By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
MultiChoice Group Ltd, Africa’s biggest pay-TV provider, stopped showing the Russia Today news channel after European Union sanctions against the country stopped the global distributor from providing the broadcast.
Russia Today, owned by the Russian government, won’t be shown until further notice, MultiChoice said in a statement. Other TV providers, including Britain’s Sky News, have also withdrawn the channel, according to UK media reports.
Companies around the world are moving to cut ties with Russia following the invasion of Ukraine last week, which triggered heavy sanctions by the EU, US and UK against financial institutions, individuals are more.
The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa, the industry regulator, said it was looking into the reasons for RT being taken off the air, citing the principle of “promoting plurality of views.”
Given the underlying principle of the South African broadcasting system for promoting a plurality of views, it is only prudent for Icasa to enquire with DStv on the rationale for the discontinuation of the RT channel, “said Icasa CEO Keabetswe Modimoeng in the statement.
Icasa said it “would like to put it on record that the broadcast of RT on the DStv platform is and continues to be a commercial agreement between the subscription TV broadcaster, MultiChoice and RT”.
The authority’s role in the broadcasting of RT has been solely limited to channel authorisation as submitted by the licensee (in this case, MultiChoice) and approved by Icasa prior to the channel being introduced.
The channel’s disappearance comes a day after MultiChoice said that it would not pull the channel of its pay-TV bouquets, despite an EU-wide ban and restrictions placed on it – and another Russian news broadcaster Sputnik – by technology giants including Google, YouTube, Microsoft, Meta Platforms and Twitter.
In response to a query, the company confirmed RT was pulled off its platform effective 2 March and “not be carried on the DStv platform until further notice”.
“Sanctions imposed on Russia have led to the global distributor of the channel ceasing to provide the broadcast feed to all suppliers, including MultiChoice,” it said.
MultiChoice relies on satellite backhaul links to receive its programming. It also distributes its channels to viewers using an Intelsat satellite. Intelsat is headquartered in Luxembourg, which is a member state of the EU.
South Africa is not one of the nations that has imposed sanctions, and the governing ANC has strong historical ties to Russia and continues to have good relations with it.