Euronews, Multichoice tie to expand African satellite TV stakes

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Euronews and MultiChoice Africa say they have strengthened their co-operation which began in 2004, to further explore satellite TV market stakes across Africa.

Euronews says it will continues its development in Sub-Saharan Africa thanks to new distribution agreements with DStv Africa and Ouest TV, as well as launching for the first time on an African DTT network in Mozambique.

In the evolving African audiovisual landscape, the DStv Africa satellite bouquet is showcasing the Portuguese service of Euronews, the only international news channel broadcasting in that language, by launching Euronews Português on “GoTV+”, its DTT service in Mozambique, the companies announced.

To meet the growing demand of viewers on its satellite platform in Portuguese-speaking countries, DStv has also decided to allocate a specific channel to Euronews Portuguese for its customers in Mozambique and Angola, giving them prime access to an international news source in their language.

DStv Africa offers its Sub-Saharan viewers seven out of Euronews’ 13 languages that include English, French, Portuguese, Spanish, German, Italian and Russian.

In a related development, Euronews and Ouest TV, a news channel for West and Central Africa, have signed an agreement allowing the African channel to rebroadcast programmes, live, from Euronews French, every hour between 18:30 and 23:30, in 30-minute segments.

Based in Senegal, Ouest TV broadcasts in French to 24 countries in West and Central Africa. It is also available unencrypted across Sub-Saharan Africa via the AMOS 5 satellite.

“Africa has been a key focus of our development for many years. Currently, 18 million viewers in Sub-Saharan Africa receive Euronews. And, as we prepare for the launch of its sister channel, Africanews, our strengthened relations with the biggest TV operators on the continent is a very positive sign for our development in the future”, according to Arnaud Verlhac, Euronews’ Director of International Distribution.

Jean-Luc Maertens, Head of Distribution Africa and the Middle-East: “Reinforcing our presence in Portuguese-speaking Africa proves that the multilingualism of Euronews is a determining factor in our development in emerging markets such as this one. DStv Africa wisely chose to create a dedicated channel for Euronews in Portuguese for its satellite line-up and to include our channel on its brand new DTT bouquet, GO TV+ in Mozambique.”