/ 24 December 1996

SABC’s tough year ahead

The newly appointed SABC board has a harder task than its predecessors, warn media industry observers: to salvage the broadcaster from the brink of bankruptcy.

The SABC will also have to improve its programme content and deliver audiences as promised if it wants advertisers to convince their clients to use it as a viable advertising medium.

Saatchi & Saatchi Klerck & Barrett chief executive William Leach says a greater deal of professionalism is required in South Africa for the SABC to compete on a world stage.

“The SABC is not going to have it easy. It has to increase its performance levels if it wants to continue attracting advertising.

“Poor audiences coupled with unsold advertising time does not bode well for the public broadcaster. Also, increased competition with the launch of a new terrestrial television station next year, thriving M-Net and Multi-Choice competitors and several failed attempts at launching Astrasat do not create a good impression of the SABC to potential clients for the new year,” he says.

Lindsay Smithers-FCB media director Tony Banahan agrees: “The SABC is not commercially driven and to compensate for its financial difficulties it will probably increase its rates for advertisers,” he says.

However, should this rate hike occur without the SABC improving its performance levels, advertisers will continue to flock to M-Net which, Banahan points out, consistently delivers good audiences from upper income brackets.

“M-Net is often sold out of advertising time despite its high rates, but, although the SABC seems to be more cost-effective, its poor programming fails to deliver audiences – which in turn forces advertisers to put their money where audiences are being delivered, taking millions of rands away from the SABC’s coffers.”

Satellite, he says, is not yet a viable option as the number of viewers is not as large as that provided by the public broadcaster, and does not allow for mass audience products to be sold.

Di Dolbey, media director from Net#Work advertising agency, disagrees. She says satellite will prove a tough competitor against the SABC because of its high quality of programmes.

“A lot of people are saying that satellite audiences are still small but this medium will become more affordable next year with decoders being sold at cost. This will then steal from SABC’s audiences,” she says.

Although general audiences at the SABC won’t grow, Dolbey believes black audiences, especially viewers of SABC 1, are likely to grow in 1997.

“The average number of minutes of viewing time by audiences is down despite the availability of more choices on SABC television. People are becoming more selective and obviously fragmentation is taking place, which also does not bode well for the SABC.”

Dolbey believes the expected discontinuance of M-Net’s open time (between 5 and 7pm) – it’s being reviewed by the Independent Broadcasting Authority – could benefit the public broadcaster in 1997 as audiences will be forced to watch SABC television programmes unless they buy a decoder.

On advertising, she does not expect the SABC to do well next year as media budgets are not keeping step with inflation, forcing advertisers to spend less and be more cautious about where they put their money.

“Also, with television not delivering to Afrikaans viewers, advertisers are looking elsewhere to put their money.”

Radio, she says, will also cut into the ever-shrinking advertising pie as advertisers now have to consider the new commercial licences which will be issued next year. “Apart from channel 1, SABC faces a tough year overall with audiences unlikely to increase.”

Freedom of Expression Institute (FXI) chair Raymond Louw also believes that the public broadcaster is facing severe financial constraints as well as frustrated viewers.

The new board, he says, faces a more difficult task as there is little continuity from the old membership, with only five of the former board members having been re-nominated to serve on the new board.

“There is a disproportionate number of new faces on the board which will force all members to re-acquaint themselves with the workings of the public broadcaster,” he says.

With the advent of a new television licence to be issued and the continual mushrooming of commercial radio stations, competition against the SABC is heightening and will place pressure on the industry’s limited advertising.

Financial pressure will also come to bear on the SABC because of the non-payment of licence fees, says Louw. It is, he says, largely owing to a culture of non-payment which is a hangover from the African National Congress’s defiance campaign days.

“We at the FXI feel that it is a wasted exercise on behalf of the SABC to try and pander to advertisers and attempt to collect licence fees at the same time.”

Why? ”Because trying to meet the needs of advertisers will only skew the role of the SABC. It will become less of a representative public broadcaster and more of a commercial entity.

”The money spent on trying to get viewers to pay licence fees is futile as many other dissatisfied viewers have cottoned on that non-payment is an effective and cheap means of protest.”

Louw also argues that the mandate of catering for all 11 indigenous languages is questionable as the formerly “happy-go-lucky idea that people will surf after programmes in their home language has not happened.

“I think the SABC has to realise viewers do not have the patience to chase after programmes and channel-hopping is exceedingly frustrating for most. In the new year, the SABC is going to have great difficulty in contending with audiences’ dissatisfied reactions.”

One media analyst believes that Louw’s assumptions of frustrated viewers are spot-on.

“Channel-hopping with one’s remote control tends to detract from viewers actually enjoying the services provided by the SABC. This makes for increasing disgruntled audiences who in turn refuse to pay licences.”

On the SABC’s bungled attempts at launching Astrasat this year, he said the analogue project is likely to be abandoned next year owing to lack of interest after Multi-Choice cornered the market with its digital services.

”DStv will reach a target of about 140 000 homes next year, allowing advertisers to target the top end of the market, while the SABC will still be battling to get Astrasat properly off the ground. All-in-all, a bleak year lies ahead for it unless it vigorously evaluates its operation.”

Despite its extravagant relaunch earlier this year, the SABC has a long way to go before its rainbow nation audiences join in the singing of its Simunye tune. Some advertisers and audiences remain unimpressed with our new-look public broadcaster and 1997 may prove to be the year of reckoning for it.