TV viewers can expect radical changes in their watching habits, writes a Weekly Mail reporter
THE South African Broadcasting Corporation is thoroughly revising what viewers see on their screens and the three TV channels as we know them are likely to disappear within weeks.
The current NNTV signal — which serves only metropolitan areas — will be used for a new, entirely commercial, purely entertainment channel. This will generate revenue to subsidise the other two channels, which will provide a non-profit public broadcaster service on the current TV1 and CCV national networks. Most city dwellers will get all three channels. But those outside the cities will not get the pure entertainment channel.
The changes are coming just months before the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) is due to announce changes which could see the national broadcaster losing one or more of its three channels.
David Niddrie, head of strategic planning at the corporation, said there were “major scheduled changes – – huge in some cases”. He added that the changes could start happening within weeks, rather than months, but it was premature to disclose what form the changes might take.
However, one highly-placed source in the SABC suggested that the changes could follow the plan which the SABC submitted to the IBA in December, outlining how the corporation could transformed itself into an accountable and financially viable public broadcaster. This plan envisages the pure entertainment channel on the smallest signal, NNTV, and the sharing of public- service obligations on the other two wider-reaching
Niddrie said it would be unrealistic for the SABC to stagnate: “We can’t sit on our thumbs for six months waiting for the IBA to rule.”
He hinted, however, that the SABC would have to avoid changing in such a way that the adjustments would have to be reversed after the release later this year of the IBA’s inquiry into the public broadcaster.IBA councillor John Mattison said that while there was no question of the SABC spreading on to new channels, there was no reason why the corporation should not change its programme structure before the IBA report is released later this year. “The SABC is not necessarily pre-empting us,” he said.
He did not rule out the possibility that a new-look programme schedule might allow the IBA to look more favourably on the corporation, provided that the changes facilitated the SABC’s functioning as an effective public broadcaster.