Coronavirus: Bay TV community channel adds QuaranTV as weekday edutainment slot for school children.

by Thinus Ferreira

The community TV station Bay TV (DStv 260) in Port Elizabeth has added QuaranTV as a new weekday edutainment slot prompted by kids staying home during South Africa's Covid-19 national lockdown period.

QuaranTV was added to the Bay TV schedule, started on 8 April 2020, and is broadcast on weekdays at 17:30.

QuaranTV is a joint effort by the Masifunde Learner Development, Masinyusane and United Through Sport. QuaranTV targets primary and high school learners with content ranging from music and visual arts, drama, health, literacy, cooking, sports and meditation.

Fiks Mahola, Masinyusane co-founder, says "All three organisations focus on education and activation of children and youth in their own specific way. To sit at home without being able to work with our learners directly in a phase when they most probably need our assistance, did not feel right. Together we created the idea to launch QuaranTV".

Laura Klapper, programme manager at Masifunde LD, says "We are currently looking at continuing after the lockdown as we feel it's an effective way to reach out to children with limited access to the internet".

"We're looking forward to professionalising our content as we are quite limited in resources due to the lockdown."

IN IMAGES. 29 photos of the Bay TV community TV station's official inauguration ceremony of its upgraded studio and control room in Port Elizabeth done with the help of MultiChoice.

On Thursday evening Bay TV (DStv 260), the community TV station in Port Elizabeth, held a media event at its premises as part of an official inauguration ceremony to celebrate upgrades to its new studio and final control centre (FCC), that was made possible by MultiChoice.

The 7-year old Bay TV station held a "Homecoming" branded ceremony under a white marquee tent just outside its front door, that was broadcast live on Bay TV on Thursday night and where singers Vusi Nova and Zahara performed.

The evening's hosts were Zizo Tshwete and comedian Mbulelo Msongelwa.

The national media, representatives from the provincial Eastern Cape government, MultiChoice, the broadcasting regulator Icasa, Port Elizabeth celebrities and media,  as well as Bay TV executive, producers, staffers and on-air talent attended.

Here are some photos of the event:

ALSO READ: Port Elizabeth's Bay TV community station officially unveils its upgraded studio and control room facilities with the help of MultiChoice.

ALSO READ: MultiChoice on why it helps community TV stations in South Africa like Bay TV in Port Elizabeth: 'We want a video entertainment sector that has many players who serve and understand the nuances of communities'.

BREAKING. Police looking for missing SABC1 news anchor Lisakhanya Pete after her poisoned fiance is found dead in her flat.

The South African police is looking for the missing SABC1 news anchor Lisakhanya Pete (29), gone after her poisoned fiancé was found dead in her flat.

The dead Simthembile Pambuka was found dead in the flat of the SABC1 news reader, with Lisakhanya Pete - who was supposed to get married in December - claiming that she fled through a window to escape physical abuse since Simthembile Pambuka was beating her.

The autopsy revealed that Simthembile Pambuka had poison in his system. A case of murder has been opened by the police.

Lisakhanya Pete known as Lisa and originally from Port Elizabeth, told the police that Simthembile Pambuka committed suicide, but is now nowhere to be found and the police is looking for her.

In 2011 Pisakhanya Pete became the first Xhosa news reader for the Port Elizabeth community TV station BayTV and two years later went to work for the SABC readering the Xhosa news on Sundays on SABC1.

The SABC declined comment.

BREAKING. Community television in South Africa takes a giant leap forward, forms new Association of Community Television South Africa.

The growing community television sector in South Africa is taking a giant leap forward with the formation of a new association, the Association of Community Television South Africa, which will be known as ACTSA and will represent the interest of community television and community TV stations in South Africa.

All of the existing community television licensees in South Africa - Soweto TV, Cape Town TV (CTV), Bay TV, One KZN (1KZN), Tshwane TV, North West TV and Bara TV - have signed a joint memorandum of understanding to create the Association of Community Television South Africa which will act to protect and promote, support and canvass for the community television sector in the country.

