It’s easier to steal an audience than to create a new audience. There’s no need to convince anyone to switch on the TV, or to watch a specific show. It is as simple as switching channels. 

And that’s exactly what e.tv did. 

Simply put: e.tv stole shows from the SABC.

e.tv poached shows from the SABC

Back when e.tv launched in 1998 as South Africa’s first and only privately owned free-to-air television station, it only offered 6 hours of broadcast a day. And it quickly turned into 24/7 broadcasting. 

The SABC acquired the rights to air the Oprah Winfrey Show in 1994 and four years later, e.tv poached it from SABC 3 for an undisclosed amount of money. 

In an interview with TV with Thinus,  Hannelie Bekker, the programming manager at SABC 3 at the time, said, “we were dreadfully disappointed, and rather outraged: at that point it was just not the done thing – poaching a competitor’s show.”

Due to low ratings the SABC did not put their boxing gloves on for a fight against e.tv. And after a few years, the Oprah Winfrey show went back to its first home: SABC 3.

e.tv also snubbed talk show queen Felicia Mabuza-Suttle from the SABC, and Days of Our Lives. The soapie was an SABC regular for 25 years. Yet regardless of its popularity, it moved away from the prime slot to just before midnight. Not only did e.tv put Days of Our Lives back into primetime, but they also gave viewers a taste of the soapie in high definition. Something that the SABC could not provide at that time.