SABC1’s Skeem Saam loses 1.3 million viewers in timeslot change that SABC calls 'a massive historical audience rating'.

by Thinus Ferreira

In a shocking but not unexpected move the SABC and Skeem Saam immediately lost over 1.3 million viewers on Monday night when the youth-centric series aired in its later timeslot of 19:30 on SABC1 for the first time, plunging to just 3.2 million viewers.

From Monday the SABC made drastic changes to the schedules of its three legacy terrestrial TV channels SABC1, SABC2 and SABC3.

These include the SABC moving Skeem Saam later from 18:30 to 19:30, removing Afrikaans content from SABC2 and placing it on SABC3, cancelling the current affairs show Fokus, moving the Afrikaans TV news much later to 20:30 on SABC3, as well as moving Deal or No Deal SA from SABC1 to SABC2.

Advertisers and insiders warned the SABC last month that big changes to its schedules will chase away viewers, lead to lower ratings and in turn force the SABC to lower ad rates for 30 second TV commercials spots, which would lead to lower ad revenue for the public broadcaster. 

While Skeem Saam still had over 4.5 million viewers in January in its 18:30 timeslot on SABC1, the show plunged in the ratings race on Monday night in the move to 19:30 where the Peu Communications production fell to just 3.2 million viewers. That's an instant loss of 1.3 million viewers.

In the 19:30 timeslot on SABC1 where Deal or No Deal SA pulled 1.92 million viewers in January, the move of Skeem Saam gained the timeslot 1.2 million viewers. 

Ratings data is not yet available for the 18:30 timeslot on SABC1 although the broadcaster very likely lost viewers since the SABC that had Skeem Saam as an original production now filled the timeslot with repeat programming, stripping a rebroadcast of The Executives which always yields lower viewership than first-run episodes.of a series.

March viewership data is also not yet available for SABC2's 18:30 timeslot on Monday night or SABC3's 20:30 timeslot although that is likely also down since SABC3's broadcast footprint and transmission reach is the smallest of the three TV channels, meaning viewers were left behind in the migration of programming to smaller TV channels.

In a statement on Tuesday evening about Skeem Saam's viewership numbers on Monday night, the SABC says that Skeem Saam "achieved a massive historical audience rating of over 3.2 million viewers last night, 4 March 2024 when the popular drama debuted in the new timeslot of 19:30".

Ofentse Thinana, SABC1 channel head, says "As the public broadcaster we wanted to make sure that we align with the audiences and to give them what they have asked for".

"We are proud of the performance of the first night and are looking forward to more highlights and wins with the Skeem Saam move. Thank you to the SABC1 audiences for walking the journey with us!"

The SABC was asked and said it would respond about the viewership of the 18:30 timeslot on SABC1, its reaction to Skeem Saam losing viewers in the timeslot move and whether it expected the show to lose or gain viewers in the scheduling move.

ALSO READ: SABC holds showcase event about drastic content changes across its TV channels.

ALSO READ: 2014 is 2024: SABC plans to dump Afrikaans content from SABC2 with Fokus cancelled, Afrikaans news and other shows moved to smaller SABC3.

ALSO READ: SABC unplugs Primedia Studios' Deal or No Deal SA from SABC1 and shunts it to SABC2 for second season.

ALSO READ: SABC1 shifts Skeem Saam to 7:30pm from March to pit edgier youth drama against e.tv's Scandal!, 'something we will have to adjust to' says Peu Communications.

Netflix releases viewership data for its catalogue content including South African shows.

by Thinus Ferreira

Under pressure from advertisers and the larger industry to be more transparent about the ratings of its content Netflix late on Tuesday night released the first of what it said would be a biannual list of all its shows and films and their hours viewed.

The searchable list that can be viewed and downloaded here contains the titles of 99% of the shows and films that are currently within Netflix's entire viewing catalogue.

Netflix's new searchable list of over 18 000 titles is the first of its What We Watched: A Netflix Engagement Report, with the Excel document releasing the number of hours per title watched between January and June 2023.

The list includes the viewing hours of South African productions like the third season of Blood and Water (10.3 million hours), the first season of Savage Beauty (8.2 million hours), the first season of Young, Famous and African (6.2 million hours), the first season of Ludik (5.9 million), and films like Silverton Siege (4.8 million hours) and Trippin' with the Kandasamys (300 000 hours).

Viewing of South African content paled in comparison with Netflix's most viewed content during the period like the first season of The Night Agent (812.1 million hours), Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story (503 million hours) and the first season of Wednesday (507.7 million hours). 

Netflix's reluctance to release ratings data has been a move that was later parroted by streamers that launched after it, like Disney+, Apple TV+, Amazon Prime Video and MultiChoice's Showmax that send out press releases often touting "record-viewership" or "new record viewing" but without providing any actual viewership data for advertisers or the industry to track content success or failure.

"This is a big step forward for Netflix and our industry," the global video streamer said in a statement.

"We believe the viewing information in this report - combined with our weekly Top 10 and Most Popular lists - will give creators and our industry deeper insights into our audiences, and what resonates with them."

The list gives the hours viewers for every title, original and licensed, watched for over 50 000 hours, the premiere date for any Netflix TV series or film, and whether a title was available globally.

Netflix noted that returning favourites and film sequels did well during the six months on the streamers like Ginny & Georgia, Alice in Borderland, The Marked Heart, Outer Banks, You, Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story, XO Kitty, as well as Murder Mystery 2 and Extraction 2. 

Netflix also touted the popularity of new series like The Night Agent, The Diplomat, Beef, The Glory, Alpha Males, FUBAR and Fake Profile that it said "generate huge audiences and fandoms". 

