BET International abruptly yanked from StarSat as On Digital Media (ODM) and StarTimes Media SA loses the Viacom channel followed by subscriber rage.

The embattled pay-TV service StarSat abruptly lost yet another TV channel with BET International (StarSat 167) that suddenly went dead and furious remaining StarSat subscribers venting and threatening to leave the service in droves.

On Digital Media (ODM) and StarTimes Media SA running the struggling StarSat didn't respond to media enquiries about the abrupt yanking of the TV channel yesterday which was cut from the operator.

In addition StarSat also lost the Star Plus (StarSat 560) and Star Vijay (StarSat 565) channels from its Indian bouquet yesterday since both those channels are jumping to competitor MultiChoice's DStv platform.

BET International is the latest channel loss this year at StarSat that remains in business rescue, with culled channels like TLC and the two FOX Movies channels that, despite promises, have not been replaced.

StarSat's website still carries big banners for BET, and the channel line-up still lists BET although the Viacom channel is not actually available to subscribers. Instead the Nigerian channel iROKO has been added on another StarSat channel number.

In October MultiChoice and VIMN Africa announced that it will be contracting the two BET channels on DStv - BET and BET2 - into just one channel after expanding it to two channels in April this year.

BET2 on DStv and BET International on StarSat was actually the same channel, branded slightly differently. It now turns out that with BET2 going dark on DStv, Viacom International Media Networks also pulled the essentially same channel from StarSat.

Viacom's BET has been available on StarSat's platform for the past five years. The channel's return to South Africa on StarSat, then known as TopTV, and its subsequent success and viewer response, in fact led to retesting by MultiChoice which then also decided to add BET in September 2014.

StarSat didn't respond to a media enquiry asking why BET went away. 

Viacom in Africa in response to a media enquiry said "We can confirm that BET International ceased broadcasting on StarTimes on 30 November due to the expiry of our agreement. We regret that viewers will no longer be able to access BET content on this platform".

Neither StarSat nor VIMN Africa issued any statement or advisory to the media about the termination of the channel before it happened and which is customary.  

On social media angry StarSat subscribers are venting about the loss of BET and the Indian channels with no response from StarSat on its Facebook page while a tremendous backlash about the loss of the channels.

"Watching BET and the channel disappears," said Raymond Molapo.

"No comment from StarSat about BET? Why not increase price packages if its expensive to keep channels? I can't get over ending BET," said Nthabeleng Molapo.

"Why the hell is BET ending today? That was the one decent channel that I've enjoyed watching," said Lee Sebonka.

"I have to say goodbye. You taking BET from me; too many changes," said Audrey Michiel.

"StarSat takes away good channels and replaces it with junk," said Jenita Durga. "Why not have a Nigerian bouquet for those who want those channels? StarSat catch a wake-up or your ship will sink."

OPINION. Points for transparency for MultiChoice and for Viacom International Media Networks Africa. Or not. How open is SA's TV biz really?

It remains interesting to me as a journalist covering the TV industry on behalf of viewers, those working in it and those interested in this business, to see how transparent, open and willing to give a straight, honest answer, companies, people and spokespeople paid to communicate on behalf of their brands are. 

Or not.

Last week came the announcement that Top Actor SA, a new local reality show with presenter Zikhona Sodlaka will start on BET on channel 129 on MultiChoice's DStv satellite pay-TV platform apparently early in April.  

BET International from Viacom International Media Networks Africa (VIMN Africa) is however shown on channel 135, not 129 on MultiChoice's DStv which remains vacant. So I asked both MultiChoice and VIMN Africa about it.

I asked MultiChoice about Top Actor SA produced by Urban Brew Studios, and that, since there isn't a DStv channel on channel 129, whether a new BET channel is being added and how that would be different from the existing BET.

MultiChoice's communications people responded that when there's any announcement to be made about new channels, the press will be informed - the usual stock phrase. 

VIMN Africa's spokesperson Alison Reid was also asked, who told me there's "nothing concrete we can tell you" and that VIMN Africa would prefer that I didn't base any reporting on uncorroborated coverage from third parties.

The interesting and ironic thing here is that is why I'm asking the official spokesperson and people in the first place - who then are not willing to confirm or give the (right) information to a journalist who took the time and effort to track a story and to seek comment through a media enquiry.

Before I was a TV critic and a journalist covering just the TV industry in South Africa, I was a news editor at a magazine and before that one a broadsheet newspaper. Before that I was a general news reporter and even before that a financial journalist.

I've covered almost every industry and every type of beat. 

Not just now, but still - about 15 years later and still writing TV stories - it always remains striking for me how closed, closely-guarded, generally scared, largely opaque, reactive, stone-walling, and overly sensitive South Africa's TV industry at large specifically remains.

Whereas a lot of other sectors and industries are much more responsive to be open - and I know, I've covered them and dealt with them - the TV companies and places and people in South Africa working in TV are mostly not.

The SABC, which used to be much, much better, and its slide, is another great example. The same with TopTV which became StarSat and a range of TV channels from A to Z, the proverbial ANN7 to Zee World. 

Why is giving a journalist who asks you something, an honest, responsive and "real" answer, so difficult for so many?

I have my own ideas of why actual real news and coverage about the TV biz in South Africa is so deplorably bad and its mostly two reasons.

Unlike journalists covering politics and economics asking tough and hard questions, the journalists covering TV are few, not well-informed, more entertainment reporters in it for parties and celebrity access and glam goodie bags, and their coverage more reactive (taking press releases very obediently when issued and dishing it up as news), than pro-actively covering a specific beat and reporting real news. 

It makes communication teams, PR companies and spokespeople working in TV "lazy" or perhaps unaccustomed to actually getting media enquiries that's not based on press releases; and perhaps not used to having marketing or publicity plans being "spoilt" by informed journalists asking questions.

I was taught - and that's also mostly how it happened when I covered the insurance industry, banks, Eskom (when the lights first started to go out), the collapse of Health & Racquet Club and retail - that if you ask something as a journalist, they will give you the most accurate answer they can, because you asked, or because you asked first. 

In TV, trying to track numerous channels, providers, institutions, production companies and people, I have to often ask numerous times. Often getting not even a basic acknowledgement of a media enquiry. Or you're ignored or told off. 

The very least MultiChoice and VIMN Africa could have done with BET was to have said "You know what, that is actually correct, we can't give more information than that, but what is already out there is accurate". 

In South Africa's TV biz, very unlike America, its still mostly a case of whether you ask or not, we will communicate what we want, when we want. Or if we don't like you, or what you're writing, or asking, we will unilaterally "ban" you.

That is not transparency. And that's not good for South Africa's TV biz as a whole.