DStv is making the same mistake as the SABC
MultiChoice owner Canal+ has reportedly been sluggardly in approving production contracts for local content on DStv’s kykNET and Mzansi Magic channels.
Citing anonymous industry sources, Rapport reports that there are heaps of unsigned contracts for local content, including series and soaps, at Canal+’s headquarters in Paris.
The French media titan has reportedly stripped MultiChoice and M-Net of their autonomy to approve local productions.
Meanwhile, the American show Landman has been dubbed into Afrikaans for kykNET to replace the 21:00 timeslot from next Sunday.
The character of Tommy Norris, played by Billy-Bob Thornton, will be voiced by De Waal Stemmet. Cami Miller, the character portrayed by Demi Moore, is voiced by Renske Jacobs.
According to Rapport, industry insiders are wondering whether translated and dubbed movies and shows from the U.S. and France are what DStv viewers should look forward to.
This could be a huge mistake, as the SABC recently learned when it cancelled the popular show 7de Laan and made several other changes that alienated its Afrikaans audience.
The SABC’s Afrikaans strategy confused many industry insiders, who warned that the Afrikaans audience was still attractive to advertisers.
The public broadcasters’ own research showed that kykNET was the most valuable channel for advertisers in South Africa.
Most recently, the SABC admitted that it made mistakes in reshuffling and reducing Afrikaans content over the last three years without conducting thorough research on the potential impact.
Since 2023, the broadcaster has cut at least two decades-old Afrikaans shows — popular daily soap 7de Laan and actuality series Fokus — from SABC 2.
In addition, it moved all its remaining Afrikaans programming to S3 (formerly SABC 3), which has substantially lower viewership and advertiser appeal.
That included shifting the Afrikaans news bulletin from 18:30 on SABC 2 to 20:30 on S3. That move was widely criticised by Afrikaans viewers, many of whom said they were already in bed by that time.
The broadcaster’s complete omission of the bulletin over the weekend of 5 and 6 April 2025 caused an uproar.
SABC reverses course
While it blamed the incident on a scheduling error, insiders at the broadcaster told veteran broadcasting journalist Thinus Ferreira that the removal was deliberate and had just come earlier than planned.
In a more recent interview with Ferreira, SABC platforms head David Makubyane acknowledged the changes had prompted significant backlash from Afrikaans viewers.
“As the SABC, we realised we must create new Afrikaans content,” he said. “The complaints we received, the letters — we have listened to our viewers.”
Makubyane confirmed that the broadcaster would permanently return the Afrikaans news bulletin to its regular 18:30 slot, seven days a week, and would produce new Afrikaans content.
The first will be the telenovella Paradys, set in a fictional coloured (mixed-race) community based on working-class Johannesburg communities like Eldorado Park and Westbury.
It seems to be the SABC’s answer to kykNET series like Suidooster and Skemergrond. Makubyane said that Paradys would have broader appeal, including targeting people who could not understand Afrikaans.
In June 2025, SABC Afrikaans TV news bulletin editor Daniëlle Wass admitted in an interview on RSG that the changes were not based on any market research.
“It was an expensive trial-and-error to see the bulletins so up and down,” Wass said. “Perhaps we should have looked at this more.”
“I think the lack of research failed us in being able to know who our viewers are, what our viewers want, and what they are comfortable with.”
The broadcaster previously criticised “broad assumptions” that changes to its Afrikaans programming had negatively impacted its own advertising revenue.
SABC communications head Mmoni Ngubane maintained the broadcaster continued to record positive results in several areas of its Afrikaans portfolio.
“The Corporation continues to invest in a broader content and scheduling strategy aimed at strengthening its language offering, including Afrikaans,” Ngubane said.
However, it would not share any revenue information for Afrikaans channels and programming to disprove claims in news reports that it had lost millions of rands because of the changes.
The truth about why the SABC tried to move its Afrikaans programming to SABC 3 may be more nuanced than initially believed.
During a presentation to a parliamentary subcommittee about potential financial models to replace SABC TV Licences, BMIT revealed that SABC 2 was considered “non-commercial”, whereas SABC 3 was considered a commercial channel.
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