Disney ends the FOX channel in Africa after 11 years, rips away 11th and final season ending of The Walking Dead from pay-TV viewers.

by Thinus Ferreira

The FOX channel in Africa has turned into the walking dead with the last of its programming turning into a zombie schedule after Disney decided to end the channel on DStv and StarSat after 11 and a half years at the end of September, ripping away the ending of The Walking Dead from pay-TV subscribers across the continent.

In response to a media query from TVwithThinus, The Walt Disney Company Africa confirms that its FOX (DStv 125 / StarSat 131) channel is ending on pay-TV services like MultiChoice's DStv, StarTimes and StarSat, as well as Zuku across sub-Saharan Africa at the end of September.

"On 30 September at 23:59 (CAT), the FOX channel across Africa will close," a South African spokesperson of The Walt Disney Company Africa says.

"As the television landscape and viewer consumption evolves, we continue to develop and review our products and services to ensure we are offering the best possible experience for consumers."

"We look forward to bringing consumers across Africa a vast array of factual, sports, and kids programming from our channels, including National Geographic, National Geographic Wild, ESPN, ESPN 2, Disney Channel and Disney Junior."

StarSat in response to a media query on Monday said that "the FOX channel will be offline as of 1 October, however FOX News will still air. This was a decision made by Disney to remove the channel". On StarSat the FOX channel has been available to Max and Super subscribers. 

MultiChoice in response to a media enquiry said that the "MultiChoice Group confirms that as of 30 September 2021 at 23:59, FOX will stop airing on DStv. The change is as a result of a review of various channels by The Walt Disney Company Africa, as the channel owner and ourselves". The FOX channel has been available to DStv Premium, DStv Compact Plus and DStv Compact subscribers.

Asked how pay-TV subscribers watching FOX will see series and their endings like the final season of The Walking Dead and whether that content would be made available on-demand somewhere else, Disney says that "all current premiere series will air their full seasons before the channel closes".

"While the channel will be closing, many titles that aired on FOX will be available on Star on Disney+ when the service launches in South Africa in 2022".

Asked if FOX will be replaced in time by another similar type of linear TV channel or whether it's not part of Disney's strategy to run a general entertainment channel anymore like FOX was, Disney has no definitive answer.

Disney says that "across the globe, we continue to invest in both direct-to-consumer (DTC) and linear businesses, with the goal being providing our fans with multiple entry points to our content and our brand. We have substantial linear businesses in several markets including across Africa".

"We take a market-by-market approach and continuously evaluate our media networks business on an ongoing basis but have nothing else to announce at this time."

"Our number one priority is to bring customers the stories they love and our linear channels continue to be a compelling destination – including our genre-defining factual entertainment channels National Geographic and Nat Geo WILD, our action-pack sports channels ESPN and ESPN2, as well as our popular kids and family channels Disney Channel and Disney Junior."

Disney axed the FOX Life channel at the end of September 2020 on DStv and StarSat, and terminated Disney XD in the same month after nine years on DStv.

FOX's zombie-hyped start - and zombie ending

The FOX Africa channel started its linear broadcast life in May 2010 in South Africa as FOX Entertainment when On Digital Media (ODM) launched its TopTV satellite service (now StarSat) with several Fox-supplied channels that came and went over the years like FX, FOX Retro, FOX Life and FOX Crime.

FOX Entertainment rebranded to FOX from April 2013 after MultiChoice signed a new carriage deal to also carry FOX.

FOX became a solid B+ general entertainment channel coming close to rivaling premium channels like M-Net and BBC Entertainment over the past decade with shows like Falling Skies, Da Vinci's Demons, Empire, The Resident, Deep State as its first original Europe and Africa commissioned drama series, War of the Worlds recently and even stealing The Simpsons away from M-Net.

The biggest content contributor to the desirability factor of FOX as a TV channel however came in the licensing coup of AMC Studios' global zombie series hit The Walking Dead that started in October 2010 just as FOX began as a channel in South Africa and that is ending just as FOX is ending, with its 11th season that started on Sunday 22 August.

Ironically, after multiple seasons of doing both live late-night simulcast airings at the same time as in America, as well as "Express from the US" episodes where viewers in Africa saw The Walking Dead episodes within a day of broadcast after the United States, Disney is now ripping the show and how the story ends away from pay-TV subscribers who have been following it for a decade on FOX Africa.

Viewers of DStv, StarTimes and StarSat will not see any of the new weekly episodes of the concluding 11th season of The Walking Dead in August or September before FOX shuts down, with the show's latest season conspicuously absent from the FOX schedule.

