BET's Potential Closure Or Exit From Audiences On DStv And The Rest Of Africa Explained

A few months ago, it was reported that Paramount Global prior to its acquisition by Skydance Media is looking to halt local operations in Africa. According to some insiders, Paramount Global is also looking into possibly closing BET and MTV Base in the region.

MultiChoice in a response had stated that they were monitoring the situation and would communicate in due course.

As some consumers know, BET Africa has been seen as the flagship network for shows like Being Mary Jane, The Real Husbands Of Hollywood and Tyler Perry's House Of Payne. It also offered local productions such as uBettina Wethu, Redemption and DJ Zinhle: Bossing Up.

If Paramount Global is looking to do away with BET Africa a number of reasons would factor into this.

When it comes to scale, BET doesn't have much of a global presence as seen with Paramount's other cable networks such as MTV and Comedy Central. The only reason it managed to sustain its operations in Africa is due to the pipeline of local content being funded by Paramount Global.

SABC even MultiChoice's M-Net serve as rivals to BET with shows like Generations: The Legacy, Deal Or No Deal SA, Sibongile And The Dlaminis and Date My Family. In viewers, these shows can get anywhere from 500,000 to a million viewers while Queendom on BET could only garner less than half.

In the UK, Paramount has been trying to push the brand to streaming and seeing as Showmax is the exclusive home to Paramount+. I can only assume a similar strategy is awaiting viewers in Africa with the focus shifting on MTV, Comedy Central and Nickelodeon.