Karen Meiring, kykNET channel head on the new daily eNuus TV bulletin addition: ''It makes us a full spectrum channel.''

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eNuus, the new daily Afrikaans news bulletin on kykNET (DStv 111) is going out from today, seven days a week at 19:00 (with a repeat on weekdays at 23:30) and now provides South Africa's first independent Afrikaans TV news bulletin since the advent of television in the country in 1976.

e.tv's news division with the full support of the eNews Channel (DStv 403) is producing the daily 30 minutes eNuus for kykNET, which kykNET channel head Karen Meiring told me now makes kykNET a ''full spectrum channel''. I spoke to Karen Meiring to get her view on the new program and genre addition to kykNET's daily program line-up and wanted to know why kykNET considered a news strategy for the decade old Afrikaans satellite TV channel.

''Our strategy is to constantly expand our offering to viewers and therefore we decided to explore the possibilities of adding Afrikaans news,'' Karen Meiring tells me. When I ask her why kykNET started talks with e.tv and eNews and chose eNews as a news service partner, she calls it ''synchronisation''. ''eNuus is good news,'' she says. ''It means that our Afrikaans viewers don't have to go and look for news in other places but that we can offer that to them on our channel. And it's really my dream that news on kykNET will grow as a genre together with e.tv.''

I asked Karen Meiring why she chose to place eNuus at 19:00 on kykNET's broadcast schedule where it will be going head to head with SABC2's only Afrikaans TV bulletin, the Nuus om 7 and what that stripping of a fixed programme seven days a week will bring to the channel. ''Seven o' clock is so traditionally news time [on television] in South Africa that we thought lets just leave it like that. eNuus daily at 19:00 is going to expand the choice our viewers' have during that time.'' Regarding the 23:30 repeat of eNuus on weeknights, she says its ''to give those who might have missed the 19:00 eNuus bulletin the opportunity to catch up later at night.''

''The creation of eNuus and the addition of this Afrikaans news bulletin makes us a full spectrum channel,'' says Karen Meiring. ''Not only do we have the reality, drama, comedy, magazine shows and documentaries, but we can now also offer actuality and real news and that is important for us to provide that to our viewers.''