Impact of Covid 19 on Media Sustainability https://zimbabwe.misa.org A survey of 20 commercial South African radio stations during the first six weeks of the lockdown found that listenership was up 36% during the lockdown.75 And the radio sector demonstrated social responsibility by using its power to inform the public about the pandemic. The South African commercial radio stations broadcast around 73 000 Public Service Announcements during the lockdown “in all 9 provinces in 7 of South Africa’s official languages.”76 “some key industries such as fast foods, alcohol and the motor industry” and “the negative impact on the exchange rate” which presumably will make buying overseas content for its channels more expensive. Television South Africa’s listed AME is small, owning a few radio stations, In TV, eMedia Holdings does own the only real competition to the TV service of the public broadcaster, the free-to-air channel E-TV. The biggest media company listed on the JSE is Multichoice, but its focus as a satellite broadcaster is on entertainment rather than news, though it does carry news channels. The results that are available show some of the damage wrought by the advertising famine during the Covid-19 crisis first stage. For instance, in its May 29 statement of results for the year ended March 31, eMedia Holdings reported an adjusted profit of around R236-million, almost double the figure for the previous year - but needed to account for an around R2-billion “impairment of goodwill” from the effects of the pandemic. “This negative impact which will be felt in the first half of the 2021 financial year, given the continued lockdown and slow restart to economic activity, has been factored into the results being published presently.” What eMedia Holdings is looking at is advertising losses in The South African public broadcaster shouldered its responsibility as the dominant source of news for many citizens by interrupting its schedules – with concomitant decline in ad revenue – to air presidential announcements on the Covid-19 crisis and regulations in terms of the state of emergency to deal with it. TV viewing like radio listenership was up. A comparison of viewing of the two free-to-air stations, private commercial e.tv with one channel and State-owned SABC with three, a week before the national disaster declaration and a week after when people started to work from home showed a big increase. Overall average weekly ratings of SABC and e.tv, all adults 15+, was up around 28%.77 News viewing particularly rose with the two biggest news programmes, the Xhosa nightly news bulletin (up60%) and Zulu news bulletin (up 40%) soaring.78 The increase in audience for the two news bulletins was stellar though less impressive when March as a whole is compared to February. The Xhosa news bulleting rose 32% and the Zulu news bulletin rose 34%.79 The rise in TV viewing around the lockdown period and subsequent levelling off can be seen in Figure x, drawn from figures from AGB Nielsen Media Research (Pty) Ltd via the Broadcast Research Council of South Africa. The graph shows a 40% increase in viewing time from week 10 to week 15, more or less coinciding with 75. NAB, “Rising to the Contagion - South Africa’s Commercial Radio Sector Response to the Covid-19 Pandemic” (National Association of Broadcasters, July 2020), https://www.nab.org.za/uploads/files/NAB_CRC_COVID- 19_Report Rising_to_the_Contagion.pdf. 76. NAB. 77Rumney, “SANEF’S COVID 19 Impact on Journalism Report (Interim).” 78Rumney, 15. 79Thinus Ferreira, “TV RATINGS. The Coronavirus Lockdown in South Africa Leads to a Record TV Ratings Surge in March 2020.” Blog, TV with Thinus (blog), April 9, 2020, http://teeveetee.blogspot.com/2020/04/tv-ratings- coronavirus-lockdown-in.html. 22