Tag: Media24

Guptas launch 24-hour news channel

ann7A 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

Nuus24 to close its doors

Nuus24Naspers owned online news publisher, 24.com has decided to disband its Afrikaans Nuus24 channel.

The group said in a statement on Tuesday (11 June) that while Nuus24 has generated “excellent engagement” for its audiences and advertisers, “the team believe that they cannot scale the operation to the same levels as News24″.

Nuus24 hosts Afrikaans newspaper websites for Beeld, Die Burger and Volksblad, thus making News24/Nuus24 the largest supplier of Afrikaans news content.

Jannie Momberg, editor of News24 and Nuus24 said: “We do still believe Afrikaans speaking consumers need and deserve to get the latest breaking news, information and entertainment on any device. We believe that these features and services will be provided by the digital arms of South Africa’s three top Afrikaans newspapers: Beeld, Die Burger and Volksblad.”

As of 1 July, Nuus24 said that consumers will be redirected to the most relevant web property where they will receive the same fast breaking news that they have come to enjoy on Nuus24.

“Management would like to assure advertisers that all campaigns booked via The SpaceStation up to and including 30 June 2013 will be honoured. Thereafter all future campaign enquiries can be directed to Ads24,” the company said.

In April, Afrikaans newspaper titles Beeld, Volksblad, and Die Burger all took the decision to run the gauntlet by adopting a paywall system.

All three titles, which function under the Naspers brand, announced separately that they would be adopting a digital first method of operation, breaking news online, and charging a fee for accessing their content.