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Johannesburg - The SABC is set to lose more than R140m after putting its biggest soapie, Generations, on ice for two months.
Industry insiders have told Fin24 sister publication City Press that the public broadcaster sells a 30-second advertising spot during the highly coveted 20:00 weekday slot for R230 000.
The higher a show’s audience ratings, the more the broadcaster is able to charge for ads.
Two insiders, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that typically a 30-minute soapie like Generations would shoot for 22 minutes – leaving eight minutes to sell to advertisers.
In those eight minutes, up to 16 adverts can be aired. That means Generations was, at its peak, earning the SABC close to R4m an episode, about R18m a week and R74m a month – excluding repeats and the Saturday omnibus.
SABC spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago said it’s not a simple mathematical calculation.
“We spoke to the advertisers long before we made the changes so that they could make up their own mind.
They understood when we told them that we had no choice but to change the programme because we did not have 16 actors.
- City Press.
