The latest scheduling moves for SABC2 coming into effect from this coming Monday is set to confuse and irritate viewers as the SABC once again moves programming like the Afrikaans soap 7de Laan and the Afrikaans news to new timeslots following timeslot changes to these and other shows just months ago.
Exactly as TVwithThinus reported last week will happen,
SABC2 announced on Wednesday all of the channel's latest new permanent
scheduling changes coming into effect from Monday 6 February after the
broadcaster's AFCON 2017 coverage.
Last week SABC spokesperson
Kaizer Kganyago said the new set of changes, like 7de Laan moving, is (still) part of the AFCON 2017 coverage changes.
Viewers commuting and not home yet, old age
residents eating dinner and working families preparing dinner will now have to
watch 7de Laan in the inconvenient and now its third new
timeslot of 18:00 after the the 18:30 soap produced by Danie Odendaal
Productions was moved in July 2016 to 19:00.
As TVwithThinus reported, viewers of the SABC's
daily Setswana and Sotho TV news bulletin will now have to watch it no longer
at 18:00 but at 20:00 on SABC2 opposite the SABC1 soap Generations,
while the Afrikaans TV news that's seen several timeslot changes the past two
years is once again moving – this time to 18:30, now opposite e.tv's eNews
Direct and SABC3's English TV news bulletin.
SABC TV head publicist Zandile Nkonyeni
didn't respond to media enquiries asking about the programming changes and the
reasons for shows that are moving. SABC2 has seen ongoing viewership declines
for shows like 7de Laan, the Afrikaans news and the Sesotho news the
past few months with falling ratings.
The SABC said "SABC2 is stepping up to the
needs of our ever-evolving world with brand new shows, new seasons and new
timeslots".
In a new official and public promo that contains mistakes, SABC2 struggles to keep its new shows separate, for instance saying Tumi Morake and Rocco de Villiers are in a show together as presenters [they're not].
Fighting on 3
In another programming change, the SABC
signed a multi-year agreement with Extreme Fighting Championship (EFC) to
broadcast mixed martial arts (MMA) on Saturday nights on SABC3, starting 11
February at 21:00.
This content will be repeated on Mondays at 14:00 replacing
the local kids time slot Fun-Natix where the fighting contact sport
content might be in breach of the broadcasting code.
Other changes include SABC2's breakfast show Morning
Live that will from this Monday onwards show the additional hour that until
now had been broadcast between 08:00 to 09:00 on SABC News (DStv 404) only. The
programming change will will effectively extend Morning Live to three
hours on SABC2 from 06:00 to 09:00.
Talk show Motswako gets moved to
Wednesdays at 20:30. Local sitcom Skwizas is moved to Sundays at 20:30.
A new season of environmental magazine show 50/50 will start on Sunday 9
April at19:00.
More details have been released about the
shows that TVwithThinus last week reported is being added to the SABC2 schedule.
The former SABC2 continuity presenter Derrick
Gardner and SABC radio station RSG presenter is returning to
television as presenter of the new Afrikaans music show Kliphard from
Monday at 19:30.
Tumi Morake and Alan Committee will host the
talk show Red Cake, starting Friday 10 February at 19:30.
Thami Ngubeni
will host a new lifestyle talk show on Saturdays on SABC2, Life with Thami,
starting on Saturday 11 February at 18:00. Music show Soul’d Out Sessions
will start on Sunday 12 February at 14:00.
While the SABC2 schedule remains peppered
with old content and rebroadcasts that's years old like Afrikaans sitcom Vetkoekpaleis
starting yet another rerun on Monday at 19:00, SABC2 says it wants producers to
bring the channel quality shows and new ideas.