Netflix also noted the "enthusiasm for non-English stories, which generated 30% of all viewing", as well as the "staying power of titles on Netflix which extends well beyond their premieres" Netflix also says the demand for older, licensed titles "generates tremendous value for our members and for rights holders".

During a half-hour press conference on Tuesday night Ted Sarandos, Netflix co-CEO, said "The unintended consequence of not having more transparent data about our engagement was that it created an atmosphere of mistrust over time with producers and creators and the press about what was happening on Netflix".

He called the release of the Netflix viewership data report "an important milestone for our industry".

"The most effective way to measure engagement is viewed hours. It's easy to understand, it mirrors measuring parties like Nielsen in the United States and it makes Netflix very easy to compare to other services," Sarandos said.

"Over time we've been getting increasingly more and more transparent about what people are watching on Netflix. When we started streaming 16 years ago, it was a pretty exotic proposition. There were no other streamers to compare to us and comparing live TV or live+7 to Netflix on-demand was like comparing apples to oranges."

"As we've grown, streaming has become more mainstream, so we've become much more open." He said that the start of the release of the list which will be done twice a year is "on the continuum of transparency as streaming has become more and more mainstream that it's more on par with other forms of media that have quite accessible information about how things are performing."

He said the release of the viewership data "creates a better environment for the guilds, for us, for the producers, creators, and for the press".

'Just a mess': South Africa's public broadcaster lost 40% of its audience in 5 provinces as former SABC CEO slams government's analogue switch-off 'not done properly'.

by Thinus Ferreira

The struggling South African public broadcaster which will post yet another loss for its 2022/2023 financial year of over R1 billion abruptly lost 40% of its viewers across 5 provinces last year when the government suddenly switched off analogue transmitters - a process that the former SABC CEO Madoda Mxakwe says was "not done properly" and a process he slams as "just a mess".

The beleaguered SABC has seen ratings continue to slip for its SABC1, SABC2 and SABC3 TV channels - due to old content, repeats, Eskom's ongoing blackouts due to the country's electricity-generating capacity crisis, as well as the switch-off of Sentech's analogue signal transmitters.

South Africa's long-delayed process to switch from analogue to digital terrestrial television (DTT) continues to be dragged out due to incompetence, corruption and mismanagement by the South African government and its department of communications and digital technologies, as well as numerous court cases from industry players over the years.

In an interview with the City Press newspaper, the former SABC CEO Madoda Mxakwe, whose 5-year contract expired at the end of June, slammed the analogue switch-off which suddenly saw 5 provinces lose their SABC analogue signals, as "just a mess".

"It wasn't done properly. It was just a mess," he said.

While the former SABC board in 2022 - when the SABC still had one before a half-year gap that stretched well into 2023 - told the former minister of communications Khumbudzo Ntshaveni that a haphazard analogue switch-off will severely damage the public broadcaster and that it should be done responsibly, the opposite suddenly happened.

The department and Sentech rapidly switched off the SABC's analogue signals in 5 provinces: Limpopo, Mpumalanga, North West, the Free State and the Northern Cape.

With the switch-off 40% of the SABC's viewership in those provinces disappeared overnight. Now the government plans to switch off the SABC's analogue signals in Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, the Eastern Cape and the Western Cape - South Africa's largest remaining provinces - by the end of December 2024.

"According to figures from the Broadcast Research Council of South Africa (BRCSA), after the switch-off in those 5 provinces, 40% of our audiences were completely wiped off last year, which did affect our revenue," Madoda Mxakwe said. 

While 10.5 million people watched Uzalo on SABC1 in January 2022, that rating fell to 4.8 million after the analogue switch-off of Sentech transmitters.

"If a client had been paying us R200 million a year for advertising space, they began asking why they should pay the same amount when the viewership had been reduced from 10.5 million to 4.8 million," Madoda Mzakwe said.

TV RATINGS January 2023: South African television loses another 2.5 million viewers due to Eskom blackouts while MultiChoice and Mzansi Magic's Big Brother Titans and Gqeberha The Empire are rating flops.

by Thinus Ferreira

After collectively wiping over 5 million TV viewers during primetime from the country's television ratings in December 2022 Eskom's ongoing electricity blackouts in South Africa up to Stage 6 load-shedding did further damage to the country's viewership which was down another 2.5 million viewers in January.

Meanwhile, MultiChoice's new season of Big Brother: Titans which started on DStv on 15 January, as well as the Tshedza Pictures telenovela Gqeberha: The Empire produced in the Eastern Cape and which started on 16 January on DStv, both had disappointing viewership premieres.  

Between SABC1, SABC2 and SABC3 collectively the South African public broadcaster lost another 2.53 million viewers in January from its top 20 shows.

eMedia's free-to-air commercial TV channel e.tv kept steady, showing a slight increase from 33 to 33.2 million viewers in January for its top-rated shows. 

In pay-TV, MultiChoice continued to shed thousands of DStv subscribers in January whose TV sets and decoders don't work when Eskom and cities leave suburbs powerless during Stage 6 loadshedding.

SABC1 lost another 1.81 million viewers across its top shows in January. Uzalo as the channel and the country's most-watched show kept steady with a slight viewership gain from 5.19 to 5.27 million viewers.

Generations - The Legacy in second place also held steady at 4.11 million viewers compared to December's 4.1 million viewers, while Skeem Saam as SABC1's third most-watched show gained viewers, going from 3.57 to 3.89 million viewers. 

