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Cape Town – MultiChoice will be opening the History channel on DStv for a month from 13 June to all DStv Compact subscribers.
A+E Networks UK supplies the History (DStv 186) channel to MultiChoice's DStv satellite pay-TV platform in South Africa and the rest of the continent and has appointed Yusuf Nabee who is taking over responsibility for A+E Networks UK's TV channels in Africa as general manager.
A+E Networks UK and MultiChoice want more DStv subscribers to sample the History channel and is opening the channel – usually just available to DStv Premium subscribers – from 13 June to 11 July for DStv Compact subscribers as well to co-incide with the start of the new miniseries remake, Roots, starting on the channel on 15 June.
After its start on History, Roots will also repeat on A+E Networks UK's sister-channel, Lifetime (DStv 131) from 19 June.
The new 8-episode miniseries produced by A+E Studios is a remake of the late 1970s multi-generational story of a captured African slave fighting for freedom in America.
The SABC, along with shows like The Cosby Show and others, banned the original Roots with LeVar Burton and Louis Gossett Jr. from being broadcast in South Africa.
Part of the new version of Roots with Laurence Fishburne, Forest Whitaker and Malachi Kirby were filmed in South Africa.
Mtunzini's Umlalazi River and the Dlinza Forest near Eshowe in KwaZulu-Natal were used for filming to stand in for areas in Gambia and along the Kambay Bolongo River where the character of Kinte is captured and put onto a ship to be sent to America.
See the trailer here:
Meanwhile Yusuf Nabee will now be A+E Networks UK's general manager for Africa based in Johannesburg from 1 June.
Anthea Petersen who was appointed as A+E Networks UK's regional director for Africa in February 2015, continues her relationship with A+E Networks UK as regional director, in a consultancy role.
Nabee, a former channel head of the Glow TV channel that is now shutting down, also worked at the SABC as project manager on digital terrestrial television (DTT) and has now left Kagiso Media where he headed up special projects.
He will be responsible for building a full local team to drive the performance of A+E Networks' channels in Africa and to secure new distribution for channels.
