by Thinus Ferreira
In a shocking but not unexpected move the SABC and Skeem Saam immediately lost over 1.3 million viewers on Monday night when the youth-centric series aired in its later timeslot of 19:30 on SABC1 for the first time, plunging to just 3.2 million viewers.
From Monday the SABC made drastic changes to the schedules of its three legacy terrestrial TV channels SABC1, SABC2 and SABC3.
These include the SABC moving Skeem Saam later from 18:30 to 19:30, removing Afrikaans content from SABC2 and placing it on SABC3, cancelling the current affairs show Fokus, moving the Afrikaans TV news much later to 20:30 on SABC3, as well as moving Deal or No Deal SA from SABC1 to SABC2.
Advertisers and insiders warned the SABC last month that big changes to its schedules will chase away viewers, lead to lower ratings and in turn force the SABC to lower ad rates for 30 second TV commercials spots, which would lead to lower ad revenue for the public broadcaster.
While Skeem Saam still had over 4.5 million viewers in January in its 18:30 timeslot on SABC1, the show plunged in the ratings race on Monday night in the move to 19:30 where the Peu Communications production fell to just 3.2 million viewers. That's an instant loss of 1.3 million viewers.
In the 19:30 timeslot on SABC1 where Deal or No Deal SA pulled 1.92 million viewers in January, the move of Skeem Saam gained the timeslot 1.2 million viewers.
Ratings data is not yet available for the 18:30 timeslot on SABC1 although the broadcaster very likely lost viewers since the SABC that had Skeem Saam as an original production now filled the timeslot with repeat programming, stripping a rebroadcast of The Executives which always yields lower viewership than first-run episodes.of a series.
March viewership data is also not yet available for SABC2's 18:30 timeslot on Monday night or SABC3's 20:30 timeslot although that is likely also down since SABC3's broadcast footprint and transmission reach is the smallest of the three TV channels, meaning viewers were left behind in the migration of programming to smaller TV channels.
In a statement on Tuesday evening about Skeem Saam's viewership numbers on Monday night, the SABC says that Skeem Saam "achieved a massive historical audience rating
of over 3.2 million viewers last night, 4 March 2024 when the popular drama
debuted in the new timeslot of 19:30".
Ofentse Thinana, SABC1 channel head, says "As the public broadcaster we wanted to make
sure that we align with the audiences and to give them what they have asked
for".
"We are proud of the performance of the first night and are looking forward
to more highlights and wins with the Skeem Saam move. Thank you to the SABC1
audiences for walking the journey with us!"
The SABC was asked and said it would respond about the viewership of the 18:30 timeslot on SABC1, its reaction to Skeem Saam losing viewers in the timeslot move and whether it expected the show to lose or gain viewers in the scheduling move.
