Recap To The Decade: TopTV's Abrupt Cancellation And Transition To StarSat + Possible Acquisition By MultiChoice And Zuku TV

With Canal+ looking to acquire MultiChoice there's been concerns from various consumers on the intentions of the French company. Following, StarTimes hold on TopTV (now StarSat), it lurks under the shadow of its previous iteration with less media coverage. 

TopTV was a South African pay-tv platform operated by On Digital Media which served as a rival to MultiChoice's DStv. It promised to offer consumers affordable price rates by letting them pay for a selection of entertainment something not seen on DStv. 

Variety was available across every price plan for R99p/m which was home to free-to-air channels SABC 1-3 and e.tv alongside other entertainment ranging from sports like Eurosport News and Senata Sports and news from BBC News and Al Jazeera. 

These consumers were given an option between Kiss and JimJam from Kids & Music, Discovery Science and FOX Retro from Entertainment & Knowledge, and Showtime and FX from Ultimate Movies.

During its span, TopTV was able to lure at least 300,000 subscribers and got a lot of media coverage. Similar to StarSat, there was a lack of communication with the media over the inclusion of content and TV channels.

Similar to the likes of eMedia Investments, TopTV came with their own branded TV channels such as Top One (general entertainment), Top History (factual), Top Junior (kids) and Top Movies. Most of which were scrapped following the pay-tv company's money woes.

Change in ownership/help from DStv

In 2012, TopTV had gone into business rescue under Companies Act behind on debt and in need of cash needed help from another party which most were eyeing to be South African. 

In 2013, Dynamic TV was the only bidder based in South Africa that was looking to acquire TopTV. It was formed by Given Mkhari's MSG Afrika and Malose Kekana's Falk Trading who had gotten "financial help" from MultiChoice to acquire the pay-tv company. 

It's likely that TopTV could have merged with DStv or rebranded to GOtv as MultiChoice were open to pumping out close to R370 million a year. Other suitors included Zuku TV's owners Wananchi Group meaning they wouldn't have been exclusive to West Africa. 

StarTimes was only successful to acquire TopTV as Dynamic TV and Wananchi Group failed to make their offers on time. Shareholders were desperate for a possible deal and reviewed StarTimes offer before making them their new business partner. 

More battles ahead 

News of StarTimes takeover of TopTV was met with poor reception from workers who feared the overloading of "poor Chinese content". A few shareholders within ODM had taken StarTimes to court regarding its takeover of the TopTV trademark. 

Amidst this StarTimes was looking to unveil the new packages and TV channels set to be rolled out on StarSat. Despite the outcome of the court, StarTimes was able to exercise their 65% hold of the company and unveil the new packages and TV channels to debut.

This garnered a lot of media coverage after reports surfaced of porn being part of this lineup which had heavily been bombarded on TopTV. This consisted of Desire TV, Playboy TV and Private Spice all of which are available at an additional charge.

ICASA saw no problem with the inclusion of porn as it didn't form part of StarSat's other offering with the other pertaining to the broadcast times 20:00 viewed by adults. Other parties such as the Doctors For Life had filed lawsuits with various other law enforcement.

StarSat was forced to pull these channels by 2014 (with license revoked) and they resurfaced sometime later. The Justice Alliance of SA (Jasa) was looking to fine the broadcaster R60,000 but ICASA reduced it to R25,000 as they broadcast without approval. 

Conclusion: TopTV's demise could have been prevented 

TopTV was poorly structured during its run despite housing premium entertainment brands like FX and Showtime. They offered a chunk of add-ons part of which likely went unnoticed by viewers as they continued pumping gas in the fuel tank.

StarTimes had identified these flaws and opted to restructure the packages in a similar form to those viewed in Africa and seen on MultiChoice's DStv. They paid up various debts TopTV owed to various companies and retained part of its offering.

TopTV had about 300,000 subscribers before migrating to StarSat and when you look at it they could have minimized their offering. They were moving very quickly to edge out MultiChoice knowing how little consumption numbers were at the time.

