Earlier in the month, consumers in France were able to confirm that Discovery Family operated by the newly formed company Warner Bros. Discovery had allegedly been discontinued as of March 29, 2022 which is close to the time it launched in Africa.
Just like Africa, Discovery Family wasn't a kids channel in France and offered content already viewed on other brands. From what I heard, the only reason it launched in France was because of how successful it was in Africa.
Over the years, the channel has hit a bit of a dry spell but that's not the reason for its termination in France and very likely Africa.
According to sources, Discovery Inc. made the decision to terminate the channel as part of their merger with WarnerMedia to form Warner Bros. Discovery.
A few weeks ago, there was somewhat of a leak about this company in terms of management and TLC was folded under WarnerMedia as they're in charge of general entertainment while Discovery Inc. manages the factual and lifestyle.
Discovery Family is in general entertainment category and the only other repeat channel from the former Discovery Inc. is Real Time but that's regarded as factual and lifestyle channel.
If anything Real Time has a better shot of remaining in Africa or both could be terminated in an attempt to reduce redundancy and also there's the matter of Discovery+ which will give viewers plenty of time to binge old content.
Discovery Family and Real Time have been on opposite ends with Discovery Family being the eldest made it challenging for Real Time to gain any traction. The demise of Family actually benefits Real Time in terms of viewership.
Both brands have been sharing a batch of content particularly in the wildlife and food section so viewers won't be missing much as there's always Discovery Channel for adrenaline junkies.
Replacement for Discovery Family
In France, the content seen on the channel has since then moved to Discovery Channel, Discovery Science and Investigation Discovery. Except in Africa, Discovery Science is not on DStv and just like France they too are missing out on Animal Planet.
In 2017, MultiChoice stripped consumers of Animal Planet for the bloated Real Time so that channel is out of the equation but Discovery Science hasn't been seen on the platform.
In 2018, StarTimes replaced Discovery Science with Discovery Family until that got discontinued so could DStv perhaps do a switcheroo and perhaps extend the reach of Discovery Channel to Compact customers for the adrenaline lovers.
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