The Zulu TV news bulletin made gains rising from 1.966 to 2.198 million viewers, while the Xhosa TV news bulletin rose from 2.053 to 2.194 million viewers. The country's 2022 matric results announcement on 19 January drew 1.813 million viewers.

Spidey snares viewers for SABC3 web

On SABC2 the channel's most-watched show Muvhango showed small growth, going from 1.548 to 1.66 million viewers as the channel's only show pulling over a million viewers.

Kgatelopele was flat at 784 283 viewers, compared to December's 786 740, with Afrikaans soap 7de Laan also flat at 775 339 compared to December's 764 955 viewers. The Afrikaans TV news bulletin declined from 616 357 to 568 255 viewers.

The Setswana TV news bulletin climbed from 484 646 to 545 338 viewers, while Morning Live held steady at 444 316 viewers. The Venda/Tsonga TV news bulletin drew 367 592 viewers.

SABC3 showed slight ratings growth in January, going from 519 808 viewers who watched the FIFA World Cup match between Japan and Spain December as the channel's most-watched number, to the Sunday night film Taken pulling 597 658 viewers on 22 January.

Spidey helped to prop up SABC3 in January, with The Amazing Spider-Man 2 luring 379 683 and Spider-Man 3 grabbing 372 941 viewers, while The Amazing Spider-Man and Spider-Man 2 caught 301 172 and 299 076 viewers in their webs respectively. The English TV news bulletin pulled 315 462 viewers, slightly up from December's 289 308.  

DStv's Big Brother: Titans and Gqeberha: The Empire flop

On the red letter channel its top show Scandal! ebbed slightly from 4.01 to 3.9 million viewers, while House of Zwide in second place held steady at 3.2 million from December's 3.12 million viewers, as did Imbewu in third place with 2.158 million viewers compared to December's 2.13 million.

The Black Door was slightly down from 1.85 to 1.73 million viewers in January, and Durban Gen was 1.63 to 1.53 million viewers. 

e.tv's 20:00 TV news bulletin went from 1.54 to 1.46 million viewers, while the Leon Schuster-fronted film Mr Bones was the channel's most-watched film for the month, grabbing 1.79 million viewers.

On pay-TV, MultiChoice's DStv continues to suffer declining ratings with its most-watched show Gomora on Mzansi Magic (DStv 161) down from 912 173 to 783 149 DStv subscribers who tuned in during January.

The telenovela Gqeberha: The Empire which premiered on 16 January during Stage 6 loadshedding had a disappointing 413 227 viewers at most during January. 

The latest Big Brother season with housemates from Nigeria and South Africa, Big Brother: Titans which also made its debut during Stage 6 loadshedding has also been a ratings dud, not rating well despite being shown on the Mzansi Magic, Mzansi Wethu and its own dedicated DStv pop-up channel.

The third season of Big Brother Mzansi a year ago in January 2022 still had a lowly 529 041 viewers but with little promotion and barely any PR support Big Brother: Titans has less than 330 000 viewers and couldn't even rate on the list as one of DStv's 30 most-watched shows during January. 

Isencane Lengane on Moja Love (DStv 157) drew 625 293 viewers in January while the channel's Uyajola 9/9 was down from December's 670 983 to 621 234 viewers. 

The Queen was down from 620 601 to 608 313 viewers. Diep City lost 30 000 viewers on Mzansi Magic, going from 553 799 to 523 354 viewers.

X-Repo on Moja Love dropped from 518 780 to 497432 viewers.

SABC's prime time TV audience share falls to below a third in 2021/2022 as just 18% of households bother to pay their SABC TV Licence fee.

by Thinus Ferreira

At less than a fifth, just 18% of South African TV households the broadcaster happens to be aware of,  still bother to pay their annual SABC TV licence - as SABC TV viewership and ratings in prime time continue to tank and have now fallen to below a third of the total audience share as viewers abandon what it's showing.

According to the SABC's latest financial report of 2021/2022, only 18.3% of South African TV households on the broadcaster's database still bothered to pay their R265 annual SABC TV Licence - while the SABC spent even more millions during the financial year trying to get South Africans to pay up.

After billing R4.446 billion in total SABC TV Licence fees during its 2021/2022 financial year, the SABC made only R815 million - meaning that a whopping 81.7% of people who have or once had a SABC TV Licence are simply not paying it, known as the fee evasion rate.

Meanwhile, the SABC spent R73 million rand on SABC TV Licence fee collection, which increased R9 million from R64 million in the previous financial year - meaning that the SABC's collection cost rate climbed further from 8.1% to 8.9%.

The SABC says that the "current depressed economic environment resulted in lower collections than anticipated".

The SABC says in its financial report that it wants to do away with the SABC TV Licence and replace it with a levy which it wants private pay-TV operators like MultiChoice to help collect from DStv subscribers - especially DStv subscribers who have TV sets which the SABC doesn't know about and represent millions of TV households.

The SABC has a "known" SABC TV Licence database of just 10.5 million TV households. In reality, there are many millions more South African households with one or more TV sets - households which the broadcaster is not aware of.

The SABC wants to do away with the SABC TV Licence fees and has submitted proposals for a "technology-neutral, device-independent, public media levy to replace the existing television

licence, exempting the indigent", which it wants MultiChoice to help collect as the dominant pay-TV service in South Africa, on the public broadcaster's behalf.

SABC's prime time viewership problem

While the vast majority of South African TV households no longer care to pay a SABC TV Licence, the SABC's dwindling audience in prime time television has fallen further - plunging to below a third of total viewership share.

Just 31% of South African viewers still bothered to watch something on the SABC's TV channels during the 2021/2022 financial year, down further from 35.8% in the previous year. 

