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.

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.

Pat Pillai Resigns From eNews Prime Time

Pat Pillai, the longtime anchor of eNews Prime Time, has announced in a statement released this morning that he will be leaving the organization.

This comes as eTV prepares for its biggest ever prime time shakeup that would see the English bulletin pushed back to 8:30pm.

Other than anchoring the Tuesday and Thursday editions of eNews Prime Time, Pat also hosted the chat show, Inside Out with Pat Pillai, which aired on the then eNews Channel during the channels early years.

No replacement has been named yet, but Cathy Mohlahlana continues to anchor the Monday and Wednesday editions of the bulletin.

The timing of the departure cpuld not have been worse: viewers will now not only have to adjust to a major time change, but will also have to get used to a new on screen product as well, which could alienate viewers that are used to things being a certain way. With a time change alone, you would try your best to keepbsome sort of consistency going.

Pat Pillai anchors his final bulletin on Thursday, February 26th, about a decade since first joining.

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)

eTV Shakes Up Prime Time Schedule, Moves News and Current Affairs Programming

South Africa's only independent free to air  broadcaster, eTV, has announced massive changes to the channel's prime time schedule.

These changes seem to be a continuation of the changes the channel saw late last year with the introduction of the eKasi+ shows, Katch it with Khanyi and Lets Talk with Masechaba Lekalake, in the 6pm slot and the shifting of the Sotho news to 5:30pm, in direct competition with the Sotho bulletin on SABC 2.

The first major change is the introduction of a Zulu-langauge news bulletin in the 6:30pm timeslot. What other websites and news sources would be telling you is that this is a new bulletin, but it is not. The eNews Zulu bulletin has been running for a while now at 8pm on eKasi+ (Openview HD 105).

At this point, eTV has not indicated what happens to that slot: does it fall away, does it take on another local language, does it become a repeat of the 6:30pm bulletin or does it remain as a live half hour of news?

With Zulu news on eTV at 6:30pm, viewers now also no longer need to wait until 7pm for a Zulu bulletin on SABC1, whichvis a rather competitive move by eTV.

(It is not clear whether the bulletin will air on weekends as well)

Next among the changes is the shifting of the struggling soap Rhythm City from 6:30pm to 7pm, in direct competition with SABC3's Isidingo, which has found great success (a doubling of viewership) since moving to 7pm and out of direct competition with the other 6:30pm soaps.

Rhythm City now starts a triple bill of daily soaps on eTV with Scandal following it at 7:30pm, the only show to remain in its old slot.

Scandal is then followed by eTV's new Telenovela, Ashes To Ashes, which stars a large amount of Generations alumni in it.

eTV's long running English News Bulletin, eNews Prime Time, shifts a wopping 90 minutes later to 8:30pm. [analysis to follow in an article of its own]

It is unclear whether eNews Late Edition, which airs at 10pm, a mere hour after the end of eNews Prime Time.

(eNews Prime Time's weekend slots remain unaffected)

eKasi: Our Stories now moves to the Tuesday 9pm slot, which means that current affairs programme, Check Point with Nkepile Mabuse also needs to move, but the channel has not said what will happen to that show.

Another current affairs show that is affected is Late Night News woth Loyiso Gola, which currently airs at 8pm on Thursdays, which it can now obviously no longer do.

Overall, this now means that eTV drops the weak programming they have been airing at 8pm and that they now boasts the most packed schedule of any free to air broadcaster (meaning it becomes harder for them to reschedule programming if they want to air specials like the State of the Nation Address).

It also seems as if eTV has now given up hope on their Openview HD product. Last year two talk shows, along with the rest of the magazine shows on eKasi+ were shifted to eTV, now the Zulu news bulletin follows suit. They also earlier said theyvwould down the line add a telenovela to that channel. Now they are adding a telenovela, just not on eKasi+.

The changes come into effect March 2nd.

eTV Shifts Sotho/Zulu News Bulletins Up Half an Hour

(c) eTV

From Monday, September 15th, eTV will be adjusting its early prime time schedule. One of the shows affected is the channels current Zulu/Sotho bulletin, which currently airs at 6pm.

That show will now air at 5:30pm, which means that if you do not have pay television in South Africa, you will be subjected to news bulletins on three of the four free to air channels that broadcast nationally: Xhosa News on SABC1 (which is Siswati and Ndebele on some days), Venda/Tsonga News on SABC2, and now the Sotho/Zulu news on eTV.

This is the first time that eTV has ever changed the time at which any of its news bulletins air. Prior to the introduction of the Zulu/Sotho news, eNews Early Edition was a short English news bulletin that aired at 6pm that served as a promo for what to expect in the 7pm Prime Time news.

eTV will now be airing chat shows from sister channel, eKasi+, at 6pm, with Katch it With Khanyi airing on Mondays with the addictive (at least to me) Eksê: Let's Talk with Masechaba Lekalake airing Thursdays to Fridays. Some of the programming that has been airing during the 5:30pm slot, which has not been doing too well in the ratings, on eTV now airs on Fridays at 6pm.

