StarTimes Media SA continues to create new jobs with dubbing of global telenovelas into South African languages on StarSat, says diverse slate of Zulu-dubbed series from several countries planned.

by Thinus Ferreira

StarTimes Media SA says it continues to create new jobs in South Africa's film and TV industry through the use of its Midrand-based dubbing studios to create new voiceover soundtracks in Zulu and other South African languages for global telenovelas on its StarSat satellite pay-TV service - and that several more Zulu-dubbed series are in the works.

eMedia was first to start dubbing international telenovelas for its set of e.tv-packaged TV channels in South Africa into Afrikaans, along with ZEE Africa also doing dubbing work into English and other languages.

This was followed by StarTimes Media SA which started to dub international telenovelas into Zulu. Lately MultiChoice is also using its Dolby Atmos equipped studio in Randburg to now dub Turkish telenovelas into Afrikaans for M-Net's Afrikaans-run kykNET channels on DStv.

"In 2021 StarSat launched its state-of-the-art dubbing studios in Midrand, South Africa. The main objective of its new initiative is to adapt its best-performing telenovelas to Zulu and other indigenous South African languages," says Debbie Wu, On Digital Media (ODM) CEO.

"We are very excited about the possibility of ensuring the widest accessibility of South African audiences to award-winning telenovelas dubbed into main indigenous languages."

"Our dubbing initiative continues to create many new jobs along the value chain. Since the launch of our dubbing studios, we have recruited and trained numerous South African youth as voice actors, directors, translators, editors, and sound engineers."

StarSat says that based on the recent success of the Zulu-dubbed version of the Philippine novella The Blood Sisters, StarSat has since launched a Zulu version of the popular Zee TV novella Waaris: Indlalifa.

StarSat says a diverse slate of more Zulu-dubbed telenovelas from Mexico, South Korea, Spain and India are in the works to be broadcast on StarSat's StarTimes RISE (StarSat 120) channel.

"Running parallel to our novella content adaption strategy is our focus on delivering the best English novellas to more South Africans," says Debbie Wu.

"We are proud to announce the broadcast of the Philippine novella La Vida Lena on the StarTimes Novella E Plus channel. Another novella 'must-see' is Zee Novella's My Left Side – the story of a powerful woman whose riches-to-rags experience puts her in direct conflict and interest with a man who has lived in the lap of luxury his whole life."

La Vida Lena is shown daily on ST Novella E Plus (StarTimes 128) at 20:40. My Left Side is shown daily on ST Novella E (StarSat 127) at 19:00. Love by Chance is shown daily on StarLife (StarSat 550) at 18:00.

e.tv and eNCA dumps its daily Zulu TV news bulletin, iZindaba, on OpenView HD after just three and a half years as it continues to scale back its news offering.

e.tv and eNCA's eNews division has dumped its daily Zulu TV news bulletin, Izindaba, after just three and a half years as it continues to scale back on its news offering.

The daily half hour Zulu TV news bulletin, produced under eMedia Investments' eNCA news banner was broadcast on, and done for, the e.tv packaged eKasi+ channel on Platco Digital's free-to-air satellite offering, OpenView HD (OVHD).

eNews Izindaba was however quietly cancelled at the end of March when e.tv dumped the channel and replaced it with a new channel called e.tv Extra.

The loss of the Zulu prime time news bulletin is the latest cutback in eNCA's once lofty TV news ambitions under the tenure of eMedia Investments group chief operating officer (COO) Mark Rosin, with less appetite within the e.tv structure the past two and a half years for news content and a continued bigger focus and emphasis on providing entertainment programming.

e.tv that earlier this year lost an attempt to get out broadcasting a TV news bulletin during prime time on its commercial free-to-air terrestrial e.tv channel when the broadcasting regulator, Icasa, rejected its application, made no announcement about the abrupt cancellation of its Zulu TV news bulletin.

The eNews division still continues to supply a daily Afrikaans language TV news bulletin, eNuus, during prime time to M-Net kykNET (DStv 144) channel on MultiChoice's DStv satellite pay-TV service.

The demise of eNews Izindaba comes just three and a half years after it was launched in mid-2015 with big fanfare on eKasi+ when eNCA said its existence there will "provide viewers with more options in their own language". e.tv's however failed to get it to work with the half hour Zulu TV news bulletin that has proven to be a spectacular and expensive flop.

