by Thinus Ferreira
Warner Bros. Discovery's TNT channel has been ripped from subscribers of StarTimes Media's StarSat satellite pay-TV service without any prior warning, in the middle of a month, without any explanation.
TNT - one of the Warner Bros. Discovery TV channels available in South Africa to pay-TV subscribers of MultiChoice's DStv and StarTimes Media SA's StarSat - was abruptly taken down on StarSat last week on Thursday without any prior warning to subscribers who had already paid for it for the month, and without any explanation from Warner Bros. Discovery Africa, or StarSat.
Warner Bros. Discovery EMEA, through the BCW PR company representing WBD in Africa, was asked repeatedly since last week why its TNT channel was removed from StarTimes and StarSat in South Africa, but hasn't responded with any answer or explanation at the time of publication of this report on Tuesday morning.
StarSat was also asked why WBD's TNT channel went dark and why StarSat subscribers who had paid for the channel for September, got no warning that the channel was going to be removed.
StarSat publicist Luyanda Cele didn't answer any of the questions but sent an image which StarSat posted to its Facebook social media page and said "please see the attached for your referral".
The image simply says "Unfortunately due to a sudden change in broadcasting rights, TNT is now exclusive to a competitor. StarSat may no longer broadcast the TNT channel to its viewers."
"StarSat would like to apologise to its customers for the inconvenience and regrets to inform them that the situation is beyond our control. StarSat is assessing options to replace the channel as soon as possible."
StarSat failed to respond to the question as to why paying StarSat subscribers were not given any prior warning or notification, since, if the reason is true, StarSat itself would have received prior notification from Warner Bros. Discovery that TNT was getting removed.
Pay-TV channels are hardly ever scrapped mid-month with channel distributors and pay-TV operators removing axed TV channels at the end of the month.
Warner Bros. Discovery's silence and inability to answer a basic question about something that its executives looking after Africa knew was going to happen is also disgusting and shows a completely lack of respect and disdain to paying pay-TV customers.
It would also be extremely weird if TNT did become an "exclusive" TV channel to MultiChoice's DStv platform since TNT isn't a premium category TV channel - it's an average general entertainment and movie channel with a lot of non-premium and repeat content and those types of TV channels on pay-TV line-ups are hardly ever exclusive.
