{"id":18773,"date":"2026-03-24T09:00:01","date_gmt":"2026-03-24T07:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sabc.co.za\/sabc\/?p=18773"},"modified":"2026-03-24T09:33:05","modified_gmt":"2026-03-24T07:33:05","slug":"sabc-statement-on-sabc-news-channel-programming-strategy-and-scheduling-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sabc.co.za\/sabc\/sabc-statement-on-sabc-news-channel-programming-strategy-and-scheduling-review\/","title":{"rendered":"SABC STATEMENT ON SABC NEWS CHANNEL PROGRAMMING STRATEGY AND SCHEDULING REVIEW."},"content":{"rendered":"

Johannesburg, Tuesday, 24 March 2026 \u2013<\/strong>\u00a0The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) notes the ongoing public discourse regarding recent programming changes on the SABC News Channel.<\/p>\n

As a public broadcaster, the SABC operates under a clear mandate to inform, educate and entertain, while ensuring that its services remain relevant, responsive to audience needs, and financially sustainable. In line with this mandate, the Corporation periodically undertakes comprehensive reviews of its content offering and channel strategy to ensure alignment with public value and long-term sustainability.<\/p>\n

The current programming changes form part of a broader channel and schedule review, which considered multiple factors, including audience performance data, content relevance, scheduling optimisation, programme costing and the evolving needs of South African audiences.<\/p>\n

It is important to emphasise that these decisions are not centred on any individual, but rather on the overall performance and strategic fit of programmes within the channel\u2019s refreshed content approach.<\/p>\n

USE OF AUDIENCE DATA IN DECISION-MAKING<\/strong><\/p>\n

Over a 12-month period (April 2025 \u2013 March 2026), Face the Nation recorded the following performance indicators, benchmarked against the SABC News Channel\u2019s primetime performance targets:<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
METRIC<\/strong><\/td>\nPROGRAMME ACTUAL PERFORMANCE<\/strong><\/td>\nSABC BENCHMARK \/ TARGET<\/strong><\/td>\nINTERPRETATION<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Average Slot Audience<\/strong><\/td>\n\u00b1121,000 viewers<\/td>\n\u00b1259,475 viewers<\/td>\nMaterially Below Slot Benchmark<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Average Audience rating (AR)<\/strong><\/td>\n\u00b10.1%<\/td>\n1% Target<\/td>\nSustained Underperformance vs Target<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Slot Programme Ranking<\/strong><\/td>\nOutside Top 5<\/td>\nTop 5 Benchmark<\/td>\nBelow Top 5 Benchmark<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Total Programme Competitive Ranking<\/strong><\/td>\n42nd Overall<\/td>\nTop 30 Benchmark<\/td>\nWeak Competitive Positioning in a High-Value Slot<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

*Source: BRC TAMS, April 2025 – March 2026<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The programme\u2019s average audience rating reflects a material and sustained underperformance against the channel\u2019s primetime target. Comparative programmes in this time slot typically achieve share levels of approximately 1% to 2%.<\/p>\n

COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE CONTEXT<\/strong><\/p>\n

Across the broader local news environment, top-performing programmes are predominantly live, rolling and event-driven formats.<\/p>\n

Importantly, the SABC operates within a competitive environment. While fulfilling its public service mandate, the Corporation derives more than 80%<\/strong>\u00a0of its revenue from commercial activities with the government funding about 4%<\/strong>\u00a0and TV Licence fees covering about 16%.<\/strong>\u00a0In this context, programming decisions must balance public mandate with audience behaviour and commercial sustainability.<\/p>\n

The SABC emphasises that this decision forms part of a broader strategic realignment of its news portfolio<\/strong>, spanning both free-to-air and pay-TV services, and should not be interpreted as an isolated action relating to any individual programme or personnel.<\/p>\n

The SABC has, in this instance, provided audience performance data in response to significant public interest. Such disclosures are not standard practice due to commercial considerations and have been made in the interest of transparency, without establishing a precedent for future decision-making processes.<\/p>\n

The Corporation unequivocally confirms that this decision was free from any political interference and was guided strictly by internal editorial, strategic and performance criteria.<\/p>\n

The SABC remains committed to delivering high-quality, credible and relevant content in service of the South African public.<\/p>\n

ENDS<\/strong><\/p>\n

Issued By:\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong>Group Communications<\/p>\n

Media Enquiries:\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u2002\u2002<\/strong>Mmoni Ngubane (Head of Communications)<\/p>\n

NgubaneMV@sabc.co.za<\/a><\/u><\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong>T. 011 714 3057| C. 073 688 1590<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Johannesburg, Tuesday, 24 March 2026 \u2013\u00a0The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) notes the ongoing public discourse regarding recent programming changes on the SABC News Channel. As a public broadcaster, the SABC operates under a clear mandate to inform, educate and entertain, while ensuring that its services remain relevant, responsive to audience needs, and financially sustainable. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":81,"featured_media":8918,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sabc.co.za\/sabc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18773"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sabc.co.za\/sabc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sabc.co.za\/sabc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sabc.co.za\/sabc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/81"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sabc.co.za\/sabc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18773"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.sabc.co.za\/sabc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18773\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18775,"href":"https:\/\/www.sabc.co.za\/sabc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18773\/revisions\/18775"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sabc.co.za\/sabc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8918"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sabc.co.za\/sabc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sabc.co.za\/sabc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sabc.co.za\/sabc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}