Why FOX is ending

The FOX News (StarSat 261) channel from Fox Corporation will remain on StarTimes and StarSat but the axing of FOX Africa on StarSat and DStv is the culmination of the Walt Disney Company's corporate takeover of 21st Century Fox in 2019.

In May, Bob Chapek, Walt Disney CEO, said that Disney planned to close 100 of its remaining international FOX, FOX Crime and FOX Life channels, as well as several Disney Channel, Disney Junior and even some iterations of the National Geographic channels in various markets before the end of this year, from the United Kingdom and New Zealand, to Australia and across Southeast Asia.

Disney is shutting down these channels for two reasons: It wants to get rid of the "FOX" name in all its channel branding and assets, similar to how it renamed its studios of 20th Century Fox to 20th Century Studios and 20th Century Fox Television as 20th Television. 

Secondly, Disney wants to take back its content tied up in linear TV channel distribution deals and consolidate its content to put it all on its own Disney+ video streaming service that it is rolling out globally, with Bob Chapek who earlier this month in its latest investors' conference call said that "our direct-to-consumer business is the company's top priority".

Disney plans to launch Disney+ in South Africa from any time around June 2022.

Viewers noticed FOX sliding out of  focus

In May, viewers became alarmed when they started noticing that the FOX schedule suddenly began to zombify with a lot more rebroadcasts and repeats and a dramatic decrease in new, first-run series on the channel than previously. 

Worried pay-TV subscribers feared and speculated that the visible lack of volume of new content meant that the less energy and focus given to FOX was possibly signaling that the TV channel is going to be discontinued.

Disney in response to a media enquiry in May then responded very much with the same statement it did now, saying: "We continue to invest in both direct-to-consumer (DTC) and linear businesses, with the goal being providing our fans with multiple entry points to our content and our brand. We take a market by market approach and continuously evaluate our media networks business on an ongoing basis but have nothing to announce at this time."

Impact on subscribers

The termination of FOX in Africa will hit StarTimes and StarSat and its subscribers, harder than MultiChoice and DStv subscribers since FOX has been the last remaining good general entertainment with American content left on StarTimes' channels line-up, whereas MultiChoice still has channels like M-Net and others to somewhat blunt the impact of FOX's loss.

StarTimes and StarSat subscribers, still angry after the loss of Discovery Family in late-January and the loss of more Discovery Inc. channels - StarTimes Real Time, Investigation Discovery, Investigation Discovery French, Discovery Science and Discovery Science French - since the beginning of this month, are upset about the end of FOX.

"I am so done with StarSat right now," said subscriber Loraine Ellis, echoing the sentiment of hundreds of StarSat subscribers on Facebook on Monday. "You have taken away multiple channels over the past year or so and replaced it with absolutely nothing. How are we going to watch The Walking Dead when the new season starts?"

Pay-TV customer Johan Kruger said that if FOX doen't show The Walking Dead "real soon everyone will resort back to piracy. We got all previous seasons at the exact same time as it aired in the US".

DStv subscribers in countries like Ghana, Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania where price increases come into effect from September will likely wonder why they have to pay more but at the same time get less when the FOX channel is taken away.

Today's interesting TV stories to read from TV with Thinus - 18 September 2015

CNN's republican debate broadcast on CNN International (DStv 401) was a disaster.
Three hours long with very little control.

Its made the Daily News front page with "Clown News Network" over the lack of control, too much Donald Trump and bad CNN moderator Jake Tapper.

It did give CNN nearly 23 million viewers which could be a new record for that news channel's ratings in America.

Vox has its list of the best and worse TV shows of the upcoming new season
which we'll start to see soon on M-Net (DStv 101), FOX (DStv 125 / StarSat 131) and Vuzu AMP (DStv 114).
The upcoming is not necessarily garbage but there's apparently very little new shows to be excited about.

SABC for the poor?
Faith Muthambi, minister of communication, applauds the SABC "for making sure that the poor will be able to enjoy the best of the Rugby World Cup". Oh, and she says "the SABC continues to punch above their weight".

Meanwhile Faith Muthambi has shown "breathtaking ignorance of her role and that of the SABC"
as experts say the bad minister of communications has set a very bad precedent by supporting the SABC's controversial and famously matricless Hlaudi Motsoeneng.

Downton Abbey's final season starts this Sunday.
Where did we leave them and will we get any answers? While the final season starts in the United Kingdom and for the rest of the world, South Africans are going to wait very long to see the final season of the ITV drama on BBC First.


