Glow TV was South African based community channel owned by Nismedia that celebrated Bollywood culture with a lineup of content ranging from drama series, movies, kids shows and local productions. It serves as one of the initial offerings on Openview in October 2013.
The channel was popular for shows like Little Bheem, Young Love (Ishq Mein Marjawan), Get Real With Denver Naicker, Citizen Khan, This Is Love (Yeh Hai Mohabbatein) and Emperor Ashoka. It established itself as one of the leading channels to resonate with India from a local perspective.
A year after its rollout on the freemium platform, Glow TV expanded through the pay-tv market on MultiChoice"s DStv and On Digital Media and StarTimes' StarSat platform. Things were going great for the channel until May 2016.
Kagiso Media which was the former distributor of the channel unveiled plans to close the channel later that year eyeing the economic climate and the continued rise in costs for the content or inflation better yet lead to the decision to close the channel.
Kagiso Media serves as a subsidiary of Urban Brew Studios stable which supplies several other brands to MultiChoice's portfolio of products including One Gospel and Dumisa both of which are gospel based entertainment channels.
A month after the termination, it was announced that the channel was acquired by the Nismedia Group, based in Centurion. Nazeer Noormohamed, who served as the head of the brand eyeing the positive impact of Glow TV to consumers boosting their interest toward the brand.
Since then, Glow TV continued stacking their offering but were met with further competition from the likes of Zee World and Star Life that it wasn't long till MultiChoice announced the closure of the channel on their platforms by 2018 with the latter eyeing viewer's preferences.
For the 3 past years, it could only be available on StarSat alongside the StarTimes app for paying consumers while those who wanted to get away from paying monthly premiums could as well get an Openview platform or at least that's what most thought at the time.
To make a long story short, Zee One was added to the Openview platform back in 2021 as a supplement to the channel on the Openview platform and the party in question Nismedia had beef with the Zee TV after their exit from the DStv platform.
Unlike MultiChoice, Glow TV was removed unethically on the Openview platform. It was the reason the channel managed to live through February 2023 and with that deal up in flames the channel was no longer available on the platform and for contractual reasons on StarSat.
As of March 2023, Glow TV is no longer viewable anywhere in South Africa. Nismedia is exploring other ways to continue the channel one of which include OTT. They thank fans for their continued support and encourage them to keep following their social platforms.
Glow TV in short was never ousting to be another Zee World or Star Life. It was clearly stated from the get go that they were more entertainment tiered than telenovela but audience reach and viewer's preferences was what doomed the channel apparently.
Although, we have Zee World, Zee One, Star Life it's clear that despite the large fanbase these brands generate none of them can make up for Glow TV. I mean how often do you get local programs, lifestyle or even kids shows as it's just soapies all day everyday.
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