Another redundant trash-channel on DStv is gone, with M-Net and MultiChoice that has shut down the little-watched Africa Magic World (DStv 155) at the end of April.
M-Net's Africa Magic subset of channels available on DStv reduced by one channel is in line with MultiChoice and M-Net's latest strategy of cutting down on repeats and rebroadcasts.
The ever-problematic Africa Magic World that never has a clear value proposition and trundled along aimlessly on DStv year after year, finally got its coup de grâce to put it out of its misery.
For years M-Net's also-there-but-nothing-really Magic World channel was just ... there - a nondescript trash-can repository type channel, so bad that M-Net couldn't even bother to update its channel logo uniformly when the logo would change.
In April 2012 in yet another Africa Magic channels relaunch, M-Net's Magic World was (finally) incorporated into the Africa Magic family although that didn't improve its content offering, purpose, the attention it got from programming executives or an enhanced viewing destination or actual real identity.
Of course several (understatement) Africa Magic relaunches, rebrands and repositionings followed in the past five years, with Africa Magic World - now included as part of the set - seeing change after change after change. Of course nothing helped the place-holder channel and now Africa Magic has taken away the world.
DStv subscribers in South Africa and across the rest of Africa don't really lose anything. The programming that was on Africa Magic World was mostly repeats and the other programming is moved to the existing Africa Magic channels that really can only be strengthen with more and stronger content.
"Dear Viewer, Africa Magic World stopped airing on 30 April 2017. Thank you." is the message DStv subscribers got on the i-plate on the channel from their DStv decoders.
TVwithThinus asked MultiChoice about the discontinuation of Africa Magic World.
"Africa Magic World (DStv 155) is being consolidated with Africa Magic Family (DStv 154) from 30 April onwards. The focus is to give our customers a better viewing experience with fewer repeats," said MultiChoice.
"The nature of multi-channel television around the world is such that there are not always the same numbers of channels available in a bouquet. We are continuously adding new and exciting channels to the DStv packages."