This now also means that with the exception of the 30 minute Zulu news bulletin, Trevor Gumbi's comendy and a fitness show, all of eKasi+'s original programming now also airs on eTV. This therefore does not give potential viewers any incentive to subscribe to the OpenviewHD platform, where eKasi+ exclusively airs on, as that channel was seen as the best channel available on the platform exclusively.

It is to be seen how shifting the bulletin up 30 minutes affects its viewership (which is usually about 1 million viewers), or the viewership of the rest of eTV's early prime time schedule, which hasd been performing sluggishly since SABC1 converted their series Skeen Saam into a soap to compete with Rhythm City, a show that has usually been either eTV's show with the highest viewership or second highest viewership, alternating with Scandal.

Gareth Edwards and Macmfarlene Moleli Takes over from nikiwe Bikitsha

As previously reported, Nikiwe Bikitsha has left eNCA, eventually revealing that she chose to return to her roots in radio at Cape Talk/Radio 786.

Courtesy os the Twitter account of Nikiwe Bikitsha

This has left two voids in the eNCA schedule: 4-6pm and 7pm on eNews Prime Time.

Courtesy: enca.com

On eNCA, it was midmorning anchore gareth Edwards that stepped up to take the 4pm-6pm slot. This is his umpteenth slot change since joining the channel at launch when it was still called eNews Channel, initially as sports anchor, then late night/fill in anchor, then mid morning anchor solo, then breakfast show anchor along with Ayanda Allie Payne when the channel rebranded to eNCA, then again demoted back to midmorning anchor along with Eleni Giokos (ironically, to fill a void left by Mac Moleli who had left the channel after being demoted from the breakfast slot to make way for Gareth in the morning), then when Eleni left eNCA for Bloomberg he was joined by JoAnne Josephs, who had came to mid morning so that Nikiwe could get the 4pm slot. Now, instead of moving JoAnne back to 4pm, they leaving her in the morning (which could be considered a major responsibility as most breaking news happens during that slot, eg. Parliamentary sessions, press conferences, marches, court cases, etc.), they gining the slot to Gareth, who has consistently shown why he is the channels only self made 'news stars' that weren't brought from elsewhere.

The energy, chemistry and passion displayed by the mid morning duo of JoAnne Josephs and Gareth Edwards I one that I have enjoyed so much that I am a firm believer that these two could anchor a quality primetime slot in the future. Such a pity they will be broken up

Another responsibility of the 4pm anchor is that he immediately becomes the go-to person if they need a fill in for the prime time shows eNCA News Night and eNews Prime Time.

Courtesy enca.com, because they don't seem to delete old anchor pages

On eTV, Macfarlane Molelie will be taking over for Nikiwe. A former breakfast show host on eNCA, he left the channel a few months after being relegated to the less-watched and longer mid morning show. He is back with the group now, but on eTV as the anchor of the most watched English news bulletin in South Africa , eNews Prime Time. He will be anchoring on Mondays and Wednesdays, alternating with long time anchor Pat Pillai who will be doing Tuesdays and Thursdays. The Late Edition and weekend editions of eNews Prime Time (along with holidays) will continue to originate from Cape Town with the likes of Robin Smith (who, too, is a former eNCA anchor) at the helm.

Let's see how long eNews can go without having to shuffle anchors yet again.

Nikiwe Bikitsha has left eNCA

eNCA Senior Anchor, Nikiwe Bikitsha, has signed off for the final time this past Friday, February 28th. She broke the news herself earlier in the week. There had been no rumblings of her leaving and in  the past few months she even gor promoted to anchor eNews Prime Time in addition to her anchoring duties on eNCA.

Nikiwe Bikitsha joined what was then known as the e News Channel on the 11th of May 2009 as the female co anchor on their flagship broadcast, News Night, replacing outgoing anchor, Redi Direko, who stepped down citing burnout. She joined eNCA from CNBC Africa and before then, was a breakfast host on SAFM. She was also a commentator for the Mail and Guardian, though she returned a few moths ago. 

In 2012 she took a leave of absence from the eNews Channel to take up the prestigious Hubert Humphrey Fellowship. This left co anchor Jeremy Maggs anchoring the show solo for well over a week, before the channel decided to move then breakfast show anchor Iman Rappetti into the slot temporarily (prompting Ayanda-Allie Paine to fill in her slot). However, the duo received such warm reviews for their on screen chemistry, that they remained the News Night pair since. 

Upon returning well educated from her scholarship, Nikiwe Bikitsha found herself working for a channel that has relaunched and changed its name from e News Channel to eNCA since she left, with a new anchor in what used to be her slot, and the addition of exciting new anchor Eleni Giokos meant that every slot from 6am to 9pm was choc-a-bloc with two anchors, leaving no place for Nikiwe. During her first few months back, the newly returned "Senior Anchor," as she was tagged on screen found herself without a slot, instead doing 'special reports.' However, soon the likes of Ayanda Allie-Paine, Eleni Giokos and Mac Moleli all left the channel, and she was given the 4pm slot in what was yet another channel lineup shuffle.