The glory, oh the wonder, of he who is Hlaudi Motsoeneng - from SABC Education.
Does this almost read exactly like a praise song, a beautiful adoration to our dear leader of North Korea?
The day's must-read piece is from SABC Education that writes "numerous occasions and at any given moment, Hlaudi Motsoeneng has always been able to capture the crowd and leave a person wondering what it is about him that is so special. These two qualities have seen him rise through the ranks and have contributed immensely to his accomplishments.

You really have to read the whole thing. "Questions flooded from the communications professionals, they wanted to know almost everything about him, both professionally and personally. He held nothing back; he shared with them everything that they wanted to know."


MSNBC (StarSat 263) to look more like the NBC News Channel.
MSNBC changing from Monday to look much more like the NBC Night News news bulletin, with more hard news reporting, with anchors who will now be bring viewers the news - not give their take on it.

Zuku lowering its monthly subscription prices.
In East Africa while MultiChoice is hiking DStv subscription prices, and StarTimes is hiking subscription prices, Zuku is lowering its subscription prices.

Court case over Hlaudi Motsoeneng starting in Supreme Court of Appeals today.
Embattled and matricless SABC chief operating officer (COO) court case goes to the next level.

Today's interesting TV stories to read from TV with Thinus - 8 September 2015.

Viacom reveals it will launch Viacom Play Plex.
Viacom Play Plex will launch at the end of the year as a global subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) service in 180 countries where Viacom has channels including South Africa. VIMN Africa runs channels in South Africa and Africa on DStv like Nickelodeon, MTV, MTV Base, BET and Comedy Central.

Netflix says Jeremy Clarkson and his friends were "not worth the money".
Didn't pick up the former Top Gear presenters (the three went to Amazon) because "it wasn't worth it".

Isidingo on SABC3's attack on Christianity.
Endemol's logo is the Eye of Horus and an anagram for 'El Demon' and Isidingo's currenty storyline with Pastor Gabriel and his cult is "a full on attack on Christianity" says this essay.

Zuku TV is cutting down its packages to just 2.
The East African pay-TV operator is reconfiguring its 3 packages to just 2 as MultiChoice's DStv hikes its monthly subscriptions.

Problem with piracy of TV content is "bigger than ever"
Says A+E chief. Says the TV industry needs to keep up its efforts to tackle people illegally watching content.

DStv subscribers misled by MultiChoice's telesales people.
Consumer journalist Wendy Knowler details how telesales agents at On Air exploited subscribers and says complain if this also happened to you.

The lovely Larry King is preparing for the final cancellation.
Wonderful New York Times profile of Larry King obsessed with death.

Why Mr. Robot on M-Net (DStv 101) is not a great show yet.
Although the show is brilliant as a critique of what modern society has become. And without Rami Malek Mr Robot would have been a failure.

Queen Elizabeth II watches Downton Abbey ...
... and she points out the mistakes in the drama which will continue on BBC First on DStv.

Forbes on why Netflix should be afraid of ShowMax.
ShowMax has acquired video-on-demand rights Netflix now won't be able to get when it launches.

MSNBC (StarSat 263) pulls the plug on Al Sharpton's show.
Al Sharpton's daily, weeknight Politics Nation is dumped on weekends as part of the news channel's make-over.

The upcoming UnReal on Lifetime (DStv 131) renewed for a 2nd season.

Alessandra Stanley moving on after 12 years.
The New York Times' influential and often contentious TV critic is done covering TV and will now write about the world of the rich.

Adventure Time, Regular Show and 3 other Cartoon Network (DStv 301) shows renewed.
Adventure Time, Regular Show, Uncle Grandpa, Steven Universe and Clarence will all see further seasons on Cartoon Network.

Shonda Rhimes explains Grey's Anatomy's 1 year time-jump.
The 12th season will start on M-Net (DStv 101) very soon.

Today's interesting TV stories to read from TV with Thinus - 24 March 2015

You don't want DStv and StarSat to sell their TV channels individually.
If MultiChoice and On Digital Media and StarTimes Media SA s"unbundle" their pay-TV channels, guess what ... you are going to be paying a lot more for DStv and StarSat.
Meanwhile Canada will offer pay-TV subscribers a la carte pay-TV channels from next year - but it will mean higher "per-subscriber carriage fees".


MultiChoice to add a new TV channel for Southern Africa soon.
The new TV channel from M-Net on DStv will be for movie producers to broadcast their local content across the Southern Africa region. The new DStv channel will be in standard definition (SD) and M-Net is looking for movies from localfilmmakers.