In March 2015 the Zulu bulletin was added to e.tv's early prime time line-up where it barely managed to pull more than 370 000 viewers and was cut just four months later and moved to eKasi+ where it managed to survive on life support until its quiet demise at the start of this month.

e.tv's axing of its half hour Zulu news bulletin on e.tv Extra leaves South African viewers once again with just one Zulu TV news bulletin done by the SABC and broadcast on the public broadcaster's SABC1 where it pulled in a large 4.3 million viewers (12.7 ARs, 38.1 share) during March.

In response to a media enquiry seeking comment about the cancellation of the prime time Zulu TV news bulletin, e.tv and eNCA says that "with the relaunch of eKasi+ as e.tv Extra and a focus on entertainment programming, eNews Izindaba stopped broadcasting at the end of March".

"With this re-focus, there is no longer a broadcast platform for eNews Izindaba. Zulu news does form part of e.tv's morning show Sunrise, broadcast weekdays from 5:30 to 8:30. The eNews division will continue to produce independent news of the highest editorial standards on eNCA, e.tv and eNCA.com".

eNews staffing up for the dramatic introduction of a new daily, primetime Zulu TV news bulletin on e.tv at 19:00 to take on SABC News.

You're reading it here first. 

e.tv's eNews division is gearing up - and dramatically staffing up - to start a Zulu TV news bulletin soon to take on the SABC, according to sources.

e.tv's eNews plans to challenge the public broadcaster head-on in a new fight for Zulu TV news viewers - shifting the existing English language eNews Prime Time TV news bulletin currently at 19:00 to a later timeslot.

The new Zulu TV news bulletin would anchor a new schedule designed to aggressively court viewers away from the SABC, in conjunction with the new e.tv telenovela which will start within months at 20:00 on e.tv, directly opposite SABC1's damaged and floundering reversioned Generations - The Legacy.

e.tv's English language eNews Prime Time TV news bulletin has already been leading the ratings race for years, as the most watched, most popular English language TV news bulletin in South Africa as more and more viewers abandoned the SABC and the public broadcaster's flagship TV news bulletin on SABC3 which has undergone a dramatic loss of viewers over the past five years.

Now e.tv wants to try and duplicate that success with Zulu, after it has been supplying the daily Afrikaans language TV news, eNuus, to M-Net and DStv's kykNET (DStv 144) TV channel the past few years with great success.

While e.tv has done "snippets" of vernacular TV news, it has predominantly been confined to e.tv's early morning timeslots like its breakfast offering Sunrise.

The new Zulu TV news bulletin will be a full, and fully staffed, half hour and daily Zulu news bulletin in an attempt to give viewers more, and better Zulu TV news coverage than what they're getting on the SABC.

Insiders first talked about the plans for a Zulu TV bulletin on e.tv in late November 2014. According to eNews sources e.tv's English news bulletin eNews Prime Time will be shifted away from 19:00 to a later timeslot within months with a Zulu bulletin taking its place at 19:00.

Interestingly, reporters at eNCA (DStv 403) - eNews' 24-hour, English language TV news channel - are concerned about the move. A lot of the/their stories done for eNCA are shown and "simulcast" in English on e.tv in eNews Prime Time, and eNCA reporters are quietly worried that the "replacement" and shift of the existing eNews Prime Time bulletin is going to mean less exposure of their stories and less work.

Meanwhile eNews and eNCA has gone on an extremely aggressive hiring spree of specifically Zulu speaking people, indicative of the staffing up to prepare for a Zulu news broadcast. 

The news division started looking for Zulu speaking journalists and news production personnel to swell its ranks since the end of 2014 - the most ever job advertisements for Zulu speaking journalists in the history of eNews and eNCA.

Asked by TV with Thinus to confirm that the eNews Prime Time bulletin on e.tv is moving away from 19:00 to be replaced by a new Zulu TV bulletin soon, and why the change is being made, e.tv responded to a media enquiry but was unwilling to confirm or deny the news, only saying "the South African television industry is dynamic and always changing".

"As a free-to-air channel that reaches millions of South Africans, it's also important that we keep up with what our diverse audiences want to watch on television," says e.tv. "News is also critical to e.tv's offering, and so is language."

"e.tv is looking at its programme schedule for the second quarter of 2015, but no firm decisions have yet been made. The channel will announce once a decision is made".