The SABC will do away with Afrikaans news bulletins on its 24 hour news channel on DStv.
Black indigenous South African language bulletins, including Zulu, Siswati, Tsonga, Xhosa, isiNdebele, Sotho and Venda will also be scrapped.
As from April 1, all bulletins will be done in English.
SABC spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago says the decision was informed by the fact that the channel has to compete with other international English language channels.
Kganyago maintains that the channel “lost viewers each time indigenous language news bulletins were aired”, but satellite competitors StarSat and OpenView HD don’t have any local news channels.
Some SABC TV news bulletins in other languages actually grab a larger slice of the audience than the flagship.
The news in isiZulu on SABC1 commands a staggering average of 3.6 million viewers, while the isiXhosa news, also on SABC1, pulls in 3.4 million people. The Afrikaans news has more than 1.5 million viewers.
The one-size-fits-all approach that South Africans are now stuck with, is really only for the benefit of the tiniest minority of English speakers, a clear indication of the killer language at work once more.
Meanwhile the wage bill of the SABC is set to soar by close to R100 million. The increase is a result of bigger board member fees, salaries and filled vacancies.
The increase comes in the wake of a strained economic climate, less advertising spending and a drop in viewers.
A good television seems to be just as important as preparing for retirement.
Drawing on data from Statistics SA’s income and expenditure survey, and other sources, such as company results, market analysis firm Eight20 yesterday revealed some telling spending priorities of South Africans.
One of the most important shifts, according to Eighty20 director Illana Melzer, is the shrinking share of home loans in household debt compared to vehicle finance and unsecured loans.
Though the Treasury and the Reserve Bank have since last year drawn attention to the alarming growth of unsecured loans, Melzer said fears about a lending bubble missed the point.
Most of the big banks and the biggest unsecured lender, African Bank, have in recent months reined in their unsecured lending, which typically incurs a higher interest rate and has been fuelling consumption expenditure.
Data from the Reserve Bank released last week show that the ratio of household debt to disposable income is 75.8%. Home loans now represent only 25% of credit granted, compared with 47% five years ago, said Melzer. Vehicle finance has overtaken bricks and mortar and now accounts for a third of credit.
Unsecured loans – despite the recent slowdown – make up almost a quarter of all debt.
“If you have a mortgage, you know you’d better not lose your job because then you’ll also lose your house,” Melzer said yesterday.
Though most South Africans have seen their income and living standards improve, few have accumulated assets.
The number of households spending over R30000 a month increased to 950000 from 607000 between 2006 and 2011.
The number of households spending between R10000 and R30000 a month has climbed to 2.3million from 1.9million in 2006.
Eighty20’s analysis also shows that hidden costs, such as rates and taxes, water and electricity, have risen so rapidly that housing and utilities hog as much as 18% of the average household’s expenditure, up from 16% in 2006.
Wealthier South Africans – those with more than R30000 a month to spend – pay even more. They spend 16% on mortgages and 12% on utilities and maintenance.
They are the most likely to buy a house. In contrast, the lowest expenditure group – those with less than R3500 a month – spend 5% on renting a home, and another 10% on utilities and maintenance. This group, however, qualifies for state-sponsored housing.
The 2011 census shows that 3.5million more households were living in formal dwellings than in 2001.
But those between the higher income groups and the poorest of the poor, 3.5million people, are falling through the cracks.
They earn “too much” for state-sponsored housing but cannot afford the private sector’s entry-level houses.
They are similarly in a bind with respect to education and healthcare. About 3.1million households would be willing to spend more on education, and 2.6million more on healthcare – judging by average spending patterns – but are not catered for by either the state or the private sector.
According to Melzer, people will spend where they can get easy credit.
Households with R3500 a month spend 8% of it on clothing and footwear, and 2% on education.
Those with between R3500 and R10000 a month spend 7% on clothing and footwear, and 3% on education.
Even the wealthiest – for whom private schools or the top fee-supported government schools are the norm – spend only about 4% of their income on education. This is less than half of what people with more than R30000 a month spent on health.
Other interesting numbers:
Households with an income of less than R3500 a month are spending 8% of it on clothing and footwear – more than on education and health combined;
Those with less than R3500 a month spend twice as much on cellphones and airtime as on education;
When medical aid scheme costs are excluded, households spend four times more on alcohol and tobacco than on medical expenses; and
Households spend roughly the same on DStv subscriptions as on retirement annuities. – timeslive.co.za
A new 24-hour news channel was launched in South Africa on Wednesday, owned by a wealthy family close to President Jacob Zuma.
Africa News Network 7 (ANN7) will focus on “constructive, nation-building stories in the interests of building a culture of unity and pride”, according to its website.
ANN7 is likely to face an uphill battle for viewers as it joins the existing and established eNCA (DStv 403) and the SABC’s new 24-hour TV news attempt, SABC News (DStv 404) which launched at the beginning of this month.
Based in Johannesburg and employing more than 75 journalists, the channel is owned by the wealthy Gupta family who moved to South Africa from India.
