Roughly three million South Africans have tuned in to the first episodes of reality television series Class Act on Saturday evenings, a nationally broadcast search for a striving actor that is heavily branded by Amstel beer, whose owner conceived of the program.

The series, along with product placement in episodes of popular soap opera Generations, is a cornerstone in Heineken NV's (HEIA.AE) campaign to tap the country's growing, aspirational middle class in a market that remains a stronghold of beer giant SABMiller PLC (SAB.JO).

The beer battle between the companies increasingly is focusing on townships and black South Africans who were previously kept out of the mainstream economy by apartheid but are finding increasing affluence.

Heineken on Thursday officially opened Sedibeng, a large-scale brewery located south of Johannesburg that began with a capacity of three million hectoliters but can be expanded to six million. The opening, just a few months ahead of the locally-hosted soccer World Cup, means that, for the first time since the Dutch company took back licensing rights from SABMiller, it will brew its namesake brand and Amstel beers locally.

"If you have to compete against SAB, you need to have strong fundamentals and a large brewery," said Tom de Man, president of Heineken's operations in Africa and the Middle East.

Sedibeng, which is co-owned with Diageo PLC (DEO), will also produce Smirnoff Storm and Spin blended drinks and eventually Diageo's Foundry cider as well as Namibia Breweries Ltd.'s (NBS.WH) Windhoek lager.

Heineken and Diageo teamed up in South Africa with the Namibian company to create Brandhouse Beverages Pty. Ltd. in 2004, a year after Heineken took back the rights to its namesake beer from SABMiller's South African Breweries.

Heineken in March 2007 terminated SAB's license to produce and distribute Amstel in South Africa after a private arbitration panel ruled in its favor. It has since sourced the beer from its breweries in Europe, although after a several-month hiatus in which no Amstel was available in the country.

De Man declined to specify the savings the companies expect by producing drinks in South Africa and sourcing bottles locally, but he said the EUR310 million brewery will increase profitability and make it easier to grow volumes.

In upmarket bars in Soweto, the sprawling township on the southern edge of Johannesburg, Heineken and Amstel feature prominently alongside SAB's competing premium brands.

Godfrey Mautloa, owner for the last 10 years of the Masakeng tavern, said his top sellers are Heineken and SAB's Castle Light and Hansa. Heineken is also the top seller at Sediba, another Soweto bar, although manager Sobantu Zuba said sales of SAB's Grolsch are steadily rising.

"For sure we love to beat the competition, but there's a lot of growth left in South Africa," said Nick Blazquez, managing director of Diageo Africa.

Blazquez said the emergence of a black middle class has fueled demand for premium beers and spirits, segments that continue to grow.

Premium beer accounts for about 20% of the total beer market in South Africa, while the beers produced by Heineken and its partners accounts for about 56% of this but only 11% of the total beer market by volume, Heineken's de Man said, adding the aim is to continue taking market share.

SABMiller, which when it lost the license in 2007 estimated Amstel represented about 9% of its beer sales in South Africa, hasn't stood still. Days later it unveiled plans to launch a new premium beer, Hansa Marzen Gold, to help plug the gap. The London-based company, which originated in South Africa with Castle Lager in 1895, also has been pushing its Miller Genuine Draft, Grolsh and Peroni.

SABMiller has seven breweries in the country and the company sold just shy of 26 million hectoliters here in the year through March 2009.

-By Robb M. Stewart, Dow Jones Newswires; +27 11 783 7848; robb.stewart@dowjones.com