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South Africa TV broadcasting started in 1976 in some of the major cities of the country. South Africa is considered to be the last country to have a television service. TV in South Africa is broadcast in eleven official languages and also in German, Hindi and Portuguese.
History of South Africa TV:
The South African television took a long time to establish itself as one of the advanced media of communication. The country was the last westernized country to introduce television. For a comparatively long time the conservative apartheid regime regarded TV as negative influence on the society. While in 1971, the authority in South Africa declared that the establishment of television would progress the self-development of the people of South Africa. When South Africa TV was launched, it was the second terrestrial television service in Africa to launch with a color service. Thus South Africa TV broadcasting began in 1976, which reached an audience of 50 million people in and outside South Africa.
South Africa TV Channels:
South Africa TV had different channels for diverse groups of languages. At the end of 1980's the SABC, the newly formed channel was broadcasting in eleven languages. Today SABC has a public character, which is government owned and does not have competitors. Then in 1998 came the private channel E-TV, which became quite popular with huge number of viewers in South Africa. M-Net is another alternative to the SABC channels but is not allowed to carry news. The M-Net channel provides mainly documentaries, films, series and sports. M-Net was born out of political needs like the idea that there had to be an independent television channel. Thus M-Net started operating in 1986 and became popular with the passage of time. M-Net channel is nowadays mainly shared by the four media companies.
Television is considered to have an hypnotic effect on person but presently South Africa TV has become one of the well-established and popular mediums of communication.
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