Soapies rule with South African TV watchers

30 November 2015 - 02:13 By Azizzar Mosupi

Soap Operas continue to rule the airwaves in South Africa, remaining the most-watched genre on South African television - and home-grown productions are leading the pack. The latest Television Audience Measurement Survey figures by the Broadcast Research Council show that soapies are the shows that, on average, bring in most of the adult viewership on South Africa's TV channels during prime time from 6pm to 11pm.The most watched soapie is SABC1's telenovela Uzalo that draws a whopping 7748 000 viewers daily. Coming in a close second, with nearly seven million watchers is Generations.SABC2's Muvhango is third.International soapie The Bold and the Beautiful is SABC3's top show with 1097000 viewers with free-to-air television channel eTV's soapie Scandal attracting 3909000 viewers.Breaking from the soapie genre is reality TV show Our Perfect Wedding as Mzansi Magic's most-watched show with 1144000 viewers. While Our Perfect Weddingis king on its channel, it ranks fourth out five among the top reality shows as SABC1's Nyan'Nyan almost doubles its viewership with 2254000 viewers.The survey panel provides minute-by-minute television viewing information, using so-called "people meters". These audience measurement tools are designed to measure viewing habits. A box is hooked up to a television set. In a sample household, each family member is given a personal viewing button. The "people meter" will even flash to remind a user that the TV is on and they haven't identified themselves.The results are reported weekly and published on the council website. The latest figures relate to the week of November 9 to 15...

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