The week before last the SABC announced that its 13 public broadcasting services (PBS) radio stations would be “rejuvenated” as part of a strategy aimed at raising the brands’ profile among listeners and clients.
The strategy calls attention to the repeated complaints of private broadcasters that the SABC enjoys mono-polistic bargaining powers. However, it also highlights PBS management’s relative success in redressing the entrenched bias of advertising spend towards “white” media.
The PBS radio portfolio consists of Ukhozi FM, RSG, SAfm, Motsweding FM, Ligwalagwala FM, Phalaphala FM, Thobela FM, Munghana Lonene FM, Ikwekwezi FM, Lesedi FM, Umhlobo Wenene FM, Lotus FM and CKI FM. It boasts a combined listenership of more than 21,8-million, according to the Radio Audience Measurement Survey (Rams) 2003A.
The figures show that together, the stations command 66% of the local radio market, including the massive 6,6-million listeners of Ukhozi FM, the largest audience in the southern hemisphere.
But it is only recently that PBS advertising revenue has become more reflective of these listenership numbers. In the SABC’s annual report last year it was demonstrated that PBS radio’s share of the medium’s overall spend for the year was a modest 27%. As a result, in the same report the SABC signalled its intention to “capitalise” on the findings of the November 2001 parliamentary hearings into racism in advertising.
“[The] SABC has taken a more powerful stance on selling advertising on its African language PBS radio stations — this includes educating media planners and buyers about the potential of these brands,” the report stated.
It appears that the stance has begun to bear fruit. Judi Nwokedi, the SABC’s MD of public broadcasting, told Media Weekly that PBS radio is tracking 37% ahead of budget in the 2003 fiscal.
Nwokedi attributes the upturn to advertisers’ growing awareness of the power of the nine African language stations in the portfolio. “What is very clear is that the penny has dropped for marketers,” she says.
Her aim is to see her brands eventually “standing side-by-side with stations like 5FM and East Coast Radio”, an objective her rejuvenation strategy is no doubt meant to realise.
The message of the strategy — “you can eat your oysters and drink your champagne, South Africans still love their boerewors and sorghum beer” — is an unrestrained sideswipe at the richer enclaves of the broadcasting world. But when it comes to negotiations with marketers it is also a message that speaks of the SABC’s dominance of the market, and private broadcasters will be watching closely.
Coen Gous, CEO of Radmark, the largest commercial radio sales house in the country, whose brands include Jacaranda 94.2, Kfm and East Coast Radio, argues that in theory the SABC can offer advertisers a huge price advantage. “I don’t have a problem with public broadcasting services attracting advertising revenue,” says Gous, “but if [the SABC] offers combined packages with television or commercial radio air-time as part of the deal, it’s unfair competition.”
Part of the problem, of course, is that the SABC generates the overwhelming bulk of its income from selling advertising space.
But this issue, as far as Nwokedi is concerned, is for the regulator to deal with. “We’re running a business,” she says. “We’re competitors in what is a free market and we’re driving a hard sale.”
Kevin Bloom is editor of The Media magazine. His Media Weekly column provides regular analysis of the media industry.