MultiChoice by this period had at least 3 million DStv customers within South Africa. 

Development Alert: Zee One, Star Life, Discovery Science, MSNBC And More TV Channels Exit Zuku TV

During the week, it was reported that Zuku TV had reinstated National Geographic, National Geographic Wild, Baby TV and only 1 ESPN channel. As the latter are currently packaged by MultiChoice's DStv and StarTimes' and On Digital Media's StarSat platforms.

After being replaced by Animal Planet, TLC and Discovery, Zuku TV had opted to remove these channels and worse kill of a few more channels like Star Life, Zee One, Travel Channel, MSNBC, Discovery Science, Real Time, Planet Fun, 360 TuneBox, Zuku Action and Zuku Max.

There had been channels which had suffering signal loss but the above mentioned are just the few channels in which Zuku TV had been reviewing and opted to no longer distribute. Consumers are flooding the socials threatening to cut ties or opt to rival platforms if the latter isn't reinstated.

Three years ago, Zuku TV was left without a decent sports offering and history as you have it took the Bollywood offering. It's not only Zee One and Star Life that are affected but also sister channels like StarPlus and Zee Bollymovies.

In other developments, MultiChoice and StarSat had both lost carriage of Emmanuel TV and Deutsche Welle with one set to go dark by mid-January. This is due to the company's recent review of their portfolio which had seen them do a lot of cost cutting in order to remain afloat.

News Shorts: German Based Broadcaster Deutsche Welle Shutters It's Linear Operations Across Europe And Africa, National Geographic And ESPN Have Been Added To Zuku TV And A Rebroadcast Of Dayan, Destructive Beauty Launches On eExtra

DW goes dark across Europe

The move is part of a package of measures presented by DW director Peter Limbourg to the DW broadcasting council in Berlin on March 17, 2023.

“We will no longer broadcast linear programming in German after the changeover, but we will offer singular content on digital platforms,” the DW spokesman said. The date for the closure of the German TV channel has not yet been set. “I’m not able to provide a specific date at this time,” he added.

With the package of measures as part of the 2024 budget planning, Limbourg wants to drive the digital transformation of the German international service. Included are savings, budget shifts from linear to digital offerings and to regional languages, as well as investments in digital working environments.

Zee TV dying down on eExtra

After cutting down on primetime for more Annekan Die Swa Kry and axing Naagin much earlier than anticipated. A rebroadcast of Dayan, Destructive Beauty is expected to join the channel's line-up in the coming weeks replacing the timeslot of Naagin supposedly.

Dayan, Destructive Beauty was the first and probably last Bollywood drama to have been made exclusive to eVOD before being added to linear platforms. Now eVOD's international drama lineup outside of Kuiertyd is revolved on content viewed on eSeries and eExtra.

It follows Janvi Maurya, a well-educated and family oriented girl hailing from Ujjain, stumbles upon a dangerous ploy by an evil force as many unusual and mysterious happenings occur in her hometown. With a threat to her life, she must unmask the identity of a Daayan.

Sports makes a comeback on Zuku TV

Last year, it was revealed through several social outlets that Zuku TV will be relaunching National Geographic, National Geographic Wild, Baby TV and ESPN 1 after removing them back in 2021. The only difference FOX and ESPN 2 aren't part of this offering.

These channels were replaced with Animal Planet, Discovery and TLC from Warner Bros. Discovery, Filmbox from SPI International and Planet Fun years prior. But the pay-tv platform failed to substitute the sporting line-up with any chances of a replacement likely dead at this point.

Channel Termination Notice: Emmanuel TV Will Exit MultiChoice's DStv And GOtv From January 17 And Subsequently All Other Pay-TV Platforms

Just a few hours before the new year, DStv consumers were very alarmed to see a termination notice put up on Emmanuel TV. A christian television channel founded by the former TB Joshua is set to go dark various DStv and GOtv platforms across the country from January 17.

Emmanuel TV is currently one of the most subscribed christian channels on YouTube with over 250 000 active subscribers and nearly two million followers on Facebook. Emmanuel TV’s numerous videos online have amassed well over 200 million views.