The family own Sahara Computers and The New Age newspaper, which is considered pro-government.
“ANN7 heralds a new era in news broadcasting which will give South Africans access to both sides of stories of national importance,” said CEO Nazeem Howa, quoted by The New Age.
The well-connected Guptas sparked outrage in May after flying in wedding guests from India to a military base on the outskirts of Pretoria.
A probe found that Zuma’s name had been dropped to secure landing rights, but that he was not involved in the scandal.
ANN7 is the third round-the-clock TV news channel in South Africa and follows the public broadcaster SABC’s launch of a continuous service on 1 August.
The 24-hour private eNCA channel went live in 2008.
These three channels are broadcast on the satellite DStv pay service, which also carries several foreign news channels. DStv belongs to Naspers which has a media monopoly in South Africa.
Industry insiders and TV critics are of the opinion that ANN7 come with a certain level of perception problems due to who the financial backers of the new channel are and whether news will be politically slanted and it remains anyone’s guess as to whether viewers will gravitate towards ANN7’s news offering.
The ruling African National Congress welcomed the new network, saying it “trusts that it will play a constructive role in our national discourse”. – AFP
Zimbabweans make no secret of their intense hatred of local broadcaster Zimbabwe Television (ZTV). But now they have no alternative but to watch it after the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) switched off access to its channels.
For years, about three million locals have used free-to-air decoders to watch all three SABC channels, mainly in protest against programmes on ZTV that they say amount to propaganda and are also of poor quality.
ZTV, the sole television station operating in the country, is state-controlled and is owned by the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC).
Decoders, including Wiztech, Philibao, Fortec and Vivid, became especially popular among low-income groups. The decoders allowed free access to certain channels, including the SABC’s channels, with no subscriptions.
The decoders are a common site in rural areas, farming communities and urban townships. In Mbare, Harare, one can find as many as 50 satellite dishes at one hostel. South African soaps such as Generations and Isidingo enjoy a huge following in Zimbabwe.
The disconnection followed a ruling by the Johannesburg High Court last year ordering Sentech, a South African television signal carrier, to encrypt its signal within three months after eBotswana, a subsidiary of South Africa’s e.tv, asked Sentech to scramble its signal due to signal piracy.
Complaints
The move left viewers with no choice but to revert to watching ZTV. Those who can afford it will move to the more expensive Digital Satellite Television (DStv), which is offered by Multichoice.
A large number of Zimbabweans this week took to social media sites to express their displeasure over the withdrawal of the South African channels on the free-to-air decoders.
“It came as a complete shock. Of course, last year there were rumours that SABC 1, 2, and 3 would be cut off but as time lapsed we thought the rumours were false. I’m totally gutted. I had become a keen follower of Generations, Muvhango and Zone 14, so it will be difficult to adjust to ZTV,” said Mildred Mhondera, a resident in Mabvuku who said she had been watching South African channels since 2008.
“The channels were withdrawn at a terrible time — just before elections — so you can imagine the amount of propaganda we will be subjected to. Zanu-PF will be rejoicing because of this move,” she said.
In addition to complaints of propaganda, people who spoke to the Mail & Guardian also complained that ZTV airs too many talk shows on limited subjects of farming and histories of ethnic groups, bland Korean movies, little international news and has an obsession with Chinese news channels.
Media Institute of Southern Africa Zimbabwe director Nhlanhla Ngwenya said the SABC had become not only a major source of quality entrainment for millions of Zimbabweans, but an outlet of alternative news on events taking place in Zimbabwe.
Demans for alternative channels
“And as the country heads for elections, the free-to-air satellite dish would have provided another angle on the management of the process than that provided by ZTV. SABC is also a potential channel through which political parties and civil society could air their advertisements given the tight controls and manipulation of ZBC,” said Ngwenya.
Ngwenya said the timing of the switching off could not have come at a worse time due to pending polls.
“I am sure those in authority and those accused of obstructing the free flow of information to distort the realities on the ground are overjoyed by this turn of events because it snugly fits in with their tyrannical schemes”.
Harare Residents’ Trust co-ordinator Precious Shumba also said switching off the SABC channels was unfortunate and leaves the locals at the mercy of the ZTV monopoly.
“For years, Zimbabwe’s civil society has been demanding the freeing of the airwaves to allow for the operation of private and independent broadcasters, and this decision by the SABC has increased the demand for alternative channels of broadcasting services,” she said.
Shumba said that residents are already stressed about having to “endure long periods of partisan reporting and broadcasting services from ZBC’s radio and television stations, which have a traceable history of denying citizens a platform to air their political views”.
Shumba said few could afford DStv due to a stagnant economy. The cheapest DStv package costs $10 a month, and the most expensive is $75.
The unity government had resolved to end ZTV’s broadcasting monopoly, but Zanu-PF has resisted implementing the agreement. The reform of the state broadcaster is one of the outstanding issues the opposition wants resolved before an election is held. – M&G
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