South Africa’s first independent 24 hour news service, the eNews Channel, has confirmed it will launch on the SKY digital satellite platform in the United Kingdom. The official launch date is still to be confirmed, but is expected to take place within a few weeks.
“This will give us access to over 10 million homes in the UK. What is really significant though is that we will have access to the South Africa expat community. If they want news from home it’s just a click away,” says group head of news, Patrick Conroy.
eNews technical staff are still conducting tests on the signal to the UK. Head of technical operations for eNews, Rob Brown, says the crew are “getting close to finalising the test phase”.
eNews will also unveil its new look when the channel launches in the UK.
“Due to our expansion we will have to rebrand our service to make it relevant to viewers abroad and here at home” says Conroy. “It will be more of a brand tweak than an overhaul, viewers need not be concerned. It will still be the same news service with the same content. The only difference will be our appearance”.
eNews will not be rebranding its Prime Time bulletin on e.tv or its Afrikaans language service on kykNET. “Those brands will remain as is” says Conroy, “we are only rebranding the eNews Channel”.
It was announced previously that eNews will also be launching its online offering by the end of 2012. The development of this service is progressing as scheduled and details will be released closer to the launch date of this service.
eNews Prime Time at 7pm on e.tv continues to grow its audience since it launched in 1999. It is the most watched English language news broadcast in South Africa with an average of 3 million viewers each night.