ACTSA will lobby for the community television sector in South Africa - under threat from a litany of challenges ranging from high signal distribution fees, undue influence and take-over threats from big corporate conglomerates, a lack of skilled personnel and training issues, soaring programming costs and even massive upcoming frequency disruption and viewer confusion as South Africa transitions from an analogue to a digital broadcasting space where community stations have to vacate their analogue frequencies and hope that viewers will be able to find them again.

Then there is also the South African government's interference. The government has started talk about the possible "regionalisation" of community television in South Africa to "provincial level" - something community TV stations don't want or need.

The government also wants to change the law to give the department of communication sweeping powers to appoint the boards of community television stations in South Africa - something else community TV stations are opposed to.

ACTSA will try and help with programme syndication, content exchange, the maximising of possible commercial opportunities as well as training and capacity building between community TV stations in the country.

ACTSA has elected an interim steering committee led by Motse Mfuleni from Bay TV as the chairperson, Karen Thorne from CTV as the deputy chairperson and Colin MacKenzie from Tshwane TV as the general secretary.

"ACTSA will make an important contribution to building media diversity and development in South Africa," says Motse Mfuleni. "Now we as the community television sector have a body that provides support and guidance for community TV stations and we are able to address our issues with one voice representing all the stakeholders in the sector."

ACTSA says all community TV stations joining the association have agreed to "a range of common values". These include a people-centered rather than a profit-driven approach to broadcasting, editorial and fiduciary independence, freedom of speech and community participation.

ACTSA will formulate a charter to help guide the activities of South Africa's community television sector which will include issues such as the mandate of community television in the country, programming, revenue streams and distribution platforms, governance, ownership and control and licensing categories.

Film@Bay Saturdays on BayTV looks at the Eastern Cape's emerging film industry.

The community TV station BayTV (DStv 260) has a 13 part TV series entitled Film@Bay on Saturdays which is looking at the Eastern Cape's emerging film industry with presenter Busi Nako.

Film@Bay also includes short films produced by emerging filmmakers and gives filmmaking tips for those interested in entering this industry.

Film@Bay is executive produced by Denise Roodt of The Media Workshop in Port Elizabeth.

"There are so many talented people doing great work in the Eastern Cape, but yet the national perception appears to be that nothing is going on here," says Denise Roodt. "I wanted to change that. The show features production companies producing award-winning work of an international standard - from commercials and promotional videos to documentaries and adventure sports programmes."

Film@Bay is repeated on Sundays at 10:30 and Mondays at 16:00 on BayTV.

BREAKING. MultiChoice adds kykNET Musiek, Mzansi Music, Blackbelt TV as new channels and adding the community TV stations BayTV, 1KZN and Dumisa.

Exactly as I said would happen on 13 November, MultiChoice is adding the new channel kykNET Musiek (DStv 146) to DStv. DStv is also adding Mzansi Music (DStv 321), Blackbelt TV (DStv 129) as a martial arts channel and the community television stations BayTV (DStv 260), 1KZN (DStv 261) and Dumisa (DStv 340).

These will all be channels for DStv Premium and DStv Compact subscribers and will become available on 13 November at 10:00. In Addition Nat Geo Wild (DStv 182) will now also be made available on the DSTv Compact bouquet.

"We are excited with these new additions," says Collins Khumalo, CEO of MultiChoice South Africa in a statement. "We believe they will add more value to our packages and give our customers more variety in entertainment."

"The addition of the three community television stations and the two additional music channels aims to provide our customers with a rich diversity of local content and forms part of our ongoing support of the development of the local television industry."

In a first for South African television, BayTV community TV station is set to produce a comedy series as part of a TV industry training project.

Another first for South Africa's TV industry is the very first TV comedy series which will be produced for a community TV station in South Africa - BayTV in Port Elizabeth has commissioned a comedy series which could possibly also be syndicated to the community TV stations SowetoTV (DStv 150) and 1KZN (TopTV 187).

This groundbreaking project is intended as a training project for young filmmakers who will be producing the comedy series for BayTV in association with Urban Brew Studios and Denise Roodt from The Media Workshop who recently also served as deputy chairperson of the board of BayTV and was a senior journalist with the SABC.

