SABC3 has suspended its morning soapie
All My Children for three months in order to make up a shortfall of non-English broadcasting hours brought about by screening too much cricket, especially last year.
The channel has to make up a deficit of 282 hours of non-English programming as part of its mandate requirements to telecommunications regulator ICASA.
"Due to excessive cricket games that we scheduled in the last year, including two world cups, we ended up under-delivering on our mandate requirements," the channel said in a release.
SABC3 has decided to make up the lost hours by screening old Afrikaans series in a morning block of Afrikaans programming, including golden oldies Iemand om Lief te hê, Vyfster and Grondbaronne (which replaces All My Children in the 10h00 timeslot).
According to the channel, their mandate requirements to ICASA have increased over the years.
"In the 2007/8 fiscal for example, we are expected to deliver a much higher ratio of other South African languages, than just English" read the release.
"This is a regulation that we embrace as a commercial unit, and part of the changes we are effecting are also meant to cater to this much higher demand in language."
The scheduled changes will run from 21 January to 31 March 2008. They are as follows:
Monday to Friday05h00 The World Today (remains unchanged)
06h30 Iemand om Lief te hê (previously 3 Talk Repeat slot)
07h30 Vyster (previously AM shopping)
09h30 7de Laan (remains unchanged)
10h00 Grondbaronne (previously All My Children)
12h00 The Tyra Banks Show (previously Rights & Recourse slot. A new season of Rights & Recourse to return in April 2008)
Saturdays & SundaysSchedule remains unchanged