With today's cricket play ending early SABC3 had 20 minutes to fill. Of course, instead of finding 20 minutes of filler material so that the News @ 7 can start at its normal time - with lets say Survivor Gabon contestant interviews or music videos - the channel decided to rather start the news earlier.
SABC3 gave no warning on its website or Facebook page, nor sent our any kind of press advisory, and has given no indication of how the rest of the night's schedule will look given that cricket was supposed to be broadcast until 22:30.
UPDATE 19:36 - A reader of TV with Thinus weighed in just now to tell me that the News @ 7 was actually scheduled for 18:30 tonight and that because of the cricket coverage SABC3 scheduled Isidingo for 18:00 and the News @ 7 for 18:30. Because the cricket went over by 10 minutes I'm told, Isidingo started at 18:10 and the News @ 7 at 18:40. ''I think the reason they showed the News @ 7 at 18:40 and not at 19:00 was so that the cricket broadcast could resume as soon as possible (dinner break is usually at 18:00 and lasts around 45 minutes.''
I humbly apologize for missing that, I think this explanation makes perfect sense, and I think TV with Thinus readers are obviously some of the savviest there is. Thanks for helping me getting it correct, W!
