Even if the SABC manages to put a signature
on a new contract – delayed for months already – for its Afrikaans soap 7de
Laan before it literally runs out of episodes on Monday, SABC2 should
actually rightly lose the ability to air episodes, at least temporarily.
Even if the SABC manages to sign a new
contract with Danie Odendaal Productions for new 7de Laan episodes
before the 18th season is supposed to start on Monday on SABC2, it's
actually wholly unfair of the public broadcaster to expect a new episode and
subsequent episodes to immediately, and seamlessly, be available for playout.
Local soap productions – those of the SABC
but also of other South African broadcasters like e.tv, M-Net and Mzansi Magic
– work at breakneck speed, Rumpelstilskin-like, as they churn out episode after
episode often under gruelling conditions with long and exhausting production
schedules.
In order to provide an adequate "buffer", in-production soaps film episodes roughly around two to two and a half months
in advance of what the TV biz refers to as the actual “TX” or broadcasting
date.
Rightly, if the SABC signs a new contract over the weekend, the SABC and SABC2 should actually wait two months
for new episodes to be produced and delivered since it allowed the entire "buffer"period to collapse.
In the latest 7de Laan case, Danie
Odendaal Productions as a production company has actually been too nice with
the SABC, and already produced 18th season episodes not yet paid
for, out of its own 17th season budget that's already completed and
available.
Technically it's actually an unfair
expectation for the SABC to get those episodes immediately after signing a long
overdue contract and having new episodes appear "magically" to broadcast on
SABC2 on Monday.
Imagine ordering a wedding dress, only paying
for it on a Friday, and wanting it on a Monday. It's wholly unfair to the
tailor.
The Afrikaans weekday soap from Danie
Odendaal Productions, along with fellow SABC2 soap Muvhango from Duma
Ndlovu's Word of Mouth Pictures, saw their existing contracts with the SABC run
out in August already.
In almost three months since then the SABC
hasn't gotten as far as putting final signatures on contract extensions for the
soaps – yet at the same time the controversial SABC boss Hlaudi Motsoeneng in
May exerted massive pressure on Duma Ndlovu to sign three year contracts with his
actors on the soap.
The SABC basically wants production companies
to take on the bigger responsibility of guarantee work and improved work
security to actors, but isn't doing the same to the production companies making
its prized local content.
The questions needs to be asked how the SABC
and SABC2, where Gerhard Pretorius is the SABC2 channel head, improved and
streamlined the system – or not – since Muvhango and 7de Laan
signed their previous contracts.
‘Nuclear option’
Recently Muvhango's Duma Ndlovu took
out a loan just to pay cast and crew out of his own pocket, while Danie
Odendaal Productions also paid cast and crew for the past two months when the
guarantee of further income from the SABC ran out.
The latest "hullabaloo" pushed the production
company to breaking point with Danie Odendaal Productions that has been forced
to tell its staff that it simply can no longer pay them without a new, signed
contract from the SABC.
It's been extremely awkward and uncomfortable
for Danie Odendaal Productions – as a production company and as a service
provider in the business of creating entertainment and escapism to millions of
SABC viewers on a daily basis – having to tell the SABC that it will be
withholding episodes from Monday.
In doing so, it pulled the trigger on a final "nuclear option", literally now forcing the SABC to sign a contract or go
without further content.
It's not preferable, since it damages the
existing relation between production company and broadcaster; however the
initial business damage – and resulting bad publicity and brand damage – was
caused by the SABC for dragging its feet for months.
This is not the first time the SABC delayed
in signing new contracts with both Muvhango and 7de Laan,
although it is the most extreme and deadline pushing crisis yet.
Neither are these the only two local
production companies the SABC has been stringing along for months, desperately
waiting for the signed-off greenlight to make local content for the SABC.
TVwithThinus specifically asked the SABC on
Thursday if it has any comment or a response as to how the SABC feels about the
situation after it publicly said numerous times in 2016 how it supports local
productions, local content and local South African artists, yet fails to sign
actual contracts timeously.
"The SABC does not discuss or negotiate
contractual issues in the public domain or through the media," said SABC
spokesperson, Kaizer Kganyago.
'Still waiting for payment from the SABC'
In the process of making television where
it's usually presenters and actors hogging the limelight and whose contractual
issues as on-air talent grab the headlines, it's the South African TV producer
just trying to make a living and delivering good content under difficult
circumstances who is very often suffering in silence.
Over the past few months since mid-July when
Hlaudi Motsoeneng, then as chief operating officer (COO) suddenly announced a
dramatic 90% local TV content increase for the SABC’s TV stations – starting
with 80% for SABC3 – TVwithThinus has spoken to several exasperated TV producers
in business with the SABC.
These TV makers – including longstanding as
well as brand-new producers – speaking off the record since they're scared to
damage existing and new business relationships with the SABC, all complained
about "the terrible way" in which the SABC commissions local programming and
acquires content.
Just like in the case with Muvhango
and 7de Laan who want to remain in business with the SABC through
lucrative serialised TV contracts, these other South African TV producers are
angry and despondent over the haphazard and drawn-out process just to get
contracts signed, too little time to meet content deliver deadlines once
contracts are finally signed off, and the "debilitating" bureaucratic red tape.
Producers feel they have very little recourse
and feel powerless to change the system.
When the SABC hastily "commissioned" a slate
of new, mostly talk show and lifestyle magazine shows to fill sudden holes in
its SABC3 schedule where international series had to be yanked mid-season from
its roster, several TV producers told TVwithThinus that they were expected to
produce finished episodes of brand-new shows within as little as three weeks
without having proper signed-off contracts.
"Producers are extremely worried if they will
be paid by the SABC, and in turn be able to pay their writers, actors and
crew," a veteran TV producer said.
"The production house I work for has just
sent out a notification that they are still waiting for payment from the SABC,
which should hopefully happen at the end of the month," a TV producer told TVwithThinus in late-August.
"Until then, they can't pay us, the workers.
Now I know the producers are anal about getting their invoices in to the SABC
in good time, so this is really concerning".
Wide-ranging public inquiry needed
In September the SABC quickly found R2.6
million to help fund the hastily arranged and then disastrous #ThankYouSABC
Concert, yet the past few years TV producers who have been in business with the
SABC were forced to sell cars, houses and even shutter production companies
after ongoing payment issues with the public broadcaster.
The Independent Producers' Organisation
(IPO), representing over 80% of working TV producers in South Africa, has now
called for a wide-ranging inquiry into the ongoing problems at the
crisis-riddled SABC.
This "broader, stakeholder inclusive public enquiry
into the SABC should include looking at the SABC's persistent crises of
governance, management, funding, policy, programming and operations," says the
IPO, as well as "key requirements for the public broadcaster to effectively
fulfill its mandate".
"The current crisis surrounding the SABC board is not new. It is one
that South Africa has experienced before. It points to the problems of the SABC
as systemic, needing to be addressed beyond the failings of the present SABC
board and senior management".
