Recap To The Month: MultiChoice Zambia Revives Zambezi Reloaded Pop-Up Channel Following Its Closure In Malawi Last Year

MultiChoice Zambia is excited to announce the launch of Zambezi Magic Reloaded, a new pop-up channel designed to ensure customers don’t miss their favourite shows during loadshedding.

Zambezi Magic Reloaded will feature the most recent episodes of popular local prime-time shows such as “Zuba,” “Mpali,” “Mutale Mwanza Unscripted” and “Chokolo.” This initiative ensures that DStv customers can catch up on their favourite programs even if they miss them on regular scheduling times due to power outages.

Mrs. Leah Kooma, Managing Director of MultiChoice Zambia, shared her thoughts on the new channel: “We understand the frustration our customers face with load-shedding and are committed to providing solutions that add value to their viewing experience. Zambezi Magic Reloaded is our way of ensuring that our customers never miss out on their favourite local shows, regardless of the power situation.”

The new channel goes live on 13th June 2024 on DStv Channel number 165 and GOtv Channel number 57. The initiative reinforces MultiChoice’s hyperlocalisation strategy which champions investing in the industry, creating opportunities for local talent, telling local stories, and adding to the stability of the industry.

News Shorts: Supa Strikas To Be Dubbed In IsiZulu For Play Room, Zee World Is Living Every Moment With New On Air Look By June 17 And Zambezi Reloaded Might Be Relaunching On DStv In The Coming Weeks

Supa Strikas goes local

As reported, Play Room had acquired rights to Supa Strikas after being made available to multiple kids channels on DStv already. The channel will add a new spin toward the animated series by dubbing the show in Zulu being the first for older viewers.

When Play Room launched later in 2023, it was only the preschool offering that received such treatment with Cocomelon and Akili And Me. With the soccer stars set to join this trio daily at 17:00 from 17 June.

Zee World is lighting your viewing experience 

Zee World was launched back in 2015 and has since then become one of the leading destinations for Bollywood entertainment. It's success led to the additions of Zee One, Zee Alem in Ethopia and the recent Zee Zonke in Southern Africa. 

Now the channel is gearing up for a new campaign titled Living Every Moment from June 17 with Zee World that is set to rollout updated graphics. 

Fan favorite channel makes a comeback

Zambezi Reloaded was added onto MultiChoice's DStv as catchup channel to Zambezi Magic. This was only applicable to consumers in Malawi after MultiChoice had its DStv license suspended with consumers having to catchup on past episodes during the festive season. 

Now MultiChoice appears to be looking at possibly reviving the channel for the second time of course the intentions for this iterations has yet to be mentioned. 

Development Alert: Zambezi Magic To Get Second TV Channel On The DStv And Possible GOtv Platform Known As Zambezi Reloaded, Still No Word On The Playout Test

Last year, MultiChoice and M-Net unveiled a new general entertainment channel tailored for their DStv Easyview and GOtv Lite consumers, Magic Showcase. It featured numerous local programming from multiple M-Net channels across Africa for 16 hours a day.

As seen in the past month, MultiChoice seems to be duplicating this format on another TV channel which we now know to be Zambezi Reloaded. It could launch on channel 165 seeing as Zambezi Magic is on channel 162 alongside a batch of local TV channels.

As the name implies, Zambezi Reloaded will serve as a sister channel to Zambezi Magic rehashing several drama series and reality shows viewed on the main channel including Kopala, Zuba, Malawi Know Your Stars and surprisingly Mzansi Magic's Shaka iLembe.

With HONEY set to go dark on the platform by the end of October, we assume MultiChoice would be substituting the brand with Zambezi Reloaded. The only question would be whether this channel would be viewable in South Africa as consumers don't have access to the content.

On top of that, Novela Magic was accessible to the same consumers as HONEY particularly Access and following the termination consumers had been ripped away from Zuba and Mpali as MultiChoice opted to exclude Magic Showcase from Access in which select content can be viewed.

Playout Test

For several months, MultiChoice had been conducting tests on a channel known as Playout Test. Several readers had asked Insidus on various details pertaining to the mysterious channel and from what we can gather up this could be the Zambian based brand Munati Television.

Although there's no official confirmation, one of their older posts talk about a "Playout Test" and "DStv" so putting those two together leads us to believe this could be mystery channel on the i-Plate.

New Channel Alert (Rumour): Zambezi Magic To Rollout A Second TV Channel On The DStv And Possible GOtv Platform

Zambezi Magic is a general entertainment channel based in Southern Africa which is operated by M-Net and MultiChoice. It caters for audiences in Botswana, Malawi, Lesotho, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe (excluding South Africa) with shows like Mpali and Zuba.

During the week, the pay-tv operator had begun work on a duplicate channel to Zambezi Magic what caught our eyes was how they opted to add the drama Kopala to the lineup considering it dates back to a few months while a show like Mpali can go as far as 6 years. 

If we had to guess, this new channel similar to Mzansi Wethu, Maisha Magic POA, Magic Showcase and kykNET Lekker will cater toward consumers who haven't been able to view the above-mentioned shows seen Zambezi Magic's inception to these markets in 2015.

While Zambezi Magic is sitting on channel 162, it wouldn't come as a surprise if this duplicate occupied channel 165 seeing as it is the secondary channel and also the fact that other channel numbers have been filled.

The only question at this point would be whether M-Net and MultiChoice would look into possibly adding Zambezi Magic+ to South Africa. Seeing as they ripped Zuba away from Access customers on Novela Magic and also the fact that they blocked Zambezi Magic from the region.