Your History channel is an alien - how History on DStv apparently got abducted by extra-terrestrial television terribleness.

Another wasteland of a TV channel is History (DStv 186) where DStv subscribers who get this channel on MultiChoice's satellite pay-TV platform in South Africa can go an entire night without actually (gasp!) seeing ... you know, history.

Literally abducted by Aliens, History these days bears little resemblance to the channel's actual name.

Lets throw out the channel proposition and what an ordinary viewer and DStv subscriber would reasonably expect when they see a channel name such as History, and lets populate the programming with aliens, weird shows and almost anything but history, it seems History's channel executives said. Perhaps they too, have secretly been taken over by the lizard people.

History, supplied to MultiChoice by A+E Networks UK has degenerated into basically unwatchable telly trash - if you tuned to History because you wanted to watch, and expected to see history.

If you wanted to see porn stars Pawn Stars (tacky!), Banger Boys, Mountain Men, speculative alien piece about how extra-terrestrials visited mankind (over and over and over and over again; and a myriad of episodes and series) you've come to the right place.

Or you can just sit and be Counting Cars (if you've already seen Ancient Aliens: Aliens and Deadly Cults before - it's on a lot).

From UFO Hunters to Storage Wars, from Shipping Wars to Cajun Pawn Stars, and from Swamp People to Top Shot (a reality show about ... don't ask, but no, not history), I have to ask: No Abominable Snowman?

Mud Men, Mankind: The Story of Us, The Men Who Built America, American Pickers and Decoded are a few of the history related titbits to be found on History where the schedule is largely ruinous like that in Peru (and which History says in Ancient Aliens could support the legends of a sunken UFO base and underwater cities which were once populated by humans and aliens. I think that's true).

Earlier this year at least there was some new "history" on History in the vanity project Miracle Rising: South Africa which had South African black-and-white history footage interspliced with thoughtful thoughts from luminaries like Charlize Theron seemingly culled from the Rolodex of those who've visited Nelson Mandela.

While South African DStv viewers are subjected to Bubba, alligator thieves, and Elvira, Mistress of the Dark whose Thunderbird needs attention, History in America is showing viewers there at the moment the good dramatic TV series Vikings for instance - some quality programming seemingly in short supply on History on DStv here.

We have IRT Deadliest Roads, Ice Road Truckers, Storage Wars: Texas and aliens.

Little history on History but lots and lots of aliens.