On 1 October South Africa’s first and to date only independent free-to-air television, e.tv, will turn 10 years old. The channel was launched on 1 October 1998 when it began broadcasting for six hours a day. On 17 January the following year, eNews went out on air for the first time.

All was not smooth running in the early days as initial budget estimates were significantly below the requirements of the business and the channel was losing millions every month. An urgent turnaround strategy was implemented by a new management team in mid-1999, together with additional funding from original shareholders HCI and new shareholders Venfin.

AMPS research demonstrated that the channel grew from a regular viewership of just over 2.4 million in 1999 to almost 12 million in 2007 – a growth rate of 384%. By 2000, e.tv had grown to become the largest English-medium channel in the country and by 2002, it was the second largest channel overall, a position it retains today. The channel broke even for the first time in 2004.

eNews is widely regarded as the most reliable and independent television news source in the country and its prime time bulletins are watched by an average of 1.6million viewers each night. The success of the eNews brand spawned the launch of the 24-hour eNews channel, which launched in June this year.

Locally produced dramas and sitcoms such as Backstage, Madam & Eve, Jozi Streets and (most recently) Rhythm City, have provided e.tv with a strong point of difference from its competitors

Says e.tv’s CEO Marcel Golding: “We had some rough times in the beginning but the success of e.tv has outstripped our expectations. Very few people believed that e.tv would survive those first years but now that we’ve reached our 10 year anniversary we have become an indispensable part of South African life.”

Over the past two years, e.tv’s holding company, Sabido Investments, has acquired interests in other television companies on the African continent as well as in content distribution and aggregation and studio facilities.