SECTOR 3 Special Assignment on SABC TV 3 was long regarded as one of the best hardhitting current affairs programmes and won international awards. Most producers and presenters of the weekly half-hour show have now left the corporation and the programme has become lacklustre. Scores: Individual scores: 1 Country does not meet indicator 2 Country meets only a few aspects of indicator 3 Country meets some aspects of indicator 4 Country meets most aspects of indicator. 5 Country meets all aspects of the indicator Average score: 2.2 (2008 = 2.9; 2006 = 3.3) 3.11 The state/public broadcaster offers as much diverse and creative local content as economically achievable. Due to the ongoing financial crisis at the SABC – the corporation lost R1 billion as a result of mismanagement - not enough local content is being produced and offered. This does not only deprive viewers of much-loved programming, but has also brought the local production industry almost to its knees. A number of companies had to close down and others set up shop outside South Africa – meaning that some of the most skilled producers have now been lost to the home market. To make matters worse, the situation is not likely to improve any time soon: even though funds were made available thanks to a bank guarantee granted by government in late 2009, the SABC only put out briefs for producers and requests for tenders in June 2010. There was no guarantee, however, that these would go into actual production (the last time the corporation put out briefs was in September 2008 and at least half of those did not materialise). 54 AFRICAN MEDIA BAROMETER SOUTH AFRICA 2010