Thinus Ferreira
The list of top 25 South African TV channels that advertisers are most interested in includes eMedia's e.tv, eExtra, SABC1, kykNET and Star Life as the top 5.
The Top 25 TV channels in 2025 in the group of SEM 8 - 10 - the type of viewers most sought after by advertisers because of their consumer spending power - has MultiChoice and M-Net's kykNET (DStv 144) as the number one pay-TV channel.
In other words: Under the viewers that matter most to advertisers, kykNET is the pay-TV channel in South Africa that has the most of them - far more than M-Net (DStv 101).
The SEM index (the new "LSMs") has the 8 - 10 categories as the most sought-after group of consumers in South Africa. Advertisers prize them the most, seek them out and are willing to pay a premium to reach them, since they have the most money and are able and willing to spend money or products and services.
The data of South Africa's Top 25 most-watched TV channels in prime time, according to the SABC's 2024/'25 annual report, reveals a lot about South African TV viewing habits.
In total, e.tv has most of these SEM 8 - 10 viewers, followed by eExtra and then SABC1.
M-Net's Mzansi Magic (DStv 161) has almost double the SEM 8- 10 viewers than SABC2.
Although SABC News (DStv 404) has a much bigger audience and viewership overall than eMedia's eNCA (DStv 403) carried on DStv, eNCA has more "valuable" viewers than SABC News.
If an advertiser for instance, wants to pay to reach consumers who might be receptive to a commercial message, and has the money to pay for what is advertised, it would therefore make more sense to rather buy an ad spot on eNCA, before buying airtime on SABC News.
The lurid reality channel Moja Love, as well as its spin-off Moja 9.9, both snagged places on the Top 25 list, as does BBC Africa's BBC Brit, NBCUniversal International Networks' Universal Channel, and WarnerBros. Discovery's TLC.
The biggest "winner" is however eMedia. It has the biggest overall "collection" of valuable TV channels since its channels collectively are able to lure and hold valuable viewers.
eMedia's channels of e.tv and eExtra in the first and second place, together with eReality, eMovies Extra, eSeries, eMovies and eNCA make the list.
Of course, several of these channels are available as free-to-air channels through eMedia's free-to-air satellite service Openview, which makes Openview a winning proposition for advertisers who want to reach SEM 8 -10 viewers.
