The shake up at MultiChoice, DStv’s parent company recently taken over by Canal+ Group, is set to have 16 casualties at the end of the year. After an initial announcement of 4 channels departing at the end of the year, Paramount’s MTV Base, BET Africa and CBS AMC’s CBS Reality and CBS Justice, the satellite TV service is set to lose 12 more channels after negotiations with Discovery failed to come to agreeable terms.
DStv’s carriage agreement with Warner Bros Discovery, which includes the Discovery Channel, CNN International and 10 others, will be terminated on 31 December.
A push notification sent customers read: “Please be advised that Discovery Channel, TLC Africa, Discovery Family, Real Time, TNT Africa, Food Network, Travel Channel, Investigation Discovery (Discovery ID), Cartoon Network, Cartoonito and CNN International will not be available from 31 Dec.”
Since taking over MultiChoice, Canal+ has said it is focused on reducing costs at the company, where this is sensible. It remains to be seen how this will go in affecting channel agreements and whether the termination of channels from the service will result in lower charges on DStv packages.
