[Submitted via press release]
In August 2012 the SABC went on a public drive called the ‘Make Your Voices Heard Campaign’.
This was a process that engaged with our audience on our 18 radio stations and 3 television channels, as well as social media platforms, for the public to discuss and give the public service broadcaster their opinion on our content offering.
Following this engagement, the results indicated that amongst other things, our viewers felt that our television news broadcasts were too short. In order to address this issue, a decision was taken to extend the English news bulletin to one hour.
Therefore from the 1st of April 2013, we are extending our English news bulletin by 30minutes from 18:30-19:30 in line with the numerous requests received from the public.
Another reason which factored into the decision was that the fact that this will allow the public service broadcaster an opportunity to prominently give coverage to stories from the respective provinces.
SABC Acting Chief Operations Officer, Mr. Hlaudi Motsoeneng said “As a public service broadcaster, our various programming has to continuously reflect the needs and wants of our audiences. This decision was not taken lightly and we are cognisant of the fact that more work needs to be done, and this is but one step in that direction”.
“We want the people to know that this is their SABC, and their opinion and input are highly valued and we will continue to engage them on various issues regarding the corporation” concluded Mr. Motsoeneng.
SABC Group Chief Executive Officer, Mrs. Lulama Mokhobo will launch the new one hour bulletin on Monday 01 April 2013.
The SABC 3 programmes which aired at 18:30 will now be moved to SABC 1.