e.tv News
News and Sports is a South African free-to-air digital satellite television news and sports channel created and owned by e.tv's eMedia Investments.[1] Previously named OpenNews, it is the second news channel created by eMedia, ironically being the rival of its sister channel eNCA.[2]
| Country | South Africa |
|---|---|
| Network | e.tv |
| Programming | |
| Language(s) | English |
| Picture format | 16:9 (576i SDTV), 16:9 (1080i HDTV) |
| Ownership | |
| Owner | eMedia Investments |
| Sister channels | eToonz eMovies eExtra eMovies Extra e.tv Rewind eNCA eReality |
| History | |
| Launched | 19 November 2018 (as OpenNews) August 2019 (as News and Sports) |
| Former names | OpenNews |
| Availability | |
| Satellite | |
| OVHD | Channel 120 |
History
eMedia launched OpenNews as a response to Openview viewers high demand for a local news channel. Although eMedia already owns a 24-hour eNCA, the channel is exclusively produced for DStv and BBC World News (which is on both platforms) did not satisfy the viewers' needs for local news. The channel was launched at 17:00 CAT and used to broadcast local news from 17:00 CAT to 23:00 CAT Monday to Friday. The broadcasting time was later reserved and now shows local news from 16:00 CAT until 19:30 CAT with the rest of the hours meant for international news partners such as TRT World, China Global Television Network, France 24 and some local documentaries.
On 5 August 2019, the channel, along with the e.tv news bulletins, were renamed to e.tv news.
The channel has also started showing English Premier league games, as well as highlights and preview shows, with fans getting a chance to view 1 game per week on Saturdays at 16:00 CAT. It also broadcast the Bundesliga for the 19/20 season. Since the 2020/21 season, News & Sport have been broadcasting the LA Liga. The channel usually changes its logo to e.tvSports when a sporting program is on air and e.tvNews for news programs. "News & Sport" is the designated name format on the Openview platform.
Layout
e.tv News is more interactive with its viewers by allowing them to send videos and voice notes via social media to the news team. The news anchors also get a chance to express their own opinions about a particular topic.
CEO of eMedia Holdings, Andre van der Veen, said, "the concept was to disrupt the news space in the country, including eMedia Holdings’ own eNCA". The channel broadcasts its own bulletins between 4:00 and 9:00 pm, while simulcasting with e.tv at 1:00 pm and 8:00 pm weekdays. The rest of the schedule is mostly filled with investigative shows such as On The Case with Paula Zahn and mostly simulcast with channels like France 24, Deutsche Welle and Russia Today.
References
- Kalula, Twanji (2018-05-15). "eMedia Investments launches second news channel: OpenNews and Afrikaans news bulletin". eMedia Holdings. Retrieved 2019-02-14.
- Roets, Adriaan. "e.tv launches news channel OpenNews". The Citizen. Retrieved 2019-02-14.