BayTV in Port Elizabeth the latest bright beacon in the suddenly vibrant, fast-growing community television sector in South Africa.

BayTV, the first community television station in Port Elizabeth which launched in October last year, is quickly becoming yet another successful community TV venture and another new community TV station that just started with the help of a management contract from Urban Brew Studios.

BayTV, broadcasting to the wider Nelson Mandela Bay metropole and surrounding areas in the Eastern Cape province from its production studio inside the old Nedbank building in Port Elizabeth's Chapel Street can be seen by terrestrial viewers as far Uitenhage, Bethelsdorp, Despatch, Ibhayi, KwaNobuhle, Motherwell and the wider Port Elizabeth.

The broadcasting launch of BayTV in October follows the successful launch of SowetoTV (DStv 150) now broadcasting to Soweto and as far as Pretoria, Vanderbijlpark, Vereeniging and Sasolburg, as well as the launch last year of 1KZN (TopTV 187) based in Richards Bay and broadcasting to the wider Uthungulu and iLembe districts in the KwaZulu-Natal province.

Both SowetoTV and 1KZN - which gets management assistance from Urban Brew Studios (with its shareholder Kagiso Media) in the form of management contracts - have carriage agreements with South African pay TV operators, giving these community TV channels national reach and making viewership possible to South Africans living outside of the actual terrestrial broadcasting area of these new channels.

Thanks to Urban Brew Studios' help and professional production underpinnings, both SowetoTV and 1KZN have remarkably high production values. SowetoTV's daily news bulletin is incredibly impressive for what a daily community television news broadcast can and is supposed to be. All these things are clearly heralding a sea change coming to South Africa's suddenly fast-expanding, and now vibrant, community television sector.

CTV, Cape Town's community TV station which is somewhat trundling along (and which doesn't have a larger management contract with a major South African production company like Urban Brew Studios) in the way that BayTV and the other have - also don't have similar carriage agreements with pay TV operators in place (yet). However the growth in community television stations in South Africa - especially aided by the management oversight roll-out model aggressively followed by Urban Brew Studios, seems to be working well. Independent South African community TV stations, helped by a production company like Urban Brew lending expertise and assistance, is clearing yielding dividends in creating strong, and brand-new localised terrestrial television options for viewers.

In just three months since the channel launched, BayTV has become a media magnet for young producers, presenters and media graduates around the Eastern Cape. Besides giving viewers a new TV option, the station, just like its successful counterparts elsewhere in South Africa, is allowing a new entry point to the country's TV industry and production sector - much-needed opportunities which otherwise would not have, and until now simply haven't, existed.

BayTV, with station manager Bronwyn Jacobs, has a range of shows. Like it's community television counterparts, BayTV is clearly focused on not trying to compete with the SABC, e.tv and other big national broadcasters, but bringing viewers niche content, tailor-made for their regional audience. And that's where all these community TV upstarts are suddenly finding great success - and winning new viewers. BayTV's content is a mix of local content, educational youth programming, news, and a smattering of international programming and music.

BayTV's schedule is an 8 hour programming block, with two repeat cycles to create 24 hours of programming. BayTV's premiere block starts at 16:00 daily, running until midnight and the channel broadcast in English, Xhosa and Afrikaans.

Local content consists of programme such as Big1Up (a daily youth show dedicated to a specific theme like''Girl Talk'' or ''Boy Talk'')and the Today Show (its current affairs show covering business, investments and the sport, lifestyle and events stories happening in and around Port Elizabeth). Then there is WeRLoud, a show aimed at 18 to 40 year olds covering ''everything that matters'' and even sporting BayTV's own music chart.

BayTV, joining the likes of CTV, SowetoTV and 1KZN, is a welcome and clearly strong addition to a suddenly growing group of community TV broadcasters in South Africa who are fast making their mark - and viewership inroads - that's been long neglected within South Africa's TV industry.