SABC’s new channels
The public broadcaster’s digital migration is good news: more channels are coming!
The SABC’s Hlaudi Motsoeneng said on TV there are new channels coming which will be for each language. Any information on that, dear tvplus? – SARAH, VIA EMAIL
According to the SABC head of group communications Kaizer Kganyago, with the move to digital migration, the SABC “has decided to create television channels that will strictly cover a cluster of language groups to ensure that the SABC audiences are better served in the language of their choice. The public broadcaster has decided to make several languagebased television channels available to the public. These channels will serve the millions of SABC’s audiences in the language of their choice”.
SABC chief operations officer Hlaudi Motsoeneng added, “The new channels will be the melting pots of culture and traditions of all those languages,” and that they would be grouped by language cluster. Four are currently in the planning stages: Sesotho, Setswana and Sepedi will be grouped as the Sotho Channel, while isizulu, isixhosa, Siswati and isindebele will form another channel to be called Nguni Channel for the Ngunispeaking viewership. The third channel will cater for Xitsonga and tshivenda, while the fourth channel will cater for Afrikaansspeaking viewers and the Khoisan community. The SABC also announced plans to increase local content across all platforms. “Most of the new content will focus on the previously marginalised languages like xitsonga, tshivenda and also Afrikaans. It will also focus on the marginalised music genres like jazz and reggae”, said Kaizer.