"DStv informs that SIC International Africa and SIC News will leave our platform from October 15th", reads the message sent to all customers by the South African company MultiChoice's satellite television service. Contacted by Lusa, SIC's official source, confirmed the information, by email, but without further details. Another source from Carnaxide said only that the withdrawal was due to "contractual issues", excluding editorial reasons.
In MultiChoice's press release, to which Lusa had access, the operator says that the cancellation of SIC Internacional and SIC Notícias, as of October 15, is part of their "ongoing efforts to update" the content grid and "optimize the set of channels available. MultiChoice justifies the decision with a "greater focus on investment and local content offering" and ensures that it "will not give up" on "offering the best content available" to its customers.
"As a business born and raised in Africa, we have made significant investments in the development of original African programming to deliver the best African content on the continent," stresses the South African company, which operates in sub-Saharan Africa through the DStv platform.
MultiChoice said it will create "a platform to share Angolan stories," while recognizing that investment in local content faces constraints such as "market size" and "ability to fund these initiatives. SIC channels had previously been suspended by DStv on June 5, 2017, but at the time the company did not explain the decision, regretting only the "inconvenience caused".
At that time, DStv joined the decision taken earlier by satellite television operator Zap, of businesswoman Isabel dos Santos, who, on March 14, 2017, had interrupted the broadcasting of SIC Internacional and SIC Notícias channels in the Angolan and Mozambican markets, after the Portuguese channel had released critical reports of the regime of former President José Eduardo dos Santos.
At the time, the decision was justified by the costs of acquiring the rights of the two Portuguese channels.
In September 2018, after more than a year without broadcasting in Angola, the Carnaxide station announced its return to DStv.
SIC K, SIC Mulher, SIC Caras and SIC Radical are still available on the Zap grid, and have never been suspended.
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