Recap To The Month: SABC Delays The Expansion Of Further New Channels On DTT

During the year, SABC was gearing up for the rollout of a second news channel only known as SABC eKhaya. After failing to rollout the news channel, the public broadcaster had a soft launch for the brand on their DTT platform featuring content already viewed on their linear platforms and archived material.

Similar to SABC Sport, the plan was to feature a "fresh offering" once the channel managed to garner traction and the public broadcaster was looking to negotiate with other broadcasters in the hopes that they could distribute the channel onto their platforms.

But as seen in recent months, consumers had been affected by load shedding that some went as far as cutting back on their DStv subscription and other expenses as the outcome of these blackouts had left people jobless and led some entrepreneurs to lose their businesses.

The SABC blames Eskom on why their revenue continues to drop in recent months and also the reduction of analogue frequencies and streamers like Netflix for why SABC+ is struggling. It was also stated that the public broadcaster had to delay the rollout of new channels due to the blackouts impact on viewership.

For almost two years, consumers had been awaiting on an update from SABC on the status of two yet-to-be-launched channels on Openview alongside SABC Education's expansion to pay-tv outlets. Since SABC hasn't been able to meet up with any of its deadlines and with these outlets rolling out new channels, consumers will just lose interest.

Unlike SABC, Multichoice and eMedia Investments continue to expand their content and portfolio of linear channels. Despite the decrease in consumption, there's still consumers viewing these brands and rolling out those "new channels" could have helped reduce their financial constraints as opposed to pausing/scrapping shows like The Estate and uBettina Wethu.

Coming Soon To More Platforms??? As Sources Say Discussion Are Said To Be Underway For The Much Anticipated News Platform, SABC eKhaya

SABC is set to launch a second news channel known to audiences as SABC eKhaya (formerly SABC Parliament) in the second quarter of the year carrying parliamentary content and other news programming in indigenous languages including English.

The news channel will serve as a regional spinoff to the current SABC News channel on DStv which had a similar offering for the yet-to-be-named news channel before expanding their footprint to the rest of Africa which further limited those aspects.

The channel is said to launch the second quarter of the year exclusively on SABC's DTT and very likely SABC+ as seen with SABC News which is said to be available on DStv at an exclusive basis.

Since news of the channel surfaced, consumers were curious as to whether eMedia Investments, and if it's still an option On Digital Media and StarTimes would be looking to add the channel on their platforms seeing as they lack such alternative unlike MultiChoice.

SABC:
- Reviewing major changes coming soon to the SABC, Part 2
- Could SABC Encore revival be scrapped?
- A former SABC channel was added onto Openview
- SABC Movies' dream journal

Taking to account, these outlets have pending agreements with the as mentioned public broadcaster for more channels aside from SABC 1-3 which they have fallen far behind on in terms of filing up with the end of bargain.

The yet-to-be-named news platform fits the description of the promised new channels like a glove - repeats. As seen a few years ago, eMedia Investments is waiting on two encore based channels while MultiChoice opts to use them as leverage on eMedia's 4 channels.

As to whether discussions are underway, sources had mentioned to numerous viewers of such matter but seeing as the channel is still at its early stage. It seems highly unlikely, for now you can view the test channel exclusively on SABC's DTT.

SABC:
- Reviewing major changes coming soon to the SABC
- TelkomOne's transition into SABC+
- SABC 1 title card registered for Openview
- SABC Children appears to have wrapped production

SABC Launches Second News Channel Formerly Known As SABC Parliament In April 2023

The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) will offer the public service broadcaster’s first ever 24-hour news channel in African languages in April 2023. In addition, this channel will offer an extensive coverage of parliamentary proceedings.

The launch of this channel is in line with the SABC’s public mandate obligation, for the provision of universal access, as enjoined by the relevant legislation governing the SABC.

The imminent launch of this channel reinforces the SABC’s pivotal role in facilitating social cohesion, by providing a wide range of programming that caters for the needs of the entire society. The SABC is also driven by the three key principles in its news delivery and value proposition: the principle of inclusion, deliberation and opinion formation which are aimed at empowering citizens to be part of participatory democracy, despite their socio-economic status, geographical location and language.

The channel, which is not new, was acquired in 2018 and publicly accessed through the DTT platform from 2019, offering parliamentary proceedings exclusively. In line with the SABC’s governance framework, a business decision was made to reposition the channel to offer more than parliamentary proceedings and include bulletins and current affairs in African languages. This channel will continue to broadcast on DTT and will be added on the public broadcaster’s OTT platform.

SABC:
- Reviewing major changes coming soon to the SABC
- TelkomOne's transition into SABC+
- SABC 1 title card registered for Openview
- SABC Children appears to have wrapped production

The SABC’s Group Executive: News and Current Affairs, Mr. Moshoeshoe Monare stated that “This is our response to the demand from millions of our viewers yearning for extensive news coverage and a dedicated channel in their own languages. The response from our viewers was phenomenal and this is not a replication of our English news channel. We are telling different stories of our communities and reflecting people’s aspirations in their own languages.”

