You're reading it here first.
I can exclusively reveal and break the news that the SABC is planning to move the American soap The Bold and the Beautiful from SABC1 to SABC3, keeping it in the same timeslot of 18:00, from June.
This is the second try from the SABC to reposition The Bold and the Beautiful on the public broadcaster from SABC1 to SABC3.
The SABC's two TV channels, SABC1 and SABC3 first worked on the plan in 2011 - as I reported - to have The Bold and the Beautiful start on SABC3 in October 2011.
In August 2011 with the deadline looming of the then-intricate switch - since SABC1 was creating a new local magazine strand on weekdays at 18:00 in the place of Bold (a failed plan which met with viewer resistance and saw Bold returning to 18:00 soon after) and SABC3 was embroiled in its own scheduling restructure the plan was postponed or partially scrapped - as I reported - because SABC1 took too long.
"Not enough people gave the plan attention soon enough and consistently. And with all the other things going on here the Bold move somewhat fell to the wayside,'' insiders told TV with Thinus at the time.
While SABC1's channel head Leo Manne told the press and advertisers about the Bold move from SABC1 to SABC3 in April 2011 himself at an upfront presentation, in October 2011 SABC1's publicity manager Vukile Madlala appeared uninformed or deflecting when she called the Bold move "rumours" and denied that there was such a plan.
TV with Thinus can report that not only was there such a plan, but that now the moving of The Bold and the Beautiful from SABC1 to SABC3 is definitely back on again and is planned to happen on 3 June.
That will also have an impact on the SABC3 schedule which just went through big changes from the beginning of this month.
From June SABC3 will move Days of Our Lives to 17:05, with The Bold and the Beautiful following directly after it at 18:00. Three Talk with Noeleen will be moved earlier to 16:05 on weekdays.
From 3 June SABC1 will then be rid of both these American soaps which both originally started on SABC1.
Viewers already saw The Bold and the Beautiful on SABC2 at 18:00 (with repeats now on SABC2) earlier in the year when the soap was moved to SABC2 for the Afcon 2013 in January.
The rationale to move The Bold and the Beautiful from SABC1 to SABC3 is because of two reasons: falling viewership on SABC1, and SABC executives who feel that the soap's values are more in line with, and suited for SABC3's audience.
Viewership of The Bold and the Beautiful has fallen dramatically on SABC1 since the heydey of the soap in the 1990's although it's still big, but no longer what SABC1 wants.
In addition, the soap's aspirational values are more aligned with the viewer values of the SABC3 target audience, according to SABC executives.
The SABC CEO Lulama Mokhobo told parliament in November 2012 that the SABC can never get rid of The Bold and the Beautiful (although it doesn't have to broadcast it on it's channel with the biggest footprint and reach and therefore biggest audience).
Lulama Mokhobo told parliament that the SABC is locked into a "forever contract" and is forced to keep showing The Bold and the Beautiful as well as some other TV shows until those shows one day end and is cancelled in America.
According to Lulama Mokhobo, the SABC has 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.
In May 2012 Lulama Mokhobo told parliament that The Bold and the Beautiful is old, calling the soap "outdated" but said that the soap still keeps bringing in the viewers.
