In South Africa, recent data from the Marketing Research Foundation’s (MRF) Marketing All Product Survey (MAPS) indicates a rebound in terrestrial TV viewership.
The survey found that 60% of participants had watched terrestrial TV within seven days of taking the survey in the first quarter of 2024, up from 54% in the fourth quarter of 2023.
The MRF’s MAPS data is collected from surveys of a sample of the South African population.
“We’re encouraged by the increase in TV viewership in South Africa, as the numbers from the MAP survey show a positive trend for the first quarter of 2024 following the end of load-shedding at the beginning of the year,” said CEO Johann Koster.
It’s worth noting that these numbers are still lower than the 73% average in 2021, prior to the significant load-shedding experienced in 2022 and 2023.
Eskom ceased load-shedding in late March 2024 and has remained in effect since. However, the MRF states that load-shedding is not the sole factor influencing TV viewership recently.
South Africa’s digital migration process shut down analogue TV signals in five provinces, leaving households without the necessary set-top box (STB) unable to watch TV.
According to the MRF, the major provinces of the country are still scheduled for shutdown, which could once again negatively impact viewership numbers.
“Despite the steady increase in the number of households reporting adoption of direct terrestrial television boxes, there is a noticeable lag in adoption, and TV may be facing another critical moment,” it said.
South Africa’s tentative deadline to switch off analogue TV signals in the remaining provinces is set for 31 December 2024.
Free-to-air broadcasters such as eTV and the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) felt the effects of the earlier shutdown.
Uyanda Siyotula, national coordinator of the Support Public Broadcasting Coalition, recently stated that the SABC lost approximately 40% of its viewers due to the shutdown.
“If we’re looking at the major provinces, it’s going to lose more than 60%,” she added.
She expressed concerns that the shutdown would further strain the public broadcaster, which was already facing financial challenges.
Siyotula also mentioned that the 31 December 2024 deadline would negatively affect the community and other free-to-air broadcasters like E-tv.
“It’s not only going to affect SABC, it’s going to affect community broadcasters, it’s going to affect E-TV, and it’s going to have a wide-ranging impact on the free-to-air industry,” she explained.
She indicated that the coalition supports the broadcast digital migration project but not the current approach, claiming that the deadline will leave more South Africans without access to TV.
“We see that as a violation of the right to access information, as well as a violation of the right to freedom of expression,” said Siyotula.
eMedia shares these concerns and advocates for more household migration before agreeing to the deadline. It has ceased paying for digital TV transmissions in areas it deems uneconomical.
In a recent interview, eMedia CEO Khalik Sheriff mentioned that approximately 4.3 million South African households still rely on analogue TV signals.
He acknowledged that eMedia doesn’t expect all 4.3 million households to be successfully migrated in time and anticipates that some will lag behind.
However, he emphasized that eMedia would be willing to turn off its analogue signals if this number were reduced to around one million households.
“Our condition is simple. We’re happy to switch off once you move all these people across. Then it is worth our while as a business that relies on that market,” said Sheriff.
“We are free-to-air. These are the people who loyally watch our content. They are our customers. They are the people that make up our numbers.”
“We can’t ignore them. Nor can the state ignore them,” he added.
