MultiChoice Announces The Launch Of Church TV And France 24 On DStv, No Word On eReality And eSeries

Two new channels on DStv

Canal+'s MultiChoice unveiled plans to rebrand their DStv Access, Family and Compact to DStv Starter, Select and Sports from September 17. They're also looking to add third party channels with the inclusion of France 24 and Church TV.

Both channels were already reported here at Insidus ZA with 3ABN Africa announced as Church TV.

France 24 is a French state-owned international 24-hour news channel which forms part of France’s international public broadcasting group alongside RFI (radio) and Monte Carlo Doualiya. It offers four separate feeds: French, English, Arabic, and Spanish.

France 24’s programming is built around continuous international news with a French perspective, interspersed with short reports, debates, magazines, and cultural features. This would include French Connections, Paris Des Arts and The Debate.

Not much is known about Church TV aside from a programme guide which we were able to obtain and these are the confirmed shows: Chatting With Sarahina, Icilongo_Shiwo, Women In The Kitchen, SDASM and Concert Fountain View.

Both channels are gearing for a September 17th rollout with France 24 to occupy channel 415 (and not 407 as initially reported) with Church TV whose channel number hasn't been disclosed.

eMedia's channels on DStv

eMedia Investments currently distributes eExtra, eToonz, eMovies and eMovies Extra on DStv with eNCA part of a separate agreement. Plans were underway to expand this offering to include eSeries and eReality channels.

Several DStv consumers had spotted programme guides for both channels alongside France24 and Church TV. But apparently in these string of announcements, MultiChoice hadn't disclosed to consumers about their rollout on DStv.

It could mean one of several things.

Firstly while France 24 and Church TV are confirmed for DStv, these channels however remain rumoured until MultiChoice or eMedia Investments give the greenlight. Then again, MultiChoice is doing a lot of stuff by mid September.

You have M-Net Movies 2 that is closing soon with 1,3 and 4 rebranding to M Movies+, M Movies Stars and M Movies Legends. Then you have Mzansi Wethu which will become a general entertainment and sports channel known as Wethu+.

Finally there's DStv Access, Family and Compact that will rebrand to DStv Starter, Select and Sports, all I'm saying is this is definitely a perfect window to add these channels.

Secondly, it could be that both eReality and eSeries are scheduled to launch on DStv around the same time these changes are allocated. But neither eMedia Investments nor MultiChoice care in the slightest about disclosing this information.

Sporty TV very much like these two channels also didn't get much coverage by MultiChoice over their inclusion on the platform or at least not in South Africa. With the way these companies go about not briefing the media I'd expect for a silent rollout.