Monday, February 7, 2011

BREAKING. SABC and TopTV talking about the SABC's new domestic news channel possibly going to the pay TV operator.

The SABC is looking at adding its new repurposed and realigned nascent 24 hour news channel (I broke the news about that plan in March last year RIGHT HERE) to a satellite pay TV operator's bouquet before the news channel will become freely available to all South Africans in due time as one of the country's new digital TV channels during the digital migration process.

I can reveal that the SABC, which ended its struggling SABC News International in April last year, plans to start broadcasting the new news and current affairs channel that will be focusing on and covering just South Africa, from 1 April 2011. The SABC has approached TopTV about possibly carrying the new news channel (I couldn't confirm negotiations with MultiChoice and it would seem highly unlikely at this stage that such a channel would show up on DStv this year).

The soft launch starting date of the news channel of 1 April (April fools day) (''that is the last date we were told'' says a SABC source) isn't so much an injoke anymore under SABC staff as now just mere irony. During the past week and over the weekend I spoke with a lot of SABC news and SABC general staff members with knowledge about the new planned news channel. Insiders tell me specific news channel staff will be used, but that all SABC news staff will contribute to the output of the channel. TV packages, news inserts and current affairs shows currently on the three SABC TV channels will also be run on the news channel and form a part of its schedule. ''There will be separate staff but the channel will be using the full resources of SABC News,'' says another of my insiders.

Officially the SABC, after numerous enquiries last week, refuses to talk about it. Sources tell me the SABC is talking to TopTV to supply the channel to the pay TV operator. TopTV however isn't talking. MultiChoice in a response says ''regarding talking to the SABC, MultiChoice is constantly in discussions with various content providers locally and internationally to look at opportunities to enhance our content on the DStv platform. These constant discussions does not exclude either the SABC or e.tv.''

It's highly unlikely that this new news channel would go to DStv, while TopTV that planned to start a local news channel, then ditched the expensive plan and is looking for new channels, could take it. Why not MultiChoice? MultiChoice is mostly out of bandwidth until 2012 and will work very carefully this year with what is available for strategic channel upscales. It already has the eNews Channel (DStv 403) supplied by eSat/e.tv (SABC competitor) which is the number one news channel in viewership figures overall on DStv (neither would want to impede this growth/relationship). MultiChoice was unhappy with the quality of Africa2Africa (later SABC Africa) and dumped the channel, and later SABC News International and the ''new'' channel come with no quality guarantee (once bitten, twice shy). As part of the SABC's public mandate that includes news and Icasa's ''must carry'' regulations regarding public broadcaster channels, this news channel will show up on DStv and free on DTT set top boxes later anyway, DStv just won't have to pay to have it first.

''At this stage the SABC will not discuss its plans around the news channel as we would not like to divulge our business strategies to competitors,'' the SABC told me on Thursday in an official response after days of trying to get an answer.

Since the SABC isn't talking, here's some other delicious titbits I gleamed from numerous SABC staff and well-placed insiders not specifically related to the news channel story:
- Phil Molefe himself, the SABC's head of news has designated himself to lend his voice to do the voice-over for the TV obit for when Nelson Mandela passes away.
- If Nelson Mandela had passed away the past two weeks ''we would not have been ready'' numerous SABC sources told me. Says one: ''It was a big wake-up call''. ''We're supposed to go live for at least 48 hours of exclusive coverage on television non-stop. A week ago we wouldn't have been able to do that, we simply wouldn't have been ready'' says another.
- Multiple SABC staff members have signed confidentiality agreements regarding the broadcaster's funeral plans for Nelson Mandela.