You have to hand it to those Forresters: The SABC simply won't - simply can't ever get rid of, or cancel some shows like the SABC1 soap The Bold and the Beautiful - the SABC is locked into a lifelong contract and is forced to keep showing The Beautiful and the Beautiful as well as some other shows until those shows one day end. If they ever end.
Dr Ben Ngubane, the SABC chairperson, revealed to parliament when he appeared for a grilling before the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (SCOPA) tha the SABC is locked into lifelong contracts for certain American shows which the South African public broadcaster simply can't get out of. The Bold and the Beautiful is one of them.
The SABC is locked into a tight "evergreen" contract for the American soap which is binding until the series eventually ends. The SABC will have to keep showing The Bold and the Beautiful, irrespective of ratings, viewership or whether it fits with one of the SABC TV channel's demographics, until the soap goes off the air in America.
Once incredibly popular in South Africa, The Bold and the Beautiful on SABC1 has seen its viewership tumble in South Africa the past decade. Although still widely watched, the viewership of the show is nowhere near its heydey numbers of the nineties.
With lower viewership comes lower advertising rates, which means the SABC earns less from the show and from keeping it on the schedule. However, the SABC which could move Bold to another channel, will never be able to move it off of the SABC.
The SABC plans to move The Bold and the Beautiful from SABC1 to SABC2 in January 2013 to make space on SABC1 for Afcon 2013 soccer matches - deemed more desirable than the Forrester fashion froth soap.
In May the SABC CEO Lulama Mokhobo shockingly said Bold is old. Lulama Mokhobo told parliament in May that programming like The Bold and the Beautiful on the SABC is "outdated" but that the SABC needs to keep showing it.
