Ferial Haffajee and Janet Smith
The figures alone are enough to make you square-eyed. Together seven bidders for this country’s first national private and free television service have laid out R2.1- million to apply for a licence and each claims to have already spent between R2 and R3-million to finance the biggest media race yet run. Licence hearings for the new station begin on Monday in Johannesburg. That is small change though when you look at the projected revenue the seven bidders predict — an average of R400-million by the year 2000.
It’s no wonder then that almost every prominent businessperson, media personality, trade union investment and media company has climbed aboard the TV train. There’s money to be made if the new station is well-run and, for the first time, both the SABC and M-Net are going to face competition.
This licence will create the most influential black-owned media company around. The Independent Broadcasting Authority also wants demonstrable black management control. For viewers it offers a free service (no licence or subscription fee) and fresh local programming. By the end of March the IBA will complete its biggest task yet when it decides which of the seven bidders becomes South Africa’s newest TV magnate.
The new station must have news, current affairs, drama and other local content, plus children’s programming.
Here we examine the seven bidders.
Free to Air
The mastermind behind this bid is Quentin Green, the former SABC TV head. With decades of hands-on experience, Green has a solid commercial bias, a necessary attribute for a station which will survive or flounder on market (read advertising) support. Free to Air’s big selling point is that it has drawn together the country’s major media players, black and white.
Shareholders & management: Fifty seven percent of the company’s shares are in the hands of the “historically disadvantaged”, which includes blacks and women. These include a 17,75% holding by the Free to Air empowerment company. The shares in this company have been reserved for Kagiso Media which was last year excluded by court order from being part of any TV bid for a year. Other significant black owners are Welcome Msomi’s company Sasani Communication, Anant Singh’s Videovision and Dali Tambo’s African Dream Television. Providing financial muscle are Primedia, which has 16,5% of the shares, and Nedcor with 5,75%. The consortium has earmarked 13 local senior managers to run the station. Eight are black and three women.
Foreign partner: Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation is part of this bid via the 5% taken by Fox Sports. The United Kingdom- based United News and Media, which runs Britain’s Channel 3 and Channel 5, has taken a 15% stake. The two companies will serve as consultants and provide training opportunities; they will not be employed as managers.
On the box: Programming on Free to Air is the brainchild of Brenda Koorneef, formerly of the SABC where she brought path-breaking documentaries on to Aunty SABC for the first time. Free to air will offer hourly news headlines, featuring “the latest breaking news” in the mould of CNN and Gauteng’s Radio 702. It has bought the rights to the Bigger Breakfast Show and will devote mid-morning to women viewers. In the afternoon, children produce their own programmes via a company called Kids in Control. Local dramas Koorneef would put on the box include a televised version of Madam & Eve, and Tilly’s, a series set in a shebeen. The station will take on M-Net with its promise of 72 hours of sports every week.
Midi Television
This bid is an interesting mix of labour muscle, showbiz glitz and former homeland broadcasting expertise. Its core funding is provided by the biggest trade union investment companies while a plethora of staffers formerly from Bop-TV serve in senior posts; Bop-TV’s former head Jonathan Procter will serve as MD of e.tv — the name under which it will broadcast — and another Bop-TV staffer, Richard Magau, will be his deputy.
Shareholding and management: Twenty-five percent of the shares are owned by Hosken Consolidated Investments, the company owned by the investment arms of the South African Clothing and Textile Workers Union and the National Union of Mineworkers. Other union companies also feature; black business is represented through a Nafcoc holding while black producers also have significant influence. e-tv’s white managers will train and mentor a more representative layer of managers. They will serve for “a limited term”.
Foreign partner: Time Warner Entertainment owns 20% of Midi’s shares. A subsidiary of Time Warner, Midi has arguably scooped the glossiest foreign partner. “We’ve got a partner with the biggest movie library in the world,” says David Niddrie, who will head news at e.tv and who was previously head of the SABC’s strategic planning unit. Midi as the local partner has rights (though not exclusive rights) to Time Warner’s products, including CNN and Cartoon Network as well as the top sitcoms.
On the box: e.tv. plans to begin broadcasting at 5am to cater for early risers. It will feature news headlines in Nguni and Sotho. Its breakfast show between 6am and 8am will be news- and information- driven and not entertainment-based. At mid- morning it will run repeat broadcasts, soaps and education programmes aimed at distance learners. Prime-time viewing will feature news and current affairs programming with locally produced dramas and a local soap on the drawing board.
Station for the Nation
This consortium — abbreviated to SFTN — has drawn the cream of black business into its fold though it doesn’t have extensive local broadcasting expertise.
Shareholders and management: Thirty percent of the shares in SFTN are owned by the SFTN Trust. The trust is an umbrella body for Ten Alliance Holdings (which has shareholders in each province), Indyebo (an investment company of top black professionals including Thami Mazwai, Wiseman Nkuhlu and Dumisa Ntsebeza) and several women’s investment companies. Other major shareholders include Thebe Investments’ media arm, Moribo, as well as Kersaf. Management is likely to initially be drawn extensively from the foreign partner Nine Network. “We will oversee the emergence of capable, black professionals in the industry through turn-key projects,” says bid leader Vusi Khanyile.