"The SABC is now a propaganda machine."
The COPE political party says the SABC is no longer an authentic public broadcaster but increasingly a propaganda machine for the ruling party.


Meanwhile the SABC is getting ready to fire 2 more SABC board members.
SABC board members Rachel Kalidass and Ronnie Lubisi received letters in March accusing them of fraudulent conduct and they've been threatened with suspension. The Communication Workers' Union (CWU) says it is extremely concerned with what is going on at the SABC and the minister of communications, Faith Muthambi's, interference.
Meanwhile former SABC board member Lumko Mtimde who resigned in 2013 could be making a comeback as SABC board member - he is one of 97 candidates nominated for the new position after Ellen Zandile Tshabalala's disgraceful exit.


Anger keeps building over massive 20% and DStv price increase in Zambia.
Meanwhile a consumer watchdog body in Zambia says DStv's massive price hike from 1 April is too steep and untimely.

Meanwhile Sky is hiking its subscription fees from June.
Sky usually increases its subscriptions in September every year but is now starting to do it twice a year.


Jeremy Clarkson says he's been fired by the BBC.
The star of Top Gear on BBC Entertainment (DStv 120) tells an audience at a charity auction he was sacked by the BBC. In an obscenity-laced tirade Jeremy Clarkson said the BBC "f*cked up" Top Gear.
Meanwhile BBC Worldwide has been forced to cancel the first of the Top Gear Live shows, with the Norway one which is getting postponed after Jeremy Clarkson's "fracas".
Meanwhile The Hollywood Reporter asks whether the BBC will really fire Jeremy Clarkson.


Sky News (DStv 402) reporter "devastated".
Martin Brunt tells inquest he is "devastated" after death of woman he interviewed who was an online troll.

More people fired at E! Entertainment (DStv 124).
Betsy Rott, Tim Rosta and Leigh Anne Gardner are out together with "virtually everyone in the TV specials department".

Downton Abbey's upcoming 6th season will be its last.
TVLine reports that the new 6th season of the ITV drama shown on BBC Entertainment (DStv 120) will end after the 6th series.

Masechaba Lekalake done with Ekse on e.tv.
Her final episode of the local talk show on e.tv which saw production upheaval behind the scenes, will be on Thursday, 26 March.

Zuku wants DStv to pay penalties in content sharing fight.
Zuku TV from Wananchi has asked Kenya's Competition Authority to force MultiChoice Kenya to resell some of the rights to its exclusive content and to pay penalties

Africa's 2014 FIFA World Cup TV rights drama: StarTimes and Zuku TV steal football feed; MultiChoice cuts countries' TV channels from DStv.

There's television drama across sub-Saharan Africa's pay-TV and television biz as StarTimes and Zuku TV allegedly stole the football feed of the 2014 FIFA World Cup without having the rights to it, while MultiChoice Africa is blacking out and pulling free-to-air (FTA) TV channels in several countries from the DStv platform which are showing 2014 FIFA World Cup soccer with rights they legitimately acquired.

Firstly, the Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (KBC) in Kenya got an urgent court interdict from high court judge Eric Ogola to block Wananchi Group Limited running the pay-TV service Zuku TV and China's StarTimes (also operating under the same name in South Africa) from using its own exclusively-secured 2014 FIFA World Cup content in Kenya.

Only KBC was authorised by FIFA to broadcast 2014 FIFA World Cup matches in Kenya as a FTA broadcaster, as well as MultiChoice and SuperSport which is showing it on subscription television on DStv and GOtv.

"The rest do not appear to me to have any relationship with the soccer] organisation," said judge Eric Ogola granting the court order.

StarTimes and Wananchi using the FIFA content on its pay-TV platforms, have allegedly breached the licence agreement between KBC and FIFA.

KBC says that the two pay-TV operators broadcasting its signal of the 2014 FIFA World Cup matches it secured, will jeopardise its business since viewers won't feel compelled to tune in to KBC for the exclusivity it paid for.

StarTimes allegedly went as far as hacking into KBC's terrestrial TV feed and pirating that signal to broadcast 2014 FIFA World Cup coverage on its pay-TV platform to not just viewers in Kenya but also in Uganda and Tanzania.

StarTimes and the others could now possibly be sued.

Meanwhile StarTimes blatantly lied to the public and StarTimes subscribers, telling them that StarTimes will be showing 2014 FIFA World Cup matches live from the beginning until the end of the tournament - without actually having any rights.

