EbonyLife TV to exit DStv platform

African broadcast entertainment network EbonyLife TV, founded by Mo Abudu, will no longer air on pay platform DStv from the end of this month.

Mo Abudu

Abudu, CEO of EbonyLife TV, took to her Instagram page to make the announcement, saying: “Remember when we used to wait a whole week to watch our favourite TV shows? Well, those days are gone forever! Now we can binge on the whole series if we want to. Therefore, we have decided that EbonyLife TV will no longer be available on DStv from 31st July 2020.

“Create your own viewing schedule and watch your favourite EbonyLife shows with our app, EbonyLife ON, available from Play Store or App Store for access to our library of over 5,000 hours of series, lifestyle and entertainment.”

EbonyLife TV launched on DStv across Africa in July 2013 and debuted on rival service StarTimes in 2018. Later that year, the company launched its own VoD service available on iOS platforms and Google.

The channel was still available on StarTimes at the time of writing and no announcement has been made about dropping carriage on the Chinese-owned pay TV platform.

EbonyLife TV’s move to drop its linear channels on a third-party platform in favour of its own direct-to-consumer on-demand service mirrors a similar move by The Walt Disney Company.

The US-based giant recently announced plans to close Disney Channel, Disney XD and Disney Junior in the UK, with all content being made available exclusively on recently launched SVoD service Disney+ instead.

This article first appeared on C21’s sister site Content Nigeria.