The Era Of Anime On DStv

As some of you already know there has been a no sign of anime on DStv. Everyday viewers from South Africa have to tune into SABC 2 at 5pm for one anime alongside repeats weekends at 10am. Its just 1 slot that runs for 30 minutes a day on one channel that isn't viewable across other parts of Africa with some of those citizens viewing SABC and e.tv as well as their additional channels illegally.

Back in 2000s DStv had an low rated anime channel called Animax that was only viewable on the premium package. Of course some of the anime wasn't as good as the ones SABC distributed and the channel committed the same sin that is currently seen on Sony Channel and Sony Max - repeat.

Its natural for a channel to air repeats so that those who missed out or those who saw it and want to see the program again can watch it but the channel as well as its sister channels did the diabolical sin of over repeating series as you can see My Wife & Kids, Ugly Betty even The Amazing Race were over repeated on Sony Channel that they later moved it to Animax's successor Sony Max and came back to the main channel. That's what currently happened on Animax besides some of programming being taunted Animax did have good anime like Bleach which Animax couldn't complete due to its discontinuation, Bleach is currently on SABC 2.

Later in 2010, Animax received its finally calling on DStv when the channel got scrapped for a male skewed channel (Sony Max). This change didn't only happen in South Africa and the rest of Africa but across several other territories like Europe, Australia, U.K. & Ireland just to name a few where they had placeholder channels come in its place that is skewed on live-action. The same thing that Animax had transitioned into before its departure.

Several DStv subscribers asked and pleaded with Multichoice to get another channel which carried these type of programs which has been fruitful for the past 8 years since Animax departure. Viewers (including me) recommended Toonami and Adult Swim to DStv on which you'll always get this reply we'll foward you suggestion to the relevant team.

Toonami, the home to superheroes operated by TBS the same company that supplies Cartoon Network and Boomerang to Multichoice's DStv, and Kwesé has programs for action lovers such as Batman, Superman and Green Lantern alongside repeats from Cartoon Network such as Ben 10 Alien Force, ThunderCats & Symbionic Titans with Anime such as Dragonball, Naruto and One Piece. This channel launched in Africa later in 2016 exclusively on Kwesé meaning that no operator could access the channel e.g. Multichoice's DStv.

Adult Swim (the adult version of the former Cartoon Network) is probably the only channel that viewers can rely on even though the cartoons there are similar to the ones that found on FOX (DStv/Starsat/Kwesé) and majority of the channel focuses around that. You'll find series like Rick & Morty, Bob's Burger, Close Enough (Made by J.G. Quintel, Creator of Regular Show) and Robot Chicken - all of which are my favourite. There's anime through a Toonami block which fills a quarter of the schedule its better than nothing.

My reason for why DStv doesn't have these type of shows and why channels like Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon and Disney has been seen as a channel for 7-10 is 'Parents'. Sorry for being judgemental but parents want safe and fun programs for their children back which wasn't a big thing as it is now thanks to Cyma (used to run Nickelodeon in the U.S.). Back in the olden days there was 'Tom and Jerry' classic where you had the main characters smoking cigarettes, Courage The Cowardly Dog which used to terrify me as a child and The Grim Adventures Of Billy And Mandy where ordinary citizens as well as creatures of the underworld lived as one. Sorry for reliving the my childhood memories but you can't hide these things from kids sooner or later their gonna see it happen or go crazy having to watch Teen Titans GO! on repeat.

People stop having this persona that cartoons are for kids its not if it was you wouldn't have series like Family Guy even South Park or a channel like Adult Swim which has cartoons for 18+ illustrating strong language  and sex. If a series focuses on a particular gender don't criticize you'll find women watching soccer because they love it.

Another thing to those who still watch cartoons. Let me use Cartoon Network for example the channel has ups and downs, its boring to have 2 to 3 shows air everyday especially if one (Teen Titans GO!) takes most of the timeslot. It just forces viewers to distance themselves from the channel and get a different perspective of the channel. When you come to a channel you hope to see something different don't go behind viewers back and give one show attention only to treat the others like dirt. Even though CN has been shitty to some because of the programs I hope you aren't judging the shows based on the reboots but also on other CN original series. Cartoon Network has good shows like OK K.O.! Lets Be Heroes, The Amazing World Of Gumball and We Bare Bears. If you're those people looking at the perspective of a channel based on reboots you have no idea of how clueless you are. Watch these original shows not only the reboots and get back to me if its still shitty as you say it is.

DStv has been evolving for the better and worse with monopoly hanging over their heads, the persona over streaming taking over the future of entertainment they are growing. They've been losing over 100 000 premium subscribers in the past year and experiencing a growth in lower bouquets like Compact. Anime is possible on DStv but its gonna be a very long time before that happens. If you noticed they've been recent successful attempts on DStv like Telemundo & Zee World before they had 'The Soapie Channel' which was scrapped due to its low performance but look now soapies are back even if their starting to cloud DStv. Then there was the game channel which carried actual games on DStv I use to play a cooking game, some monkey game where they had to catch something etc. which DStv discontinued to create more services only for 2016 to arise where DStv launched Ginx Esports as a pop up channel on DStv Now App now to return again permanently on the DStv Now App later in 2017 with a dedicated channel launching a few months later. Then there was unsuccessful attempts like Voov and TV Mall. There's no telling what the future holds with entertainment but anime will rise up on DStv sooner or later even if its not as a 24/7 channel but a channel that offers it with a bunch of other junk.

I hope after reading this your whole perspective of DStv or basically any other operator you can relate on has changed I'm not forcing anyone to remove the negativity of these operators but to help expand the perspective over programming.

Entertainment is then, now and forever even after life theres a world new world of entertainment to explore.

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