SABC joins etv to give prime time news the boot
William Bird, Executive Director Media Monitoring Africa, speaks to Stephen Grootes about SABC presenting a submission to Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) to have the regulations around prime time news bulletins amended.
The public broadcaster joins free to air independent broadcaster etv, who has been calling for the changes for some time, citing decreasing audience numbers in the news slot.
Bird acknowledges that viewers habits for consuming news has changed with the onset of 24 hour news channels and online digital offerings.
Prime Time news is an outdated concept that needs to changed but he says, overseas countries still do retain a prime time news bulletin and it would be a pity of these were to be removed in South Africa.
Listen to his analysis of how audiences consume news in the current climate: