SABC Boasts 27 out of Top 30 Most Watched TV Shows in South Africa

The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC), announced on Thursday that its television programmes ranked at the top in terms of viewership figures. Like we didnt know that already... but SABC does have a lot to be boastful about. 27 of the Top 30 most watched television show in South Africa are on broadcaster's channels. 

According to the Broadcast Research Council (BRC), through its television audience measurement system (TAMS) the SABC’s flagship programme, ‘Generations, The Legacy’, which is broadcast on SABC 1, is fast regaining the high audience share its predecessor regularly enjoyed.

In the past 3 months the programme’s share among all adults at 8pm has risen from 46% to 54%. This is in spite of competition debuting their new programmes.

SABC1’s telenovela, ‘Uzalo’ has also revived the channel’s popular 8:30pm slot – growing share of adult viewing in that slot from 35% to 48% in the past 3 months. Indications are that the programme is still growing audiences – even reaching as much as 51% on the 8th of April this year.

Mr. Hlaudi Motsoeneng, the SABC’s Chief Operations Officer (COO) stated;

“Being a public service broadcaster, we continuously strive to produce local content, which speaks to the realities of many South Africans. The high performance of our programming is an indication that we have our fingers on the pulse and we will continue bringing the nation content that is not only educational, but entertaining as well”.

The SABC's dominance comes as no surprise but is also worth pointing out that the broadcaster has had to take a warning from the minister about its declining viewership numbers. In late April, Minister of Communications Faith Muthambi cautioned that the public broadcaster will have to grow its audience share. 

Minister Muthumbi told parliament that she's concerned that the SABC's audience share seems to remain stagnant at 53%.

And here is the list of South Africa's Top 30 Most Watched TV Shows;