SABC TVs programming is about to undergo a facelift. Ferial Haffajee reports
The whittling and tweaking of programming at the SABC will soon bring big changes to television current affairs. October offers two new evening programmes and two hours of breakfast television each week day, while the Truth Commission Special Report will double in length.
The SABC has also scooped broadcaster Chris Gibbons who used to be with Gautengs Radio 702 to host a new programme called Newshour, which goes on air on October 16.
Previously Gibbons had been barred from taking the top news anchor job on SAfms morning radio programme AMLive by a restraint of trade clause contained in his retrenchment package with Primedia.
The programme he will now host will follow the 10pm news bulletin on SABC1 on a Thursday and will offer a basket of news, discussion and mini-documentaries.
The SABCs head of current affairs, Sarah Crowe, says the slot is late but popular. The new schedules are about ratings and revenue, she said this week.
Theres a similar profit motive behind the The Breakfast Club, the programme that has risen from the ashes of the old Good Morning South Africa. It airs on SABC2 from October 6 and executive producer Cal Kennedy calls his new baby Yo-TV for adults. Shot in a coffee-shop set, the programme is not for news and information junkies. People get up and want to be entertained, says Kennedy. Were staying away from hard news.
The new profit-driven SABC also means that the programme will stick far closer to what advertisers want from the SABC. From now on, breakfast television will be broadcast only in English.
Its widely held that GMSA audience ratings bit the dust because the previous television news management insisted on multi-lingual news broadcasts.
Modelled on Britains Big Breakfast on Channel 4, the local version will be 60% live with interviews, outside broadcasts and many live competitions.
The Breakfast Club is going to be pure entertainment and occasionally Kennedy makes it sound like an extended version of game show Zama Zama. Sponsors and advertisers are grabbing slots like hot- cakes.
Support has been very strong. Theyre happy to see were not confrontational, says Kennedy. Two daily competitions are likely to be a big draw-card for the programme necessary because its not easy attracting viewers in the morning when radio is generally a more convenient medium to listen to.
Ten presenters clad in jeans and takkies will host the programme, though Kennedys rather coy about the target audience: South Africans from eight to 80, he says.
But research has found that people watch morning television in 20- minute slots and the Breakfast Club will vie for distinct audiences every half hour.
The programme hopes to score an audience rating of six, which equals about 720 000 viewers.
Meanwhile, the Truth Commission Special Reports ratings consistently outshine the countrys most popular programmes, including the news and Americas funniest home videos.
Crowe says: This shows that the great majority of the country wants to know how the bits of the puzzle of this countrys history fit together. Also on the cards is a new international programme called Worldwatch, while Q&A, Focus on One and Focus on Africa will be cut to make way for the new-look programmes.
In other developments, entertainment programming changes on SABC2 and SABC3 from October 1 also indicate a clear shift towards an even more commercial approach.
Prime-time will be devoted almost entirely to entertainment which means more contemporary movies, dramas and sitcoms.