SABC 1 is a South African

public television Public broadcasting involves radio, television and other electronic media outlets whose primary mission is public service. Public broadcasters receive funding from diverse sources including license fees, individual contributions, public financing ...

network operated by the

South African Broadcasting Corporation The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) is the public broadcaster in South Africa, and provides 19 radio stations ( AM/ FM) as well as six television broadcasts to the general public. It is one of the largest of South Africa's state ...

(SABC) which carries programming in English and

Nguni Nguni may refer to: *Nguni languages * Nguni cattle *Nguni people *Nguni sheep, which divide into the Zulu, Pedi, and Swazi types *Nguni stick-fighting * Nguni shield * Nguni homestead *Nguni (surname) Nguni is an African surname. Notable people ...

. It was created in 1996, after the SABC restructured its television channels. SABC 1 carried much of its programming over from the defunct CCV (Contemporary Community Values) network, which was itself made up of the former TV2, TV3 and TV4 timeshared channels created in the 1980s. SABC 1 generates the widest audience in South Africa due to its programming diversity, airing SABC's longest-running soap-opera, '' Generations'', ''

Uzalo ''Uzalo'' is a South African soap opera produced by Stained Glass Productions, which is co-owned by Kobedi "Pepsi" Pokane and Gugu Zuma-Ncube. It began airing in 2015, quickly becoming a hit due to its compelling narrative, writing, direction an ...

'' and ''

Skeem Saam , num_seasons = 11 , num_episodes = 2, 350 (as of 30 July 2021) , list_episodes = , executive_producer = Winnie Serite , producer = Debbie Strumpher , location = Turfloop, Johannesburg , ...

.'' As of June 2018, the channel started broadcasting in high definition.

History

On 1 January 1982, two television channels were introduced: TV2, broadcasting in Zulu and

Xhosa Xhosa may refer to: * Xhosa people, a nation, and ethnic group, who live in south-central and southeasterly region of South Africa * Xhosa language, one of the 11 official languages of South Africa, principally spoken by the Xhosa people See als ...

; and TV3, broadcasting in

Sotho Sotho may refer to: *Sotho people (or ''Basotho''), an African ethnic group principally resident in South Africa, Lesotho and southern Botswana * Sotho language (''Sesotho'' or ''Southern Sotho''), a Bantu language spoken in southern Africa, an off ...

and

Tswana Tswana may refer to: * Tswana people, the Bantu speaking people in Botswana, South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Zambia, and other Southern Africa regions * Tswana language, the language spoken by the (Ba)Tswana people * Bophuthatswana, the former ba ...

, both targeted at a Black urban audience and airing on a timeshared

radio frequency Radio frequency (RF) is the oscillation rate of an alternating electric current or voltage or of a magnetic, electric or electromagnetic field or mechanical system in the frequency range from around to around . This is roughly between the upp ...

. The main network, now called TV1, divided its programming equally between English and Afrikaans programs, as before. In 1985, a new service called TV4 was introduced, carrying sports and entertainment programming, using the same radio frequency used by both TV2 and TV3, which stopped broadcasting at 9:30 pm. In 1992, TV2, TV3 and TV4 were merged into a unified network called CCV (Contemporary Community Values) on the same channel frequency. A third network was introduced known as TSS, or TopSport Surplus, with TopSport being the brand name for SABC's sport coverage. However, in 1994, it was replaced by NNTV (National Network TV), a cultural non-commercial network. In 1996, the SABC reorganised its three television networks with the aim of making them more representative of the country's diverse ethnolinguistic groups. These were rebranded as SABC 1, SABC 2 and SABC 3, respectively.

Programming

SABC 1 is heavily focused on local entertainment that is aimed towards the youth.

Soapies, dramas and telenovelas

The channel has had the title of 'Mzansi's Storyteller' with popular local dramas, and popular soapies '' Generations: The Legacy'', ''

'' and ''

''. Other famed dramas from past years are ''

Yizo Yizo ''Yizo Yizo'' is a South African television drama series which aired from 1999 to 2004 on SABC 1. Synopsis The series was set in a fictional school, Supatsela High, in a township of Johannesburg. In the first series, the school's dictatorial prin ...

'', ''Zone 14'', ''Intersexions'', ''The Shakespeare in Mzansi Series'', etc. However, over recent years, the title has been taken by

Mzansi Magic Mzansi Magic is a South African digital satellite and general entertainment channel created by Multichoice and run by M-Net's local interest division, and is broadcast on DStv. History The channel launched in mid-July 2010 on channel 107 as ...

