SABC Digital News has won a silver award at the Bookmarks 2019 awards for its YouTube channel. The SABC News channel was pitted against competitors such as Eyewitness News, TimesLIVE and News24.
The 11th Annual Bookmarks encompassed a record-breaking 76 categories, with over 750 entries.
The Bookmarks’ 68 diverse judges assessed the entries based on stringent, results-based criteria, culminating in 142 winners that are truly representative of the South African digital landscape.
The channel is one of the most viewed in South Africa. The accomplishment of the channel was further cemented at the Bookmark Award added to the prestigious silver award from YouTube itself for the subscriber numbers which currently stands at just over 500 000.
The channel has had over 200 million views.
The channel hosts the best of SABC television news where users can watch news clips, in-depth inserts, interviews, current affairs programmes and livestreams of breaking news and events (including full broadcasts of events not always available or fully covered on SABC television channels).
Videos are published in turn on the SABC News website and its social media accounts, providing a richer experience.
The channel has also moved into the 360-degree broadcasting space – notably with the successful 360-degree and linear livestreams of the 16th Nelson Mandela Lecture delivered by Barack Obama in July last year. It was broadcast in collaboration with YouTube. The linear livestream of the lecture received 13 million views within the first 24 hours.
The 360-degree livestream received just under 200 000 views on the day of the broadcast. The numbers for both videos continue to increase.
Bookmarks Jury President Jerry Mpufane comments: “The work awarded at the Bookmarks this year, not only celebrates the winning work and leading talent in South Africa, it also becomes a showcase of the go-to case studies and inspiration for up-and-coming talent across the country, as the benchmark for digital excellence”.
