RATINGS REPORT. The SABC's vaunted ANC Centenary coverage pushes SABC2's primetime viewership down.

The SABC's effusive coverage of the ANC Centenary - with the public broadcaster dumping its primetime line-up on SABC2 for a whole week and adding double digit hours of weekend coverage on two TV channels including showing rehearsal footage of a celebration concert twice - proved a drag on the SABC's primetime viewership numbers.

The SABC paid a big cost for its vaunted ANC coverage, as viewers fled to rival channels during primetime. The public broadcaster also earned less advertising income due to regular advertisers not buying spots in the out-of-the-ordinary SABC2 schedule which consisted of an episode a day for 7 days of the documentary Have You Heard from Johannesburg? which depressed SABC2's ratings for the week.

Weekend viewership on SABC2 and SABC1 was also down from the usual levels on 8 and 9 January when the broadcaster utilised both channels for 10 hours just devoted to ANC Centenary coverage plus another 2 hours of the Have You Heard documentary.