Christian pop-up channel on DStv will cater for Easter worshippers

DStv has announced that it will launch a new pop-up channel to cater for Christians during the Easter weekend.

This comes after church leaders decided to cancel their annual Easter services due to the outbreak of the coronavirus.

The country has been placed in a 21-day lockdown by President Cyril Ramaphosa due to the escalating number of people testing positive for Covid-19.

In a joint statement on Monday, DStv and the department of communications and digital technology said the pop-up channel would launch on April 9 and would cater for “various Christianity groupings”. 

“The channel, named Africa Easter Channel, is in collaboration with the renowned TBN Africa, DStv channel 343.

“Across South Africa, more than  80% of worshippers observe and celebrate the Easter period, hence different Christian denominations will be looked after by the channel,” reads the statement.

It says the launch of the channel comes after minister Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams made the call for MultiChoice to set up a dedicated pop-up channel for various religious groups in the country during this Easter weekend.

“The current restrictions will see South Africans staying at home at Easter. Accordingly, Africa Easter Channel’s offering of music and sermons is bound to keep DStv viewers engaged and fulfilled during the four days of the channel going live. The channel will broadcast until Easter Monday, April 13,” reads the statement.

Churches to be featured in the channel include the Anglican church, the Methodist church and the Catholic church. Churches will be given a chance to submit recorded messages to be broadcast on the channel.

“Communications and digital technologies will play an important role during this disaster period and beyond.

“We appreciate MultiChoice’s response to our call for an industrywide intervention to ensure that religious programming, especially over the Easter weekend, is produced and accessible to millions of South Africans utilising alternative means,” said Ndabeni-Abrahams.