So there really are no up to the minute updates to provide in a 'direct' way.

It seems more likely that the reason the name was changed was so that it could drop the 'Prime Time' part, so that a few months later when the program is epected to move again, viewers are already familiar with an 'eNews Direct' brand, and not a 'eNews Prime Time' brand even though it is not in prime time.

Another suspicious activity is that when eNews Direct launched in January this year, Duduzile Ramela oddly gave up her 4pm-6pm Afternoon News slot on eNCA to anchor the bulletin, even though she has previously been able to manage anchoring both slots before (4pm-6pm on eNCA, 6:30pm on etv). If etv wants to move the prime time bulletin, its most likely slot would clash with that 4pm-6pm block, probably at 5:30pm.

A similar argument can be made for Gareth Edwards who now hosts a social media segment on eNews Direct, which airs at the same time as News Night on eNCA, a bulletin he traditionally anchored on Fridays.

When tv channels launch new concept programming, like swapping eNews Prime Time for eNews Direct, they usually allow quite a few months for the new show to catch on before deciding whether it is a success or failure. The fact that the channel is saying that the bulletin is losing them money without giving it much chance to gel with audiences makes it seem as if eNews Direct was destined to fail.

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]

Joanne Joseph Returns to eNCA's Afternoon News

Veteran South African anchor, Joanne Joseph, today moved back to her former 4pm slot on eNCA.

This comes hot on the heels of Afternoon news' anchor, Duduzile Ramile, prermanently moving to anchoring eTV's eNews Direct.

Since the launch of eNews Direct on January 18th, a rotating cast of anchors have been filling in for Dudu, including the likes of Florence Lotoaba. That rotation now wends as Joane returns to the first slot she occupied when she moved from the SABC to eNCA.

This also means Cathy Mohlahlana will be solo anchoring the Mid-Morning News block, where Joanne used to anchor alongside her, until a replacement is named. This is also eNCA's biggest news block as the anchor in that block sits for a grueling four hour block from 9am.

This is a sort of pace change for Joanne, as she now goes from mainly anchoring live events like protests and major court cases (like Oscar Pistorius') to a more reflective news programme with interviews about the days biggest stories.

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.

REVIEW: eNews Direct

They rehearsed all week last week. Those were the words I kept saying to myself as I watched the first bulletin of eTV's new prime time news bulletin, eNews Direct.


The show suffered so many glitches it was painful to watch. The camera was extremely shaky as it 'followed' Duduzile around the newsroom, which did not contain much movement. At one point during Gareth Edwards' social media report, viewers were nearly looking at the ceiling with Gareth not knowing how to look at the camera.

The poor camera work was, however, blamed on a steady cam malfunction, according to eNCA's MD, Patrick Conroy.

But there are other things that can't be explained away. Firstly, the quality of the camera following the anchor in the newsroom is terrible. It felt as if I was watching a video recorded on someone's cellphone. At more than one point did the on air anchor try to link to a story but the story just did not air. Sometimes the camera would also just cut to someone else completely.

But technical mistakes aside, the broadcast just lacked meat on the bone. There was a news segment, which featured an interview, then there was the social media news with social media editor (which cannot be a daily segment considering Gareth anchors News Night on Friday evenings, which airs the same time as eNews Direct), then 11 minutes into the thirty minute bulletin we have have our sports report (which is earlier than what viewers are used to), then there was the weather report with Candice McKechnie (which has new graphics and presentation style that has less details than it previously had because, well, that is the theme).

 After this I looked at the time and saw that we still have a lot of time left so what can possibly come after the break? Believe it or not there is a full business news segment and to end the bulletin off, we have entertainment news as well because, why not. [Trivia note: This is the first time eTV's prime time news bulletin has a scheduled entertainment segment since eArts was discontinued in the early 2000's]. The entertainment story was just another news piece on the Gareth Cliff situation with MNet, which definitely did not lighten the mood as the last segment of news usually does. Add to this the fact that the insert was setup to inform viewers of the development of the story, but viewers already knew this from the social media report from earlier in the evening, further indicative of poor planning.

The music used for the bulletin is still the same old yoga like music used for all eNews bulletins and not something upbeat to go with the theme of the bulletin. The bulletin also seemed very all over the show: now she is in the newsroom, then she is not, well then back in the newsroom, then not, with no link between the movement.

Over all, eNews Direct is a major disappointment. The amount of general news has been decreased and viewers who do not have access to 24 hour news channels on pay tv will be less informed by this new bulletin that seems just full of gimmicks.

Guess what? When it comes to news from the newsroom, ANN7 does it better (Newsroom Live with Chante Jantjies, 6pm), which is something Patrick Conroy who usually slams ANN7 for their on air mistakes, will probably not admit.

eNews Prime Time to be replaced by eNews Direct

From Monday, January 18th 2015, eTV's prime time news bulletin, eNews Prime Time, will be replaced by a new brand, eNews Direct.

Advertised as being just the up to the  minute headlines, nothing else, eNews Direct is the independent broadcaster's attempt to revive the ratings for their news bulletin which has lost more than half of its viewers since being moved from its longstanding 7pm position last year.

The bulletin will continue to be anchored by Duduzile Ramele with Sandile Nqose on the sports headlines.

What will change is the studio from which the news originates. It will no longer be done from eTV's studio 101 (where it shares space with the breakfast show, Sunrise),  but will move to the studio previously occupied by eNCA's African programming, Africa 360 and African Edition, which is much closer to the newsroom. The studio has received a slight facelift, again, which I personally feel makes it not just the best version of this studio I have seen, but easily one of the best in the country.

Moving to a studio closer to the newsroom also coincdes with the show's aim of taking viewers to the pulse of the story, with the anchor doing live shots from inside the actual newsroom.

This format is currently being experimented with by ANN7 with its 6pm Newsroom Live with Chante Jantjies where she goes to the journalists in the newsroom for the story. Though the format sounds good on paper, ANN7's bulletin feautures shaky camera work, poor lighting and many sound technical problems, so I will be keen to see whether this new bulletin from eNews will be different.

Monde Twala, managing director of eTV's channels said that the change is in response to changes in how news is consumed

This is the first major change in the format of the prime time news bulletin on eTV since way back in the early 2000s when the bulletin moved from Cape Town to Joburg and even experimented at being a one hour bulletin for a while.

Whether it is a success or not will depend on how viewership numbers will react to the change, which I do not think will change by much.