It means that two-thirds of viewers now actively avoid, don't want to watch, or can't watch anything on the SABC's SABC1, SABC2 or SABC3 television channels.

The SABC failed in its performance period share targets for each of its TV channels during the financial year, with SABC1 (target: 27%) reaching only 15.47%, SABC2 (target: 12%) reaching only 5.23% due to competition from kykNET (DStv 144) and e.tv, and SABC3 (target: 5%) only managing a paltry 2.11%.

The SABC blames a "combination of a lack of key local properties in key slots, poor marketing, and staff shortages affected performance during the year" and that "aggressive competitors and poor marketing explain the performance achieved". 

For SABC3 "the loss of key local properties without timeous replacements and the re-launch of the channel during Covid-19 adversely impacted the performance of the channel".

SABC3 underdelivered on its target for local content in prime time, while SABC1 continued to repeat YO.TV and as a result the channel underdelivered on local children's quotas.SABC2 repeated children's content and licensed some fresh content, which led to the under-delivery on children's content as well.

The second local drama series for SABC3 was delayed and will only be delivered to the channel at the end of 2022, with SABC3 that is licensing local content from other suppliers to try and help reduce the non-delivery gap.

As a a result, the SABC made less money from advertising since it had fewer viewers. "Advertising revenue declined by 8% due to the decline in audience share," the broadcaster says. 

The SABC's audience share performance problems are due to the "reduced amount of fresh content during the day, as well as less-competitive titles over the weekend that are limited by provided budgets as well as available revenue".

In improved viewership transparency effort Netflix launches a new weekly Top 10 site with viewership data lists about its global audience as well as for 90 countries.

by Thinus Ferreira

On Tuesday night Netflix launched a new viewership website and viewership lists, "Netflix Top 10" where the global video streaming service said it would from now on publish, on a weekly basis, various top 10 lists for its film and TV content.

The new weekly Netflix viewership data release on Top10.Netflix.com is in line with Netflix's recent promise to be more transparent with the industry about its various viewership metrics, with Netflix that plans to include the publication of occasional "speciality lists" about various genre viewership on its service as well.

From now on Netflix will publish a weekly "Netflix Top 10" every Tuesday. This list will be based on hours viewed from Monday to Sunday the previous week, for both original Netflix as well as licensed titles. 

Netflix is breaking down the various lists available into a global top 10 lists for Films (English), TV (English), Films (non-English) and TV (non-English), as well as customised rankings for over 90 countries. 

At launch, the "Netflix Top 10" website is available in English and Spanish, with the streamer that plans to roll out more language options in 2022.

Each season of a series is measured separately, so seasons 2 and season 3 of Stranger Things might appear at the same time on a specific list. Weekly reporting is rounded to 10 000 to account for any fluctuations in internet connectivity around the world.  

Last month Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos promised the industry that Netflix is "trying to be more transparent with talent; with the market", and admitted that the service's user data and ratings have been a "big black box, mostly" for the past number of years.

Netflix is now becoming more transparent about its viewership information, although companies like South Africa's MultiChoice - that slavishly followed Netflix's playbook of being completely secretive about how many people are watching what - is still cagey and untransparent about the ratings, subscriber count and actual viewership data of its Showmax video streaming service in South Africa and across Africa.

Last week Friday Calvo Mawela, MultiChoice CEO, during the investors' call for the release of MultiChoice's latest 6-months financial report until the end of September 2021, told investors that MultiChoice is still not willing to divulge any Showmax subscriber counts or willing to be more transparent about any specific viewership information because of "competitors" like Netflix. 

Meanwhile Showmax continues to release vapid press releases devoid of any actual empirical ratings or viewership data as Showmax continues to make unsubstantiated "record viewership" claims for its small but growing service.

'An important step forward'

The new weekly "Netflix Top 10" lists are in addition to Netflix's daily country Top 10 that the streamer introduced in 2020, which will now also be based on hours viewed.

From now on Netflix will update its overall lists - first published in September 2021 - as new titles become "mega hits". These lists are based on the total hours viewed in a title's first 28 days on Netflix.

Netflix is making use of the independent accounting firm EY that will review Netflix's new metrics, with Netflix that will publish EY's report in 2022.

Netflix has stated that figuring out how best to measure "success in streaming" is hard and that traditional measures like box office or share of audience - designed to help advertisers understand success on linear TV - is no longer relevant to most streamers, including Netflix.

"Having looked at the different options, we believe engagement, as measured by hours viewed, is a strong indicator of a title's popularity, as well as overall member satisfaction, which is important for retention in subscription services," Netflix says.

"We recognise, however, that hours viewed does favour longer series and films."

Netflix, therefore, plans to occasionally publish speciality lists as well, for example, top documentary features or reality shows.

Netflix says that the new viewership lists and methodology is "an important step forward for Netflix, the creators we work with and our members."

"People want to understand what success means in a streaming world, and these lists offer the clearest answer to that question in our industry."

"Most of all, though, we hope our new weekly Top 10 on Netflix will help fans discover new stories and join new conversations - whether it's understanding your friend's new-found passion for chess, the value of a won or what's going on with all those cool cats and kittens."  

ALSO READ: MultiChoice's Showmax once again make an unsubstantiated viewership record claim, this time for Devilsdorp - here's what Showmax and some other streamers don't want to tell and don't want you to know.

SABC3's TV ratings slide: How S3 lost 50% of its viewership audience over the last 5 years between 2016 and 2021 - and is trying to reverse it.

by Thinus Ferreira

Over the last 5 years the struggling SABC3 has lost a shocking 50% of its entire audience with the South African public broadcaster's only commercial TV channel that continues to shed viewers in the TV ratings race despite yet another on-air and programming makeover earlier this year.

