The two big boys of broadcasting — the SABC and M-Net — are at last starting to do something about that great thing called local content.
Starting at 9:07pm tonight on CCV is a locally-produced soap opera called Generations.
This makes a change for the channel which has traditionally restricted locally produced dramas to the timeslot from 6 to 9pm.
The 52-episode drama is a multilingual effort starring, among others, Sello Maake Ka Ncube.
The soapie has all the ingredients of Loving, plus a local touch — like the demise of Sophiatown and an entrepreneur who makes it by fronting for white-owned businesses in Soweto.
While CCV enters the world of soap operas, M-Net is going for the less bitchy side of life. Last year the pay channel embarked on a project to sponsor ‘formerly disadvantaged scriptwriters and directors” — and it has just sprouted its first flower.
New Directions: The Rhythm of Our Lives is a four-part series produced on a budget of R1-million.
On Sunday the first of the four programmes, The Children and I, will be shown at 8pm.
The 50-minute drama was scripted by Bhekizizwe Peterson, a lecturer in the African literature department at the University of the Witwatersrand, and directed by Kenneth Kaplan.
The remaining three dramas will be shown at the same time over the next three weeks.