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The SABC's new group CEO Lulama Mokhobo who sat down for a wide-ranging interview on SABC2's breakfast show Morning Live told Leanne Manas this morning that South Africa's public broadcaster will announce ''in the not too distant a future'' when the new 24 hour news channel the SABC is planning will be starting.
The 24 hour news channel has been beset by problems, financial constraints, and several false starting dates which the SABC tried to launch last year at the beginning of April 2011, then October and then pushed backthen October and then yet again pushed back amidst fractious top executive movement at the struggling broadcaster.
The SABC plans to spend R289 million over the next three years to set up and run the new 24 hour news channel which will be one of the digital TV channels forming part of the SABC's digital terrestrial television (DTT) bouquet.
The SABC sees the new 24 hour news channel as a key driver of the SABC's turnaround strategy.
''There's been a lot of really hard work going on behind the scenes,'' said Lulama Mokhobo when asked about the news channel. ''We will announce in the not too distant a future when exactly we're going to be launching.''
''I'm excited at the prospect,'' she said. ''I have a broad idea of what the content is going to be like. Because it's going to be a 24 hour news channel it will focus on news, current affairs and quite a bit on key documentaries. This year we had a seat on the security council of the United Nations, and I don't thing we as the SABC made sufficient noise about that.''
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