The TV ratings and viewership of the beleaguered SABC3, rebranded as "S3" in April this year continue to slide, with SABC3 that now has literally half the audience size than it had just half a decade ago when it was already in very big trouble.

From 1.525 million viewers that SABC3 had in January 2016 - already a small percentage from the channel's heydeys in the 2000s when it was known by its "Quality shows" slogan - ongoing viewership and TV rating erosion saw its viewership plummet 49.51% over the past 5 years to a maximum of just 769 858 viewers in July 2021.

In response to a media query about SABC3 ratings slide the past 5 years, Gugu Ntuli, SABC spokesperson tells TVwithThinus that "The SABC can confirm a decline in S3 audience ratings over 5 years and this is as a result of various reasons, including the rapidly changing broadcasting environment as well as the fire effects of Covid-19 in many fields, including broadcasting".

Where SABC3 could still sell ad spot pricing to advertisers, guaranteeing viewers of over a million for some of its shows and timeslots during 2016 and 2017, S3 is now down to selling audiences measuring in the 600 000 and 700 000s at most, with most programmes on the channel getting even lower ratings.

While SABC3 was supposed to serve as a revenue generator for the SABC's public access channels like SABC1 and SABC2 and their programming, the ongoing, steady decline of SABC3 has meant that the opposite has been happening - with the financially struggling public broadcaster's public channels in essence financing the beleaguered S3's content expenditure.   

Although its ratings and creative input kept sliding as it aged, SABC3's primetime local soap Isidingo still delivered in excess of 780 000 viewers on weeknights when it left the SABC3 airwaves in March 2020. 

A year and a half later, its replacement, The Estate, produced by Clive Morris Productions, made its debut on SABC3 with a disappointing 529  123 in the 19:00-timeslot in April this year. The show's ratings have since slid to hovering barely over the 500 000-viewers mark.

South African viewers do know that S3 exists - they just don't want to watch what's on it. 

While SABC3 used to acquire and show a mix of premium international and local content placed in primetime throughout the 2000s that could effectively compete with especially eMedia's commercial free-to-air channel e.tv and MultiChoice's M-Net (DStv 101) as SABC3's biggest broadcast rivals in luring higher LSM-viewers, that is no longer the case.

The channel can however still be a ratings draw - if the content resonates with enough viewers.

In April 2020 when SABC3 broadcast Steven Soderbergh's compelling 2011-film Contagion during the height of the first wave of South Africa's Covid-19 pandemic and lockdown, viewership for the channel surged to a whopping 4.465 million viewers and an absolutely incredible 49.2 audience share. 

It means that out of every two TV sets turned on the night of 5 April 2020 in the country, one was tuned to SABC3.

Likewise, in July 2018 when SABC1's Generations - The Legacy was shifted to SABC3 because of sport on SABC1, ratings surged to 6.935 million on SABC3 that easily lifted the channel above the ratings of anything shown on sister channel SABC2.

Here is SABC3's ratings slide over the past 5 years in ratings numbers:

January 2016: 1.525 million

June 2016: 1.492 million

January 2017: 1.729 million

June 2017: 1.457 million

January 2018: 1.045 million

June 2018: 6.335 million

January 2019: 873 479

February: 821 676

March: 791 540

April: 844 226

May: 925 431

June: 2.006 million

July: 3.273 million

August: 956 738

September: 989 449

October: 957 500

November: 936 217

December: 780 561

January 2020: 1.014 million

February: 1.093 million

March: 877 800

April: 4.465 million

May: 1.076 million

June: 828 166

July: 1.166 million

August: 1.369 million

September: 810 424

October: 1.025 million

November: 1.242 million

December: 596 656

January 2021: 903 884

February: 620 419

March: 1.557 million

April (relaunch as S3): 783 061

May: 680 196

June: 731 009

July: 769 858

The cause

SABC spokesperson Gugu Ntuli, says SABC3's "audience numbers have been dropping for the past 5 years because competitors have been quite aggressive at a time when the SABC was going through serious cash flow challenges and thus limited the ability for the broadcaster to respond substantively to its challenges".

Some of the biggest challenges for SABC3 came as a result of the loss of its "first-to-market" pillar titles like Days of Our Lives (that was since picked up by rival e.tv) and The Bold and the Beautiful. 

Their absence as lead-in shows to the rest of SABC3's primetime schedule had a debilitating, ratings destruction effect.

The banishment of Days and Bold led to a drop in SABC3's audience numbers going into the long-running local Isidingo which in turn was also not yielding the required revenue anymore. Then even Isidingo was culled and ended with its last episode in May 2020 without any immediate replacement.

Like falling dominos, even in daytime SABC3 then started to sag in the ratings, because of the loss of daytime repeats of Isidingo and other shows.

Add a litany of SABC3 signature shows from Top Billing to High Rollers that abruptly got axed over the past few years and it's clear how the channel dismantled the character and content identity it once had without replacing it with anything else that gave viewers a reason to stick around.

Then there's the fact that SABC3 has always had the smallest broadcast transmission footprint of the SABC's analogue TV channels. 

The halt of the creation of any further analogue transmission towers the past decade to try and expand SABC3's footprint, as well as the switch-off of analogue transmitters in the drawn-out digital migration process to digital terrestrial television (DTT) further eroded its possible viewership.

Don't forget that the former SABC COO Hlaudi Motsoeneng's drastic and abrupt "80% local, 20% international" local content decree also inflicted massive damage on SABC3, completely destabilising the channel's schedule that in turn led to big chunks of its audience fleeing.

