The thing both parties left out in this extended agreement was the duration of the deal. Which led me to believe that MultiChoice or ViacomCBS is more likely looking into canning some of the channels later this year or early in 2021. The likely candidates could be MTV and Comedy Central.
Since Viacom and CBS merged early last year a lot of reconstructing has been underway which included having two managers handle seperate parts of these brands alongside aligning the channels such as CBS Reality and Justice from CBS side with MTV, BET, Comedy Central and Nickelodeon from Viacom.
CBS Reality and Justice are crafted through a partnership and listed under ViacomCBS Media Networks and AMC International so those candidates are unlikely to suffer the chop on DStv while MTV and Comedy Central both channels currently listed under one brand which is ViacomCBS Media Networks.
MTV is the name doesn't suggest is a reality channel catered to young adults aged 18 to 35 at launch it also carried music overtime it shifted to just reality and left it's sister channels MTV Base and Music24 to handle the music while Comedy Central is a comedy-based channel carry movies, series, reality shows and cartoons.
The reason I picked these two besides being ViacomCBS channels they carry a lot of repeats and old programming part of them can be seen through a single channel which isn't accessible in the market yet. Comedy Central has one local production that appears once a year other than that it's mostly repeats while most of MTV's content can be transmitted through BET and MTV Base since both channels are struggling to boost their lineup with MTV Base struggling that was struggling to gain traction in South Africa alone.
Back in 2018, ViacomCBS launched Paramount Network as a premium, general entertainment channel that carried "bold original scripted and non-scripted series" with Viacom that's moving its best shows to this channel and rolling out several brand-new scripted series and drama series on this channel which in turn led to the discontinuation of dramas folded onto MTV.
At the time ViacomCBS Africa said they will explore opportunities to build the brand in the market. After a year through an interview the former CEO he stated they are looking at ways to build the brand and how to get it into the market.
Paramount Network is available in the UK, Spain, Latin America, Sweden, Denmark and Italy and Canada. Some of these markets once carried it as a movie channel. For those living without the brand had to wait a little longer for the channel.
Paramount carries sitcoms (some from Comedy Central), reality shows, drama series, documents (some from MTV) and movies. In the UK, the channel is mostly filled with scripted series and a bit of crime based reality shows.
If Paramount Network had to launch in Africa through MultiChoice's DStv it definitely coming as a placeholder and NOT a new channel since most of the programming would be familiar with the market. If you basically do research in each territory that sources out this channel you'd find that it takes up Comedy Central's space in a few of these markets and offers a small lineup of reality shows seen on MTV particularly the talk and game shows.
Here's my theory, Paramount Network launches in South Africa to replace both MTV and Comedy Central on DStv with selected programming from these defunct channels moved to BET and MTV Base not only does it reduce the repetition on DStv but boosts these channels offering now that ViacomCBS will have less channels to all their focus and efforts on.
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