Since its beginning in 1993, Scoan has grown to become one of the most sought after christian ministries across the world. The church’s television network, Emmanuel TV, was established in 2006 and has been broadcasting worldwide with a viewership of over 100 million.

In recent years or at least from what several outlets had uncovered, the channel went on a downward spiral telecasting old services. Basically, Emmanuel TV's entire existence revolved on TB Joshua and with his passing there's not much left of an Emmanuel TV.

Management had opted to rather leverage of his legacy instead of trying to restructure Emmanuel TV and look at other means for survival. Aside from MultiChoice, it had also been confirmed that Emmanuel TV will exit StarSat and other pay-tv platforms.

As to whether MultiChoice or affected pay-tv platforms will look into replacing Emmanuel TV. That has yet to be seen but if we had to guess both providers will likely focus on the existing bouquet of religious channels.

Although, Emmanuel TV will cease to exist on most major platforms across the world. The channel will remain on free-to-air HD decoders and put more emphasis toward its online presence through Apple TV or App Store, Roku, Fire TV Stick, Google TV and soon Google Play Store.

Could Discovery Family And Real Time Also Be Going Dark Following The Termination Of Discovery Science And Discovery Turbo Xtra?

During the week, it was reported that Warner Bros. Discovery would be ending Discovery Science and also Discovery Turbo Xtra across various international markets (including Africa) meaning similar to the remaining Disney Channels in Asia they won't live through 2024.

Prior to these Discovery channels demise, Warner Bros. Discovery had quietly removed any mentions of "Brand New" from their promos with Discovery Family and Real Time both of which are residing on Zuku and MultiChoice's DStv across Africa had undergone a similar route.

Unlike Discovery Science, Discovery Family and Real Time continue to update their offering. I would be lying if I didn't say Warner had made changes to the channel that would question their very existence.

Few years back, Warner would licence content exclusively for these channels particularly The Carbonaro Effect and The Marilyn Denis Show but now both channels exist to rehash content from Discovery Channel, Food Network, TLC, Investigation Discovery and HGTV.

On top of that, there's no marketing going towards these brands particularly content viewed on them. Considering these channels are a priority to both Warner and the viewers, you'd expect consistency. Although the latter is just repeats they are consumers actually viewing the content.

Some of these viewers may get attached to some of the content and would want to keep tabs. Warner's failure to just promote these shows would further distance viewers from the channel or better yet affect the performance as mentioning these shows would keep viewers onboard.

As to whether Real Time and Discovery Family could be going dark in the region as seen with Disney's offering in Asia and Warner's offering in Europe - that's kind of quo.

After what happened to Boomerang, Warner may look at ways of trying to keep the content intact without negatively impacting the viewers. Perhaps a merger/rebranding of the channels is what awaits for them in future or if a closure is inevitable perhaps a substitute like Discovery Channel and TLC.

In all honesty, Real Time looks more lively and upbeat than Discovery Family (with its large chunk of Discovery Channel) as it inherits content from Food Network, HGTV and Investigation Discovery with very little investment coming from TLC and Animal Planet.

New Channel Alert: Zee One Coming This September To Zuku TV

During the week, it was reported that the East African pay-tv broadcaster Zuku TV had acquired rights to BBC Studios' preschool brand, CBeebies. Now the brand is set to welcome another channel within the coming weeks Zee Entertainment Enterprises' Zee One channel.

Zee One is a general entertainment channel offering a variety of Bollywood dramas and films. Spun off from the pay-tv counterpart Zee World, the channel featured a variety of content already viewed on the brand alongside first run series like Carmen and Between You And Me.

The channel was made available to eMedia Investments' free-to-view Openview platform and pay-tv rival StarTimes and On Digital Media's StarSat back in 2021. It is not available on DStv as selected shows are being transmitted on Zee World.

Not long ago, MultiChoice and Zee Entertainment Enterprises unveiled a Southern African adaptation to the current Zee Marathi, Zee Zonke. Similar to Ethiopia's Zee Alem, Zee Zonke distribute various content in local languages.

