Two years ago, the public broadcaster introduced SABC Education a free-to-air channel currently available on SABC's streaming service SABC+ and DTT platforms. Thereafter came the official launch of eMedia's top 10 channels on Openview, SABC Sport.
eMedia Investments and the SABC promised their consumers three yet to be launched channels of which one currently resides on the Openview platform which is the already mentioned SABC Sport but further details of the other two channels remain a mystery.
During that fast for new SABC channels, the public broadcaster had been experimenting on two channels SABC Encore and SABC Children with SABC Parliament going through development hell as further testing had reportedly been 80% to 95% finished.
SABC Parliament and SABC Children were part of the public broadcaster's failed DTT plans while one was stuck on development hell the other alongside SABC Education had been streaming on the Tuluntulu app for sometime.
SABC Encore had a controversial time on the DStv platform in which talks of a revival were still underway as a space has still been reserved for the brand on 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
The public broadcaster seeking to reinvent themselves scrapped SABC Parliament for a multilingual news channel which carries current affairs. The same content they want to burden off on SABC 2 to not make it look like an S3 duplicate.
To top it off, they still have schedule disruptions with the current 3 SABC channels when live matches are on despite the existence of SABC Sport which was meant to rectify that and will continue to do so unless possibly analogue kicks the can.
With the launch of this upcoming news channel, one has to wonder what has or what will become of the tested SABC Encore and SABC Children. Several tests have been done for a possible new channel and it's uncertain if these are the channels they opt to have onboard.
eMedia Investments is waiting on 2 more channels with MultiChoice waiting on 3 to replace the red brand's channels which are bundled on their platforms for 6 months due to court proceedings.
If this new channel happens to be one of the new channels for both brands it means both consumers are awaiting for just 1 channel.
SABC:
- Could SABC Encore revival be scrapped?
- A former SABC channel was added onto Openview
- SABC Movies' dream journal
- SABC Education not launching on Openview
As mentioned, SABC Education had been active for 2 years and talks for the channel have been under wraps as both MultiChoice and StarSat have finalised the necessary details about the channel and even reserved space for the brand on their platforms.
I doubt the channel is coming to Openview as the deal was for SABC Sport and two other channels. I mean I don't see any reason why they couldn't have added SABC Education much earlier if it was the second channel consumers were awaiting for.
As for MultiChoice, they don't seem at all interested in acquiring SABC Sport as they already have SABC Education running through the test channel section and why would they want a channel like SABC Sport that might as well force more consumers to downgrade.
Taking that to account, it means both eMedia Investments and MultiChoice are waiting for one more channel which could be SABC Encore, SABC Children or whatever remains of either channel but the likelihood is that SABC Children had been scrapped.
An SABC 1 test card had been registered and often consumers on Openview and the former TelkomOne streaming service had spotted the SABC Encore banner on the most watched channel in South Africa which is all the more reason to believe SABC Children is dead.
The public broadcaster was more hyped about reviving SABC Encore as opposed to launching a preschool addition to SABC Education. SABC Encore even had a dedicated kids block so either way SABC Children would still be a thing even if not through a channel.
Adult and families dominate television households and even kids latch onto that lifestyle but change the roles you find only a portion of adults would watch something like JimJam. It's not that kids entertainment is performing poorly its just that some audiences prefer more mature content.
