by Thinus Ferreira
Angry pay-TV subscribers in South Africa and across sub-Saharan Africa are signing a new petition for the FOX channel to remain on MultiChoice's DStv, as well as StarTimes and StarSat after the revelation that The Walt Disney Company is indeed planning to cull the channel at the end of September as one of its 100 channels getting shut down this year.
Oyin Bucknor-Arigbede started the petition on change.org to The Walt Disney Company after the news that FOX (DStv 125 / StarSat 131) is the next TV channel from Disney Africa's collection that is getting shut down after the demise in 2020 of channels like Disney XD and FOX Life.
Bob Chapek, Disney CEO, said that the company "plans to close 100 channels in 2021. So yes, we will continue and continue at a robust rate". He said that Disney will continue to migrate the content on those linear channels to Disney+ with "the great majority of that content that will migrate to Disney+".
It's not yet clear whether Disney will also shut down The Disney Channel, Disney Junior, National Geographic, Nat Geo WILD or any of its other channels available in South Africa and across Africa like ESPN before the end of the year as well.
Disney wants to completely get rid of the "FOX" name and brand anywhere it's attached to its branding or assets since Disney's corporate takeover of 21st Century Fox in 2019.
Disney doesn't own the FOX broadcast TV channel in the United States and doesn't want any of its assets associated with that anymore.
Disney already renamed its studios of 20th Century Fox to 20th Century Studios and 20th Century Fox Television as 20th Television.
Disney wants to put the content that was on its international FOX channel under its new Star tile on its Disney+ service, with Star that is the 6th tile offering general entertainment content catering for a more adult audience.
Disney plans to launch its Disney+ subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) streaming service from around June 2022 in South Africa and wants to remove as much of its current content from traditional linear pay-TV services as possible to aid the uptake of Disney+ as its direct-to-consumer (DTC) product.
Unlike the United Kingdom and other countries, Disney is removing channels like FOX, showing the 11th and final season of The Walking Dead, although Disney+ doesn't exist yet in South Africa.
That leaves loyal pay-TV subscribers with no other legal option other than forced piracy to watch shows and to see the conclusion of AMC Studios' zombie drama series that is currently on FOX.
The change.org petition is similar to petitions that pay-TV subscribers started when MultiChoice decided to remove A+E Networks UK's History, Lifetime and Crime+Investigation channels, with History and Lifetime that got spared.