Television in South Africa was introduced in 1976. The country is notable for its late adoption of widespread television broadcasting. Although closed-circuit experiments took place in exhibits in 1929 and 1936, upon South Africa's adoption of apartheid in the mid-1940s, television was seen with massive skepticism from the ruling government, a position that lasted for nearly thirty years. During the early years of television, it was heavily regulated among ethnic lines, with whites receiving the only channel at launch, while blacks received their own channel at the end of 1981. Commercial television emerged in 1986 in the form of a subscription channel, though the SABC decided to counteract in advance with the launch of a supplementary white service on the frequencies of the black network after 9pm. Post-apartheid, the television sector began to liberalise and several minor languages, such as Ndebele, made their first appearances on national television. The free-to-air monopoly was broken in 1998 when e.tv, the first free-to-air private television channel, opened. Currently (as of early 2026), South Africa is nearing the end of the shutdown of analogue terrestrial signals, the process of which was delayed several times and taken to court.
History
Early developments On 7 September 1928, The Star reported on the arrival of the first television experiments in South Africa, with the participation of John Logie Baird, who was negotiating an arrangement with the Schlesinger organisation to market sets. The service would start in Johannesburg by the end of the year and would subsequently expand to other South African cities over time. The first demonstration took place on 22 August 1929, being limited to members of the South African Association for the Advancement of Science (SAAAS) at the engineering laboratory of the South African College in Cape Town. Initial pictures were of poor quality and plagued by interference. A second test was conducted at the Empire Exhibition in Johannesburg in 1936. These initial experiments were seen with skepticism, with the 1936 demonstration showing concerns that television could be used for voyeurism. The 1929 exhibition was marked by several other goals which were pivotal for the usage of television in South Africa: in addition to the participation of theatre personality Gwyneth Nelson Keys, The Sunday Times reported that it could also be used for broadcasting pictures of wanted criminals to police stations across the country. Airing of current events would put it in competition with the bioscope (movie theatres), which was the leading form of visual media at the time. There wasn't sufficient funding, as the three radio stations of the time were facing financial difficulties. The arrival of the television equipment from London for the 1936 Empire Exhibition was delayed due to logistical problems regarding its shipment, which only arrived by 22 September, a week after its opening. The first image seen in the second tests was of a laughing girl, which the Rand Daily Mail incorrectly thought to be the first picture seen on television in South Africa, disregarding the 1929 experiments. The demonstration was held in private to a number of guests, among them representatives of the Reuters news agency. Viewers came to be televised at the exhibition; by the end of the year, 25,000 people appeared on screen as part of the experiments. F. R. Milsom foresaw the use of television to deliver news as it happened, in opposition to newspapers where the news came delayed, at the time of printing. Despite the success of the second exhibition, the view the press had of television differed: it would not lead to an immediate launch of a television network in South Africa, and that such a service would take a long time to set up, largely due to cost issues, as well as the only possible company that set it up would be a wealthy company. The Rand Daily Mail suggested a long wait for a regular service.
Opposition to introduction Opposition leader K. Ueckermann was the first politician to propose a television service for the SABC, submitting a question to the Minister of Posts and Telegraphs, J. F. Naudé, on 6 April 1951. The SABC had set goals for television as early as 1944, as one of its goals after the war ended. The broadcaster later reiterated that introducing a television service was considered too costly, especially given the early global developments in television technology, whose impact was still being studied. In 1952, Naudé stated that South Africa was interested in developing its own television service in the future. However, at the time, the costs were still seen as prohibitive for the Government of South Africa. The SABC, for its part, maintained that it was unlikely South Africa would have a television service in the near future due to the high costs associated with installing equipment, importing television sets, and producing local programmes. The first proposal to introduce television in South Africa was made by The Rank Organisation in 1953, but it was rejected by the governing National Party. Even though the state-controlled South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) held a virtual monopoly on radio broadcasting, it viewed the new medium as a threat to Afrikaans and the Afrikaner volk, fearing it would give undue prominence to English and create unfair competition for the Afrikaans press. Moreover, as the 1950s progressed, the SABC faced increasing financial difficulties. Its budget was strained by the purchase of additional land for its Auckland Park facilities, the expansion of Bantu radio services, and loans to install FM transmitters and services. These financial constraints hindered the SABC’s ambitions. By the late-1950s, United Party member B. Wilson had argued that the idea of introducing television was no longer an "astronomical" expense. However, throughout the 1960s, the National Party maintained that the benefits of television did not justify its high operational costs. Advertising, however, was to be limited to big companies, due to high costs. This would spell a large downfall for the print industry, which would mean a mass exodus for advertisers, causing the shutdown of newspapers. Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd compared television to atomic bombs and poison gas, stating, "They are modern things, but that does not mean they are desirable. The government has to watch for any dangers to the people, both spiritual and physical."
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