Once SABC3 executives were forced to remove foreign shows from the channel without any coherent replacement stategy, a lot of viewers also evaporated.

"S3 also lost major audiences while catering for Covid-19 messaging and educational programming," says Gugu Ntuli.

Besides Covid-19 messages, the SABC also decided to fill the SABC3 schedule with educational content. Even those viewers who remained with the channel eventually finally fled when its schedule suddenly switched to Woza Matric content for as much as 5 hours per day, 7 days a week. This lasted for months, further damaging ratings.

Trying to reverse falling ratings

The S3 schedule is being rebuilt - the first pillar being the new local soap The Estate, with episodes of the show that is now also being rebroadcast on SABC1 during primetime to try and lure viewers to its struggling sister channel.

"It must be noted that we have just started a 3-year strategy in April 2021. S3 needs to grow in a sustainable way with a clear brand and programming promise. This needs an environment of support and consistency to flourish, as well as great PR and marketing backing," says Gugu Ntuli.

"The Estate will remain the prime local drama on S3," she says.

About The Estate's sagging ratings - a show that was launched with barely any above-the-line marketing spend or PR behind it - Gugu Ntuli says that its performance is "impacted by the performance of the entire channel that requires a lot of investment and time for a proper turn-around".

"The loss of audiences is a quick process for a platform but to build audiences starting from a low base does take time, particularly in prime time in a very congested channel space. Despite this, the SABC is very proud of The Estate property on S3."

"We are not giving the series to SABC1 but we have requested that SABC1 plays the series from the beginning to allow audiences to catch-up with the storyline, particularly for audiences that may have missed the start of the show."

"We are confident that in time audiences will increase for The Estate and allow the SABC to recoup its investment and grow audiences for the show."

MultiChoice's Showmax once again make an unsubstantiated viewership record claim, this time for Devilsdorp - here's what Showmax and some other streamers don't want to tell and don't want you to know.

by Thinus Ferreira

On Tuesday, MultiChoice's video streaming service Showmax once again made an unsubstantiated claim about viewership figures in a press release without providing any actual viewership numbers or viewer data, this time about its well-received documentary series Devilsdorp - but the devil's in the details and in this case, a streamer conspiracy that Showmax is part of.

MultiChoice's Showmax made a similar unproven viewership claim in February this year with The Real Housewives of Durban, providing no actual first-day viewing numbers.

Showmax also fake-release ratings about top titles' performance at the end of a year with vague and nebulous claims like "30% increase" and "21% up compared to normal activity" in press statements, without supporting it with any actual numbers.

Some media republish these press releases without any substance or numbers as is, with no critical approach as to what the meaning - and value - of nothing to South Africa's film and TV industry is when hollow press releases don't actually contain any empirical viewership statistics.

This time, in a hyped press release, Showmax is touting how Devilsdorp, commissioned under Showmax head of content Candice Fangueiro and produced by IdeaCandy, has "set a Showmax record for most hours watched in its first four days of launch".

It's more of the same vague viewership nonsense hyped up to sound like a monumental achievement.

Showmax claims that Devilsdorp is "setting a new record for the most hours watched in its first four days of launch of any film or series ever on Showmax, outperforming the likes of Game of Thrones, The Real Housewives of Durban and The River".

The press release contains absolutely no numbers to substantiate anything - nothing about the viewership or views that represent this claimed record, and nothing about the numbers of hours to substantiate the claim of "most hours".

TVwithThinus asked Showmax in response to, and prompted by, the press release, the simple question: What is the record, and the hours watched?"

A Showmax spokesperson replied and said: "Unfortunately we're not able to share stats at this stage".

Yolisa Phahle is the boss of Showmax as the MultiChoice Group CEO for general entertainment and connected video, which is where the decision had been made not to release any actual real viewership statistics about any Showmax content or titles to the press or the media industry.

The reality is that MultiChoice and Showmax are cultivating a cult of video streaming views secrecy.

Make no mistake: It's very deliberately not being transparent about how many customers are watching Showmax because it doesn't want to be.

But why this "devilish conspiracy"?

Last week The Observer published a must-read article explaining why some companies and streaming services, like your MultiChoice and Showmax, don't want to release any actual, real viewership information publicly.

The article quotes Dietrich von Behren, chief business officer at Reelgood that tracks TV shows and films available online, who says that some streamers don't want the public and industry to know its viewership numbers because "It allows the service to control the narrative, and outsiders don't really know the actual wins versus losses around programming".

"With the proliferation of more services in an increasingly competitive space, streamers may believe that's the way to stay ahead."

Media exec Andrew Rosen says "For every streaming service not named Netflix, streaming is neither the only line item nor a significant line item contributing to operating income or EBITDA."

The Observer article notes that "the benefits of accurate viewership statistics would be to inform the industry and drive more informed decision making overall".

"In establishing credibility, audiences and consumers are more likely to trust the brand and any subsequent reveals the company makes public. This is particularly true as the SVOD industry moves out of its infancy and into maturity."

Dietrich von Behren says "Viewership itself is not a secret formula or silver bullet, it's just a measure of success".

"Strong viewership is simply an indicator of popular content and the opposite holds true, so let the market learn from it and not hide from it. Streaming services will benefit and so will consumers."

The SABC's TV channels all in a troubling viewership slide in September, while Sofia the First on DStv's Disney Channel proves the power of a princess.

The SABC's three main TV channels each continue a very troubling downward trend in the ratings as SABC1, SABC2 and SABC3 continued to shed viewers in September, while Sofia the First on The Disney Channel on DStv delightfully proved the viewership power of a princess.

