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The life 
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Warren Swil
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

V 1

The SABC will face fierce reaction from the television industry in South Africa if it reduces the promised five hours a day broadcast from January 1, date of the big switch-on.
This is clear from the comments of top dealers who fear reduced viewing hours will cripple the industry. They were reacting to statements by top SABC officials on the possibility of reduced viewing hours.

Dealers and the public have understood for some time there would be five viewing hours a day as from January 1, but the regional manager of the SABC in the Western Cape, Mr. H. Meyer, said it had not yet been decided how many viewing hours there would be a day.
“It could be as few as two hours a day,” he said.

Later, the SABC’s assistant director general, Dr. Jan Schutte, said the length of broadcasts would be different every night, depending on circumstances and the availability of programming. “It could be that the SABC will broadcast for five hours on the one day, but only for four hours the next day,” he said.

Reacting to that, the national TV project controller of OK Bazaars, Mr. T. Rackham, said he thought the problem of availability of programmes at the SABC was one of availability of Afrikaans programmes. “The SABC is obliged to stick to its 50-50 Enligh-Afrikaans ratio. There are enough canned English programmes available to broadcast five hours a day, but maybe not enough Afrikaans programmes to fill two and a half hours on certain days. So, if there is only one hour of Afrikaans available, there is also one hour of English.”

Urging the government to rethink the matter, he said: I’m convinced the Afrikaans viewer would rather watch an English programme than no programme at all.”

The chairman of Phil Morkels, Mr. Fred Street, was “astonished” at the possibility of reduced viewing hours. “So far the SABC has been very logical and responsible in all matters of TV. I don’t believe that at this point in time they will somersault to this extent.”
Reducing viewing time from five to four hours on some days would be tolerable, but a cut from five to two hours could be crippling. “If the change dampens the appetite of viewers, the industry will be in serious trouble,” he said.

The chairman of Teljoy, Mr. Theo Rutstein, said there would be such an uproar if the viewing time was reduced to the extent of “destroying” the industry. “There can be no question of reducing the viewing hours,” he said. (TV set) buyers had been promised two hours viewing during TV tests from next month and five hours from January.