Nikiwe just never seemed happy in this slot to me, always coming across as dry and uninterested in the new slot, a far cry of the super enthusiastic and full of energy anchor she had been just a year or so prior before leaving for the scholarship. I often thought it might just be the format of a solo anchored late afternoon slot that was just dull, but whenever JoAnne Josephs filled in for, JoAnne seemed to make the slot feel so exciting. 

Nikiwe was also recently promoted to anchor eNews Prime Time after anchor Sally Burdett received a promotion in the group to head of anchors (which I must say seems to come across as a very messy job these days). She seemed dry anchoring the most watched Englsih news Bulletin in the country as well. 

Nikiwe most recently co anchored special coverage of the events surrounding Nelson Mandela's death. However, now that I look back, it is really interesting that she was not used more effectively during the SONA coverage (actually, not used at all outside of a normal role) which could actually be read as a sign of her leaving.

Nikiwe was studying when she joined the channel, studied while there and says she will study now that she is leaving (along with working in business and doing freelance work). Nothing like someone always bettering themselves. Here's to Nikiwe, once upon a time one of the fastest rising stars in local news. 

eNews Prime Time not Prime for etv? Part 2

I do understand that at 7pm the group broadcasts FOUR bulletins (eNews Prime Time on eTV, News Night on eNCA, their African News Bulletin for e Africa, eNuus op Kyknet) and has to get ready for an 8pm Zulu bulletin on eKasi+ and 9pm extended African bulletin,  but is it fair that the most watched one gets the least attention? That it no longer has stability?

I mean this musical chairs of anchors (and now locations as well) really makes what is actually a very successful show seem unstable when compared to the competition on SABC 3 where there is a solid 2 person anchor duo, which is their most days wekdays, a business anchor and a sports anchor, all dedicated to this show only and not on eTV where both the anchor and sports anchor are new on a daily basis.

eNews Prime Time not Prime enough for eTV?

Image courtesy of www.etv.co.za

eNews Prime Time is by far the most watched English News Bulletin in the country, more than doubling its only competiton's (SABC 3's hour long bulletin which starts at 18:30) numbers on a daily basis .

However, it seems as if eTV and eNCA are really not giving much attention to what is definitly its  most watched bulletin of the day.

As you can see, the picture in this article is that of FORMER anchor Sally Burdett which I found on etv's official website. This was the only relevant picture I could find as others show even older anchors and older logos. [If you do not know, Sally left her position as eNews Prime Time anchor to take up the position of Story Editor & Head of Anchors at eNCA since th latter half of this year. She has done the odd anchor job on eNCA every now and then, like anchoring the evening of Nelson Mandela's passing].

However, since she left this position to become head of anchors, there really has been no solid anchor in this slot.

Nikiwe Bikitsha, who left News Night two years ago to complete a 10 month leadership,academic and professional development programme known as the Fulbright Hubert Humphrey fellowship in the U.S for mid career professionals deemed leaders in their field. However when she she did not return to News Night (Where Iman Rappetti hold the co anchor title now), sh instead picked up the 4 o'clock to 6 slot and later added e News Prime Time to it as well.
First question: Is it normal that the anchor of your most watched show is someone just doing double duty after another show?

It doesn't end there. As this well learned person, Nikiwe is the group's go to anchor for on location reporting, having reported from the Eastern Cape during the period of Mandela's passing,  Pretoria for Politics and Davos for the World Economic Forum. This then leads to the obvious problem that now you have two shows that no longer have an anchor, e News Prime Time and the 4pm-6pm slot on eNCA. Usually, Jo-Anne Josephs filled in on both (she is, after all a former prime time anchor at SABC 3 before joining the then e News Channel).

But it doesn't end there. JoAnne these days are seen more on her actual slot (9am-1pm) alongside Gareth Edwards, leaving 7 pm empty, again.

On Tuesday, Jremy Maggs filled in at 4pm (and eventually did double duty on his usual slot to 9pm). However, due to obvious reasons, he cannot be on e News Prime Time. So who comes in? Junior anchor (and occasional fill in at 4pm or mid morning on eNCA) Duduzile Ramela. I have nothing against her, but I do think that it should NOT be a junior anchor anchoring your most watched show.

Wednesday was another story (because these people are really pushing limits). Cape Town did Prime Time (News Day's Andrew Barnes anchoring this time). As you know Cape Town only does the weekend, public holidays and late night news on eTV (and News Day on eNCA, simulcast for 30 minutes on eTV).

Coverage Updates

Coverage has slowly decreased as the time passed by.

eTV has gone back to their near regular schedule (with the exception of Friday's Rhythm City and Scandal airing in their standard timeslots, but on a Sunday). Andrew Barnes anchored eNews Prime Time.

SABC 1 went back to a near standard schedule. What is curious here is that from 17:30 to 19:30, they produced their own memorial coverage, anchored by Robert Marawa and Unathi, both presenters on other channels (SuperSport and Idols, respectively). Their coverage is less newsy than the continues SABC News feed on SABC 2.

SABC 3 has long gone back to their regular schedule.

Channels have returned to airing commercials, something that was suspended on Friday, though they retain their black logos.