The new Blitz channel will have four sports news bulletins every hour (one every 15 minutes, commencing at the top of the hour) and each of the bulletins will be eight minutes in duration. The fourth bulletin, at a quarter to the hour, will have a specific Africa focus, dealing with sports news pertaining specifically to the rest of the continent. During these bulletins, the African leagues that SuperSport covers (Angola, Kenya, Nigeria and Zambia) will be given prominence.

To complete each quarter hour segment on BLITZ there will be sports specific bulletins, which during the week will be structured as follows:

1. Soccer during the first quarter hour, ie before quarter past;
   
2. Rugby in the second, ie before half past;
   
3. Cricket or PSL in the third, ie before quarter to;
   
4. and in the last quarter hour, the focus turns to Best of the Rest, with an in-depth focus on sports like tennis, golf, motor racing, etc.

These five minute bulletins will be voiced by a reporter and deal with each sport in a newsy style.

Highlights (which drop away) will thus be transformed into match reports in which talking points and incidents will be picked up and elaborated upon. Post match interviews will also feature here.

During the weekend, the five-minute sport specific bulletins will be determined by importance. For example, the recently contested Currie Cup final could play out twice during the hour, therefore servicing the subscriber more effectively and reducing his/her “waiting' time.

Sky Sports remains an integral part of the new Blitz channel and times remain unchanged during the week:

• 6am - 7am
  
• 12 noon - 1pm
  
• 6pm - 7pm

One slight change affects the weekend:

• 7am - 8am
  
• 12 noon - 1pm
  
• 11pm - midnight

Blitz is available on channel 200 on DStv.

[31 Oct 2008 09:09]

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