Fans of science fiction who have DSTV do quite well, as ActionX certainly caters for their needs. However, those like me who don’t have DSTV have to suffer with what the SABC and e.tv dish up, and they don't dish up much.
In fact, I’m convinced that they have an anti sci-fi policy. If you don’t believe me, here are five reasons which should bring you around to my way of thinking.
1) They show very little in the way of sci-fi
In the 15 months of TVSA’s existence, there have been four sci-fi shows on free to air television: Charlie Jade, Charmed, Smallville and Heroes. That’s four shows across four channels, which is hardly a good return. It’s even worse when you consider that none of those shows were on e.tv.
I don’t have any records of what was on in terms of sci-fi before TVSA started, but I’m willing to bet that it was precious little. But if that's not enough to convince you, I have more reasons.
2) They have a history of choosing poor timeslots
In the past, the SABC has been guilty of broadcasting sci-fi shows as part of their children’s line-up in the afternoon. I’m not talking about shows like Lois and Clark, Xena, and Hercules, which while not strictly children’s shows are less serious, and maybe not ideal for a primetime slot.
What I’m talking about are shows like Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Space: Above and Beyond, and Sliders. All three of those were broadcast as children’s shows (although Deep Space Nine did move for later seasons), and yet none of them were ever intended to be children’s shows.
I was fortunate to be at school and university while those shows were on, and so was able to get home in time to watch them. But by putting them on in the afternoon, you’re actually excluding the main target audience, that of adult sci-fi fans.
But while they seem to have been cured of that affliction, there still is a tendency to pick poor timeslots for sci-fi. Just take a look at the shows I mentioned in point 1.
Charlie Jade was on at 21h00 on a Sunday evening, which is in the middle of the evening movies on SABC1, e.tv and M-Net. Up against that competition, it was never going to attract that many viewers on a consistent basis.
Smallville is currently on at 18h30 on a Saturday. I don't know what the thinking behind that timeslot was, but it's hardly an one for a popular show.
While SABC3 scored a coup in bringing us Heroes, they put it up against WWE, which is consistently the most popular show on e.tv. While it could be argued that they’re trying to attract viewers away from e.tv, I’m not inclined to be that charitable, and a better timeslot would have resulted in more viewers.
3) They ignore the fact that people watch sci-fi shows
Despite the poorly-chosen timeslots, people are watching Smallville and Heroes. Before Erfsondes started, Smallville was the most-watched drama on SABC2, and it attracted more viewers than any drama on SABC3.
While Heroes is never going to attract that many viewers as a result of it being up against WWE and Generations, it’s still managed to attract 25% more viewers than Hard Copy, the show it replaced. That’s definitely a significant increase.
So there definitely is an audience for sci-fi. Imagine how well Smallville and Heroes would have done in better timeslots (actually, in Smallville's case you don’t need to imagine as it did even better in its old timeslot of 19h30 on a Wednesday).
4) They don’t broadcast the complete run of some shows
Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Voyager, and Farscape are all shows that the SABC has broadcast. They’re also all shows that ended a number of years ago. They also happen to be shows for which the SABC never bothered to show the later seasons.
While it’s maybe a bit unreasonable to expect the SABC to show back-to-back seasons of a particular show, it’s not unreasonable to expect them to show the complete run of a show. So that’s yet another disservice done to sci-fi fans by the SABC. I also have a vague memory of them going from Season 1 to Season 3 of Deep Space Nine (ie skipping Season 2), but I can't confirm this.
I can’t criticise e.tv in this regard, as they did show all five seasons of
Babylon 5. However, this doesn’t take away from the fact that they haven’t shown much else in the way of sci-fi.
5) It’s not as if there aren’t shows available
One counter to my first point could be that DSTV has the money to snap up all the good shows. While to some extent this is true, that’s actually not a valid excuse.
ActionX hasn’t been in existence all that long, and the SABC has a history of ignoring shows. A case in point would be Babylon 5, which was ignored by the SABC and ended up being shown by e.tv a number of years after it began in America.
And what’s stopping the SABC from broadcasting sci-fi shows that have already been on DSTV/M-Net? They have a history of doing this – look at Desperate Housewives, CSI, Two and a Half Men, Joey, and the Gilmore Girls to name a few.
Not to mention Smallville, which is a sci-fi show. So what’s stopping SABC from showing Battlestar Galactica or the 4400?
And ActionX doesn't have every show. I haven’t kept close tabs on what sci-fi shows are out there that haven’t reached our screens yet, but I can think of four examples off the top of my head.
Doctor Who (the first season might have been shown on DSTV, but the subsequent ones definitely haven't been)
Torchwood (Doctor Who spinoff)
Jericho
Life on Mars (maybe technically not sci-fi, but it does include a time travel twist)
Maybe some of these shows have been picked up by DSTV, but if not, then why hasn’t the SABC gone for them?
5a) Their advertising for sci-fi shows sucks
I didn’t want to include this as a main point, as I don’t remember how well shows have been advertised in the past, but the SABC’s advertising of their two current sci-fi shows leaves a lot to be desired. For example, I don’t recall having seen a single promo for the current season of Smallville
When it comes to Heroes, the promos for Heroes fall into two categories – spoiling important plot points or showing scenes from past episodes. It’s almost as though SABC3 doesn’t want people watching it.
So to sum it up - SABC and e.tv show very few sci-fi shows, despite them being available, and when they do they don't take it seriously. What more evidence do you need as proof of their anti sci-fi policy?