In full colour print ads StarTimes said "Score with the best deal in town watch live football in crystal clear digital quality on StarTimes".

Meanwhile MultiChoice has yanked Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation's (ZBC) TV channel off DStv for 2014 FIFA World Cup matches in Zimbabwe, as well as others like the Namibian Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) in Namibia.

These broadcasters legitimately secured the FTA rights to the 2014 FIFA World Cup matches in their respective countries.

While viewers can now see ZBC and NBC as terrestrial channels (only) during the soccer, their signals on DStv are terminated.

On 11 June, right before the 2014 FIFA World Cup started, MultiChoice Africa suddenly sent this letter (right) (click to enlarge) to public broadcasters across Africa, like KBC and NBC in Kenya and Namibia, explaining why FTA channels showing soccer World Cup matches on DStv will be going dark and will be blacked out.

"ZBC wishes to apologise to its viewers receiving the ZBC TV signal on the DStv platform for interruption of transmission since the beginning of the World Cup Brazil 2014," says Clifford Mfiri, ZBC's head of production and TV services, in a statement.

"ZBC has received correspondence from MultiChoice Zimbabwe to the effect that they have been notified by the world football governing body, FIFA, to effect a blanket ban on all free-to-air TV channels broadcasting the games".

"ZBC has acquired the rights to the tournament and is broadcasting all 64 matches and it is accessible through terrestrial TV where viewers need a normal aerial and not a satellite dish to receive the ZBC signal. Any inconvenience is sincerely regretted."

The same is happening in Nigeria for instance with broadcaster AIT where viewers can watch 2014 FIFA World Cup matches on AIT's terrestrial broadcast but see a blacked-out channel on AIT on DStv.

Meanwhile the Namibian Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) is furious with MultiChoice Africa over the black-out issue and its channel not being available on DStv to viewers in that country, saying that the NBC has had "lots of run-ins in recent times" with MultiChoice.

NBC's director-general Albertus Oachamub on Thursday said that MultiChoice Namibia suddenly cancelled NBC's signal on DStv after NBC announced that it acquired the 64 soccer matches from FIFA to show free-to-air.

"At the eleventh hour, just a couple of hours before we were to go live with our broadcast, they've decided to let us know that this is going to happen [NBC signal cut and going black on DStv]," said Albertus Oachamub in a television interview.

"What makes the matter a bit more complicated is the fact that this message is relayed to us at the eleventh hour and therefore we could not have warned all our viewers that receive us through the MultiChoice bouquet".

"Secondly it makes one wonder what the real reasons were, what the real motives are behind such a last minute announcement".

"We have had lots of run-ins in recent times with MultiChoice. Therefore I'm saying that a last minute announcement like that, makes one wonder if it is really, genuinely for the reasons in the letter that they have sent," said Albertus Oachamub.

"It smacks of some sort of sabotage, a deliberate attempt to make NBC look bad. And definitely this does not sound of good partnership".

"But we will consider all our options, because it is not right that our viewers have to be impacted in this way, especially shortly, just literally two days after we've said we're going to be carrying all the games live," said Albertus Oachamub.

It's not clear why the SABC in South Africa on MultiChoice's DStv platform is not affected in the same way as ZBC, NBC and others across Africa.

The SABC as a public broadcaster is showing the 2014 FIFA World Cup matches as a terrestrial broadcaster, but these matches can also be watched and are not blacked-out on MultiChoice's DStv as well as On Digital Media's (ODM) StarTimes which are pay-TV services in South Africa, as well as on Platco Digital's OpenView HD (OVHD) which is a free-to-air direct-to-home (DTH) satellite TV platform.

Wananchi Group gearing up to expand its East African pay-TV service, Zuku TV, into Malawi, Rwanda and Ethiopia by the end of 2014.

The Wananchi Group, the East African satellite pay-TV operator plans to expand and will launch Zuku TV in Malawi and wants to launch Zuku TV in Ethiopia and Rwanda as well by the end of this year.

The Wananchi Group will invest $10 million to launch Zuku TV in Malawi. The pay-TV operator is already available in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania and growing steadily.

Following its launch in Malawi the operator will be available in 16 million TV households in East Africa.

"We believe through our compelling offering – a wide selection of entertainment channels covering news, sports, movies, documentaries and music – we are inevitably contributing to the country's digital knowledge and economy infrastructure," says Richard Alden, the Wananchi Group CEO.

"Our goal is to ensure the majority, if not all, households in the country have access to our world class digital television content at very affordable subscription charges".

