Telenovela lovers have dedicated Turkish, Latin and Indian novela channels all over the place and now MultiChoice has created their own local collection with a dedicated African novela channel as a spin-off to their "Magic" stable.
Novela Magic launches in South Africa on Channel 165 this Friday, 27 November at 18h00 and features novelas from West and Southern African countries, which have already aired in their respective regions or on other channels/platforms e.g. Africa Magic and Showmax.
It launches in South Africa first - on Premium, Compact Plus, Compact and Family - and will then be rolled out to other countries in phases.
It isn't clear whether everyone will see the same line-up or not but we presume they will to make the channel one cohesive whole.
Alternatively different regions will only see foreign novelas that aren't from their home country because there are only foreign titles in the South African channel premiere line-up.
Launch line-up
Series that have been filmed in a country's local language have been dubbed into English and the channel premieres with four novelas.
They are:
Forbidden
From: Nigeria
This Nollywood production tells the story of the secret affair between two lovers who are exposed when a colleague sends a compromising picture of them to online blogs.
Zuba
From: Zambia
Zambia's first telenovela tells the story of an innocent, rural teenage girl who must leave her family and education behind to be a domestic worker for a complex, wealthy urban family where she falls for the young son of the house.
Battleground
From: Nigeria
The Bhadmus family's love for one another is put to the test when an unfortunate tragedy leads to shocking secrets being exposed and power struggles within their ranks. Infidelity, crooked business deals and constant media scrutiny are the order of the day.
Unbroken
From: Nigeria
Tells the love story between Tivdo and Jesse who are crazy in love. Tivdo plans to marry Jesse until tragedy strikes, leaving him disabled after a car accident where his beloved fiancée, Jesse, was at the wheel.
Channel Clock
It's a 24-hour channel with new episodes between 18h00 and 21h30 from Mondays to Sundays. The cycle then repeats throughout the day.
The launch night looks somewhat different from the nights that follow:
Launch night
18h00: Forbidden Episode 1
18h30: Forbidden Episode 2
19h00: Zuba Episode 1
19h30: Zuba Episode 2
20h00: Battleground Episode 1
21h00: Unbroken Episode 1
Battleground starts with an hour-long episode and thereafter becomes two half-hour eps a night.
Only one half-hour episode of Unbroken airs a night.
We'll keep you posted as and when new titles are added.