Blackbelt TV (DStv channel 129) is no more.The channel first appeared on South African television more than two years ago, sporting the tagline: “Kicks, Flicks and Chicks”. As mission statements go, Blackbelt TV did exactly what it said it would do, giving us lots of martial arts content (especially MMA – mixed martial arts), a number of great martial art films and, of course, beautiful women.
In keep with their commitment to the local market, Blackbelt TV had also signed contracts with a few local MMA circuits, exposing smaller fighting leagues to a larger audience. There was also an extensive library of classic kung fu films that dominated a good chunk of the channel’s air time.
The “chicks” came in the form of the presenters. They seemed to be primarily chosen for their looks, but they could also conduct meaningful interviews with action film royalty like Dolph Lundgren and Danny Trejo. The channel also included martial arts demonstrations from celebrities like Cynthia Rothrock. Other stars like Marc Dacascos (Romeo Must Die 2; Crying Freeman) and Chris Casamasa (Mortal Kombat) hosted segments during which they displayed their martial arts skills.
Essentially, Blackbelt TV was the go-to place if you needed to have your martial arts fix. So why did it close?
“We just felt we were not going in the direction that we wanted to,” said the chief executive of the channel, Larry Kassanof.
“We worked very well with DStv and there was not any ill-feeling when this agreement came to an end. It was a mutual business agreement which we are very happy with,” he explained.
While the two entities amicably parted ways, Kassanof explained that the move was an attempt for Blackbelt TV to gain a single identity worldwide.
“We look at this from a business point of view. We are thinking of the bigger picture and saying we need to air Blackbelt TV the way we do in the US, everywhere else. The situation before was such that we would have to tailormake our content for every territory, taking into consideration the social and cultural aspects of each territory. So you get places that feel that you have too many movies or too many chicks or vice versa. So it becomes a cumbersome process to try and cater for all the markets that we air to. So we had to make that call and pull out of several territories and air only where we can present ourselves the way we would like without having to make any alterations. Again, I must add that we did not have any problems with Mulitchoice as a company, we actually hope to work with them in future projects,” explained Kassanof.
Kassanof is based in Los Angeles and he is the chief executive of Threshold Entertainment, the company that has worked on many TV and film productions including Arnold Schwarzenegger’s True Lies, Lego: The Adventures of Clutch Powers and Mortal Kombat.
“We are not part of DStv anymore, but we are not necessarily leaving Africa. What I have learnt over the years is to go with my gut. When we thought of the idea of Mortal Kombat, several studios turned us down. It was only when one took a chance with us, and there was a lot of anticipation for the project, that the other studios started taking us seriously. We have a vision for Blackbelt TV and it is wrapped around the line: ‘Kicks, Flick and Chicks’ and we don’t want to steer from that,” he said.
Outside of running Blackbelt TV, Kassanof is busy with other projects, including producing movies: “We are working on a big video game movie, but we can’t say much about it now,” he hinted.