Despite two parliamentary hearings on racism in advertising since November 2001, new research confirms that “white” media continue to garner a disproportionate share of South Africa’s advertising revenue.
The implication of the research is that sustained inequality in spend prevents local media from painting a more realistic and inclusive picture of South African society.
Last Friday in Durban the broadcast industry was presented with the results of a research survey commissioned by the Department of Communications on the language and origin of prime-time television content. The survey, conducted by Hope Madikane-Otto Research and Consulting between September last year and February, included telling data on the link between programme popularity and advertising revenue.
Generations, the SABC1 soapie, emerges as South Africa’s most popular show across all channels. But the advertising revenue table sees SABC3’s English news in first place, followed by Big Brother (M-Net) and The Bold and the Beautiful (SABC1). Generations only comes in fourth on the money list.
SABC1 programmes Gazlam and Emzini Wezinsizwe rank fourth and sixth respectively on the ratings chart, yet neither features in the top 50 in advertising revenue. Controversial Yizo Yizo, also of SABC1, is ninth in popularity and is likewise short-changed.
The popular shows missing out on the money have a majority black audience. Advertising revenue inevitably affects content scheduling, which in turn affects the broader picture of society portrayed by the media.
Jane Gurney, research director of the prime time television survey, implicates the SABC’s advertising-dominated funding model.
Gurney comments that the public broadcasters in the United Kingdom and Australia depend on alternative funding mechanisms, so that a slight drop in advertising revenue will not knock a programme off the schedule. “In South Africa, advertising revenue has a very real effect on what gets on the airwaves,” she says.
Alum Mpofu, Gurney’s research partner and compiler of the ratings-revenue comparison, saves his indictment for the industry in general. “In any other country in the world the highest audience ratings attracts the highest revenue,” he insists.
The Media magazine’s September issue makes a similar point about the radio sector. Freelance journalist Donald Paul quotes Harry Herber, group managing director of The MediaShop, one of South Africa’s largest independent media placement houses, on the uneven relationship between the total spend of various radio stations’ audiences and the advertising revenue received by those stations.
Herber’s primary comparison pits Metro FM, the national commercial SABC station, with a majority black footprint, against 94.7 Highveld Stereo, Primedia Broadcasting’s regional “white” money-spinner.
His figures, taken from the 2002 AC Nielsen AdEx figures, show that the amount of money in the total pocket of Metro FM listeners is R8,64-billion a month, R3,5-billion a month more than the total pocket of Highveld listeners.
Even if the listeners were narrowed down to the LSM 6-10 bracket — the most affluent sector — the population of Metro FM listeners would have R6,18-billion a month compared to Highveld’s R5,02-billion.
Significantly, Metro FM’s advertising revenue for 2002 was only R138,3-million, compared to Highveld’s R156,2-million. Metro FM reaches 5,661-million listeners while Highveld reaches 1,107-million, according to RAMS figures last year.
“It annoys me that the station is used as an example of racism,” Terry Volkwyn, CEO of Primedia Broadcasting, told The Media magazine.
“We are highly regulated for transformation, empowerment and employment equity. Primedia is the only company to have fulfilled Icasa’s mandate regarding empowerment. Also, black listenership on Highveld has grown from 122 000 in 1996 to 304 000 in the latest RAMS.”
While the effectiveness of sales and marketing teams must be factored into these equations, there appear to be certain entrenched patterns in the advertising supply chain that benefit media brands perceived as white.
The first parliamentary hearings into racism in advertising, conducted in November 2001, looked at the issue of typical media planners — agency employees responsible for allocating the majority of South Africa’s R9-billion annual advertising spend.
Nkenke Kekana, then an ANC MP and chairperson of Parliament’s portfolio committee on communications, famously characterised these planners as “22-year-old white girls that live in Sandton and watch Ally McBeal“.
By the time the second parliamentary hearings rolled around a year later, the marketers were identified as not only equally accountable, but doubly short-sighted.
Said Kekana: “The charge is not just about racism, it’s about market structure. If the majority of the population is black, you can’t ignore that market. The economic fundamentals of South Africa are good, and that has a positive spin on the advertising industry. The marketers, who are also captains of industry, must start showing confidence in the economy.”
The advertising and marketing industry’s commitment to altering these imbalances is outlined in a transformation value statement signed by various top-level stakeholders in April this year.
Speaking at the signing of the value statement, which calls for an industry that reflects the aspirations of all South Africans, government’s chief communicator and policy unit head Joel Netshitenzhe indicated that public-sector placement decisions would become less racially biased.
Netshitenzhe was indirectly responding to Kekana’s statement in March that when it came to allocating spend with media brands that reach the majority of the population, “government departments are almost as bad as the marketers”.
As for the commercial stakeholders, last Thursday, one day before the prime-time television survey results were released, FCB South Africa announced a R120-million broad-based empowerment deal that saw a black consortium taking control of 26% of the agency. The consortium includes a staff contingent of previously disadvantaged individuals from FCB South Africa.
The deal does not appear to be a gesture, but with a client list including Toyota, Vodacom, First National Bank, Shoprite and Unilever, and control of R1,7-billion of the industry’s annual spend, proof of success will only emerge when South African media paints a more inclusive picture.
Kevin Bloom is editor of The Media magazine.