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ELTV? What do you think?
Plans are being put in place to establish a community television station for the Eastern Cape, but there are still a lot of obstacles that need to be overcome before this becomes a reality, writes Derrick Spies.
This was the message at a provincial stakeholders consultative workshop which was hosted at the Eastern Cape Development Corporation (ECDC) on Wednesday.
The workshop, which was attended by a number of independent producers, representatives from district municipalities, universities as well as other role players, focused on establishing a case for an Eastern Cape Community Television initiative.
Cape Town television station director Karen Thorne said they had faced significant challenges during their first year of operation, including going off air for some time because of a lack of funds.
Thorne said their operating costs for the first year were around R4.5million, which she said was “not nearly enough”.
Also on the panel were representatives from Soweto Television, Bay Community Television based in Richards Bay and Tshwane Television, which has yet to go air despite having had its licence since February.
All spoke of the challenges they had faced, including the difficulties in obtaining broadcasting licences from the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa).
Among the main challenges highlighted by all four community television representatives were concerns that community television would be left behind in the crossover from analogue to digital.
“This is a major concern for us, as there are rumours that Sentech does not want to invest in further infrastructure to support analogue broadcast, yet all community stations are still on analogue and no provision has been made for us as part of the digital spectrum,” said Thorne.
Sentech was, however, notably absent from the event, despite being allocated a slot on the programme.
Aside from the Sentech issue, Project Director for the Media Development and Diversity Agency Harry Letsebe identified three other key areas that needed to be focused on in order for the concept to succeed in the Eastern Cape.
These were the model the organisation would take, the funding required and the necessary partnerships which would have to be formed.
So what do you think? Would you like to see community television in East London – and if so, what kind of programming would you like to see? Blog and let us know.
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Both those stations serve a very particular market.
East London already has a community TV station – TBN – based in Bhisho – which is part of Buffalo City. El also has Link FM a community radio station – what more do we want!
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If we could have a channel for the youth where presenters use proper English instead of slang, then you have my vote.
Yeh de idea is gr8. My plea to you is that we must stop putting barriers before we make a move cos we gonna fall. We got talent here especially in EL and no one can contest dat. I’m also of the view that this one should be located in EL or else stop the project if its going to be PE.This idea of taking things to PE is very much worrying for me and as such has alienated me with that City and its people that’s the bottomline.
@ZongSpin – I don’t see how anyone has been monopolizing anything. Who funds TBN?
SABC are still only managing reruns of Rocky and Rambo… how on earth is anything worthwhile going to be aired on a community channel.
If proper planning, implementation & excution goes into this, I will give it my vote BUT I also fear it is another project which could be led by friends of a friend & corrupt officials which will then fail and put East London and the Eastern Cape in a bad light once again.
Are they going to up our rates or increase our taxes to fund this project??
Come on now, GadgetBRfm. We are not talking about commercial TV but community TV. TBN has been around and monopolising the airwaves for too long. It is time that all East London and Eastern Cape community have their own community TV that will focus on community issues. This will also help us to forget about our national broadcaster as it is not SABC but Gauteng Broadcasting Corporation.
I honestly think ELTV would be brilliant. yes, not all of us are skilled at producing television shows but that doesn’t mean we can’t do it. For instance, take a show such as Generations, the so called actors are useless but that doesn’t stop them from making the show. Give EL/PE a chance because we do have a lot of talent that just go unnoticed so having this will give us a chance to increase our skill. +1 Vote for ELTV
Seriously? The newspapers report the news a day later – why don’t we just use the PVR?
wow….way to go. You have my full support people.
No don’t get me wrong. It’s great but although I am excited I will reserve my enthusiasm. Most people don’t know this but we had ALL the infrastructure to get the project off the ground till about 3 months ago when the guy who owned it packed up and left for PE. Why ? There was no money and support. This is kinds like a little to late.. Like building a shelter after the storm. I am not doom and gloom just realistic. If a small radio station battles to stay afloat on requiring 150k a month to operate how are we going to get 500k tokeep this going.
This idea is nothing new. Been moored around for the past 10 yrs. The sad thing is that the skills required to manage produce and run a television station is not that of the common garden variety. There is a big difference between spending 4 years at film school and thinking you know it all and having a camera on your shoulder and editing a television show week after week for television for 5 years. Havng the knowledge in hour head is nothing. It’s the hands on hours that count.
Sadly we don’t have the skill here so we will have import it and that costs
This is a good idea. but, its not for East Londoners only but Eastern Cape as a whole. Lets fight for it jointly.
If its going to be possible to open such station we must not hope for it as East London community, everything is taken away to Nelson Mandela Bay. There will be a criteia that is going to be created just for the sake of that the station must go to Port Elizabeth.
This is really bad, Even for 2010 the stadium built in Port Elizabeth but when we look into reality P.E is at the end of Eastern Cape while East London is the centre of Eastern Cape both from P.E side to Transkei side. East London community lets fight for this kind of oppression because we will be jobless for ever.
Sies Gadget. The doomprophet. I thought you would be sort of excited about this venture. This is then maybe a golden opportunity to start a school and train the people in the required fields. I know of a few people that went to that college in CT, before it closed. Shooting wedding videos, because there is no opportunity for them to expand.
Great idea, but EL does not have the finanacial rescources to esablish or maintain a project like this. Neither do we have the skills database to equip a project of this magnatude. There is a big difference betwena group of wanna be producers who shoott wedding videos in their spare time and whos biggest productioj to date are mini corporate highlight reels for the ECgov talking about establishing a television station and a group of skilled individuals who actively produce for broadcast. If we don’t get the right group of skilled people as opposed to a group of posers we will end uip with another TRuefm. In the broadcast industry the road to failure has been paved with the Ill intentions of those who see the opportunity to make a quick buck
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