So the only conclusions one can come to about the print media's lack of coverage is that editors have grown weary and wary, one supposes, of SABC's great plans that never seem to amount to anything. Or, newspapers are so frustrated at SABC competing so hard for ad revenue these past five years, that they're damned if they're going to give the corporation any more free publicity.
For a start, there can be absolutely no question that SABC has once again decided, as it did in the apartheid era, to bow to the whims and wishes of its political masters. There simply cannot be any other reason for it going quite so overboard with the notion of ‘Total Citizen Empowerment’. And while every TV channel on earth would like to echo SABC's determination to be all things to all men, very few would dare announce this publicly because history has shown that it is uneconomical and quite unachievable.
While the SABC admits it is lobbying government for additional funding to be able to be technically prepared for the 2010 World Cup, it is also going to have to lobby like crazy for an awful lot more funding just to achieve half of its lofty objectives in the meantime.
There has been nothing in its announcement on how it intends raising the vast amount of extra money it will require to be all things to all people in South Africa, because even if it doubles the amount of revenue it gets from advertising and sponsorship right now, that will still not be nearly enough.
But, there is one thing that the announcement of these plans made abundantly clear and that is why SABC's marketing director, Mark Jakins, suddenly resigned a week ago when he was riding the crest of a wave that saw him increase SABC's advertising and sponsorship revenue quite dramatically: quite simply, the mere wording of this new plan from the SABC is enough to make marketers quake in their boots.
In essence, the new plan has made people like Mark Jakins irrelevant in the new greater scheme of SABC things.
What is also worrying about these new plans is that not much is said about asking the people of South Africa what they want on TV, but rather pointing out what they're going to be given.
One only has to look at the most popular programmes on TV here to see that South Africans from all walks of life seem to love things like gory reality shows, socially destructive soap operas or anything to do with voyeurism.
Not quite in keeping with the SABC objectives of "enhancing democracy, promoting nation-building and social cohesion, reflecting cultural and regional diversity in a unifying manner and achieving the objectives of Nepad and the African Renaissance"!
While these are praiseworthy and lofty objectives, anyone who wasn't fast asleep during the first lesson of any TV basic training school will know that what modern television is ALL about today is entertainment and not education or promoting social cohesion, let alone punting Nepad objectives.
That's a bit like suggesting farmers switch from tractors to ploughing their fields with bicycles. It just doesn't work.
I'm not surprised that the print media didn't give this too much coverage because they probably didn't know whether to put it on the front pages or in the comics section…
Quite frankly, from the press statements issued by the SABC, anyone who has had anything to do with trying to make television and radio stations sustainable will have to shake their heads in wonder at the naiveté of it all.
M-Net, e.tv and the private radio stations must be chuckling with glee at the new opportunities SABC has given them to provide what South Africans really want to see and hear. And to rake in ad and sponsorship revenue accordingly.
Politicians and the Mother Grundies might not like what is gracing our TV screens these days and frankly the TV channel programmers might not like it either, but all this supposed ‘bubblegum for the eyes’ is certainly bringing in the advertising and sponsorship revenue.
And unless one can get a government to totally fund a TV service (which our government could never do because its pockets are simply not deep enough), the only way to remain sustainable is to put on programmes that attract advertisers.
If SABC's plans don't carry some sort of guarantee from government that it intends providing massive subsidies, then these plans will fail hopelessly. Of that there is no question.
On reflection, my guess is that these plans are probably not really intended to be implemented to the full or even partially, but were simply a bit of PR in advance of the SABC's big presentation to government where it intends asking for lots of money.
Now that would be a brilliant marketing ploy were it not for the very obvious fact that what Government actually wants is for SABC to do all those things without any extra money.
My guess is that SABC has gone to a lot of trouble to get some fresh bread but, apart from some help for 2010, will be lucky to get a few stale crumbs.
