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7de Laan to broadcast 5 days a week
Pressure from soapie fans seems to have prevailed as the SABC has reversed its decision to limit 7de Laan broadcasts.
7de Laan actors Nicholas Nkuna (Fikile Chauke) and Carina Nel (Alexa Welman) | Picture: Twitter
Afrikaans soapie 7de Laan will once again air five days a week, as the SABC has decided to cut their experiment to introduce loyal audiences to new shows.
The experiment was announced earlier this year, much to the dismay of fans who found out that the SABC planned to cut down the number of times shows like 7de Laan and Muvhango would air.
The initial plan was to air each show about three times a week while new shows would be broadcast in the timeslots that would be left open.
Channel24 reports that from the week of 4 October, 7de Laan will once again air each night of the week after it’s timeslots were changed back in April. Muvhnago’s cuts were planned for August but seemingly never happened.
“The acquisition of this new local production is part of our long-term plan to invest in quality local content.
“Serving a diverse South African audience, it is imperative that we come with innovative and exciting content, which will not only draw the viewership but bring in the revenue required to keep the public service broadcaster financially sustainable,” said Merlin Naicker, group executive for television at the SABC at the time the changes were announced.
ALSO READ: Soapie fans angered by winding down of ‘7de Laan’ and ‘Muvhango’
Channel24 further reports that fans of “The Laan”, as it is affectionately called, lodged a petition in an effort to reinstate the show’s primetime status and they managed to secure over 7,000 signatures.
Speaking to the publication, 7de Laan’s production team expressed their delight at the SABC’s decision.
“We know that our fans are overly appreciative and excited for this. We owe much of their persistent request to the return.”
The production team is especially excited about the return because of what they have in store for the storyline going forward. This, after the SABC expressed their view that both 7de Laan and Muvhango had lost their creative edge.
A show called Die Sentrum was introduced in place of the Afrikaans soapie and only managed to gain over 700,000 viewers, while 7de Laan retained over 1.2 million viewers despite airing three times a week, according to Broadcast Research Council of South Africa (BRCSA) data for July 2021.
