/ 29 August 2009

Future of SABC’s global channel uncertain

While the future of the cash-draining SABC News International looks precarious, the SABC’s former head of news and current affairs, Snuki Zikalala, has rushed in with a last-minute proposal to try to save the channel.

SABC management recently recommended to the broadcaster’s interim board that the channel either be scaled down or closed.

But Zikalala told the Mail & Guardian he is negotiating with business people to provide financial backing to try to ensure the survival of SABC News International. He said he has sent a proposal in this regard to Irene Charnley, chair of the board.

“As South Africans and African editors we cannot allow the media landscape to continue being dominated by the BBC and CNN,” Zikalala said. “We will attempt to raise funds and save [the channel] from being scaled down or being closed.”

SABC News International is dedicated to reporting domestic and international news from an African perspective as a pan-African 24-hour broadcaster to the world. About R737-million has already been ploughed into the channel by the SABC since its launch in 2007, according to figures provided recently by Zikalala.

Charnley said she could not comment on Zikalala’s plan: “I cannot negotiate about any proposal that comes to the corporation via the media.”

Zikalala believes the interim board will give him an opportunity to present a “comprehensive financial plan” on how the channel could be run as a commercial channel independent of SABC funding and “adhering to the SABC editorial values”.

He said his proposal recommends that a private company invest and run SABC News International and that only when the channel was running profitably would business investors be given a percentage of shares in the operation.

A number of the 13 SABC News International bureaux, including those in the United States, Jamaica, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Nigeria, have been closed to save money. The ailing SABC has asked the government for at least R2-billion in the short term to bail the corporation out of its financial crisis.

Zikalala has recruited media academic Guy Berger and the head of Media24’s journalism academy, Mathatha Tsedu, to give their input on how to shape the channel.

Berger said he was willing to give advice because SABC News International focuses on matters of interest to South Africans and Africans.

“The bureaux need to be scaled down and a sound business model developed,” he said.

Quality could be improved but there is insightful content coming out of the channel, Berger said, and the channel needs to get on to the DStv platform. It currently broadcasts through the Sentech Vivid Satellite Digital Decoder.

Tsedu confirmed he was willing to support an initiative to save the channel. “I agree it is a channel that needs to be saved,” he said. “I think it is important for Africa to have a channel that broadcasts from its own perspective and carries its own viewpoint.”