News Roundup

It is the start of the new month and I thought I would do a short roundup of industry news stories

Africa Magic Showcase Ends: The end of a very short, confusing era
When the Africa Magic channels relaunched and expanded their number a few years ago (to coincide with DStv Southern Africa moving to a new satellite) Africa Magic Entertainment was meant to be the brand's premium entertainment channel, showing only the latest and greatest African tv and film productions. The channel was also only available to DStv Premium subscribers.
However, the reception to the channel was not as exciting as M-Net (who packages the channel) thought it would be, with trouble experienced in both SA and in the rest of the continent  (there are two feeds of the channel).
Generations and Isidingo, two popular South African soaps that are [apparently] highly pirated in the rest of the continent, was added to the schedule. A few months later both were dropped due to disappointing viewership.
M-Net also experimented with a few original and first run shows, with some shows eventually re-airing on the other Africa Magic channels, while some, like Star Gist, didn't. However, not even this was enough to lift viewership with all shows eventually getting simulcast slots on other Africa Magic channels, taking away whatever premium value it had.
The channel's name was even changed from Africa Magic Entertainment to Showcase, but that also did not work.
As most of M-Net's quantity over quality channel expansions go, the experiment is now over with Africa Magic Showcase now ending its feed to Southern Africa.

Rhema gets replaced with 'TBN in Africa'
This past Sunday, Rhema TV  broadcast their last services as the channel gets ready to fold its original content in with 'TBN in Africa,' which launched this Friday.
If 'TBN in Africa' (as it is being referred to) sounds familiar to you, it should. Trinity Broadcasting Networks International licenced their brand and content to Andre Roebert's father back in the 80's to start TBN Africa which used to be broadcast on DStv. The relationship between TBNI and River Corporation (Roebert's company that ran TBN Africa) turned sour in 2014 when Roebert refused to send financial statements regarding a roof replacement at the East London facility (I kid you not) and Roebert decided to go solo, relaunching the channel as what we now know as Faith Broadcasting Network. (Viewers and people who donated to the organisation were told other weird stories about why the name change occurred but I suppose the tv industry has never been known for transparency).
TBNI wont be making that same mistake twice as they will be fully owning and controlling 'TBN in Africa' when it launches with Rhema's local programming folding into the network alongside an expanded slate of local content on what will now be a round the clock channel.
What will be interesting, though, is to see whther TBN pulls their last remaining programming from Faith Broadcating Network, which included the popular 700 Club.

FashionTV Replaced by Fashion One
I guess when DStv does cutting, they do it deep.
Fashion TV, which has been on DStv for years also got the axe. It will be replaced by Fashion One. StarSat also swapped the channels out a few years ago.
The good thing about this is that Fashion One actually features South African shows so being in many more homes will likely lead to an expanded slate o local content, in the same vein as BET and TLC did when they became available on DStv after being on StarSat exclusively.

Patrick Conroy starts at OpenViewHD today 
eNCA's head Patrick Conroy, finally makes the jump to head the group's satellite platform, OpenViewHD, today.

Supersport launches even more channels
Supersport has now launched Supersport 11 and 12 in the Rest of Africa. These channels are specifically packaged for the Compact bouquet in a country where Multichoice is facing increasing pressures to unbundle.
The content on these channels? English Premier League on Supersport 11 and La Liga on Supersport 12. Yes, these channels will basically be playing the same content from Supersport 3 and 5, respectively, but because Supersport for some reason don't want Compact subscribers in certain Rest of Africa countries to see the UEFA Champions League, which airs on 3 and 5, they used precious bandwidth to launch these new channels which are duplicates of 3 and 5 (except for Tuesday and Wednesday nights when Champions League is on). What will play on Supersport 11 and 12 on weekdays when there are Champions League matches? More EPL and La Liga repeats.