SABC 2 has agreed to a deal with Earth Television Network — part of the Telcast Media Group from Munich, Germany — to launch live earthTV programmes every day plugging SABC into Earth Television Network's worldwide media community.

From Monday (1 September 2008), SABC 2 will show earthTV's The World Live four times daily, with each 90-second short offering live glimpses of different places on Earth from earthTV's worldwide network of 80 cameras. This SABC 2 deal is intended as a new departure for the genre to localise the format for South Africa.

SABC 2 has also licensed a bespoke local version of the format called South Africa Live, which will follow the same format and frequency as The World Live. South Africa Live will feature feeds from new earthTV cameras installed in Cape Town, Durban, Johannesburg and Londolozi in the Sabi Sands Game Reserve. Further earthTV camera installations are planned for the near future.

The shows, often used by networks as lead-ins to news bulletins, offer a global snapshot of daily life, weather information and event details from all over the planet including Antalya, Venice, Sydney, Manila, Munich, London, Paris and New York. earthTV has been secured by broadcasters and multimedia platforms around the world, including NHK in Japan, France 2, ProSiebenSat.1 Group in Germany, NDTV in India and CCTV in China.

"As the Channel for the Nation we are very pleased to be able to offer our viewers a daily 'slice of life' from across the country and the world. South Africans should also be proud that live images from South Africa will be beamed every day around the planet within the earthTV packages," says Ed Worster — SABC 2 programme manager.

Telcast president and CEO Thomas Hohenacker said that since earthTV content airs in primetime on major terrestrial channels in each market, "it is probably the most widely distributed TV content in the world and has a daily reach of over 2.2 billion people in 60 countries. We are delighted to be working with SABC 2 in this way. Their enthusiasm is allowing us to develop a dynamic new template for earthTV and I am confident that this will be the first of many country and regional versions of earthTV in the future."

South Africa Live and The World Live's daily broadcast schedule for SABC 2 is:
90 second live feeds:
06:55 (SA)
07:55 (SA)
11:58 (World)
12:58 (World)
13:58 (World)
14:55 (SA)
15:55 (SA)
22:58 (World)