New sports channel added to DStv

Cape Town – E! Entertainment meets the sports world when the new Trace Sports channel starts on 17 April on MultiChoice's DStv platform for DStv Premium subscribers.

The channel, offered by the Trace Group whose Trace Urban music channel is already a part of the DStv bouquet, is a new channel that features magazine and profile shows about the world of sports stars.

Trace Sports will start on 17 April on channel 129 on DStv after the pay TV operator signed a carriage agreement with the Trace Group which has aggressively started to roll out the new channel internationally since 2011 in several TV markets around the world.

The Trace Group said last year that it has signed a carriage agreement with MultiChoice, but DStv and Trace kept mum on when exactly the channel would go live for subscribers.

The Trace Group held a special pre-launch party in Johannesburg in June 2010 during the World Cup soccer tournament when several international potential clients and stakeholders were in South Africa.

Although the channel is a high definition channel by default, MultiChoice will provide a standard definition version of Trace Sports for now.

Major milestone

"The launch of Trace Sports in South Africa is a major milestone for our group," says Oliver Laouchez, the chairperson and CEO of the Trace group in a statement.

"Trace Sports will bring the DStv audience a great mix of content where sport meets glamour, where athletes reveal their real life and personality.

"We are excited to launch the channel exactly 100 days before the Olympics as we believe that our content will allow DStv subscribers to connect more with featured Olympians," he said.

“Sport is an important genre to pay television," said Aletta Alberts, the general manager for content at MultiChoice.

"Trace Sports is a channel which takes a unique view on sport stars, giving our subscribers access to content that is not currently available on DStv. We are confident that this channel will be a big hit with our subscribers," she said.