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Bop TV

{{Short description|South African television station (1994–2003)}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2020}}

{{infobox television channel

| name = Bop TV

| country = Bophuthatswana (until 1994)
South Africa (1994–2003)

| area = Bophuthatswana (until 1994)
South Africa (1994–2003)

| owner = Bophuthatswana Broadcasting Corporation

| language = Tswana (Use in some programs) , English

| launch_date = {{start date and age|1983|12|31|df=yes}}

| closed_date = {{end date and age|2003|07|31|df=yes}}

}}

Bop TV was a television station owned by the Bophuthatswana Broadcasting Corporation, which operated from 1983 to 2003. Initially a part of the black homeland of Bophuthatswana, the channel found its foothold by means of signal overspill, becoming an attractive alternative to the existing SABC and later M-Net channels. Following the end of Apartheid it was integrated to the South African Broadcasting Corporation, after which it shut down.

History

Commencing operations in on 31 December 1983,{{cite web |date=17 February 1984 |title=New TV station for Blacks takes off |url=https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/digitised/article/straitstimes19840217-1.2.39.1 |access-date=26 September 2023 |website=The Straits Times (retrieved from NLB)}} it primarily transmitted imported programmes in an unedited form, allowing all comical references to black people to be aired. The station transmitted on the UHF band.{{cite news |last1=Van Slambrouck |first1=Paul |title=South African whites clamor to tune in black TV |url=http://www.csmonitor.com/1984/0203/020318.html/(page)/3 |newspaper=The Christian Science Monitor |accessdate=20 October 2015 |date=3 February 1984}} The first programme seen was reportedly a Woody Woodpecker cartoon.{{cite web |url=https://www.worldradiohistory.com/UK/Radio-&-Electronics-World/R&EW-1984-04.pdf |title=Radio & Electronics World |date=April 1984 |accessdate=10 December 2024 |page=82 }}

In the apartheid era, a sizeable number of white people watched Bop TV, which offered a wider variety of entertainment and current affairs programming than the state-controlled South African Broadcasting Corporation, despite attempts to confine the signal to black areas such as Soweto.{{cite news |last1=Cowell |first1=Alan |title=South Africa Whites Seek Black TV |url= https://www.nytimes.com/1984/08/01/arts/south-africa-whites-seek-black-tv.html |newspaper=The New York Times |accessdate=20 October 2015 |date=1 August 1984}} It was strongly recommended that the signals were to be limited to areas with a high Tswana population. Unlike the two SABC networks available at the time (TV1 and in the case of eastern South Africa TV3), which broadcast on the VHF band, Bop TV broadcast exclusively over the UHF band (channel 37).{{cite web |url=https://worldradiohistory.com/UK/Practical-Television/80s/Television-Servicing-UK-1984-04.pdf |title=Television |date=April 1984 |accessdate=15 May 2024 |page=38}} Furthermore, both Bop TV and the SABC have set up a rule where both sides wouldn't broadcast opinions contrary to the opposite side. If Bop TV violated those laws, the SABC would shut down the network. Within three months of its founding, Bop TV rapidly overtook the SABC channels in terms of ratings.{{cite web |url=https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-Channels-of-Communication/Channels-1985-05-06.pdf |title=Channels of Communication |date=May–June 1985 |accessdate=15 May 2024 |page=42}}{{cite web |url=https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-Channels-of-Communication/Channels-1985-05-06.pdf |title=Channels of Communication |date=May–June 1985 |accessdate=15 May 2024 |page=52}} The channel was set up by Tim Ellis, who also assisted in the creation of the SABC's TV4 network (which went live after the 9pm closing time for both TV2 and TV3) and later M-Net.{{cite web |url=https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-TV-Radio-Age/80s/1986/Television-Radio-Age-1986-04-28.pdf |title=Television/Radio Age |date=28 April 1986 |accessdate=15 May 2024 |page=38}}

The signals were restricted to within Bophuthatswana in 1986 following the rapid success of its broadcasts by means of overspill to parts of South Africa; the restrictions were put to place after the ITU recommended that the station considered as a "foreign broadcaster" in South Africa. There, the overspill was limited to Soweto and Pretoria.{{cite web| url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/1990/06/18/screened-out/| title=SCREENED OUT| date=June 18, 1990| publisher=Chicago Tribune| url-access=subscription| access-date=May 14, 2024| archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20240514105758/https://www.chicagotribune.com/1990/06/18/screened-out/| archive-date=May 14, 2024| url-status=live}} Bop TV started satellite broadcasts in 1988,{{cite book |title=Kwaito's Promise: Music and the Aesthetics of Freedom in South Africa |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bwoXDAAAQBAJ |access-date=14 May 2024 |date=2016 |page=39 | isbn=978-0-226-36268-7 | last1=Steingo | first1=Gavin | publisher=University of Chicago Press }} using a satellite from the Intelsat IV fleet for that purpose.{{cite book |title=Up in the Air: The State of Broadcasting in Southern Africa |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JvEaAQAAIAAJ |access-date=14 May 2024 |date=1998 | isbn=978-0-7974-1922-3 | last1=Opoku-Mensah | first1=Aida | last2=Africa | first2=Panos Southern | publisher=Panos Southern Africa }} The channel was even carried in the early years of cable television in Israel{{cite web |title=אופרות סבון|url=https://www.tapuz.co.il/threads/%D7%90%D7%95%D7%A4%D7%A8%D7%95%D7%AA-%D7%A1%D7%91%D7%95%D7%9F.14816844/ |access-date=14 May 2024 |website=Tapux|date=12 October 2015 |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20240514111025/https://www.tapuz.co.il/threads/%D7%90%D7%95%D7%A4%D7%A8%D7%95%D7%AA-%D7%A1%D7%91%D7%95%D7%9F.14816844/ |archive-date=14 May 2024 }} and was the primary way Israel saw CNN during the Gulf War,{{Cite news|work=The Stage and Television Today|page=8|title=Bop-TV forced to serve up scrambled signal|first=Suzan|last=Leavy|date=10 October 1991|id={{pq|962506660}} }} being removed over concerns due to its American imports, program contracts and the refusal of the Israeli cable companies to pay for its reception.{{cite web |title=ערוץ ההיסטוריה|url=https://www.ynet.co.il/Ext/App/TalkBack/CdaViewOpenTalkBack/0,11382,L-3626012-1,00.html |access-date=14 May 2024 |website=Ynet|date=21 November 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240514112101/https://www.ynet.co.il/Ext/App/TalkBack/CdaViewOpenTalkBack/0,11382,L-3626012-1,00.html |archive-date=14 May 2024 }}