Troubling for industry watchers is that the overall TV viewership of people watching the SABC was again lower in September than in the preceding month, due to lower ratings for each of the public broadcaster's three main channels, according to the viewership figures compiled by the Broadcast Research Council of South Africa (BRCSA).

SABC1's overall viewership during September fell from a month before, with the bulk of its top 20 most watched shows all grabbing less viewers than during August.

SABC1 lost thousands of viewers in total from Generations, Uzalo, Skeem Saam, Vodacom Millionaires, Thandeka's Diary, Selimathunzi, Shuga, Live Amp and Rise that were all down from the previous month, while the Xhosa news, Mutual Friends and Zaziwa managed to edge up.

On SABC1, soaps Generations and Uzalo remain dead even as the most watched shows on South African television - both with a 23.9 AR, with Generations grabbing slightly more viewers for its top-rated episode in September with 8.16 million viewers, compared to Uzalo's 8.15 million.

Worryingly, SABC2's viewership is also edging lower, with the second SABC channel's average top viewership for its top 20 most watched shows in September, also falling lower than a month before.

SABC2's viewership problems
SABC2's top shows - like its Venda soap Muvhango, the live Lotto draw and others are all down, but that's not where the problems end.

The plummeting viewership of 7de Laan remains a growing problem for the SABC, with the ratings of the once strong Afrikaans weekday soap on SABC2 once again falling further from August to September from a 5.5 AR (1.86 million viewers) to a 5.3 AR (1.81 million viewers) for its top rated episodes.

Whilst still a top show for SABC2, the channel seems unable to stop the viewership erosion, with the bad recent timeslot change that's been having an ongoing detrimental impact on the show's ratings.

Viewers are also fleeing SABC2's Afrikaans news bulletin, down from 4.4 ARs (1.49 million viewers) to 4.3 AR in September (1.45 million viewers) that also apparently changed its timeslot for the worse.

Also down in September from August: The viewership of SABC2 shows ranging from Musiek Roulette to Keletso.

SABC2's consumer magazine show Speak Out showed an uptick from a 6.8AR to a 7.4 AR (2.5 million viewers) in September.


SABC3's painful ratings slide
SABC3 remains a big and growing problem for the SABC.

As the SABC's only commercial TV channel that is supposed to pull in an affluent metropolitan audience highly sought after by advertisers, the opposite has been happening.

With the evisceration of its schedule by controversial boss Hlaudi Motsoeneng who banished foreign TV shows for an avalanche of rushed-to-air local shows, none of which are pulling audiences, viewers have made their displeasure known with the SABC for removing hugely popular fare like Days of Our Lives and American drama series from advantageous timeslots.

Although it costs the SABC millions of rands to produce new local content shows, the raft of new, mostly talking heads talk show type and reality magazine shows have failed to lift SABC3's anemic viewership for a third month in a row.

This is putting pressure on the SABC to do something as SABC3's overall programme ratings and viewership keeps dropping.

The SABC will have to either return popular foreign shows like The Amazing Race and other foreign drama and sitcom series it yanked mid-season back to the SABC3 schedule and bring back Days to its late afternoon timeslot, or produce better and more compelling local shows than the Divas of Jozi and Top Chef SA that viewers rejected.

Foreign films left on the SABC3 schedule is what fills the bulk of SABC3's most watched programming list during September, while its local weekday soap Isidingo showed a small uptick from 3.1 AR (1.03 million viewers) to 3.3 AR (1.11 million viewers) for its highest rated episodes.

Besides Isidingo, the only local TV series besides foreign movies to rate at all on SABC3's top 20 most watched list for September are telenovela High Rollers (1.8 AR), late afternoon talk show Afternoon Express (1.6 AR) and the stalwart glam magazine show Top Billing (1.4 AR) in the 20th position.

It's hugely troubling to advertisers and the TV biz that despite spending big bucks to fund new local shows to fill primetime, that viewers have turned their back on the entire new local content offering that SABC3 presented on its schedule when it comes to ratings.


e.tv's soap surge
The SABC's viewership loss is largely free-to-air channel e.tv's gain.

On e.tv in September its weekday soaps Scandal surged from August (13.2 AR to 13.8 AR and 4.7 million viewers) while sister soap Rhythm City also grew from 9.6 AR to 10.6 AR and 3.63million viewers.

The latest season of the Rapid Blue produced SA's Got Talent is a viewership hit as the 5th most watched show on e.tv in September with a 9.9 AR and luring 3.38 million viewers for its most watched episode so far.


The power of a Disney princess
Mzansi Magic (DStv 161) continues to grab the lion's share of viewers on MultiChoice's DStv satellite pay-TV platform, with Our Perfect Wedding, Isibaya, Rockville and Idols remaining the four most watched shows on in September on DStv, as they were in August.

The Queen, Greed & Desire - and even the repeat broadcasts of both shows - both series on Mzansi Magic as well, also took four spots out of the most watched programming list on DStv for September.

Don't ever under-estimate the resolve of children and the steel-strong consumer power of young viewers to influence viewing behaviour and patterns.

MultiChoice and The Walt Disney Company opening up The Disney Channel (DStv 303) in September to subscribers on lower-tiered packages was a huge ratings bonanza for Disney.

The toddler animation show Sofia the First on The Disney Channel for instance managed to lure more adult viewers in September aged 15 years and older to DStv than some Absa Premiership and Premier League soccer matches.

What it means is that such is the power of a Disney princess, that Sofia got her young underlings to not only watch the show themselves, but got them to force their parents - moms and dads - to watch with them, unable to tune away to "big people" shows.

