SABC News 24 Hour Channel Launched
By Saundra Obote
After months and month of delays SABC finally launched its 24 hour news channel on Thursday 1 of August at 6 pm, on Multichoice’s Dstv channel 404. The date of the launch also coincided with the 77 anniversary of the SABC.
In a statement to the media ahead of the launch SABC’s acting COO; Hlaudi Motsoeneng said “We are very excited about this partnership with Multichoice, as it will expose South African news stories to an audience not only in the country, but outside of South Africa as well." While the Multichoice SA group CEO, Imtiaz Patel, said: "The news channel in particular will bring diversity to our news programming, as it will provide our audiences with different views and news from an African perspective."
Also speaking at its launch, communications minister yunus carrim said the news channel will be available on free-to-air TV once the move from analogue to digital terrestrial television happens.SABC's Group Chief Executive Officer Ms Lulama Mokhobo also supported this statement stating that when the channel has approached ICASA and applied for a free to air channel license, ICASA had unfortunately said that there were no more free to air channel space forcing the channel to decide to launch on Dstv rather than wait for a longer period of time for the move from analogue to digital which may only take place as early as 2015.
On hand to at the launch was president Zuma who said the launch happened at the right time He also expressed hope that the channel would help South Africans realize their right to freedom of expression.“Journalists will be able to share with South Africans the successes of their country in the past 20 years, as well as the work that must still be done further in building a prosperous South Africa and a better Africa,” he said , “In short, the true and full South African story is waiting to be told.”
The new 24 hour news channel has a host of information-packed programming on the cards and will be crossing to its international correspondent s within the course of the news bulletins to get perspectives of the different stories from all corners of the world. With less than 24 hours on the air, the channel has received mixed reactions in terms of feedback from the viewers
Mark Pilgrim @MarkPilgrimZA9h Watching SABC’s new 24 hour news channel (ch404) with Zuma’s “dynamic oratory”… I’d rather watch MORE re-runs of CHiPS.lindani @lindanigasa11h Well done #SABC for the 24 hour news channel, channel 404. We also salute the department of communications for taking SABC forward!
Andre Pentz @AndrePentz9h new #SABC 24 Hour News channel what a comedy showcase.
M. Shaahid Abdool @moshaahid10h #SABC is one of the largest public broadcasters in the world. You cannot launch a 24-hour news channel in this manner. Professionalism?
☺Londiwe♥ @The_Media_Girl2h So SABC has a 24-hour news Tv channel on Dstv channel 404. Hope there’s a diversity of news compared to the sabc1 channel #Sabc
At this point in time, all that viewers can do is to sit back and watch as the channel develops, hopefully this is the beginning of something great for SABC as it lays its footprints on the ground.
for more views on this please visit www.sabc.co.za
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWPtmt5Y0yA
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