by Thinus Ferreira
South Africa's prime-time ratings race has become a fierce two-horse competition between SABC1 and e.tv, with viewers kicking off their nightly viewing starting with e.tv's House of Zwide on e.tv at 19:00 followed by Scandal! at 19:30, then flipping the channel to SABC1's Generations at 20:00 and Uzalo at 20:30.
With prime-time ratings that steadily keep climbing, eMedia's e.tv free-to-air TV channel now has the second and fourth most-watched TV shows on South African television, with Scandal! in second place and 5 114 755 viewers in October - just 770 805 viewers away from Uzalo's 5 885 560 viewers in October as SABC1 and the country's most-watched TV programme.
Generations on SABC1 comes in third place with 4 643 191 viewers in October, but with just over 300 000 viewers difference, e.tv in fourth position with House of Zwide and its audience of 4 312 744, is now clearly gunning and trying to overtake Generations.
The TV share - the percentage of total TV sets switched on at any given moment and tuned to a specific TV channel - tells a remarkable story of how South African viewers are channel-flipping between SABC1 and e.tv to curate their own linear broadcast nightly viewing experience.
Between 19:00 and 20:00 more than 40% of all TV sets are switched to e.tv in South Africa, surging to 45% for Scandal!. Viewers then switch to SABC1 at 20:00 for the next hour to watch Generations and Uzalo, with the TV share of 43% climbing to 57% by 21:00.
Nothing else on South African television comes close to these four TV shows from SABC1 and e.tv in terms of ratings and audience share.
Zulu and Xhosa TV news shine
Skeem Saam on SABC1 lost viewers in October, luring 3.94 million, down from September's 4.17 million. While still commanding massive audiences, the Zulu TV news (down from 2.45 to 2.3 million) and the Xhosa TV news (down from 2.73 to 2.19 million) remain the two most watched TV news bulletins on South African television.
Illustrating the massive ongoing viewership decline problem that SABC2 has is that the Muvhango repeat at 08:30 in the mornings on SABC1 lures more viewers than original first-run episodes during prime time on SABC2.
Muvhango on SABC1 grabbed 1.99 million viewers in the morning, compared to a depressing 1.579 million at 21:30 on SABC2 during prime time in October as SABC2's most-watched, but fading show.
Fooled by Love dropped from 1.879 to 1.621 million viewers in October, while The Executives fell from 1.621 to 1.588 million viewers.
Morning Live punching above its weight
The haemorrhage of SABC2's ratings continues with only Muvhango managing more than a million viewers and 10 out of the channel's top 20 shows now unable to draw more than half a million viewers.
The Afrikaans TV soap 7de Laan remained the second-most watched show on the channel during October, improving slightly from 859 016 to 908 895 viewers. Kgatelopele improved slightly from 725 658 to 771 078 viewers. The Afrikaans TV news bulletin was down from 631 325 viewers to 611 606 in October.
Morning Live remains a shining star for SABC2 - punching far above its weight in its early morning timeslot and further increasing its viewership by 94 683 in October from an already phenomenal 475 519 viewers in September to 570 202 viewers (16.5 share) in October.
The Setswana TV news bulletin improved from 521 677 to 532 032 viewers in October while president Cyril Ramaphosa's live presidential address on 23 October had 449 769 viewers tuning in. Close to the same number - 443 929 watched an umpteenth repeat of Murder She Wrote in its 14:00-timeslot in the afternoons.
SABC3's The Estate more watched on repeat
The Premier League match between Manchester City and Southampton on 8 October was the top-scorer on SABC3 with 608 491 viewers, followed by Tropika Island of Treasure with 547 990 viewers and Katlego Maboe suddenly substituted as host.
The film Rise of the Planet of the Apes was third with 546 037 viewers, followed by the English TV news bulletin at 18:00 with 509 394 viewers.
Viewers don't watch the ratings-challenged The Estate from Clive Morris Productions in prime time on SABC3, rather watching the 11:00 repeat in the mornings with 457 703 viewers and the Saturday omnibus that lured 445 046 viewers.
The American talk show The View had 296 121 viewers, drama series Tropical Heat had 288 162, and news show On Point lured 286 416 viewers.
Vin Diesel xxxx-cellent for e.tv
On e.tv Imbewu dropped from 2.67 to 2.25 million viewers, the cancelled Durban Gen remained even from 2.56 to 2.59 million viewers, while The Black Door shed over half a million viewers, plunging from 2.5 to 1.99 million viewers.
The e.tv news at 20:00 lost audience from 1.9 to 1.6 million viewers in October.
South African viewers are "weird" when it comes to watching e.tv movies - they will watch them again and again.
On Saturday 15 October XXX: The Return of Xander Cage drew a strong 1.64 million viewers to the 20:00-timeslot.
You think that's it - until e.tv also slotted a repeat for the next day, with Vin Diesel again drawing another jaw-dropping 1.3 million further viewers at 14:30 with little audience drop-off. It means the film lured close to 3 million viewers for e.tv with two combined airings.
Moja Love's X-Repo surges
On DStv in October Mzansi Magic's (DStv 166) Gomora remained atop the ratings pecking order although MultiChoice again had a month dipping below a million DStv subscribers, going from 1 014 085 viewers in September to 997 735 in October.
Moja Love's (DStv 157) Sunday night tabloid series Uyajola 9/9 gathered viewers, growing from 876 201 to 924 859 viewers in October.
The Queen remained flat from 661 478 to 659 211 viewers, while Idols improved somewhat for its Top 7 contestants show from 542 049 to a still-low 686 199 DStv subscribers watching on 2 October.
The River on Mzansi Magic went from 608 277 to 564 451 viewers in October, while X-Repo on Moja Love surged from 492 333 to 647 213 viewers, becoming the 6th most-watched show on DStv in the month.
The Real Housewives of Cape Town on Mzansi Magic picked up some viewers, improving from 396 719 to 531 981 in October.