New Channel Alert (NOT REALLY): CBeebies Coming This September To Zuku TV

Zuku, an East African brand operated by Wananchi Group established with the aim of making quality home entertainment and communication services in partnership with BBC Studios had announced the addition of CBeebies.

CBeebies is a British based preschool channel featuring animation like Bluey, Thomas And Friends, Shaun The Sheep and Noddy alongside other shows like Yakka Dee, Mister Maker and Andy's Wild Adventure.

Alongside the as mentioned brand, BBC Studios is also home to BBC Brit, BBC Earth, BBC Lifestyle and BBC UKTV all of which are packaged by MultiChoice's DStv.

In other developments, MultiChoice had extended their content agreement with BBC Studios increasing the duration of select shows on the DStv app and also making BBC Lifestyle and BBC UKTV accessible to more DStv households.

Development Hell: The Pending The Third Season To Star Life's The Evil Eye

The Evil Eye was the first and one of the few attempts Africa got to supernatural on Star Life alongside A Magical Love Story which came amidst a pandemic with the second season was also filmed in such a climate.

Since its abrupt end, some viewers can't stop boasting about the show that it got to a point where they advertised fake repeats and even listed Bengali adaptation Nojor (pictured above) as The Evil Eye season 3.

Ever since A Magical Love Story ended, there hasn't been a site of venomous snake or anything supernatural on Star Life even on Zee World as regional stations are the closest to viewing them dubbed while others are distributed in their original language with subtitles.

 

Amidst the phasing out of these shows sources state that Star Life picked up Bold And Beautiful and The Evil Doom which were scheduled for a late 2021 to mid 2022 release which never came to pass.

Joining that trio was the fake third season of The Evil Eye which is now considered a new season but supposedly on a new Indian entertainment channel that was set to replace Star Life.

This supposed channel was said to focus on Bengali which is similar to Hindi in an attempt to "differentiate" the offering from StarPlus but hey some of the content from Bengali are remakes to the Hindi content and vice versa.

 

The thing about this was Disney Star the owners of these brands already operated a Bengali channel Star Jalsha which is niche I mean every market has their niche. In South Africa, it is Tsonga, Sepedi and Siswati as Zulu, Afrikaans and Ndebele dominate the region.

The question would have to be why trade one group for another if the plan was to replace wouldn't it be better to source areas like Telegu, Tamil and Malayalam as they also reside in the Bollywood community under the Disney Star.

Zee TV had every chance to launch such a channel but instead opted for reruns channel, Zee One.

Rumoured: tvN Africa Is Making A Comeback

tvN is a South Korean entertainment channel operated by CJ ENM. While its rival SBS focuses more on long form series (telenovelas) which can  be viewed in South Africa on eExtra, tvN on the other hand works on short series.

tvN ran as a pop-up channel on DStv in March 2021 offering drama series such as Another Miss Oh, 100 Days My Prince, The Crowned Clown and Cheese In The Trap alongside variety shows such as Player 7 and You Quiz On The Block.

Ever since the channel went off air its media accounts primarily Facebook remain active in the hopes to become a linear service once again as the content was folded under MultiChoice's new streaming service, Showmax.

 

 

tvN started an online petition several months ago and it looks like there's an update to that as the brand asked consumers names of platforms they rely on for all their entertainment.

It could be imply two things 1) the petition worked out and MultiChoice had a change of heart 2) the petition had no effect and the brand will resurface on a rival platform.

 

How tvN Africa permanent feed might look?
Unlike Korea, tvN Africa ran their programs in a weekday format with some exceptions like variety shows and that will likely continue in this permanent feed. Programs formerly seen on the pop-up will likely be added to the lineup.

 

Last year, tvN put up a list of potential kdramas and variety shows which might join the lineup as well. tvN is not another Telemundo or Zee World which opens up the possibility of seeing more content from CJ ENM.

