CNBC Africa (DStv 410) came back to me after I was super shocked and saddened that the financial news network would cut away with crappy and irrelevant local pre-recorded programming of lame talking heads in a studio on a day when the world markets were in turmoil in Thursday.
CNBC Africa says the business channel has to go with local TV content at midnight even if the world's financial markets are in turmoil or if breaking global financial news occurs.
''CNBC Africa is contractually bound to broadcast its own local content every weeknight between midnight and 01:00 as there are territorial restrictions on the programming that usually goes out in that slot,'' says Jill de Villiers, head of programming at CNBC Africa.
''Last minute programming changes sometimes take a while to filter through to the right people. We were only informed on Friday morning that [the sister network] CNBC Europe ran Squawk Box Australia between midnight and 01:00. CNBC Africa would have been allowed to broadcast that, but were not informed in time.''
Jill de Villiers says CNBC Africa ''definitely did take the American feed CNBC's Markets in Turmoil same-day TV special from 01:00 to 04:00. This was in fact the slot Maria Bartiromo was punting earlier as going out at 7pm Eastern Time (1am CAT).''
