7de Laan back to 5 days a week from October.

Entertainment Reporter.

@Real7deLaan.

The Afrikaans weekday soap 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.

It led to a petition signed by over 7 000 concerned viewers, and the SABC saying that it won’t back down from its plan to “make more room for drama”.

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.

“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.

In July, 7de Laan lured around 1.2 million viewers to SABC2, while Die Sentrum hovered around 720 000 per episode. This is far below 7de Laan and represents a net loss of thousands of viewers in the timeslot and also forced SABC2 to lower ad rates during the slot, meaning less revenue for the broadcaster.

Scroll to Top