When Current TV faded to black right in front of TopTV subscribers, a few people were sad to see it go. Then the Nigerian channel, Hi Nolly, and the music video station, One Music, were the next to go.
But now TopTV has dealt viewers a more severe blow. While you were counting down into 2013, Turner Broadcasting was pulling its channels back from TopTV.
At midnight on December 31 three channels were terminated – Star!, Silver and Showtime. TopTV said in a message on TV that the channels would no longer air, but Heather Kennedy, TopTV’s vice-president of marketing, was not available to elaborate at the time of going to print. We’ve been told that Turner Broadcasting has “taken the decision to terminate the African distribution of its channels for operational reasons, and this decision is thus beyond the control of TopTV.”
Also in the statement, the TopTV vice-president of channels, Ian Woodrow, said: “Although this comes at a challenging time in the company’s development, with a business rescue process under way, TopTV is confident it will be able to secure alternative channels early in 2013. Until these replace-ments are found, we will endeavour to secure additional channels and programming that will be of inte-rest to our subscribers.”
It’s early 2013 and so far nothing has replaced those lost channels. The biggest disappointment is the loss of Showtime, which had a wealth of old-school movies, straight-to-VHS releases and cool flicks that were made iconic through music videos. It also screened many films that used black casts, which is not popular on any pay-TV operator unless it has something to do with reality shows. Speaking of reality, New York – who burst on to the scene as a Flava of Love contestant and ran with her 15 minutes of fame by starting her own shows – will also be missed as her shows aired on Star!
TopTV has always found a replacement for the channels that fade to black, but it must be said that this fading takes place a little more than most of us would like.