 | |
| Broadcast area | South Africa |
|---|---|
| Programming | |
| Language(s) | English |
| Picture format | 1080i HDTV (downscaled to 16:9 576i for the SDTV feed) |
| Ownership | |
| Owner | Multichoice Group[1] |
| Sister channels | M-Net Africa Magic kykNET M-Net Movies M-Net City Mzansi Magic SuperSport Vuzu Novela Magic |
| History | |
| Launched | 17 October 1997[2] |
| Links | |
| Website | http://www.channelo.dstv.com |
Channel O is a South Africa–based music channel that started transmission in 1997. Its main concept is African music in Africa and the diaspora.
Channel O can be accessed via DStv, a satellite pay TV service for pan-African households. The channel broadcasts a variety of music videos.
The channel was set up to target the 16-24 demographic, with a variety of African tracks played.[3]
At the start of its existence, the channel started arranging agreements with terrestrial television channels outside of South Africa. Such agreements included Sanyu Television in Uganda (later bought by TVAfrica and subsequently shut down) and the Kenya Television Network. The channel was created following a failed attempt by Johnny Clegg to launch an African version of MTV, that was planned between 1994 and 1995.[3]
An agreement between M-Net and the SABC prompted SABC 1 to start airing a eight-to-ten hour block of Channel O programming over its terrestrial network from 11 December 1998. With this deal, Channel O's viewership base increased from 35 million to 45 million.[4] In late 1999, some music videos seen on the channel were removed because of incompatibilities with Malawi's cultural code.[5]
It also holds the annual Channel O Music Video Awards ceremony, where artists are awarded for their outstanding contribution to music.
Channel O, in recent years, has lost a significant amount of popularity mainly due to the launch of rival channels MTV Base Africa, Trace Urban and Trace Africa. The channel has been trying several means to gain popularity including the increasingly popular method of creating a South African feed and a Rest of Africa feed (MTV Base and Trace have also adopted this).