SABC News as the SABC's new 24-hour TV news channel launched at 18:00 on MultiChoice's DStv channel 404 anchored by Peter Ndoro and Vabakshnee Chetty using the news studio used for SABC3's daily news bulletin at 18:30
Besides a skeleton grid schedule neither the SABC, nor MultiChoice, released to the press and TV critics by the end of the business day on Thursday any programming line-up profiles or summaries, programming or presenter information, show information or what is coming up in magazine show's for the week or launch episodes, or what viewers will be seeing on the SABC News channel.
SABC News is getting an investment of over half a billion rand from the satellite pay-TV provider over the next few years.
SABC News - the SABC's second attempt at a continuous TV news channel - replaces the SABC News International channel which was launched in July 2007, ran for a few years, also on MultiChoice's DStv platform, and cost millions of rands but which was then shut down three years later at the end of March 2010 when the public broadcaster starting running into cashflow problems.
The new SABC News channel has gone through various permutations the past three years and several false starts over the past two years, and has been described as a vanity project the SABC, recovering from near collapse in 2009, can ill afford. The channel is also not available to all South African TV viewers who are compelled by law to pay a TV licence.
Peter Ndoro from SABC2's Morning Live breakfast show where he has been seen covering business news will from now on be the new co-anchor on weeknights on the SABC's primetime flagship English news bulletin.
That new news bulletin will start at 18:00 on the SABC News channel, until 19:30, with the broadcast which will be simulcast on SABC3 from 18:30 until 19:30.
"Telling the story that South Africans want to hear," said Vabakshnee Chetty about the new SABC News channel after which president Jacob Zuma was the first in-studio on-air guest to be interviewed on the new South African TV news channel.
SABC News as a 24-hour TV news channel now joins the existing and independent eNCA (DStv 403). ANN7 as a third South African TV news channel will be launching soon on MultiChoice's DStv channel 405.
"It's a historic day for us here at the SABC, we're entering new territory in launching this dedicated news channel," said Vabakshnee Chetty.
"This is a dedicated news channel, the new kid on the block as it were," said Peter Ndoro. "But we've been broadcasting for 37 years, so we're not quite new to the news game but this is certainly newer for us in terms of a dedicated news channel," said Peter Ndoro, omitting the fact that the SABC already had a dedicated news channel before.
"It's the 77th anniversary of the SABC, and the 37th anniversary of the first television broadcast in South Africa," said Peter Ndoro.
Just before the SABC 24 Hour News Channel launched at 18:00 president Jacob Zuma spoke at the SABC's launch event function, saying that "the SABC 24 Hour News Channel must seize the opportunity to cover South Africa beyond crime and corruption".
The SABC CEO Lulama Mokhobo who also spoke during the launch event noted "the bottles of real champagne" for guests on the tables at Henley Studios and saying that the SABC staff working on the SABC 24 Hour News Channel will have a "tough task ahead".
President Jacob Zuma, speaking to Vabakshnee Chetty, said "I think this news channel is long overdue as a country and the continent. That is has happened now is exciting."
The SABC is primarily using Studio 9 for the SABC News channel - the one viewers have seen so far on SABC3. The SABC News channel is using a sQ Server system from Quantel, which will replace the Vortex Pinnacle. In addition the SABC changed the newsroom system from Newstar to ENPS.
Although SABC News launched in standard definition 16:9 aspect ratio, all systems are HD capable.
The SABC says the public broadcaster has 11 existing newsrooms across the respective provinces, that each newsroom is fully staffed with journalists and that these newsrooms have the capacity to produce between 30 and 40 stories daily.
