Plans to win back Afrikaans viewers
THE SABC has announced a series of scheduling changes to its SABC2 TV channel in an attempt to win back Afrikaans viewers and cement it as an “all-inclusive family channel”.
The broadcaster announced the changes at a media briefing in Johannesburg last week.
The changes‚ effective from March 6‚ will see the introduction and return of several Afrikaans series’ and game shows‚ as well as a two-hour Afrikaans-language block from 6pm to 8pm on Mondays and Thursdays.
SABC spokesman Kaizer Kganyago said that there were a number of factors in deciding the changes‚ but the broadcaster’s decision to increase the amount of Afrikaans content on the station was partly in response to it losing Afrikaans viewers.
“We made a number of changes to SABC2’s schedule in 2014 where we moved some Afrikaans content away from the channel. We have acknowledged that we lost a few viewers with those changes. We were concerned and we are aiming to bring these audiences back and keep them on the channel by now providing more content for them‚” Kganyago said.
The changes will also see soapie 7de Laan move from its current 7pm time slot to 6pm.
The soapie has been hit by an exodus of stars and declining viewership numbers. It also reportedly ran out of money late last year to pay its staff.
Kganyago would not comment on the reasons for the soapie’s time change but said that the broadcaster still had full confidence in the show.
“Our latest announcement shows that we still have confidence in the show. We would have cut it if we felt that it was a problem‚” Kganyago said.
Although the bulk of the new content on the show is Afrikaans‚ a number of English shows have been introduced‚ including a gospel lifestyle show hosted by popular Metro FM and Radio 2000 host Thami Ngubeni‚ entitled Life with Thami‚ and a show hosted by comedians Tumi Morake and Alan Committee‚ entitled Red Cake Not The Cooking Show.
Kganyago said that the changes were introduced to make the channel “an all-inclusive family channel”.
“The changes are not only about Afrikaans. The Afrikaans viewership is not the only the factor.
“SABC2 is an all-inclusive family channel. It is not an Afrikaans channel‚” Kganyago said. — TMG