DStv SHOWCASE SEPTEMBER 2017: MultiChoice upgrades BBC Brit and E! Entertainment to HD channels on DStv; adds pop-up channels.

MultiChoice is upgrading two more entertainment TV channels on DStv to high definition (HD) and is adding further pop-up channels.

BBC Brit (DStv 120) from BBC Worldwide and E! Entertainment (DStv 124) from NBCUniversal International Networks are both switching to HD channels from 5 October and December respectively.

BBC Brit that will unveil an updated look in October to co-incide with the channel’s broadcast quality improvement, will also change to become a “full spectrum” entertainment channel.

Originally launched as a male-skewed channel with British content when BBC Worldwide Africa relaunched its bouquet of BBC-branded channels on DStv in September 2015, BBC Brit is now expanding to further broaden its channel proposition into general entertainment.

BBC Brit will now cater to a wider audience and women along the lines of the former BBC Entertainment, with programming like Death in Paradise and EastEnders that already moved to BBC Brit.

Programming on BBC Brit will include Strictly Come Dancing UK (starting 10 October), The Graham Norton Show, the comedy series Carter’s Get Rich, the Brit-com classic Absolutely Fabulous getting a rebroadcast and documentaries like Killer Women wit Piers Morgan.

From 8 October the BBC sister channel, BBC First (DStv 119) that starts at 18:00 daily, will increase its daily running hours to 12 hours per day, now starting at 12:00 in the afternoon and running until midnight.

BBC First will continue to show award-winning, premium British series like Doctor Foster, Peaky Blinders and the soap Holby City.

“Our focus is to continue to enhance the entertainment experience for our customers,” says Aletta Alberts, MultiChoice’s head of content. “Offering BBC Brit in HD and extending the broadcast hours of BBC First, gives our customers a front-row seat to the best of British entertainment”.

More pop-up film channels from M-Net

MultiChoice announced further pop-up movie channels and film festivals for DStv, packaged by M-Net, that will unspool over the coming few months.

Aletta Alberts says the DStv pop-up channels are popular with viewers. “We’re really proud of them, when we play them they’re usually in the top 5 normally of most watched channels, and you’ll see us doing them on an ongoing basis.”

“We think it’s a much better way of curating content and really, really getting people into it.”

The “ShockTober Fest” movie festival will start on the M-Net Movies Action+ channel in October, unspooling a collection of horror and thrillers. “It’s all those movies that make your hair stand up – thrillers, horror” says Aletta Alberts, with films from Stephen King for instance.

Then there is the previously announced pop-up channel featuring the 100 films to see before you die and that MultiChoice at the start of 2017 said is coming this year. This channel will run as a special pop-up channel on DStv from November.

This pop-up channel will be called M-Net Movies Bucket List – “The 100 Movies to see Before you Die” and will run on DStv channel 109.

“This is our big event for the year in terms of pop-ups. Obviously this could create huge social media conversation because your 100 movies, my 100 movies … there’s going to be a lot of debate around that,” says Aletta Alberts.

M-Net plans to do a big reveal about which 100 movies made the list.

In December the beloved Animania will return to the M-Net Movies Smile channel on DStv as a festival. “We again definitely have the best of the best animated movies,” says Aletta Alberts. Films include Trolls, Angry Birds, Zootopia, Minions, Norm of the North and Madagascar.

“These are just a few of the amazing titles DStv subscribers will be able to see, so make sure that you’re on DStv Premium in December.”

kykNET’s pop-up Afrikaans film channel fliekNET will again return in December and this time will run from 16 December until 12 January 2018. “It will have the best of the Afrikaans movies that you’ve seen over the last few years, plus all this year’s best movies,” says Aletta Alberts.

fliekNET will be followed by, and tie into, kykNET’s (DStv 144) new Afrikaans film competition show, fliekNET Foendi’s, with presenter Ivan Botha. “It’s a quiz show about movies, so watch in January and see if you can answer those film questions first from the couch.”