Series

The channel has a number of comedy, game shows and reality series such as ''Nyan'Nyan'', ''Now or Never'', ''It Takes a Village'', ''Plate it up'', ''The next big thing'', ''Ses' Top La'', F''riends Like These'', ''The Remix'', ''Lip Sync Battle''. Initially, it would have rights to broadcast local versions of international franchises like

The X Factor ''The X Factor'' is a television music competition franchise created by British producer Simon Cowell and his company Syco Entertainment. It originated in the United Kingdom, where it was devised as a replacement for ''Pop Idol'' (2001–2003 ...

, but due to financial constraints, the channel currently focuses on local reality competitions.

Music

The channel airs some of the latest local urban music and playlists on shows like Live Amp and Koze Kuse, while also focusing on traditional indigenous music on shows like Roots, as well as choral music on one of their longest-running show Imizwilili.

Talk and magazine

SABC 1 airs local informative magazine shows, from its longest-running magazine show ''Selimathunzi'', to more recent and fresh show like Throwback Thursday and weekend breakfast shows like Mzansi Insider among others. In addition, SABC 1 hosts interactive talk shows such as Daily Thetha and The Chatroom.

Religion

On a daily basis the channel showcases short religious shows that cater for African Traditional Religion, Christianity, Judaism and Islam. On weekends it boasts of religious music shows such as Gospel Avenue and Imvelo.

News and current affairs

The channel has two bulletins, one for the

SiSwati The Swazi or siSwati language is a Bantu language of the Nguni group spoken in Eswatini and South Africa by the Swati people. The number of speakers is estimated to be in the region of 2.4 million. The language is taught in Eswatini and s ...

Ndebele Ndebele may refer to: *Southern Ndebele people, located in South Africa *Northern Ndebele people, located in Zimbabwe and Botswana Languages * Southern Ndebele language, the language of the South Ndebele *Northern Ndebele language Northern ...

speakers, and one for

IsiZulu Zulu (), or isiZulu as an endonym, is a Southern Bantu language of the Nguni branch spoken in Southern Africa. It is the language of the Zulu people, with about 12 million native speakers, who primarily inhabit the province of KwaZulu-Natal of ...

IsiXhosa Xhosa (, ) also isiXhosa as an endonym, is a Nguni language and one of the official languages of South Africa and Zimbabwe. Xhosa is spoken as a first language by approximately 8.2 million people and by another 11 million as a secon ...

speakers. In addition, it includes current affairs programs like Cutting Edge, Expressions and Yilungelo Lakho.

Sports

SABC1 airs

Premier Soccer League Premier is a title for the head of government in central governments, state governments and local governments of some countries. A second in command to a premier is designated as a deputy premier. A premier will normally be a head of governm ...

matches during the week and also have rights to other soccer events like

Africa Cup of Nations The Africa Cup of Nations referred to as AFCON (french: Coupe d'Afrique des Nations, sometimes referred to as CAN, or TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations for sponsorship reasons), and sometimes as African Cup of Nations, is the main internati ...

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the ' ( FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The tournament ha ...

and other international friendlies. However, in August 2019, the channel could not afford broadcast rights to the PSL season, resulting in a blackout of sport on both TV and Radio platforms, thus not broadcasting matches for a certain period. This angered soccer fans who did not have access to SuperSport on

DStv Digital Satellite Television, commonly abbreviated to DStv, is a Sub-Saharan African direct broadcast satellite service owned by MultiChoice and based in Randburg, South Africa. Launched on 6 October 1995, the service provides multiple audio, ...

, since MultiChoice held the sporting rights. Sports Minister Nathi Mthethwa and Communications Minister Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams announced that after meeting with the public broadcaster's board and MultiChoice a resolution had been reached, and soccer matches resumed as normal.

Movies

The network airs classic action, horror, drama, comedy, sci-fi, adventure, thriller, romance, and fantasy movies on certain weekends. SABC 1 also broadecasts Kicking Kung Fu movies on Fridays.

Children and education

SABC1 features some foreign children's programming, mostly from

Disney Junior Disney Junior is an American pay television network owned by the Walt Disney Television (part of Disney General Entertainment Content) unit of The Walt Disney Company through Disney Branded Television. Aimed mainly at children two to seven y ...

. In addition, it has the longest-running local kids show, ''YoTV'', which broadcasts five times every weekday and once every weekend, and also has shows under its SABC Education banner that cater for all ages such as high school revision show ''Geleza Nathi'' and career shows ''Ispani'' and ''Teenagers on A Mission.''

References

External links

* {{SABC Television stations in South Africa English-language television stations in South Africa Television channels and stations established in 1996