Aside from tvN originals, the channel had been supplying content from OCN perhaps this permanent version will see them source their offering from more brands like Mnet the music channel.

#WeAreDrama: Openview Being Bombarded With Rebroadcasts Of The Heir, Kuiertyd Put More Focus On Prime Time And Star Life Will Have To Undergo A Name Change Perhaps "Life OK" To Avoid Confusion With Disney+ Star

Zee TV and eMedia are inseparable
If you think the Indian offering is overcrowded on Openview well matters only get worse from there when two channels from different stables offer the same programming.

The Heir formed part of Zee One's launch schedule and launched days later on eExtra. Both channels are eating from the same dinner but with eExtra playing third wheel to Zee TV it only seemed logical for them to source out other programming.

At the moment, that doesn't seem to be the case or at least not initially as eExtra has Surrender In Love and Naagin with Zee One getting Guddan, Lies Of The Heart and Reach For The Stars.

Kuiertyd bouncing back
Following the launch of eVOD, eExtra has seen a decline in weekend repeats of Kuiertyd. Feeling concerned, viewers reached out to a source who was close to the matter.

According to them, this is part of a review in the channel's offering seeing that repeats don't get high ratings why waste time on repeats. Similar to e.tv, eExtra is working to build their prime time offering.

Remember when Voëlvry aired on Sunday in the form of a marathon. Well it's reportedly set to return under the name Kuiertyd Premium which will compliment the Afrikaans movie slot on Saturdays.

Two series are set to launch in 2022 the first being Droom Velore on e.tv with reruns of the eVOD series Die Put makes way to eExtra likely for Kuiertyd Premium.

Star Life, It's A Beautiful World, Life OK, Love Is Beautiful and Disney+
Disney+ is scheduled to in South Africa by June 2022 so it seems logical for Star Life to edit out the "Star" ahead of time as to not cause a commotion now that it will be folded under a streaming service.

Utsav replaced the "Star" across Europe and it looks like Star Life will be exempted from that as LyngSat list Utsav for all the other channels but not Star Life.

Before Star Life's induction into the market there was Life OK and coincidence Zee One was available in Germany before launching in Africa. Could it be that Star Life will revert back to their predecessor Life OK?

2021 taught me that familiarity can come at a price as seen above. Star India forming part of The Walt Disney Company will likely dig through their archives once again when searching for an alternate brand.

You can find me on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. You can also follow Doodsondes for Kuiertyd updates.

Read Also:
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- SABC and e.tv ratings for October
- More Africa Magic channels on DStv???
- Female wrestling promotion launching in 2022, could SuperSport or e.tv pick it up?
- SABC Encore and SABC Children channel might be in development
- Surrender In Love coming soon to eExtra
- Star India exits the English market, could it have implications on Star Life?
- Could Dizi or eMedia pick up rights to The Muhteşem Yüzyıl: Kösem?
- DBE TV might go off air on Openview, could SABC Education replace the channel?
- African Animation Network rolling out a programming block
- Toei Animaton teaming up with tvN parent company on anime
- Will M-Net's new addition Me have any ripple effects on Mzansi Magic and Mzansi Wethu?
- e.tv new Turkish drama Erkenci Kus might air on eVOD
- Big Brother Africa has been greenlit in 3 markets 
- Other shows coming soon to eToonz? 
- Warner TV might be replacing TNT
- SABC Parliament is in development
- Could DStv Flex become DStv Premium's successor?
- Kamer 309 the delayed Turkish drama might move to eVOD
- tvN working on becoming permanent in Africa

Could ViacomCBS International Media Networks In Africa Also Be Opting To Streaming Following The Smithsonian Channels Closure Within The Market?

In September, it was reported that The Smithsonian Channel alongside FOX will stop airing on StarTimes across Africa meaning less international channels for their customers.

The reasons for FOX's demise was already disclosed but The Smithsonian Channel was never stated at least not until another platform being Zuku TV addressed the matter.

According to the East African provider Zuku TV, The Smithsonian Channel was apparently discontinued by the supplier being ViacomCBS International Media Networks.

