by Thinus Ferreira
Showmax has ended and removed the live-streamed linear TV news channels and the educational Mindset Pop TV channel that MultiChoice's subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) added in late-March.
Showmax removed the set of linear TV news channels that it added on 26 March 2020 for users in South Africa and Southern Africa because of the growing Covid-19 pandemic that keeps expanding around the world with the coronavirus that keeps infecting more and more people in Africa, South Africa and around the world.
Showmax made BBC World News, CNN International, Sky News, Al Jazeera, euronews and Newzroom Africa available for 3 months that it removed on 30 June 2020. South African users of Showmax also got access to SABC News and africanews as live linear TV news channels.
Showmax originally announced that it would axe the live TV news channels at the end of May 2020 but extended it for June.
"We were given access to these channels as a temporary measure in the early days of the Covid-19 crisis in order to help everyone keep up-to-date on the latest developments," says Showmax.
"As lockdown is now easing and we’re slowly getting back to some kind of new normal, we're going to be discontinuing the news service. The Mindset Pop channel, which was added to help parents while schools were closed, will also be leaving Showmax."
"We’ll keep an eye on developments and, if the circumstances change, we’ll do our best to step in again."
MultiChoice is working and planning the launch of its DStv Streaming service that will carry the same collection of live linear TV news channels, very much like the existing DStv Now offering.
This so-called "DStv dishless" version will be a web-based look-alike version of DStv but not requiring any installation.
