Television in South Africa
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Despite being the most economically advanced country on the continent, South Africa was among the last countries in Africa to introduce television broadcasting to its population. The main reason was that television was viewed as potentially undermining the apartheid government's ideology. The white minority regime saw it as a threat to its control of the broadcasting media, even though the state-controlled South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) had a virtual monopoly on radio broadcasting. It also saw the new medium as a threat to Afrikaans and the Afrikaner volk, giving undue prominence to English, and creating unfair competition for the Afrikaans press.[1]
The National Party's Dr Albert Hertzog, Minister for Posts and Telegraphs at the time, said that TV would come to South Africa "over [his] dead body," denouncing it as "a miniature bioscope (cinema) over which parents would have no control." He also argued that "South Africa would have to import films showing race mixing; and advertising would make (non-white) Africans dissatisfied with their lot."[2] The Dutch Reformed Church also proclaimed the new medium as the "devil’s own box, for disseminating communism and immorality".[3]
However, many white South Africans, including Afrikaners, did not share Hertzog's reactionary views, and regarded the hostility towards what he called "the little black box" as absurd. When Neil Armstrong became the first man to set foot on the moon in 1969, South Africa was one of the few countries unable to watch the event live, prompting one newspaper to remark that "The moon film has proved to be the last straw… The situation is becoming a source of embarrassment for the country."[4]
The opposition United Party pointed out that less economically advanced countries in Africa had already introduced television[5], while neighbouring Southern Rhodesia, had introduced it as early as 1961.
In the absence of television in South Africa, a radio version of the British television series, The Avengers, was produced, by Sonovision for SABC's commercial network, Springbok Radio in 1972. While it only ran for eighteen months, the radio series proved highly popular.[6]
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[edit] Slow introduction
In 1971, the SABC was finally allowed to introduce a television service. Initially, the proposal was for two television channels, one in English and Afrikaans, aimed at white audiences, and another, known as TV Bantu, aimed at black viewers.[7], but when television was finally introduced, there was only one channel. Experimental broadcasts in the main cities began on 5th May 1975, before nationwide service commenced on 5th January 1976.
In common with most of Western Europe, South Africa used the PAL system for colour television, being only the second terrestrial television service in Africa to launch with a colour-only service. (Zanzibar in Tanzania was the first territory in Africa to do so in 1973.) The Government, advised by SABC technicians, took the view that colour television would have to be available so as to avoid a costly migration from black-and-white broadcasting technology.
Initially, the TV service was funded entirely through a licence fee as in the UK, but advertising began in 1978.
In 1981, a second channel was introduced, broadcasting in African languages such as Zulu, Xhosa, Sotho and Tswana. The main channel, then called TV1, was divided evenly between English and Afrikaans. Subtitling on TV was almost non-existent, the assumption being that people had no desire to watch programmes in languages they did not speak.
In 1986, the SABC's monopoly was challenged by the launch of a subscription-based service known as M-Net, backed by a consortium of newspaper publishers. However, as part of its licensing restrictions, it could not broadcast news and current affairs programmes, which were still the preserve of the SABC. As the state-controlled broadcaster, the SABC was accused of bias towards the apartheid regime.
[edit] Imported programming
Owing to South Africa's apartheid policies, the British Actors' Equity Association started a boycott of programme sales to South Africa. This, combined with a similar boycott by Australia, meant that South African TV was dominated by programming from the United States, and it was only after the end of apartheid that the boycott was lifted and non-US programming became much more widely available.
The availability of US programming was partly the result of a co-operative venture with Universal Studios in 1980 where an episode of Knight Rider was filmed in the Namib desert in South West Africa, and local acting talent was involved in the filming. As a direct consequence, the SABC received the right to broadcast in American programming syndicated from Universal Studios/MCA, and through them purchased material from other studios.
