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Cape Town – MultiChoice is set to axe media mogul Mo Abudu's EbonyLife TV (DStv 165) channel from the end of June from its DStv satellite pay-TV platform in South Africa and several other countries across Southern Africa following lackluster viewership.
The dropping of EbonyLife TV comes less than 4 years since the channel was added in South Africa after it failed to make inroads with South and Southern African viewers.
After June, EbonyLife TV will continue to be available as a TV channel on DStv in East and West African countries including Nigeria, but is disappearing for DStv subscribers in countries including South Africa, Namibia, Swaziland, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Botswana, Lesotho and Malawi.
MultiChoice Africa launched EbonyLife TV in July 2013 on DStv across Africa outside of South Africa, the channel was added a year later in September 2014 for South African viewers.
The entertainment and lifestyle TV channel, run from Nigeria with Mo Abudu as CEO and executive chairperson, failed to resonate with South and Southern African viewers with the DStv subscribers struggling to relate to the heavily Nigerian influenced entertainment programming line-up.
The axing will curtail what Mo Abudu launched to be "Africa's first global black entertainment and lifestyle network" that now becomes a regional channel from July.
Mo Abudu's EbonyLife TV reps didn't respond to media enquiries Channel24 made this week.
MultiChoice in response to a media enquiry told Channel24 that it is "working hard to increase the entertainment value on DStv, specific to each region across Africa. EbonyLife TV resonates the most with our customers in Nigeria, which is why it will only be available there from 1 July".
"For customers in areas outside of Nigeria who will no longer receive EbonyLife TV, there are a number of other channels that cover entertainment and lifestyle content aimed at an African audience - 1Magic (DStv 103), BET (DStv 129), Mzansi Magic (DStv 161), SpiceTV (DStv 190), Fashion One (DStv 178) and the Africa Magic channels."