By 1990, Bop TV was received by some 350,000 television sets in its coverage area, for a daily schedule of nine hours. The channel was already interested in buying new series such as The Simpsons (before even premiering on M-Net{{cite book |last1=Horwitz |first1=Robert B. |title=Communication and Democratic Reform in South Africa |date=9 April 2001 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-79166-3 |page=129 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7EpiAAAAMAAJ}}) and The Arsenio Hall Show, but the prices for such were expensive. Its executives were in screening sessions from numerous production companies, including American juggernauts.

A post-apartheid reshuffling of the SABC in 1996 resulted in the former bantustan broadcasters being integrated into it.{{cite web |last1=Parker |first1=Janet |title=e.tv accuses SABC |url= http://allafrica.com/stories/199811270013.html |work=Business Day |accessdate=20 October 2015 |date=27 November 1998}}{{cite news |title=New role for 'Bop TV' |url= http://www.news24.com/Entertainment/SouthAfrica/New-role-for-Bop-TV-20030711 |work=News24 |accessdate=3 September 2016 |date=27 November 2003}} This infuriated the bosses of Bop Broadcasting.{{cite web |last1=Gevisser |first1=Mark |title=The brazen boss of Bop-TV |url= https://mg.co.za/article/1996-03-15-the-brazen-boss-of-bop-tv/?fbclid=IwAR3APzwWZ3KuEp05MJC4kudYOVLTf-e0l7G2N2-Cq5kuxxD2zJuzDAQOcJs |work=Mail & Guardian |accessdate=16 December 2020 |date=15 March 1996}}

In 1997, the State Reorganisation Act led to the creation of subsidies for the former bantustan broadcasters that were now under the SABC's control. The said subsidy ended in November 2001. From now onward, the SABC was now funding Bop Broadcasting in its entirety.{{cite web |last1= |first1= |title=Bop TV silenced |url= https://www.news24.com/news24/bop-tv-silenced-20030530?fbclid=IwAR0oS1QfE_m33CDS_vUPrQttQP_TBshV3FiD-HvzalqWquAK0xhYFCfq5yI |work=News24 |accessdate=16 December 2020 |date=30 May 2003}} In 2003, the SABC announced that they would shut the channel down on 31 July.{{cite web |last1=Dulile |first1=Sowaga |title=Bop TV and radio to be switched off |url=http://m24arg02.naspers.com/argief/berigte/citypress/2003/06/01/C1/8~1/04.html |work=City Press |accessdate=20 October 2015 |date=1 July 2003 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20151222103404/http://m24arg02.naspers.com/argief/berigte/citypress/2003/06/01/C1/8~1/04.html |archivedate=22 December 2015 }}

List of programmes

=Domestic=

==Music==

  • South Africa Music TV
  • South Africa On the Beat

==Lifestyle==

  • South Africa Panorama

==Children's==

  • South Africa Adventures at the Waterhole
  • South Africa Teeny Bop

==Sports==

  • South Africa Bop Sports

==Horse racing==

  • South Africa See How They Run

==News & current affairs==

  • South Africa Bop TV News

==Talk shows==

  • South Africa Rhena Church Hour

==Drama==

  • South Africa Stolen Lives

==Game show==

  • South Africa Moving Up Quiz

==Education==

=Foreign=

==Comedy==

{{columns-list|colwidth=30em|

}}

==Anthology==

==Western==

==News==

==Drama==

{{columns-list|colwidth=30em|

}}

==Sports==

  • United States Everyday Workout
  • United States Gillette World Sport Special
  • United Kingdom Trans World Sport
  • United States WCW Pro

==Music==

==Lifestyle==

==Soap opera==

{{columns-list|colwidth=30em|

}}

==Variety==

==Documentary==

{{columns-list|colwidth=30em|

}}

==Food==

==News==

  • United States Front Runners

==Education==

==Travel==

==Animation==

  • United Kingdom, Wales Operavox: The Animated Operas
  • United States The Simpsons

==Children's==

{{columns-list|colwidth=30em|

}}

==Video games==

==Talk shows==

==Sci-fi==

==TV specials==

==Reality==

==Game shows==

==Telefilms==

==TV movies==

{{columns-list|colwidth=30em|

}}

References

{{Reflist}}

External links

  • [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzOAM71tEdA Bop TV Schedule and Ident], YouTube, 13 January 2010

Category:English-language television stations in South Africa

Category:Television stations in South Africa

Category:Television channels and stations established in 1983

Category:Television channels and stations disestablished in 2003

Category:Bophuthatswana

Category:Defunct television channels in South Africa