The mistake-filled Nuusdag om 8 Afrikaans TV news bulletin that e.tv started on Monday evening on eExtra (Openview 105 / DStv 195 / StarSat 489) didn't provide viewers with anything new or different that they're not already getting from one of the existing Afrikaans TV news bulletins on SABC2 or eNCA (DStv 403) but its existence is good and does help to broaden the South Africa TV news and media landscape.
After presumably several dry runs, Monday evening's first broadcast episode of Nuusdag om 8 was a mess of unnecessary and preventable mistakes, including spelling errors that never should (have) happened.
The mistakes damaged the credibility that Nuusdag om 8 wants to have or presumably tried to establish right out of the gate, and made Nuusdag om 8 look amateurish and like a watered-down, dubbed and voice-overed version of e.tv's eNews but one treated with less care.
The Nuusdag om 8 orange-amber-red-yellow toned studio design looks good (although the studio part used for the companion current affairs desk interview sister show following after, Nuusdag Perspektief, looks excellent and is a much better produced show).
"Echebrt Boezak" (Echbert) is by far the most experienced and best presenter who appeared in the show (he is also the TV news bulletin's news editor), while the actress and Mrs Africa Hemisphere, Lorna Greyling as weather presenter comes across as uncomfortable, awkward and ill-suited. She's not right for this type of TV work and is the worst on-air part of Nuusdag om 8.
Nuusdag om 8 spent the first 11 minutes of the TV news bulletin covering local news, then a sprinkling of international wire service footage with voice-overs, some more local stories, as well as weather and sport.
Nuusdag om 8 comes across as not having enough actual people and producers doing the show - with certainty it's clear that absolutely nobody is checking the Afrikaans syntax and spelling of the bottom-screen news scroll and names, or is incompetent or unqualified to do so.
In a Cape Town dam levels story with Suzaan Steyn doing voice-over work, the insert package halfway suddenly switched to English on Nuusdag om 8, revealing that it was originally done in English for eNews with badly done Afrikaans language soundtrack layering that wasn't properly checked by whoever, possibly nobody.
Both Rozanne McKenzie and Echbert Boezak as standing anchors made too many mistakes reading from their scripts and Lorna Greyling is out of her depth and comes across as someone who suddenly got nominated to speak publicly and do announcements at the local church bazaar or when a low-cost carrier flight is delayed but doesn't have the experience, confidence or skill.
Several of the stories had "vox pops" interviews (no problem with that) but then had no actual carry-through with no explanation or indication to the viewer of why the story matters, or what it really means - which is what a TV news bulletin at 20:00 at night should contain after people already consumed the basics of news and the headlines during the day.
It's fine to show angry Westbury protesters at 20:00 emoting on camera, but where's the agenda-setting "next chapter", the explainer, the contextual, expert add-on?
The sport section is good enough but the weather needs an overhaul and looks primary school class "let's do show-and-tell" bad.
The production values of Nuusdag om 8 suffer because of all of this, making it difficult to see the TV news bulletin's relevance or its reason for being.
Openview, e.tv and Nuusdag om 8 did nothing beforehand to tell TV critics or journalists covering TV why it's starting a TV news bulletin or the raison d'être, and it's difficult from merely watching to ascertain why this Afrikaans TV news bulletin is on, what it wants to achieve, why it's at 20:00 specifically and what it's trying to imbue in its content that's different.
Nuusdag om 8 that had a run-up to prepare for launch, had no "exclusive", no story of importance not featured anywhere else for the day, and no "get" or short interview to distinguish itself for its first episode that you'd think it would have worked on beforehand to showcase how it's setting itself apart.
The result is that it seemed the same as eNuus on kykNET and kykNET & kie and the Afrikaans nuus on SABC2, with no difference in its value proposition or the reason it offers as to why viewers should watch it and not one of the other competitors.
Openview's Nuusdag om 8 needs more people to ensure a more tighter, more professionally finished/furnished product, more staffers who have experience and can give proper attention to detail since this is a news product where accuracy and credibility matter, and more reporters doing stories with their own new/unique takes.
While the actual "insides" of Nuusdag om 8 need work, it's mere existence as a programme however adds to the media plurality of the Afrikaans TV news bulletin business in South Africa and is welcomed.
