South Africa Edition 2

THE MARKET
Since 1988, when film director Bill Faure
conceived the format for the programme, Carte
Blanche has been slowly but surely building
trust with its viewers. Today, it is one of the
most trusted brands in South Africa, instantly
recognisable to many.
Aired on the local subscription-based TV
station, M-Net, and available to DStv satellite
subscribers, Carte Blanche has a well-established
viewer base. Avid fans are older, and thrive on
getting the real story behind current affairs. A
large part of its audience has viewed the show
since its inception, and makes a point of watching
on a Sunday night.
Carte Blanche’s primary target market is
people aged over 35, males and females, high
income and predominantly metropolitan. They
are free thinkers, but still “introspective” and
“somewhat cautious”. The secondary market
is high-income 24 to 35-year-olds, male and
female, “broad-minded” and “self-assured”, with
a huge interest in local affairs and international
news stories.
An hour long, Carte Blanche is without
parallel in investigative TV journalism in South
Africa, and has become an institution. Leading
newspapers and journals request transcripts
of many Carte Blanche items for follow-up
articles.
It is a programme that makes a difference, and
has often brought about change in the country’s
laws, as well as helping expose and end criminal
and other corrupt activities in civil society and
government. Stories are exciting and intriguing,
with journalists sometimes putting themselves in
dangerous situations to get to the truth. Hidden
cameras and direct confrontations add to the
intrigue, and viewers trust the show to offer facts
that may change their lives.
Viewership has often reached stratospheric
heights, with some editions reaching highs of
up to 70 percent of all viewers. It has remained
among the top three programmes within M-
Net’s encoded viewing time for more than ten
consecutive years and, in the pay television
market, has maintained an average share of 33
percent. Broadcast throughout Africa, Carte
Blanche is one of the most-watched shows on
M-Net; with a 48 percent share among analogue
subscribers and 27 percent share for digital
subscribers.
The programme prides itself on being at the
cutting edge of broadcast technology and was the
first TV show in South Africa to have a website,
now used by many members of the public to
provide leads for further investigation by the
Carte Blanche team.
ACHIEVEMENTS
Carte Blanche has accumulated over 90 local and
international awards for excellence in television
journalism, starting with two awards the year
after its inception and growing to seven awards in
2006. Accolades included Best Male Presenter for
Derek Watts, the SAB Environmental Journalist
of the Year Awards, and the CNN MultiChoice
African Journalist Award for Sport.
In March 2005, the show scooped the
prestigious Outstanding Brigitte Bardot
International Genesis Award at the Humane
Society of the United States Genesis Awards
in California for the third time, against stiff
competition from broadcasters from forty
countries.
HISTORY
The late film director Bill Faure conceived the
format for Carte Blanche in 1988. By 2007 it had
become an institution in the lives of television
viewers - something that defines “Sunday at
seven” in South Africa.
1994 and 1995 were significant not only for
the programme, but for the country. 9 May 1994,
saw the inauguration of much-loved icon Nelson
Mandela as the president of a new South Africa,
and Carte Blanche viewers got the full story.
Carte Blanche won its first award in 1989
for a simple story about a day in the lives of two
ordinary residents of Alexandra Township. This
was during the apartheid era, and township life
was little known to Carte Blanche’s then largely
white audience.
Society was changing rapidly - mixed race
marriages, black South Africans moving into
previously “white” areas at last, and interracial
adoption of children by heterosexual and
homosexual couples. If it was happening in
South Africa, Carte Blanche felt people should
know about it.