by Thinus Ferreira
Less than three years after it launched in February 2021, the failed Honey TV, MultiChoice's attempt at a "BBC Lifestyle for Africa"-type TV channel is getting axed at the end of October.
MultiChoice confirms that Honey TV, produced by Media24's TV studio division, is getting shuttered at the end of the month.
Honey TV's closure comes two years and eight months after the channel that attempted to be a homegrown version of BBC Studios' BBC Lifestyle for Africa, failed to capture the essence of pan-African viewers with an apparent misguided offering of locally produced lifestyle programming.
"Please note that Honey TV is closing on 31 October 2023. Thank you for watching," a new on-screen advisory on the DStv electronic programme guide (EPG) states.
MultiChoice confirmed to TVwithThinus that Honey TV is being terminated.
"In line with the strategy to continuously review international and local content line-ups and optimise the suite of channels on offer on DStv, the business has decided to bid farewell to HONEY TV (DStv 173)," MultiChoice says.
"This is done to ensure we deliver unbeatable content to our customers and that our DStv services cater for the needs and viewing requirements of our customers."
While market research and focus group analyses are done before any local TV channel and its content line-up and schedule are created, it's unclear why Honey TV was so far off the mark with its programming.
Questions are now being asked whether Honey TV failed because it attempted the impossible: Trying to package stereotypical and cookie-cutter African lifestyle content in one channel feed shown across different African countries although the continent's viewers are not homogenous with big differences in viewing preferences from country to country.
Honey TV launched in mid-February 2021 with a coterie of shows like South Africa's Anele Mdoda doing a The View-type talk show called The Buzz, the criticised reality series Pastor's Wives, and with promises to "showcase Africans living their best lives and to depict an honest modern-day view of our diverse countries, cultures and peoples".
Honey TV also promised to work with African producers across South Africa and several other African countries to show DStv subscribers "their own talent, food, celebrations and their families as the well-deserved hero".
When it launched, Honey TV said that it would "focus on authentic African storytelling, made possible through a groundbreaking content creation model in which the channel is partnering with producers in different African countries to create hundreds of hours of new African shows".
