by Thinus Ferreira
Eskom's relentless and increasing electricity blackouts in South Africa wiped out close to 5 million South African viewers during prime time from the country's TV grid in December 2022, inflicting ongoing damage to broadcasters who are losing not just audience but the advertising revenue they depend on, and causing havoc with ad buyers' campaigns.
The TV staple of South African television - locally-produced prime time soaps - collectively shed over 4.77 million viewers from November to December 2022 as Eskom's electricity supply continued to sag into late-2022.
These rolling blackouts mean that millions of South African TV households are left in the dark and cut off from their TV sets at nighttime due to Eskom's erratic and constantly changing "loadshedding" practices.
Between SABC1's Uzalo, Generations: The Legacy and Skeem Saam; SABC2's Muvhango; and e.tv's Scandal!, House of Zwide, The Black Door, Imbewu and Durban Gen which collectively represent the most-watched shows in South Africa, the country's available TV audience dropped by a shocking 4 776 251 viewers in one month as they disappeared from the available TV universe measured by television data.
Audience losses on shows on smaller channels like SABC3 and pay-TV service DStv added to the number of lost viewers because of the country's crippling electricity blackouts.
According to the Broadcast Research Council of South Africa's (BRCSA) TV ratings data for December, SABC3's maximum audience decreased from 588 151 to 519 8080, while a show like Uyajola 9/9 on Moja Love (DStv 157), which was the most-watched pay-TV series in November with 904 082 viewers, shed over a quarter (25.78%) of its audience in just one month to plunge to 670 983 DStv subscribers watching in December.
Looking at biggest audience size for South Africa's terrestrial TV channels, SABC1 plunged from 5.6 to 5.1 million viewers in December, SABC2 fell from 1.72 to 1.54 million viewers, SABC3's already low 588 151 viewers dropped to 519 8080, while e.tv's maximum audience in December lost over 700 000 viewers, dropping from 4.78 million to 4.01 million viewers in December.
A slight drop in TV ratings is expected and does happen during December - since some households measured for South Africa's television audience measurement system (TAMS) and included in the people meter panel go on holiday, don't switch on their TV set and mirror what happens to the audience size during this period.
A massive five million viewership drop in one month however is not normal and extremely damaging and debilitating for broadcasters who lost ad revenue and for advertisers who lost out on the eyeballs they paid for but didn't get and wanted to reach with Christmas sales campaigns.
