Less than three years after it launched, MultiChoice has announced that the Honey 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 a misguided offering of locally produced lifestyle programming.
In a statement, the payTV operator said, “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).”
“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.
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 it would “focus on authentic African storytelling, made possible through a groundbreaking content creation model in which the channel partners with producers in different African countries to create hundreds of hours of new African shows”.
