Watch out BBC Entertainment! ITV Choice to launch in Africa on DStv Tuesday 5 May

ITV Studios Global Entertainment partners with MultiChoice to bring great British entertainment and drama to African viewers

ITV Choice will launch across Africa for the first time following a deal between ITV Studios Global Entertainment and African pay-TV operator MultiChoice. The commercial channel will launch exclusively on DStv across the continent as the home of great British entertainment and drama.

ITV Choice has a packed schedule lined up for its launch on DStv on Tuesday, 5 May 2015. Entertainment highlights include ITV Studios’ award-winning primetime entertainment series Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway; family entertainment shows Big Star’s Little Star from 12 Yard and Keep It In The Family from ITV Studios and Over The Top Productions, celebrities mastering variety acts in ITV Studios’ Get Your Act Together and 12 Yard’s Eggheads and Coach Trip.

The drama offering features brand new titles such as Poldark, the period drama adaptation of the classic novels produced by Mammoth Screen; Arthur & George, Buffalo Pictures’ adaptation of Julian Barnes’ novel about the life of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, played by Martin Clunes and ITV Studios’ World War II drama Home Fires.

It also features detective series Vera and Murdoch Mysteries and Britain’s best-loved soaps, Coronation Street and Emmerdale. All programming will air very close to UK transmission dates, with the soaps airing within 48 hours of the UK.

ITV Choice will be exclusively available to DStv Premium customers on DStv channel 123, across the African continent. The launch means that ITV Choice will now be available in over 100 countries across the Middle East, Asia and Africa.

Nic van Zwanenberg, Channel Director of ITV Choice, said: “We are delighted to bring ITV Choice to Africa for the first time with MultiChoice as our partners. Viewers across the continent will join 11 million households in over 40 countries and territories in the Middle East and Asia who already enjoy the best British entertainment and drama within days of it airing in the UK. This is a key element of our strategy to build the ITV Choice footprint, and we look forward to announcing further expansion in due course.”

Aletta Alberts, GM for Content for MultiChoice South Africa commented: “Our customers love British content and when we decided to add more British channels, ITV was the natural choice. The cherry on top is that our DStv Premium customers will get to see the majority of programming only two days after the UK broadcast.”