Question NW1957 to the Minister of Communications
16 October 2017 - NW1957
Van Damme, Ms PT to ask the Minister of Communications
(1)Whether, with reference to the statement in the 2016-17 financial year fourth quarter report of the SA Broadcasting Corporation (SABC), (a) SABC 1, (b) SABC 3 and (c) each of the SABC’s radio stations went through the same significant schedule changes as SABC 2, which destabilised the channel resulting in disinvestments from advertisers; if not, in each case, why not; if so, in each case, what are the full relevant details; (2) what was the (a) total amount of disinvestment by advertisers across the SABC and (b) detailed breakdown for each of the SABC’s (i) TV and (ii) radio stations?
Reply:
(1) According to the SABC;
(a)(b) minor schedule changes to SABC 2 and SABC 1 were launched for transmission in February, the launch of the newly positioned SABC 3 took place at the end of the quarter with the new schedule going to air at the begging of the new financial year.
(1) (c) The radio stations did not go through any schedule changes except for the annual on air personality’s lineup change as announce every April across all radio stations. SABC 2 did not go through significant schedule change. The only reference to advertiser disinvestment in the Quarter 4 report was with regard to the cumulative impact on revenue decline for the full year and not necessarily in the Quarter 4 period.
(2) Details on disinvestment is provided in the Annual Report of the SABC tabled in Parliament few weeks ago.