Monare further stated that “This public news service is an added platform to serve mainly communities that are not necessarily reached by mainstream commercial media. These are millions of viewers who wait until evening, to watch less than half an hour bulletins in their own languages. SABC News is well positioned to rise to this challenge, because of its decades of experience in public broadcasting in indigenous languages”.

The SABC reiterates its commitment as the country’s only public service broadcaster, to fulfil its constitutional mandate of delivering news and current affairs content that reflects the diverse South African society.

All the details pertaining to the channel will be revealed soon.

What Really Happened To Mindset Network's Health Channel?

It was on pilot mode in 2003, The Mindset Health Channel, a partnership between Mindset Network, the National Department of Health and Sentech, provided a multimedia platform, to deliver uplifting health education and promotion on critical health issues, including tuberculosis the HIV and AIDS pandemic, on a mass scale.

The channel, which began broadcasting TV programmes in October 2003, had advanced to Internet datacasting reaching an increasing number of clinics and hospitals. From 48 sites in the pilot phase, Mindset Health had 298 established sites throughout South Africa.

The satellite uplink provided by Sentech allowed datacasting directly to users with information in video, multimedia and print available on demand.

"When patients gather in a clinic they can watch a TV programme in the waiting area, while a healthcare worker independently explores in-depth clinical management material on a PC," says Tricia Hobson, Marketing Manager, Mindset Network. This can be interrupted and returned to at a time convenient for the healthcare worker.

The public broadcast, offering 'infotainment' delivers education and promotion on HIV and AIDS (prevention, management, treatment and care), tuberculosis, other major diseases such as maternal and infant health, and the underlying issues such as gender violence, in multiple languages through, drama, public service announcements, documentaries, interviews and discussions.

"Mindset Health sources high-quality content from a number of our media content partners, including SABC, Soul City, Love Life, Khomanani, Community Health Media Trust and Kagiso Educational Trust," says Hobson. The content is available in five languages - English, SeSotho, isiZulu, isiXhosa and Afrikaans.

Healthcare workers and nurses report that the programmes provide an invaluable resource of up-to-date information which adds enormous value to their counselling and administrative efforts.

The Mindset Health Channel aimed to broadcast to 4 000 public healthcare sites, and hospitals as wall as private clinics, prisons and community centres, educating 97 000 nurses and 36 million South Africans.

To do this will require a variety of project and funding partnerships to support the roll-out as well as to sustain usage among both the patients and the healthcare workers in the public health sector.

"We believe these targets are quite within reach and the satellite technology supporting the Mindset Health Channel has the capacity to deliver quality content to South Africa and beyond," says Pranill Ramchander, Sentech's Portfolio Manager: Corporate Communications.

The afterlife of Mindset Health

In a media enquiry, Mindset Network revealed that a lack of funding led to the termination of the health channel contributing to that was the severed partnership with Department of Health as they had no means of keeping the channel sustainable.

A decade after its termination, the nonprofit organisation partnered up with pay-tv giant MultiChoice for a spinoff to the current Mindset TV which catered to Grade 4-9 and ran throughout the pandemic and went dark in the same year with further content available on the main channel.

A More Rational And Measured Road To Analogue Switch Off In SA

One of the core findings against the Minister of Communications by the Constitutional Court is that her imposition of an analogue switch-off date was unlawful and irrational.

EMedia Investments welcomed the ruling and had the following to say: “The matter of irrationality was probed and challenged at the Broadcasting Digital Migration Committee meetings, set up by the Department of Communications, and chaired by the Minister of Communications. eMedia Investments pleaded with the Minister of Communications on numerous occasions to listen to the logic and the rationality of the task at hand. We agreed that the switch-off must happen to enable digital migration, but insisted that it must be in a practical, logical, and fair manner – ensuring that there are no negative consequences to any households, or the Free To Air TV industry.”

 

Khalik Sherrif, CEO of eMedia Investments, went on to say: “EMedia Investments acknowledges and accepts that the analogue transmitters which affect SA’s progress, and impacts on the already auctioned spectrum for the telcos, must be vacated as soon as possible. eMedia has provided a well researched proposal on how the migration could be done and how the spectrum affecting the telcos could be vacated almost immediately, subject to minimal approvals from Icasa (who have acknowledged and received eMedia’s application for approvals months ago), and which will allow the telcos to get on with the use of the spectrum. The proposal was not taken seriously and there was no alternative but to approach the court.”

Sherrif said that for the sake of Free To Air television and the millions of people that would have been affected by a ‘hard switch-off’: “We are pleased that the Constitutional Court heard our plea. We were never against the analogue switch-off. We believe that a planned strategy for digital migration will have many benefits for all South Africans. We are looking forward to working with the minister and her department to agree on a meaningful and measured approach to systematically implement the migration without delay, not only to allow the viewing public sufficient time to switch over to a digital solution for TV viewing, but also for the telcos to use the spectrum allocated to them for the benefit of the country, as earmarked by the President in his SONA of 2021”

SABC Encore Being Used As A Catch-Up Channel For Live Sports, Could This Be A Possible Hint On What To Expect From The Possible Revival?

