by Thinus Ferreira
On Sunday night the South African public broadcaster was once again hit by an unexplained blackout of all of its SABC TV channels that lasted for well over an hour - the second SABC on-air blackout this month.
Sunday's SABC TV blackout on 24 October comes just two weeks after the SABC's TV channels also went off air in another unexplained blackout on 9 October.
The SABC gave no explanation as to the cause of its television blackout and issued no statement to the media, only saying in a social media post that the SABC blackout is related to "broadcast system challenges".
The SABC's TV channels went dark on free-to-air terrestrial broadcasting done by Sentech, as well as digital broadcasting with its TV channels also going black on MultiChoice's DStv satellite pay-TV service on Sunday.
SABC TV channel viewers got a black screen with a high-pitched beep, ruining the finale of Hush Money on SABC1, amongst other shows.
The SABC TV blackout affected literally millions of viewers in South Africa with the broadcaster that didn't want to give any explanation for its channels that abruptly went off air.
"We are experiencing broadcast system challenges on our free-to-air (FTA) television channels on linear and DStv platforms," the SABC said.
We are working around the clock to resolve the matter and we apologise for any inconvenience this has caused".
Hush Money co-creator Siphosethu Tshapu, slammed the SABC TV blackout on social media as "sabotage", saying " that the SABC "is sabotaging us".