Many imported programmes were dubbed into Afrikaans, the first being the British series The Sweeney, known in Afrikaans as Blitspatrollie. However, in order to accommodate English speakers, the SABC began to simulcast the original soundtrack of US series such as Miami Vice and Beverly Hills, 90210 on an FM radio service called Radio 2000. This also applied to German and Dutch programmes dubbed in Afrikaans, such as the Dutch soap opera Medisch Centrum West, known as Hospitaal Wes Amsterdam.
[edit] Political change
Following the easing of media censorship under State President F.W. de Klerk, the SABC's news coverage moved towards being more objective, although many feared that once the African National Congress came to power, the SABC would revert to type and serve the government of the day. However, the SABC now also carried CNN International's TV news bulletins, thereby giving South African viewers new sources of international news.
In 1996, two years after the ANC came to power, the SABC reorganised its three TV channels, so as to be more representative of different language groups. This resulted in the downgrading of Afrikaans' status by reducing its airtime, a move that angered many Afrikaans speakers.
[edit] New services
The SABC's monopoly on free-to-air television was broken with the introduction of privately-owned channel e.tv in 1998. e.tv also provided the first local television news service outside of the SABC stable, although M-Net's parent company, Multichoice offered services such as CNN, BBC World and Sky News via direct-to-home satellite as part of its paid offering.
The first 24-hour local business channel, CNBC Africa was launched in 2007 with eight hours of local programming and the remainder pulled from other CNBC affiliates. CNBC Africa competes with Summit, a business television station owned by media group Avusa, which broadcasts only during evening prime time. Both stations are available only on the Multichoice direct-to-home platform, although the inclusion of CNBC Africa in the offering of new satellite players seems a near certainty.
In November 2007 regulators announced the award of four new broadcast licences after a process that saw 18 applications. The successful applicants were Walking on Water, a dedicated Christian service, On Digital Media, a broad-spectrum entertainment offering, e-Sat, a satellite service from e.tv and Telkom Media, a company 66% owned by telecommunications operator Telkom. The Multichoice licence was renewed at the same time.
The new players are all expected to be operational by mid-2008 and all will operate direct-to-home services using standard small aperture satellite dishes. Telkom Media was also granted an IPTV licence and is expected to start offering services such as video-on-demand by September 2008. Telkom Media has also vowed to create South Africa's first 24/7 news channel as a primary differentiator.
[edit] Local programming
There are currently many South African-produced programmes which are shown across Africa. For example, M-Net's soap opera Egoli: Place of Gold, has been shown in 43 African countries, and has even been exported to Venezuela, where it has been dubbed in Spanish[8]. The drama series Shaka Zulu, based on the true story of the Zulu warrior King Shaka, was shown around the world in the 1980s, but this was only possible because the SABC had licensed the series to a US distributor. The Zulu-language comedy 'Sgudi 'Snaysi achieved SABC's highest viewing figures in the late 1980s, and was shown in Zimbabwe and Swaziland.
[edit] See also
- List of South African television series
- List of television stations in South Africa
- Media in South Africa
[edit] References
- ^ Bernard Cros in Why South Africa’s Television is only Twenty Years Old: Debating Civilisation, 1958-1969
- ^ Cape Times, 4 May 1967, quoted in Contact, Vol 10 no 1, p4
- ^ Sunday Times, 8 January 2007, From devil’s box to diversity: 30 years of SABC television
- ^ Sunday Times, 7 July 1969, quoted in Why South Africa’s Television is only Twenty Years Old: Debating Civilisation, 1958-1969
- ^ Why South Africa’s Television is only Twenty Years Old: Debating Civilisation, 1958-1969
- ^ The Avengers Forever: The Avengers on the Radio
- ^ Time Magazine, 10 May 1971 Apartheid Television
- ^ Africa Film & TV 2000 Satisfying local demand
[edit] External links
- South African Broadcasting Corporation
- M-Net
- Multichoice DStv
- etv
- NSAT
- Why South Africa’s Television is only Twenty Years Old: Debating Civilisation, 1958-1969
- TVSA - The South African TV Authority
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