Is another channel number change and re-allocation and a new ''channel shuffle'' possibly coming to MultiChoice's DStv soon?
Before I broke the news RIGHT HERE that the Studio Universal movie channel would be coming to MultiChoice's DStv channel 119 I spent countless hours late at night researching it and researching specifically the channel number it would most likely be placed at, before I approached sources for confirmation.
Where's there's an opening on one 3 digit channel number on DStv, there's often already a channel in existence there somewhere in Africa but just not unlocked for a specific other country or countries. The only available movie channel number left in the movie block - the only possible place where Studio Universal could go for in Africa if MultiChoice wanted it to remain in the movie genre section, was channel 119.
MultiChoice is running out of available 3 digital channel numbers in the sense that the ''groupings'' of genres are filling up and that these groupings were placed close together (for instance ''movies'' are now full and have filled the entire ''gap'' until ''general entertainment'' starts with BBC Entertainment at channel 120).
The same is happening with the high definition (HD) channels. Remember that the previous channel re-allocations MultiChoice did, was to group and keep similar channels together. Now sport viewers who have access to DStv Premium have to jump from the 200's for sport to where the HD sport channels are.
Likewise M-Net HD on channel 170 and Discovery HD Showcase on channel 172 are very far away from where they would in fact belong, if you go according to the ''rule'' that M-Net HD should be next to M-Net on DStv channel 102 maybe, or Discovery HD Showcase closer to channel 121 where you can just toggle up or down. Currently all the HD channels on DStv are lumped together, irrespective of their genre.
I recently asked Aletta Alberts, MultiChoice's general manager for content whether a possible channel number re-allocation could be happening since channel 119 was the last real movie channel number left and that a next new movie channel addition will make it impossible for it to be placed in the movie channel ''section''.
''When we did the last channel shuffle we 'future proofed' it for 5 years. I think we're going into our next 5 years,'' says Aletta Alberts. ''I don't think a channel shuffle if or when it happens will be as dramatic as the last DStv channel shuffle was.''
''Remember also that at the time of the initial channel shuffle 5 years ago, HD didn't have the weight that it's starting to get now. Initially we launched it in channel spaces left over. Then subscribers complained and said 'no, please put it together'. We planned then to put the HD's after it. I think the consumer backlash was so big that we decided to close those slots. Now of course, we need them.''
''Also the technology is changing, lots of things are happening; it's a very dynamic process,'' she says. ''You'll hear about it when we are relooking at that process. That channel number, 119, was the only number that was available now.''
