The SABC, mired in allegations of corruption, stunning losses, constant executive turnover and turmoil, wasteful expenditure, cutbacks on local content and besieged by angry trade unions, now wants to do what it calls ''stakeholder perception research''.
The SABC wants to find out what stakeholders - that would include sponsors, advertisers, the production community, the media and press, and viewers obligated to pay an annual SABC TV license - think of the SABC. The public broadcaster has just issued a request for proposals for stakeholder perception research, which means that the broadcaster wants someone to investigate and tell the SABC what the external opinion is of people, groups and specific industry sectors towards the public broadcaster.
Not generally known or talked about, but most companies and large corporations - also South African broadcasters - are subscribed to what is known in the trade as a ''clipping service'', a daily barrage of news stories that gets sent to a company in which it's name, products, properties and executives appear which helps them to ascertain exactly what is being said and written about them and what public opinion about them there is.
While the SABC subscribed to clipping services during periods in the past and which yields quite a broad overview regarding its corporation and its programming, the SABC and its separate TV channels (let alone its radio stations) has no comprehensive, day-to-day meticulous idea of everything that's published, said, written or appearing about its programming or its existence.
