The SABC is considering commissioning a business programme from Times Media Limited. Is this a poor reflection of the broadcaster’s own economics desk? Jacquie Golding-Duffy reports
The SABC, with no immediate plans to develop its own business show, is considering commissioning a new business programme from Times Media Limited (TML), whose Business Day Tonight contract expires at the end of June.
SABC 3 general manager Louis Raubenheimer says the SABC will not be renewing the contract of TML’s Business Day Tonight – the first nightly independent business news television programme aired on SABC 3 – but will possibly be entering into a new contract with the newspaper house.
Some sources within the industry say it is the broadcaster’s failure to rebuild and improve its own economic desk that has spurred its decision in favour of TML.
However, Television News Production (TNP) editor-in-chief Joe Thloloe says this is not the case: “Although there are no immediate plans to develop a half-hour business show ourselves, the SABC is in the process of strengthening and rebuilding its economics team.”
But critics within the SABC are adamant that failed attempts to cover business news have forced the broadcaster to abandon plans of having a full-blown economics programme of its own.
Thloloe, however, stressed that the offer from TML is “being considered” and if it was accepted, this should not be regarded as a poor reflection on the SABC’s own economics team.
Some within the SABC argue that an in-house programme would focus more on economic and labour issues and the impact the market has on the person in the street, while Business Day Tonight caters for the “upper strata of business and corporate people”.
While there has been more business news coverage on both the 8pm and 10pm news bulletins, media observers see the role of Business Day Tonight as supplementing the SABC’s news programmes rather than challenging and competing with its short snippets of business news produced in-house.
Earlier plans to pull the plug on the joint venture by TML’s Business Day newspaper and Financial Times (FT) Television were sparked by a SABC policy which prohibits outside sponsors from paying for the production of news and actuality programmes, as is being done by Trust Bank for Business Day Television.
Business Day Tonight was set to be ditched by the SABC after its contract expired unless it was able to get around the sponsorship issue.
According to Raubenheimer the issue of sponsorship “has been sorted out”.
SABC, at the time, felt it was jeopardising its editorial control by allowing outside sponsorship of programmes, but agreement has been reached between TML and the SABC that the new contract will not be commercially sponsored.
“It is not a matter of adapting the sponsorship to provide for editorial control. We at the SABC are going to commission a programme from outside and this ensures that the editorial control lies entirely with the SABC,” Raubenheimer says.
TML electronic media director Neil Jacobsohn says although the SABC understands the “value and credibility of the Business Day and Financial Times logos”, it was agreed that the show will be redesigned and the Business Day Tonight logo will be replaced by a generic business logo.
“The SABC is commissioning us to produce a business show and they are paying us a fee to do this,” Jacobsohn said. He adds that although there will be no commercial sponsorship of the programme, standard advertising before and after the show will continue as usual.
Business Day Tonight is a wrap-up of the day’s business and economic news events. Besides the local news provided by Business Day, a tailored feed of international news relevant to South African business people is prepared daily for viewers by FT Television.
Jacobsohn says there are plans to expand the somewhat lean staff complement and generally improve the look of the show.
Raubenheimer says talks between the parties are proceeding to finalise the contract price and finer details of the new contract. “A decision still has to be made as to whether the SABC is going to buy the programme as an entire package from TML or whether production is going to be in-house or outside,” he said.
Jacobsohn says it is likely that TML will rent the SABC’s production facilities providing the price is reasonable and that the entire business show will still be produced by the Business Day Tonight team.
“The contract price for a year also has to be finalised,” he said.
Thloloe says there are “no immediate plans” by the public broadcaster to launch a half-hour show of its own, because it did not yet have the manpower, among other factors.
Jacobsohn says TML offered a year ago to train SABC staffers in business news coverage, but the broadcaster has failed to respond to the offer.
“We offered to train potential business reporters in the Business Day newsroom and the Financial Times has also agreed to host a couple of reporters in its studios in London, but the SABC has not yet accepted our offer,” Jacobsohn said.
Thloloe says the reason for not taking up the TML offer was because the economics desk is “thinly stretched” and the SABC cannot afford to release any of its journalists for training.