e.tv's 24-hour news service is slick and welcome

Sure, it's going have its teething troubles and it's going to have an inevitable battle to get the mix right, but I, for one, hope that no-one gives up on it because it's about time we South Africans were able to access some independent and unbiased news while it happens in our country without having to wait until evening and then only be given a half hour wrap up of events. Or, have to rely on CNN, SKY or Al Jazeera to find out what's going on in our neck of the woods.

Credible presenters

Frankly I couldn't find much wrong with last night's effort. Technically it was up with the best, right from the channel logos to two very professional and credible presenters in Jeremy Maggs and Redi Direko.

But, as Maggs admitted to me last week, the first night was the result of the entire e.tv 24 hour news team rehearsing the arse out of it. Which means that tonight, tomorrow night and the weeks and months that follow will be the real testers.

But, I am infinitely optimistic. e.tv has shown in the past that it has the balls to keep going at it and not to give up. After all, it turned a profit far quicker than a lot of us predicted. They are not people who give up easily.

This new service is very distinctly a sort of mixture between Sky and Al Jazeera, which is very good indeed, given that Sky was voted the world's best news channel recently and Al Jazeera is enormously respected.

As a news junkie I am looking forward to being able to get the latest happenings but most of all some good solid background to the news that is not governed by time pressures as they are in traditional 30-minute bulletins.

e.tv's 24 hour news channel falls directly in line with modern media trends and is, for the moment, an acceptable compromise while we all wait for proper broadband and video on demand.

Lot of passion

There seems to be a lot of passion in the team that put this all together. Debra Patta, who heads it all up, is one of the most passionate TV news people in the country, perhaps even the universe to be honest and this is what makes good TV news great.

And a positive by-product of this is that Maggs is finally able to untie the apron strings that have bound him to the SABC for so long. He is good at what he does but current perception of the SABC suggests that his credibility would ultimately have started to suffer.

For more:

• eNews 24-hour channel launched [article]
  
• Happy viewing for news junkies [editor's column]
  
• Do you think e.tv's eNews can compete with the world's best 24-hour news stations? [poll]