ITV Studios Global
Entertainment partners with MultiChoice to bring great British entertainment
and drama to African viewers
ITV Choice will
launch across Africa for the first time following a deal between ITV Studios
Global Entertainment and African pay-TV operator MultiChoice. The commercial
channel will launch exclusively on DStv across the continent as the home of
great British entertainment and drama.
ITV Choice has a
packed schedule lined up for its launch on DStv on May 5, 2015. Entertainment
highlights include ITV Studios’ award-winning primetime entertainment series Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway;
family entertainment shows Big Star’s
Little Star from 12 Yard and Keep It
In The Family from ITV Studios and Over The Top Productions, celebrities
mastering variety acts in ITV Studios’ Get
Your Act Together and 12 Yard’s Eggheads
and Coach Trip.
The drama offering
features brand new titles such as Poldark,
the period drama adaptation of the classic novels produced by Mammoth Screen; Arthur & George, Buffalo Pictures’
adaptation of Julian Barnes’ novel about the life of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle,
played by Martin Clunes and ITV Studios’ World War II drama Home Fires. It also features detective
series Vera and Murdoch Mysteries and Britain’s best-loved soaps, Coronation Street and Emmerdale. All programming will air very
close to UK transmission dates, with the soaps airing within 48 hours of the
UK.
ITV Choice will be
exclusively available to DStv Premium customers on DStv channel 123, across the
African continent. The launch means that ITV Choice will now be available in over
100 countries across the Middle East, Asia and Africa.
Nic van Zwanenberg,
Channel Director of ITV Choice, said: “We are delighted to bring ITV
Choice to Africa for the first time with MultiChoice as our partners. Viewers
across the continent will join 11 million households in over 40 countries and
territories in the Middle East and Asia who already enjoy the best British
entertainment and drama within days of it airing in the UK. This is a key
element of our strategy to build the ITV Choice footprint, and we look forward
to announcing further expansion in due course.”
Aletta Alberts, GM
for Content for MultiChoice South Africa commented: “Our customers love British
content and when we decided to add more British channels, ITV was the natural
choice. The cherry on top is that our DStv Premium customers will get to see
the majority of programming only two days after the UK broadcast.”
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