First official TV Broadcast in South Africa in 1976 - Eerste SAUK TV-Uitsending in 1976

[reniermedia]

The logo looks like a toilet - a foreshadowing of current tv-fare

[fishnose1]

Test transmissions started well before this. One could see TV in SA about a year earlier.

[jada1953]

Then again...Tv done away with my sitting at home with a six pack of Lion Lager Long Toms and a 1/2 lb of great biltong listening to Hammond Innes on the radio :(

Those were the days haha!

[jada1953]

I think that actual programme schedules started in May 1976,the format was ie...Monday night the first 30 mins would be the News in Afrikaans then 2 hours of programmes in Afrikaans,then you would get the next 2.5 hrs in English,the following night the format would be reversed to show English first! Who can ever forget the top British Cop show at the time 'The Sweeney' being dubbed into Afrikaans and renamed 'Blitzpatrolie' haha!

[jada1953]

I thought that the Tv started in May 1976,I used to hire a B&W set for R13/Month ! a Colour set was R32/Month from Teljoy,expensive when you consider i was renting a 1 bed flat for R42/month in what was then a beautiful old tree lined suburb named Bellvue,its a travesty what its like now,having looked at it on Google Maps,hardly recognisable,theres something to be said about what the ANC have done with regard to the downturn of the country and economy.

[kirstdive]

Was it really in color even back then? I somehow though it was black and white, hummm cool learn new things every day :)

[goonerfromjhb]

Jeez what a monumental moment for the SABC, and Heindrich, my boet you looked like you were s**ting yourself there china but you pulled through, must've been a moerse braai in Auckland Park that night!

[breizhcatalonia1993]

can i upload this?

[glbuys]

@breizhcatalonia1993: Yes, you're welcome to do so.

[breizhcatalonia1993]

@breizhcatalonia1993 thanks, I already uploaded three days after i asked but in compensation i will put that the video was originally uploaded by glbuys.

[shmuli9]

The lack of television in South Africa until 1976 was disseminated widely in the rest of the world. (The British had broadcast TV in the 1930s, the Americans in 1946, and most of the rest of the world by the early 1960s.)

[bluexxg]

@shmuli9 Spain in 1956

[harry10313]

@shmuli9 in Indonesia started in 17 August 1962, the day of our independence and the Asian Games opening, and became coloured since October 1979. just for adding info :)

[arweiss100]

Thanks for this incredible archive footage of this inaugural, history making broadcast.

[petelovesbevsills]

I cannot believe we had to wait until 1976 before we were finally 'allowed' to view TV. Thank you for this upload that brings back loads of memories!

[nevilleprinsloo]

baie baie sag!

[glbuys]

@nevilleprinsloo: Jammer!

[christiaanajcronje]

Die vraag is... Waar is Henrich Marnitz?

[albertusj]

I'm afrikaans speaking. I would like to point out to English speaking visitors that the style of Afrikaans the presenter is using is VERY formal and not the kind of Afrikaans one would normally use in everyday conversation. It was fun to see the old logos again. It is also good to know that these tapes have been preserved.

[YvesGingras]

@albertusj It looks like you are trying to apologize for there being a formal afrikaans. I find it normal that it be used here.

[hnorky]

Just days before my 9th birthday! I remember our family's first set, a 23-inch Grundig colour unit we bought at Greatermans (if memory serves) in Cape Town. I remember those brief test transmissions and have vague recollections of watching a clip of the German pop show "Musik Laden" through a shop window one afternoon.

[TheJaking87]

Dorianne Berry went on to co-present eighties evening magazine show 'Prime Time' and later on 'Good Morning South Africa'

[kmfw72]

@1prouddemocrat That's right - in 1969, the commission of inquiry said that in the future, people would be able to pick up TV via satellite, so it made sense for South Africa to pre-empt that by bringing in its own TV service.

[kmfw72]

@orlando318 Indeed - Rhodesia was under white minority rule - and the TV service there was state-controlled.

[mrbenfrancis]

Another reason the government introduced TV...the Apollo 11 moon landing. South Africans were upset that they couldn't see that event live, while the rest of the world did.

[orlando318]

1976??????? that´s a bit late!

[kmfw72]

@orlando318 Entirely for political reasons.

Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) got TV fifteen years before, but didn't get colour until the 1980s. Malawi didn't get its own TV service until the 1990s,

[kmfw72]

Looks a bit like the London Weekend logo!

[TheJaking87]

@kmfw72 I thought that too.

[Gratobe]

Thanks for confirming the date telly started in SA