More than 341 202 adult viewers (and that's excluding kids younger than 15) tunde in for the most watched Sofia the First episode on The Disney Channel on DStv during September.

The third party movie channel Studio Universal (DStv 112) from NBCUniversal International Networks popped up a ratings hit in September.

Studio Universal rated in September when the film First Blood drew 377 072 viewers on 3 September, making it the most watched movie on DStv during the month and giving it an overall 15th place on the most watched list.

RATINGS. Viewership of Idols' live eight season finale of the reality show on M-Net much lower than in past seasons.

You're reading it here first. 

The ratings are out and there's a reason why M-Net only punted the votes and not the viewership of the eight season finale of Idols - the live finale in which Khaya Mthethwa won was way down from previous years.

The 9 million votes the show received is impressive and help with awareness and brand building through social media, but at the end of the day television is a business which needs to make money and it's viewership more than votes which are important since as a TV show its the viewership and the type of audience which sets and determined the ad rates for advertisers and sponsors.

Where the live Idols finale of previous seasons easily topped as the number one broadcast on M-Net, the eight season finale of Idols pulled a measly 0,7 AR under all adults, or roughly 210 651 viewers this year. It made it the third most watched show of the week on M-Net.

The viewership of Idols in the final weeks leading up to the finale was of course also down compared to the exact same time last year during the 7th season.

Compared to the 7th season finale of Idols which happened during the exact same week last year in 2011, and which was also shown on both M-Net and Mzansi Magic, the 8th season Idols finale was way down viewership wise. The Idols 7th season live finale was the number one show on M-Net during its week last year and pulled 448 000 viewers last year (more than double).

In this year's week of the 8th season Idols finale, more people watched Carte Blanche during the metering week on M-Net, followed by the monkey in The Hangover 2, with the Idols finale coming in in third place. Although Idols is a co-production with Mzansi Magic (DStv 161), M-Net as the premium channel commands the better ad rates since Mzansi Magic is available on the lower-tiered DStv Compact bouquet.

BREAKING. Television viewing in South Africa remains buoyant as TV watching, TV reach continue to show significant growth.

You're reading it here first.

With more homes in South Africa having TV sets than ever before, TV viewing and the available weekly audience has grown again - and significantly - in the latest AMPS June 2012, the All Media and Products Survey released by the South African Audience Research Foundation (Saarf).

The latest AMPS, a survey released twice annually, is important since its the benchmark for advertisers, ad buyers and ad planners as to what media reach is available, how significant it is and what platforms they're going to channel that all-important marketing budgets and ad spending to.

Newspaper and magazine reading in South Africa continues its overall slide down, but as traditional paper products decline, online reading grows (you're reading this story here, after all) and television viewing in South Africa remains buoyant with TV viewing which has grown significantly, with weekly viewership in South Africa rising from 90,8% to 91,7%%.

It means that 91,7% of South Africans watch television at least once a week and that TV in South Africa now reaches 32,022 million South Africans (aged 15 and older) each week.

Significant more homes have TV sets in South Africa: up from 87% to 88,6% with gains in small urban and rural areas, KwaZulu/Natal in particular. Having a TV in working order is also up, from 86,5% to 87,8%.

All three SABC TV stations, SABC1, SABC2 and SABC3 are trending up and e.tv is showing significantly increased viewership in AMPS June 2012.

Pay TV in South Africa is also showing significant growth with huge growth by DStv and TopTV holding steady. The viewing of community TV channels in South Africa is flat, reaching 8,6% of South Africa's adult population or 2,99 million viewers each week. SowetoTV which can be seen on DStv on channel 251 is the massive winner here which reached 7,7% of adults each week.

SABC1's viewing increased to 79,8% (meaning 27,86 million viewers aged 15 and older have watched SABC1 within the past 7 days.)
SABC2 viewing increased to 71,6% (25 million viewers)
SABC3 grew to 58,4% (20,38 million viewers with growth in Gauteng)

e.tv has grown its reach from 67,4% to 68,6% currently (23,98 million viewers). The channel gained eyes in especially small urban and rural areas, in the Free State and KwaZulu/Natal and under men (34-39).

M-Net (DStv 101) has grown to 6,8% (2,38 million viewers) with increases in the Western Cape.

Satellite TV and pay-TV in South Africa is continuing its significant growth. DStv's weekly reach rose from 26,3% (9,19 million adults) to 27,5% (9,598 million adults). TopTV remains stable on 1,5% with 513 000 weekly viewers.

BREAKING. South African total television viewership grows; biggest viewership gains made by e.tv, SABC1 and SABC2.

You're seeing it here first.

I can be first to show you a comparable by-the-numbers comparison of the latest South African TV viewership figures that are out for South African TV television that shows significant television viewership growth in South Africa.

The South African television viewership is the very latest and just released Saarf AMPS data for the period between July 2009 and June 2010 and is for people who say they've watched a specific TV channel the previous day. Its technical and I won't bore you, but its also the first year that its possible to compare this Saarf AMPS data to the previous year's.

In terms of TV there has been an increase in the total television viewership in South Africa. The TV channels that have seen the highest increases include SABC1, SABC2 and e.tv. SABC1 is still by far the largest TV channel in South Africa with 19,44 million daily viewers but e.tv is slowly and steadily gaining and now has a massive 14,7 million viewers - a record number of viewers. SABC2 is next with 14,2 million viewers, followed by SABC3 with 9,8 million viewers. Just under 5 million people watch a DStv channel daily and M-Net on average has just over 1 million viewers daily.