Two years ago, SABC Encore ceased transmission on MultiChoice's DStv and since then several developments involving the channel went down. From hosting a memorial service for Tshepo Tsola to broadcasting CAF games all this coming from revamped SABC Encore channel.

It's evident that the public broadcaster hasn't given up on the brand and believe it could be of value to other consumers than it was on DStv as they've left a spot open for the channel on DTT and distribute the pop-up on TelkomOne.

As mentioned much earlier, SABC Encore broadcasted CAF games and a memorial service, content which is not that old as seen before with DStv customers so could it be possible that maybe the revival will be slightly different.

Instead of rehashing content from the 80s to 00s, SABC Encore will be no different to the Rewind channel currently packaged on the Openview platform which supplies content that has already or is currently being viewed on other stations.

Also read:
- SABC will launch more HD channels and streaming service
- SABC Encore and SABC Children channel might be in development for Openview
- The Vow coming soon to Zee One
- Indian horror Dayan, Destructive Beauty has a release date on eExtra
- eToonz needs these improvements
- Could eNCA launch on Openview?
- Should eReality merge with News And Sport?
- Why Openview has more Indian content?
- Doodsondes returning for a fourth season on eExtra
- Saloni and East Meets West coming soon to SABC 2
- Dokter Ali S2 coming in April to eExtra

Not too long ago, Rewind was more like SABC Encore but with a mixture of both local and international programming. As years went by, it became a catch-up channel kind of like eMedia's other brands eToonz.

Repeats don't often get high ratings especially if you live in 2022 where you have a brand like SABC 1 broadcast content from the time it was simply known as TV1. It's the reason you don't see Rewind airing old series like Madam & Eve and Backstage.

In the next financial period, the public broadcaster plans to launch more HD channels one of which possibly being SABC Encore as they did broadcast CAF and who'd want to watch that in poor quality. Time will only tell if this revival would be of any use to consumers or be treated in the same manner as its DStv counterpart.

Also read:
- What to possibly expect on SABC's streaming service?
- eVOD free data promotion was meant to end in January
- Balaji Telefilms unveils new content possibly for Glow TV, Zee One, eExtra and Star Life
- SABC wants to launch a second sports channel
- The Estate could be on the chopping block
- News And Sport set to go off air on Openview by the end of March
- Could Zee One be rebranding soon?
- The Homemaker, The Accidental Mayor and Happily Ever After coming soon to Star Life
- No free eVOD data on MTN
- A Promise Of Love coming soon to Glow TV
- Racing240 expands to Openview this April

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SABC Has Seemingly Begun Work On Another Channel, SABC Parliament

SABC Parliament was one of the 18 channels SABC promised to have on DTT alongside SABC Education and SABC Sport back in 2012 before failing to materialize due to government delayed switch from analogue to digital terrestrial television.

In 2018, this unfunded channel was purposed once again alongside other unfunded channels at the time such as SABC Sport, SABC Education, SABC Health and SABC History.

Three years went by since anyone has last heard about the channel now it seems like SABC Parliament will actually get the light of the day as the public broadcaster begun testing the channel on their DTT platforms and LyngSat.

Similar to The Parliament Channel on DStv, SABC Parliament will offer coverage of central government proceedings and other public affairs programming.

Considering that the main parliamentary channel on DStv I'm assuming this one will rehash whatever is on there as well as offer exclusive content which is similar to what's already being viewed on the main channel.

As mentioned earlier, this channel is unfunded and SABC can't cover the expenses unless another party rescues them. They already got Telkom to assist with SABC Education and eMedia Investments joins them with SABC Sport while MultiChoice covers the expenses for SABC News. All service providers handle their 19 radio stations.

The struggling broadcaster hopes to launch a second sports channel and are likely sticking to their unfunded DTT plans for 2018 which are SABC Health and History on top of the two long awaited entertainment channels for Openview which might have been unveiled too soon.

They currently have an ongoing case with pay platforms with regards to TV licence and carriage fees for SABC 1-3. Not saying this issue affects the launch of their additional channels but they can't afford to exclude them if they wanted to.

Read Also:
- Only SABC knows when SABC Education will launch on DStv and StarSat and this is coming from both pay-tv platforms
- The Goldbergs coming soon to e.tv
- Kamer 309 coming soon to eExtra
- Could Star Life and Rewind be the first channels to go off air on Openview?
- What we might expect from SABC's streaming service?
- Could Star Plus and Star Life be rebranding soon?
- Other shows coming soon to eToonz?
- Nickelodeon returns to e.tv 
- SABC planning to reduce Muvhango