Show Me How isn't just the title of a quality local TV show (decoupage! pewter! engraving and more, with South African craft expert Gloria Bastos) on The Home Channel (DStv 182).
It could very well be the model mantra for how consistent, local South African television production of a high standard (and done with little money) is possible even if you're a niche TV channel.
Show Me How returns to The Home Channel on Wednesday 6 July at 21:30 for a new season, along with several brand-new local and international shows during the first week of July. Two of these brand-new local productions on The Home Channel still need titles, but one will be on property and the other a brand-new cooking show with Sasha Zambetti, the editor of Avocado magazine.
With its continued perseverance and dedication to develop, commission and produce a few local television shows on a consistent basis, The Home Channel has unquestionably grown to become the best model example for all niche TV channels available to South African TV viewers - not just of what is possible for local TV production done on a shoestring budget, but that it is indeed possible in the first place.
This Avusa TV channel (its run under the African Business Channel unit together with sister channels, the local business channel Summit and local car channel IgnitionTV) is quietly and with dogged determination winning fans, growing viewership and proving that even though its difficult, that local and quality TV shows that speak to a specific target audience can indeed be made if the resolute will is there.
The Home Channel started as a weekend programming block on Summit in 2005 and became its own fully-fledged TV channel two years later in October 2007. Now, five years later, The Home Channel reaches a unique weekly TV audience of around 750 000 people across Southern Africa with its really splendid programming mix of lifestyle, design, decor, DIY and property shows. Besides constantly stretching with infusing its schedule with local, well-produced shows, its clear that the channel is also keeping up with only the lastest shows and seasons of international (both American and British) TV fare.
The Party Garden (Monday, 4 July, 18:00), Rachel's Favorite Food at Home (Thursday, 7 July, 18:00), Relocation, Relocation (Friday, 8 July, 20:00), Candice Tells All (Tuesday, 12 July, 19:00), Carter Can with Carter Oosterhouse (pictured) (Wednesday, 13 July, 19:00), Challenge Tommy Walsh (Thursday, 14 July, 19:30), Get Growing (Saturday, 16 July, 10:00), How Clean Is Your House (Wednesday, 20 July, 18:30), Alter Eco (Thursday 21 July, 21:00) and Property Ladder UK (Friday 22 July, 21:00) are just some of the new shows and shows with new seasons starting in July.
As a niche channel The Home Channel doesn't have a massive budget or big resources, yet it manages on several levels to do and get right where major satellite channels and broadcasters fail. It's local shows are few but well-chosen, well conceptualized and executed.
Viewers of The Home Channel also seemingly don't mind the repeats as much as the number of complaints to other similar channels. It's because the rebroadcast structure of The Home Channel is thoughtful and the repeat timeslots worked out and done clearly to serve the viewer. A part of the slowly-but-surely growing success of the channel can directly be ascribed to its steady and unwavering intention: to be great for what it is.
Besides what The Home Channel shows, its how it makes viewers feel when you watch it: there is a sense that there's attention to detail, attention to scheduling, attention to getting the best few international shows the budget affords - and of making the best chunk of local television it's able to.
Like the interior decorating advice espoused on it, The Home Channel cleverly followed and consistently keeps following its own rule and is through that blazing an exemplary trail for the South African television community: A small space can be a great space if you think carefully about it and really work hard at it with everything you've got.
