by Thinus Ferreira
MultiChoice is putting Biggie back for lower-tiered DStv subscribers with the Big Brother Mzansi channel that will be restored for DStv Family and DStv Access subscribers from 21 March until the show ends on 3 April after the DStv pop-up channel was ripped away after a week's promo upsell period at the end of January.
MultiChoice experienced a big backlash from DStv subscribers after it took the Big Brother Mzansi pop-up channel away from DStv Family and DStv Access subscribers a week after the 5th season of the localised Banijay format reality show started on 23 January.
In February MultiChoice said in a statement that "From the onset we communicated that Big Brother Mzansi would be available exclusively on DStv Compact, DStv Compact Plus and DStv Premium" and that "as we have done for select content in the past, we opened up channel 198 to all our customers in Southern Africa to allow for sampling of the content for a limited period."
Besides the anger from DStv subscribers, the TV ratings of Big Brother Mzansi - running as a pop-up channel and with various highlight shows on M-Net's Mzansi Magic (DStv 161) channel - has been disappointing.
This is likely also factoring into MultiChoice's decision to return the channel to DStv subscribers on cheaper packages with the bigger distribution availability that might help to lift ratings.
MultiChoice told DStv subscribers "Big Brother Mzansi is back on your screens from Monday 21 March up until the finale".