ViacomCBS International Media Networks already handle other brands in Africa such as Comedy Central, MTV, MTV Base, MTV Hits, BET, Nickelodeon, Nick Jr and Nicktoons.

The problem here is none of Smithsonian's content fit any of these channels and ViacomCBS didn't give their viewers other means of viewing the programming.

So what is going on exactly with ViacomCBS? Why not leave your viewers with other means of viewing the entertainment? Is it possible that The Smithsonian Channel heading to streaming soon?

In 2018, ViacomCBS launched a streaming service for The Smithsonian Channel in the United States called Smithsonian Channel+ which has since been merged onto Paramount+.

Paramount+ which isn't available in South Africa as of yet is home to ViacomCBS other brands (as mentioned earlier) current and future programming.

By taking all this into account, is it possible that more channels from ViacomCBS will join The Smithsonian Channel in this turmoil as viewers wait on the launch of Paramount+.

You can find me on Twitter and Facebook

Read Also:
- WION is the latest new channel to be added on DStv
- Could Nicktoons be the next channel from ViacomCBS?
- TNT might rebrand in future
- Dizi launched its own streaming service for Turkish dramas
- AEW Rampage coming in October to TNT Africa
- SABC Children might be in the works, will it launch on StarSat perhaps?
- Is Star Life rebranding into Utsav Life?
- SABC Parliament is in development, will it launch on StarSat?
- Only SABC knows when SABC Education will launch on DStv and StarSat and this is coming from both pay-tv platforms
- Could SABC Entertainment launch on StarSat?
- Disney+ launching in South Africa
- Peacock and Paramount+ merge into one hub
- Discovery and WarnerMedia could launch a joint streaming service

StarSat Without Disney? As Zuku Dumps All The Disney Channels

From 30th June, some of the Disney Channels went black including ESPN 1 & 2 on channels 220 & 221 and FOX on channel 131 with subscribers asking StarTimes (StarSat) on what's occuring with these channels.

While Zuku TV which is located in West Africa thought how cool would it be to removal ALL Disney Channels ranging from FOX, National Geographic & Wild, ESPN and Baby TV.

That platform rolled out eight new channels: FilmBox replaced FOX, Discovery Channel and Animal Planet replaced National Geographic and Wild, Planet Fun replaced Baby TV, Baba TV Uganda could have replaced FOX News and for some reason ESPN 1 & 2 were replaced with two completely different channels which are Diamond TV Zambia and Star Life.

Unlike Zuku TV, StarSat didn't remove any channel they silently changed channel numbers before reverting them back: FOX (131 to 400), ESPN 1 (220 to 418) and ESPN 2 (221 to 419).

Starsat didn't state the reason for the temporary channel number changes a viewer noticed by ESPN 1's current channel number they put an existing channel there with ESPN 2 they put an unfamiliar channel which turns out to be Discovery Channel before going blank.

Outside South Africa, a viewer noticed that under FOX, National Geographic and National Geographic Wild there was frozen clips of Discovery Channel, TLC and Animal Planet playing.

Is it possible that StarTimes in SA and the rest of Africa is following Zuku TV and canning these channels? Was these temporary channel numbers there to possibly accomodate more channels? and If so why target the Disney Channels?

Not long ago, Disney's CEO announced that they were shutting 100 international Disney Channels it would be shocking if that was the reason since they recently had an upfront and unveiled content for the rest of 2021.

Discovery Inc. removed Discovery Family and Fine Living from StarTimes sometime back so these channels could serve as good replacements and it also means that Animal Planet might return to South Africa.

Read Also:
- FOX might be rebranding soon
- TNT might be getting another rebrand
- StarTimes blamed Discovery for the removal of Discovery Family could there be a reason it's still on DStv
- Will Star Life and StarPlus rebrand into Utsav?
- Australia launched BBC Kids could it perhaps launch in Africa, the market became the second one to launch 24/7 PBS Kids station
- Could Openview be the reason for SABC Education's delay on both DStv and StarSat? (updated 25 June)