The SABC began the first radio broadcasts in South Africa in the 1930s, establishing services in what were then the country's official languages,
English and Afrikaans, with broadcasts in African languages such as Zulu, Xhosa Sesotho and Tswana, following later. It also had an external service, known as Radio South Africa, which broadcast in other African languages, as well as French, Portuguese, and German.
Although economically the most advanced country on the continent, South Africa was among the last countries in Africa to introduce television.
The reason for this was ideological, as the white minority regime saw it as a threat to its control of the broadcasting media, even though the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) had a virtual monopoly on radio broadcasting. Reactionary National Party ministers, like the Minister for Posts, Mr Hertzog, said that TV would come to South Africa 'over my dead body', also denouncing it as 'a miniature bioscope [cinema] over which parents would have no control', while the influential Dutch Reformed Church, saw the new medium as degenerate and immoral.
In 1971, the SABC was finally allowed to introduce a television service, which began experimental broadcasts in the main cities in mid-1975, before the service went nationwide at the beginning of 1976. In common with most of Western Europe, South Africa used the PAL system for colour television. Initially, the TV service was funded entirely through a licence fee, as in the UK, but advertising began in 1978.
The service only broadcast in English and Afrikaans, with an emphasis on religious programming on Sundays. Owing to South Africa's apartheid policies, the British actors' union Equity started a boycott of programme sales to South Africa, meaning that most acquired programming came from the United States. However, the Thames Television police drama series The Sweeney was briefly shown on SABC, but dubbed in Afrikaans. Later on, when programmes were dubbed, there was a 'simulcast' of the original soundtrack carried on FM radio.
In 1981, a second channel was introduced, broadcasting in African languages. The main channel, now called TV1, was divided evenly between English and Afrikaans. Even to this day, subtitling on TV in South Africa is almost non-existent, the assumption being that people have no desire to watch programmes in languages they do not speak. The second channel, known either as TV2, TV3 or TV4 depending on the time of day, was rebranded as CCV (Contemporary Community Values). A third channel was introduced known as TSS, or Topsport Surplus, Topsport being the brand name for the SABC's sport coverage, but this was renamed NNTV (National Network TV).
In 1986, the SABC's monopoly on TV was challenged by the launch of a subscription-based service known as M-Net, backed by a consortium of newspaper publishers. However, it could not broadcast its own news and current affairs programmes, which were still the preserve of the SABC. As the state-controlled broadcaster, the SABC was accused of bias towards the apartheid regime.
Following the easing of media censorship under F.W De Klerk, the SABC's news coverage moved towards being more objective, although many feared that once the African National Congress came to power, the SABC would revert to type, and serve the government of the day. However, the SABC now also carried CNN International's TV news bulletins, thereby giving South African viewers an alternative source of international news.
In 1996, two years after the ANC came to power, the SABC reorganised its three TV channels, so as to be more representative of different language groups. This resulted in the downgrading of Afrikaans, which now had its airtime reduced, a move that angered many whites.
Similarly, the main English language service, became SAfm, with many black presenters, to the chagrin of many white listeners accustomed to 'proper' English. The Afrikaans service was renamed Radio Sonder Grense (literally 'Radio without Frontiers').
Owing to the British Equity boycott, and a similar boycott by Australia, South African TV has been dominated by programming from the United States, and it was only after the end of apartheid that the boycott was lifted, and non-US programming became available. While US programming has dominated South African TV airtime, there are now many locally produced programmes, although few are known outside South Africa, and do not travel well. The SABC drama series Shaka Zulu, based on the true story of the Zulu warrior King Shaka, was shown around the world in the 1980s, but had to be marketed by a US distributor.
The SABC's dominance was further eroded by the launch of the first 'free-to-air' private TV channel, called e.tv. Satellite television also expanded, as M-Net's parent company, Multichoice, launched its digital satellite TV service (DStv). However, the SABC began broadcasting its own TV channel to the rest of the continent, known as SABC Africa.
Controversy over introduction of TV
The introduction of TV in 1976
Political change
Local programming
New Services
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