SABC3’s ratings have never been better. It has spent the last year or so fighting with M-Net for viewers -and now it has a narrow lead. But that doesn’t mean the war is over:the battle for the upper end of the market continues, and that’s good news for South African television viewers as each station struggles to capture the most compelling programmes.
In the 12 years in which public and commercial TV have co-existed in this country, the entertainment market has never been more buoyant. Between them, competitors SABC3 and M-Net have acquired the best foreign material they could lay their hands on -and viewers, who now demand more from both private and public television, have some excellent shows to look forward to.
Since its launch, graduating from NNTVin 1996, SABC3 has emerged as a very handsome creature indeed, rouged with an eclectic mix of current affairs, the best in American imports, an outstanding collection of British drama, a growing selection of South African drama and superb documentaries.
M-Net played it cool, and then pre-empted SABC3 when it reshuffled its schedule for the third time in the middle of last year, slipping in its own changes. Thinking young and sexy, M-Net’s answer to SABC3’s American family pulp (Dr Quinn Medicine Woman, Touched by an Angel) included the high-class pulp of Friends and the cheeky voyeur Ruby Wax. But SABC3’s pulp won. (It’s a pity that, in its ads comparing its improved figures with those of M-Net, SABC3 managed to get the numbers a little wrong even as it pointed out it had matched the pay channel for viewers.)
M-Net had always lit the path forward, continously scooping the opposition – especially with adrenalin-pumping British wildlife documentaries and global-interest events like the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards. Now it faces the unappetising prospect that it may soon be able to lick SABC3 in movies and sport only.
It is essential to remember, however, that a comparison between M-Net and SABC3 means comparing pay-TV’s necessarily smaller audience with a nominally free public TV service which is expanding its national footprint all the time. Yet while M-Net’s All Media Products Survey (Amps) ratings appear to look disappointing in terms of subscriber figures, SABC3’s numbers have climbed with phenomenal speed from a very small base in 1996.
Audience ratings show that a glossy film like Mission: Impossible on M-Net attracted 600 000 adult subscribers, a figure exceeded by SABC3’s favourite show, The Naked Truth, which draws more than 700 000 fans. It is in Open Time that M-Net continues to lure its highest number of viewers – many of them not subscribers -with flashy sitcoms like Fresh Prince of Bel Air and Married with Children pulling up to 600 000 adults.
Observers wonder what would happen to the pay channel’s ratings if Open Time ceased to exist, as has been mooted for a number of years. It is believed, though, that M-Net would be able to sustain itself without legislative protection of the free window. (See story below for more on Open Time.)
SABC3, meanwhile, is smirking with pride at being able to announce a total viewership of 4 324-million South Africans. (Amps shows viewership from July to December 1997 at 3 022-million for SABC3 and 2 658-million for M-Net.)
At a garden party to celebrate the launch of Avenues, SABC3’s first weekly South African soap (ses story below), its staff were optimistic even as controversy raged over the Green Paper on broadcasting, which could signal the end of the channel as we know it.
Apart from Avenues, SABC3’s garden party introduced the media to a helium-tight comedy line-up for autumn along with its collection of dramas, music specials and documentaries. There are new seasons of Frasier, Mad about You, Men Behaving Badly and Newsradio as well as shows fresh to our screens such as Rowan Atkinson’s hilarious police comedy The Thin Blue Line, George Segal’s Just Shoot Me and, best news of all, the Golden Globe-winning Ally McBeal, which is bonfire-high news in the United States.
Dramas are headlined by a new season of The Knock, one of SABC3’s biggest sellers since relaunch, and an unusual British fantasy series called Neverwhere. Music specials open the curtains on Riverdance, The Bee Gees, David Bowie and spectacular footage of Pink Floyd, U2 and The Rolling Stones in Staged: The Architecture of Pop Concerts. Documentaries include six new titles in the extraordinary Reputations series from the BBC, more National Geographic Specials and a South African two-parter called Death which has already attracted lucrative attention from abroad.
There’s also a new game show starting on the channel, which is a clever choice for 6.30pm on Saturdays. Wipe Out is an international franchise with general-knowledge questions tailored to suit different territories. Produced by South African quiz expert Jeni Lister, Wipe Out contestants have already been selected after obscenely strict testing and there’s little doubt its big cash prizes will lure the audience.
By contrast, M-Net’s autumn line-up offers a dazzling retort in Kirstie Alley’s new comedy Veronica’s Closet, Nick Park’s three fabulous Wallace and Gromit short films, return seasons of Cosby, Cracker, Beverly Hills 90210, Friends, Birds of a Feather and Ruby Wax, the 12th Annual Comedy Awards, a new five-part eco-series on islands, Floyd’s Fjord Fiesta and Tracey Ullman Takes On.
While the programming could present a remote-control nightmare, M-Net is not expecting to catch up to SABC3’s current across-the-board viewership because of its limitations as a pay TV service with less than three million subscribers. It is, however, looking to compete for ratings among viewers in the upper-income/well-educated bracket – the audience shared and desired by both channels. And with a new free-to-air TV service in the offing with the same winning brief – lots of entertainment and a bit of information – the ratings are going to ever more important.
M-Net’s continent-wide profile is of critical importance to the channel, as are strategic alliances with distribution companies. Its hold on the market, also through niche channels like Movie Magic, SuperSport, the upcoming Series Channel and Channel O, needs to be secured along both routes. Meanwhile, SABC3’s commitment to local content means increased programming costs for the channel as the rights for sought-after American and British material rocket as a result of competition. But the broad cost-cutting at the SABC and consolidation of national programmes to maintain only those which make money has allowed SABC3 to expand its market share.
Let the games begin!