The South African Broadcasting Corporation's TV channels still dominate the airwaves in South Africa. In 1996, they were reorganised as:

  • SABC1 - public service channel in English and African languages;
  • SABC2 - as SABC1, with programmes in Afrikaans; and
  • SABC3 - a commercial service, entirely in English

The bantustan of Bophuthatswana also had its own TV channel, known as Bop TV, which is now part of the SABC.

In 1986, a pay-TV service called M-Net was launched, which subsequently became part of the Multichoice bouquet of channels:

  • M-Net - mixture of general entertainment, movies
  • SuperSport - sports coverage
  • KTV - children's programmes
  • Series Channel - general entertainment
  • Soap Channel - soap operas
  • KykNet - programmes in Afrikaans

In 1995, Multichoice launched its digital satellite TV service (DStv) which offered viewers in South Africa, and elsewhere on the continent, a choice of international channels, including CNN, MTV, BBC World, BBC Prime, Discovery Channel, Sky News and ESPN, as well as channels such as Zee TV in Indian languages and RTP in Portuguese.

In 2003, the New South African TV channel (NSAT) announced plans to broadcast on Sky Television in the UK, thereby reaching the large (predominantly white) expatriate community.

The first free-to-air commercial broadcaster was etv, which launched in 1999.

List_of_television_channels

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