Is Canal+ Taking The Idea Of Duplicate Content On DStv Too Far?

Canal+’s MultiChoice has said it will stop carrying Zee TV and a group of other channels on the DStv Indian package. This means DStv viewers will only have the JioStar channels left — StarPlus, Colors TV and Vijay TV. The company says it is doing this to clean up the channel list.

Looking at the channels being cut, it seems Canal+ thinks MultiChoice has too many Bollywood channels, or at least too many shows like Jhanak and Kulfi. There is no personal grudge here. That is why Zee World and Star Life are still on DStv.

Before this, MultiChoice already removed CineMagic, Magic Showcase, kykNET Lekker, Mzansi Bioskop and M-Net Movies 1. Those channels also had their own shows, much like the Bollywood ones, but the main problem was that there was too much of the same kind of content.

kykNET Lekker and Mzansi Bioskop had programmes that could easily have been put on kykNET and Mzansi Magic. In the same way, many popular shows from Zee TV and Zee Cinema were already shown on Zee World and Zee Zonke.

Now many viewers are worried about what will happen to StarPlus, Vijay TV and Colors TV. These three channels were sold as add-ons. If fewer people watch them after the changes, Canal+ may decide that viewers do not really need them.

I am surprised by how many cuts DStv is making and how closely linked all these channels are becoming. My guess is that Canal+ felt DStv simply had too many Indian channels, even though Zee Zonke and Zee TV were aimed at different groups of people.

They used the same thinking with Magic Showcase and kykNET Lekker when they folded them into Mzansi Magic and kykNET. The problem is that some of these changes are hurting the people who pay for the service.

When MultiChoice stopped Me and 1Magic, viewers did not automatically get M-Net. Instead, there was a push to get people to buy DStv Premium. The same thing seems to be happening with the DStv Indian package. MultiChoice looks like it is trying to move these customers onto DStv Movies & Series, Select or Starter.

Only some of the shows from Zee TV move over to Zee World. The reality and cooking shows are not part of that list. It was the same with Magic Showcase — most of the content disappeared, and the only way some people can still watch it is by using a VPN.