"We believe that there is a rapidly growing market segment that is eager to be part of a digital multichannel television world for the range and choice that it offers to the whole family".

"Our offering has been structured to meet that need – and we see a truly exciting opportunity in this. As an East African company we are committed to maintaining a close focus on this market, and are delighted to be a part of its growth," says Richard Alden.

BREAKING. FOX channels start to return to TV across Africa to StarSat in South Africa, as well as StarTimes and Zuku.

You're reading it here first.

The FOX channels supplied by Fox International Channels Africa (FIC Africa) to pay-TV operators across Africa such as On Digital Media's (ODM) StarSat in South Africa as well as the platforms of StarTimes and Zuku are returning and stabilising - although still suffering from pixelation - after the channels were abruptly cut and went black on operators' channel line-ups on Wednesday evening.

FIC Africa tells TV with Thinus that Fox was made aware that there was a major signal disruption on its channels FOX and FX on the StarSat platform in South Africa, as well as China's StarTimes and the Wananchi Group's Zuku platforms late on Wednesday. FOX Crime was not impacted.

With no communication from On Digital Media to StarSat subscribers on Wednesday or early on Thursday morning, and due to past troubles, StarSat subscribers in South Africa immediately assumed that all the Fox channels were yanked due to financial problems as has happened to several other channels over the past two years.

Subscribers didn't know what to do, or who to blame. Was the Fox blackout due to Fox? Was it due to StarSat? The problem however has been technical and due to the signal provider relaying the Fox channels to pay-TV providers.

The Fox channels on MultiChoice's DStv were not affected.

"These platforms use the same signal distributor and due to inclement weather, the fibre carrying the channels was impacted, leaving viewers with no picture," Thandi Davids, the director for broadcasting and marketing at FIC Africa in Johannesburg explains.

"This was purely a technical issue. Fox has worked with all platforms to resolve the problem and viewers on these platforms should have the channels up and running at this moment. Platforms are presently stabilizing the signal quality".

"As FIC we are unable to communicate on platform technical issues, only on issues that are within our direct technical control," she says.

ODM has so far not issued any statement or officially commented on behalf of the pay-TV provider, although a StarSat spokesperson on Thursday morning told TV with Thinus that "the problem is with the service provider who provides the fibre link in Europe and that "they are working on the problem with a good deal of urgency".

Richard Alden the new group CEO of Wananchi, and Zuku's self-compiled TV channels become available outside of East Africa for the first time.

Richard Alden has been appointed as the new group CEO of Wananchi, the operator of the ZUKU pay-TV platform in East Africa.

Zuku's TV channels are now also available outside of East Africa for the first time in a deal with the Seychelles-based pay-TV operator Intelvision.

Zuku's Zuku Life, all four Zuku Movies channels and Zuku Swahili Movies are now available outside of East Africa for the first time since the beginning of November.

"We're very pleased that out channels will be travelling outside of the borders of East Africa for the first time and we hope that viewers in the Seychelles will be entertained by the programming we are offering," says Hannelie Bekker, the managing director of Wananchi programming.

Meanwhile Richard Alden has moved up to group CEO position; he has been the group's chief operating officer (COO) and has taken over from Richard Bell.

Zuku adds a self-compiled sports TV channel in HD as part of 11 new TV channels on its East African pay-TV service.

The successful East African satellite pay-TV operator Wananchi is adding 11 new TV channels and doing what South Africa's beleaguered TopTV operator couldn't: successfully adding TV channels and growing its bouquet and even creating a sports channel - and in high definition (HD) - which TopTV failed to accomplish.

Wananchi which operates the Zuku pay-TV platform operating in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania and made a failed bid for TopTV in South Africa, has added 11 new TV channels to its bouquet, under which Zuku Sports HD, its own branded sports channel comprised of content from the official English Premier League clubs Arsenal and Manchester United.

Zuku also added the music network 1music which is available on Sky in the United Kingdom and Dish in the United States. The other sports channel Zuku now has available for subscribers is Setanta Action.

Zuku also added channels from the Chinese state broadcaster CCTV: the English 24-hour news channel CCTV News, the new CCTV9 Documentary channel and the CCTV4 channel which is broadcast in Mandarin. The Germany news channel DW News and India's first 24-hour food channel Zee Khana Kazana has also been added.

There's also four new movie channels: Shorts TV, focusing on emerging film talent, UTV Movies which is a Hindi film channel from India, Zuku Swahili Movies, and Zuku Movies Max HD.