Foreign partner: Australian Kerry Packer’s Nine Network has a 20% share. The company has commercial TV interests, and is involved in magazine publishing, satellite broadcasting and motion-picture production.
On the box: SFTN is a little coy about its programming schedule. Details are scant though Khanyile says its production budget of R7000.00 a minute will ensure quality programming.
SFTN has a healthy news budget and is also considering quiz shows and local dramas. Its news product is less innovative than other bidders: SFTN only plans two 30- minute bulletins a day. This bid is most serious about regional diversity and it is likely to feature independent regional programmes.
Afrimedia
The most important personality behind Afrimedia’s R5-million bid is Cawe Mahlati, acting chief executive of the Bop Broadcasting Corporation. With a reputation for putting up a damn good fight since she appeared as M-Net’s frontperson in the IBA’s Triple Enquiry in 1995, Mahlati appears to have had her eye on commercial television since she left the pay channel and lobbied ferociously for the top job at Bop.
Shareholders and station management: Three women’s organisations — the North West Women’s Investment Company (which has a strategic alliance with development group Emmang Basali), the national Black Housewives League and the KwaZulu-Natal- based National Association for Woman Empowerment — feature prominently in the list of shareholders. Telecommunications workers are also represented through the JSE-listed Maxtel Limited — in which the Communications Workers’ Union has shares — and Information Technology and Telecommunications’s black staff. Other shareholders are the Youth Investment Portfolio Trust, Masimo and Safika. Station management, which has largely been recruited, is dominated by women.
Foreign partners: Flashy international backers have never been Mahlati’s style, and there are none involved in the bid. Mahlati says: “Our total strength and expertise lies here. This is a golden opportunity to create our own jewel, to show what we’ve got in South Africa.”
On the box: Savannah Maziya, owner of the communications company Prestige Portfolio, is in charge of programming — a post which also encompasses the news division. Afrimedia says it will follow the reality of the Amps ratings in deciding content, which will include an hour of news per day with 30 minutes in prime time, 14 hours of “information” programming (including current affairs) per week, 12 hours of children’s programming per week and three hours of drama, mostly in primetime. It is aiming for 30% local content.
Community TV Network
Community Television Network’s public face is its chairman, Moss Leoka, who has worked with chief executive officer Vanessa du Plessis for two years on the bid. Du Plessis was previously involved in niche TV channels relayed on tape.
Shareholders and station management: Formerly known as CNA Gallo Ltd, the JSE- listed Millennium Entertainment Group Africa Ltd (Mega) — ultimately owned by Johnnic — acquired 14,9% of CTN’s equity in a deal valued at R68,7-million, which is the maximum cross-media investment portion allowed in local television by the IBA Act. Other shareholders include Sanlam/Genbel (20%) and CTN Television Holdings (11%), with 68% of shareholding allocated to previously disadvantaged groups including NGOs, student groups, stokvels and churches. Du Plessis says CTN is “still searching for some key positions”, but the management aim is “mentorship and internship, to put locals in top positions or shadow positions”.
Foreign partners: The sole foreign involvement is with Canada’s United Television Holdings (5,2%), who Du Plessis describes as “experts in producing local programming in emerging markets and establishing training for locals in those markets”. UTV has links with Rupert Murdoch’s Newscorp.
On the box: Du Plessis’s office has designed the programming grid in conjuction with UTV and is described by CTN as including a lot of first-release South African drama — “more than 11 hours per week” — and plenty of in-depth local, regional and national news. CTN will use a multichannel approach, allowing the national channel to split simultaneously into nine regional windows and 30 local windows via satellite, which some competitors call overly ambitious.
New Channel TV
Led by veteran print journalist Arthur Maimane, New Channel is the youngest bid which has managed to attract significant business interest. Shareholders and management: The National Empowerment Corporation as well as a company owned by Herdbuoys managing director Peter Vundla and talk-show host Felicia Mabuza-Suttle. Its foreign partner is likely to initially take a strong hand in the running of the station.
Foreign partner: Television France One, a privatised French channel with experience at setting up stations in Africa and Asia. On the box: Scant programming details at present but New Channel has committed itself in its bid documents to 40% local content initially, double the IBA’s requirement.
Island Television
The Island in this bid is Robben Island. Shareholders include returned exiles, ex- political prisoners as well as media professionals.
Shareholders and management: The bid is led by Peter-Paul Ngwenya. Major shareholders include the Makana Trust which has shares in two commercial radio stations and Cosatu’s investment arm, Kopano ke Matla. Ngwenya says “This station will be owned, financed and managed by blacks.”
Foreign partner: A Swedish media group called the Modern Times Group which is a long-time funder of various organisations in South Africa and TLI Broadcasting in the United Kingdom.
On the box: Island Television will have a larger spread of language coverage than other bidders. It will make extensive use of sub-titling and will use mixed language programmes which its research has shown is a popular kind of television. Island is promising 28% local content at the end of its second year of broadcasting, more than the 20% which the IBA has set down. In eight years time, it promises that half of its programming will be locally produced.