by Thinus Ferreira
Aletta Alberts, MultiChoice's head of content and third-party channels and arguably the African continent's most powerful and influential TV tastemaker has died from Covid-19 complications.
On Wednesday she would have been 57. Aletta Alberts passed away on Tuesday morning in the Netcare Milpark hospital in Johannesburg.
For decades - at both the SABC and later MultiChoice - the highly-respected, beloved and funny, extremely knowledgeable and inspiring South African TV executive held sway behind-the-scenes as the single-most powerful and influential decision-maker of what South Africans got to see on television.
Through her aggregator role and in deciding what TV channels DStv would add in carriage agreements, continue to carry - or not - Aletta Alberts, in her extremely pivotal position and one that she took very seriously, curated not just what TV content South Africans but African audiences at large across sub-Saharan Africa got to see on their TV sets.
As the head of content and third-party channels at Africa's largest pay-TV operator, Aletta Alberts - who as a young person dreamt of one day working at a circus and eventually found herself in the topsy-turvy world of television - had a remarkable career within South Africa's y's TV industry where she was involved in TV production, television branding and marketing, content management and television business management for decades.
"MultiChoice is deeply saddened by the
news of the passing of Aletta Alberts, MultiChoice's head of content and third-party channels," MultiChoice told TVwithThinus on Tuesday.
"Aletta worked for MultiChoice for more than 15
years playing an important role in the development of our content strategy. Her
dedication and commitment has been an integral part of our success and growth."
"Aletta’s knowledge of the industry and her passion
for content is widely known and respected in the local and international
television community. Aletta was a prolific storyteller and she knew how to
command an audience with her great sense of humour and her love for
TV which she lived and breathed. She will be dearly missed."
"Aletta leaves behind her mother,
siblings and nieces. MultiChoice extends its heartfelt condolences to Aletta’s
family, friends and colleagues. May they find strength and peace during this
difficult time."
Aletta Alberts' career in South African television started as a production secretary in the late 1980s, after she completed a BA Drama degree at the North-West University, after which she graduated to assistant producer and then producer.
After a decade of working on South Africa’s biggest live productions and award-winning variety shows, she was appointed as SABC2's programme manager at the SABC, and two years later became SABC2 channel head.
She left SABC2 to join Vodacom where she pioneered mobile TV and launched 16 streaming TV channels on Vodacom's 3G network, Vodafone Live.
Aletta Alberts joined MultiChoice in 2006 as general manager of content, acquiring and aggregating content and TV channels from across the world for DStv subscribers over the past 15 years.
She lead everything from content and bouquet strategies, channel acquisitions, commissioning and negotiations, oversaw channel performance management, pay-TV bouquet management and DStv Catch Up propositions across all DStv services and devices.
The unassuming Aletta Alberts who always had other TV execs gravitating into her orbit, quietly amassed the best industry executive contacts when it came to both local and international TV movers and shakers that she carefully built up over years - including the most comprehensive contact list of anyone in the TV biz.
With her open door policy and unrivaled passion for television and content, as well as spotting TV talent in front of and behind-the-scenes, there's hardly anybody in South Africa's TV industry who wouldn't have reached some form of success without having met or interacted with her at some point in their careers.
As a TV polyglot, Aletta Alberts watched a lot of television and watched everything across genres.
Aletta Alberts was as comfortable immediately discussing in detail and rousing excitement about the latest upcoming BBC Earth documentary series as she would be about the shenanigans of the Kardashians on E!, a new reality series on M-Net, or something on BET, MTV, FOX, the debut of Korean telenovelas, or the content across a flurry of other local or international TV channels.