The comedy series for BayTV will be the first of its kind in South Africa, since community television in the country don't have the budget or expertise to bring to the screen anything else than mostly talk shows and current affairs documentary type programming.

BayTV in Port Elizabeth the latest bright beacon in the suddenly vibrant, fast-growing community television sector in South Africa.

BayTV, the first community television station in Port Elizabeth which launched in October last year, is quickly becoming yet another successful community TV venture and another new community TV station that just started with the help of a management contract from Urban Brew Studios.

BayTV, broadcasting to the wider Nelson Mandela Bay metropole and surrounding areas in the Eastern Cape province from its production studio inside the old Nedbank building in Port Elizabeth's Chapel Street can be seen by terrestrial viewers as far Uitenhage, Bethelsdorp, Despatch, Ibhayi, KwaNobuhle, Motherwell and the wider Port Elizabeth.

The broadcasting launch of BayTV in October follows the successful launch of SowetoTV (DStv 150) now broadcasting to Soweto and as far as Pretoria, Vanderbijlpark, Vereeniging and Sasolburg, as well as the launch last year of 1KZN (TopTV 187) based in Richards Bay and broadcasting to the wider Uthungulu and iLembe districts in the KwaZulu-Natal province.

Both SowetoTV and 1KZN - which gets management assistance from Urban Brew Studios (with its shareholder Kagiso Media) in the form of management contracts - have carriage agreements with South African pay TV operators, giving these community TV channels national reach and making viewership possible to South Africans living outside of the actual terrestrial broadcasting area of these new channels.

Thanks to Urban Brew Studios' help and professional production underpinnings, both SowetoTV and 1KZN have remarkably high production values. SowetoTV's daily news bulletin is incredibly impressive for what a daily community television news broadcast can and is supposed to be. All these things are clearly heralding a sea change coming to South Africa's suddenly fast-expanding, and now vibrant, community television sector.

CTV, Cape Town's community TV station which is somewhat trundling along (and which doesn't have a larger management contract with a major South African production company like Urban Brew Studios) in the way that BayTV and the other have - also don't have similar carriage agreements with pay TV operators in place (yet). However the growth in community television stations in South Africa - especially aided by the management oversight roll-out model aggressively followed by Urban Brew Studios, seems to be working well. Independent South African community TV stations, helped by a production company like Urban Brew lending expertise and assistance, is clearing yielding dividends in creating strong, and brand-new localised terrestrial television options for viewers.

In just three months since the channel launched, BayTV has become a media magnet for young producers, presenters and media graduates around the Eastern Cape. Besides giving viewers a new TV option, the station, just like its successful counterparts elsewhere in South Africa, is allowing a new entry point to the country's TV industry and production sector - much-needed opportunities which otherwise would not have, and until now simply haven't, existed.

BayTV, with station manager Bronwyn Jacobs, has a range of shows. Like it's community television counterparts, BayTV is clearly focused on not trying to compete with the SABC, e.tv and other big national broadcasters, but bringing viewers niche content, tailor-made for their regional audience. And that's where all these community TV upstarts are suddenly finding great success - and winning new viewers. BayTV's content is a mix of local content, educational youth programming, news, and a smattering of international programming and music.

BayTV's schedule is an 8 hour programming block, with two repeat cycles to create 24 hours of programming. BayTV's premiere block starts at 16:00 daily, running until midnight and the channel broadcast in English, Xhosa and Afrikaans.

Local content consists of programme such as Big1Up (a daily youth show dedicated to a specific theme like''Girl Talk'' or ''Boy Talk'')and the Today Show (its current affairs show covering business, investments and the sport, lifestyle and events stories happening in and around Port Elizabeth). Then there is WeRLoud, a show aimed at 18 to 40 year olds covering ''everything that matters'' and even sporting BayTV's own music chart.

BayTV, joining the likes of CTV, SowetoTV and 1KZN, is a welcome and clearly strong addition to a suddenly growing group of community TV broadcasters in South Africa who are fast making their mark - and viewership inroads - that's been long neglected within South Africa's TV industry.