--
SABC programmers share wish lists and pitching requirements --
Mon, 07 Nov 2016 10:35
--
A session at DISCOP Johannesburg 2016 shed light on the various models that the national public broadcaster, SABC, is using to commission and acquire content, as well as what types of programming are currently in demand for the channels.
SABC s bouquet includes 19 radio stations and five networks, which are the free-to-air channels SABC1, SABC2 and SABC3 and the digital nets SABC News and SABC Encore. Blessed Katiyo, the head of commissioning at SABC, explained that the commissioning office is the entry point for all forms of content for SABC, which uses several methods to select programming it airs. One of which is 100 per cent commissioning, via the RFP (request for proposal) or the Unsolicited process. We had a brief book that we put out on the market in November 2014, Katiyo said. We had a huge response we received close to 1 500 individual submissions . We are done with the evaluations and the pitching sessions and are in the process of communicating now with the producers. He said that going forward, the plans are to put the briefs on the commissioning website, rather than in a large brief book that takes a long time to compile and complete.
Along with commissioning, SABC is also open to co-productions and joint ventures. If you have R$5 million and you want another R$5 million, we are open to engaging with each other to make it happen.
The third method is presales, for projects that are in development. For finished productions, SABC does license content. We can also acquire content through advertiser-funded programs, he added.
Katiyo outlined the submission requirements as well. For commissioning, interested parties are required to submit five printed copies of their proposal, including story synopsis, treatment and character bible (where applicable). For commissions, we also must get a budget from you, to say how much it will cost the SABC to produce it. We have a budget template available on our website. Submissions must also include a brief about the company profile and the biographies of key creatives attached to the project. We only deal with formally registered entities; we don t deal with individuals, for governance purposes, he shared. So your company must be formally registered and have the requisite documents. For those who want to license their content, SABC requires five DVD copies for the submission. For those looking to submit ad-funded productions, there must be a letter of interest from potential sponsors. For presales or co-productions, SABC needs the synoposis of the story as well as the funding model being proposed. If there are external funders, they require proof that discussions are in the works with corporations that would provide financing.
Danie Swart, the head of SABC Education, has been leading the local content acquisitions special projects. In May, SABC undertook a decision to improve and increase our local content, and I was brought in to assist the commissioning office to help South Africans design their proposals and get them into the right format to be able to register them with SABC.
He is also responsible for any type of educational content on the SABC platforms, including the radio stations and TV channels. What s nice about us is that we do have 360-degree projects. We love it when people approach SABC and say, I ve got this brilliant idea and part of it is a television concept but we also would like to support our program with talk shows on radio and we want to target youth through social-media platforms. And that s what s so nice about SABC Education: we have a digital section, a marketing section and an outreach [initiative].
Swart added that the educutation arm does produce across all formats: it can be a drama, game show, documentary, magazine show, talk show. The same is true for all of SABC s other genre departments, which are drama, religion, factual, entertainment and children s.
When people ask, How do we pitch an idea to the SABC? One thing to note is that it s about more than just sitting at home and having an idea in your head and thinking that will be enough to come to the SABC and say, This is my idea. You need more than that.
Nokuthula Msimang, the head of SABC Children, spoke about her remit to target kids 2 to 16, with the primary blocks being early childhood development, the under-9s, tweens 9 to 12 and teens. The secondary audience is caregivers.
Children s programming airs across SABC1, 2, 3 and Encore, and there is a YouTube channel, which is primarily home to the early-childhood-development content. The programming anchor is iconic shows, according to Msimang, including Takalani Sesame, the local version of Sesame Street. We have a dual strategy, she explained. We have a lot of content that is in the local languages, but we ensure that there is an English version as well so that all children can access the content.
She said that there is currently a need for more children s content for the platforms. When you are submitting content for SABC Children, really what you want to do is stand out from the clutter. There are a lot of children s channels that have predominantly international content. Our USP as SABC Children is that we put South African children at the center of our content. Children can see themselves and their voices are reflected in the way that they want to be heard.
SABC Children does have strategic partnerships, where it then can localize existing content and dub it into local languages. Young producers, come to the SABC! I know sometimes it feels a bit like you re playing dice; it is quite hard with all of the paperwork, certificates and clearances. Have all of your logistics in place. It s great to have a wonderful idea, but be able to back it up with proper logis
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
30/08/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has adopted its FY 2025 Regulatory Fees Order that establishes the regulatory fee rates for the broadcast stati...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
-- 
