Afro Worldview to cease transmission
August 10, 2018
By Chris Forrester
Afro Worldview, the troubled South African news channel formerly know as ANN7, looks set to cease transmissions on August 20th.
MultiChoice and DStv have confirmed they would no longer be carrying the channel, which was at one time backed by the wealthy Gupta family and was caught up in various allegations of financial irregularity.
MultiChoice says that some 60 new applications from would-be broadcasters are being considered as a replacement for Afro Worldview.
Calvo Mawela, MultiChoice’s CEO, said “We are targeting to make an announcement before the expiry of the current contract so that we can give people an opportunity to know exactly what’s coming next”.
The local Communications Workers Union said it hoped that the successful applicant would provide an opening for the lost jobs.
Separately, public broadcaster SABC says it has yet to agree a new carriage fee from MultiChoice, and that its SABC News and SABC Encore channels could go dark for subscribers. Cash-strapped SABC is also known to be seeking extra payments from MultiChoice for carriage of its mainstream SABC 1, SABC 2 and SABC 3 services.
SABC News and SABC Encore are currently exclusive to MultiChoice.