OnseTV will launch as a brand-new TV channel on Friday as the first Afrikaans TV channel catering specifically to South Africa's coloured community.
OnseTV is set to launch on Friday 29 September on the StarSat satellite pay-TV service of the Chinese StarTimes Media SA and On Digital Media, on channel 462.
OnseTV will compete with Afrikaans TV channels on MultiChoice's DStv platform like the M-Net packaged kykNET (DStv 144) and kykNET & Kie (DStv 145) carrying programming like the soap Suidooster and dramas like Sara se Geheim, as well as channel's like Media24's VIA (DStv 147) and the SABC's SABC2.
OnseTV comes from, and will be run, by the husband-and-wife team of Jaco and Hilda Ferreira who started the Afrikaans TV channel ASTV.
ASTV was quietly rebranded to MYtv in March this year. MYtv is now just available on StarSat after it was dumped from Platco Digital's OpenView HD platform in mid-October last year but is now spawning a sister-channel.
While OnseTV will be predominantly broadcasting in Afrikaans from Friday, the channel will also include English - what OnseTV calls "marginal language deviation from the staple language of Afrikaans".
OnseTV says the channel will portray the interests and cultural aspirations of South Africa's coloured community and is specifically targeting the TV content gap present in South Africa's broadcasting environment when it comes to this population demographic.
"Working with a wide range of people in the industry and indeed our community, it has long been clear to us that there is no focused TV channel that caters for entertainment and the educational needs of our largest South African, Afrikaans speaking community, our coloured Afrikaans community," says OnseTV.
"The socio-cultural depth of this demographic is varied and extensive and worthy of celebration and embrace," with OnseTV that says the channel's plans to "capture the spirit and drive and reflect it on the small screen" of this community.
OnseTV says "all groups within the coloured community [will] now have a voice. Something that they never had before. OnseTV is a home for the coloured community to fully live out their culture and language, thus bridging cultural gaps."
"Onse TV is a channel by the people, for the people that opens up a whole new world of opportunities, job creation and involvement with the channel for people who have never had these opportunities before".
Debbie Wu, acting CEO of StarSat says OnseTV "will go a long way to celebrating the rich heritage of South African 'people of colour' through the vibrant medium of Afrikaans language".
"We are proud to be associated with OnseTV as it will add great entertainment value and diversity to an already stunning line-up of channels on StarSat's platform."
It's not yet known whether OnseTV will broadcast for 24 hours per day, 12, or 6, or what the repeat block structure of the line-up is.
The Facebook page of OnseTV does reveal some programming clues as to the channel's upcoming content.
Snoek & Patat will be a lifestyle food show and Dink Jy Jy Kan Sing? looks like a karaoke-type music show.
In the weekly show Kom Roer Met Tannie, Tannie Koeksister goes to the shop, buys ingredients for her guests she's visiting and then cooks for them while telling stories - with Fatima also dropping by for a visit.
Onse Boeke is a show about books and reading and interviewing writers, with OnseTV that will also be broadcasting the ATKV Rieldanskompetisie.
Op die Beat met Reemay is an exercise show that will start on 2 October and run on weekday mornings at 07:00. Music videos will be show in a daily slot branded as "Anibrand".
