South Africa's Broadcasting Complaints Commission has found SAfm breached the Free-to-Air Code by leaving a guest's verifiable allegations unchallenged, and the country's national editors' forum used the ruling to warn about unregulated podcasts, creators and influencers. Nairobi's governor has launched a podcast. Substack says creators who podcast on it collectively earn over $200 million a year, and a one-hour video episode in Nigeria typically costs $181 to $290 to record and edit.
South Africa's Broadcasting Complaints Commission has upheld a complaint over a live interview on SAfm's The National Pulse, broadcast on 3 June. It found SAfm breached Clause 12(2) of the Free-to-Air Code: the station let a guest make serious allegations that could have been checked, without asking for evidence, pushing back or verifying them.
The ruling concerned radio, not a podcast, and the Commission's authority covers signatory broadcasters. But the South African National Editors' Forum used it to warn of misinformation spread by unregulated podcasts, content creators and influencers presenting themselves as journalists, with local government elections due in November.
Techpoint Africa reported in January that Communications Minister Solly Malatsi had said podcasts fall outside the Electronic Communications Act and the communications regulator's authority. In Techpoint's reading, a Draft White Paper could see them treated more like radio and TV; the government said this would not gag creators beyond limits the Constitution already allows. Lawmakers pointed to this Commission and the Press Council as possible models. Our read: under such a model, this ruling shows the standard podcast hosts with guests could face. Read the full story.
The ruling concerned radio. The warning that followed took in podcasts.
Kenya's celebrity interviews move online. More Kenyan public figures and entertainers are turning to podcasts, YouTube and TikTok Live to reach audiences on their own terms. Podcasts such as Mic Cheque have become fixtures of local pop culture. Journalist Lynn Ngugi's channel has passed 1.5 million YouTube subscribers on human-interest stories and unedited long-form interviews.
Haelsoft opens a single storefront for African creators. The Nigeria-based company's Marketplace lets creators sell courses, ebooks, templates, webinars and coaching from one storefront, with no coding required. Co-founder Michael Ezeadichie says Western platforms assume stable internet, international payments and desktop-first users. Its pilot drew hundreds of creators across Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa, a figure the report does not source.
Substack says creators who podcast on it earn over $200 million a year. Substack has added a dedicated podcast tab to its app and told Podnews that creators publishing podcasts there collectively earn over $200 million a year. Podnews reports no creator count and no podcast-only share. Our read: African platforms such as Afripods will be asked what their creators earn.
The typical cost of recording and editing a one-hour video episode in Nigeria. Filming four to six one-hour episodes in a single full-day booking costs roughly $725 to $1,090, which spreads the bill. The other lines add up too: a sound engineer charges $58 to $109 for a one-hour audio episode, scripted shows need a writer from $58 an episode, and hosting and distribution add roughly $10 to $30 a month. What it costs.
Officials are launching podcasts. Nairobi governor Sakaja Johnson calls his podcast, “Nairobi, Let's Talk”, a digital baraza. In the 2 September debut he cited own-source revenue rising from KSh8 billion to KSh15.4 billion, and conceded the waste-to-energy project had moved more slowly than hoped. In Ghana, Tourism Authority deputy chief executive Gilbert Abeiku Aggrey Santana has launched Tourism Destination Africa, which he says gives Africans a platform to tell their own stories. The SAfm ruling turned on whether a broadcaster tested a guest's claims. When the person making the claims launched the show, it is worth asking who tests them.