New Series Alert: Evil Affairs And Beyond Love Coming This April To Star Life

With Divya-Drishti's journey set to come to a close in April, Star Life was originally scheduled to air a repeat broadcast of The Evil Eye in its weeknight timeslot at 22:00 with Game Of Love taking up the 23:00 timeslot for the supernatural drama.

But as seen through several platforms later in the week, Star Life will be allocating two new shows to the lineup, Evil Affairs and Beyond Love. These series will be split within a 1 hour timeslot therefore increasing primetime on the channel from 13 to 15 series.

Synopsis for Evil Affairs: 

Evil Affairs (Shaitani Rasmein) centered around Nikki, an orphan who discovers love in Piyush, the prince of the esteemed Gehlot family of Bhurangarh. The story unfolds as they embark on the path to matrimony, blissfully unaware of the ominous secrets harboured by Piyush's family.

It starred Shefali Jariwala as Kapalika, Naqiyah Haji as Nikki, Vibhav Roy as Piyush, Surbhi Shukla as Arohi and Nikita Sharma as Saudamini. The series began broadcast earlier in the year and is currently on the air.

Synopsis for Beyond Love:

Beyond Love (Aashiqana) revolves around Yashwardhan Chauhan, a police officer who is haunted by the deaths of close family members, and Chikki Sharma, who aspires to be a police officer like her father but fails the entrance exams. 

It starred Zayn Ibad Khan as A.C.P. Yashvardhan Chauhan, Khushi Dubey as Chikki Chauhan, Harshita Shukla as Mausi, Anurag Vyas as Shyam and Sneha Chauhan as Payal. The series began broadcast in 2022 and since then 4 seasons had been produced so far.

Divya-Drishti will conclude by 7 April with Evil Affairs taking up the 22:00 timeslot with Beyond Love at 23:00 by 8 April On Star Life. 

News Shorts: A Rebroadcast Of Game Of Love Launches On Star Life, WWE Channel Extends Its Reach To DStv Ahead Of WrestleMania And Vodacom Will No Longer Offer Facebook Free Mode

Game Of Love returns to Star Life

The series celebrates the extended relations particular with Indian family set up while it follows the lives of three brothers as they navigate through life, career, family and falling in love. The show first follows the bond between the brothers and then shifts to the bonds they share with their significant others.

Game Of Love (Ishqbaaz) will start on 25 March replacing The Inseparables.

WWE Channel extends reach to DStv Access

With the school holidays around the corner, SuperSport will be opening up the WWE Channel to DStv Access from 28 March to 8 April as fans gear up for WrestleMania. Consumers will be able to browse various content such as This Is Awesome and WWE 24.

Prior to this, MultiChoice will be removing M-Net's Me And 1Magic channels alongside Ginx eSports TV on the DStv platform by the end of March.

Vodacom ends free mode on Facebook 

During the week, several Facebook users were alarmed after reports had surfaced that the free version to their service would end on 31 March 2024. With some confusing it for Meta when in reality Vodacom is ending its basic Free Flex campaign.

From 1st April, anyone who wishes to continue using their service would need to allocate airtime in order to get 15mb of Facebook data. Such endeavors had already been seen with other networks such as MTN.

New Series Alert: A Family Affair Launches On Novela E Plus In The Coming Weeks, Bitter Sweet Love And Titli Coming This March On Star Life

Novela E Plus, a general entertainment channel offering series from Latin America, Turkey and Asia alongside the Bollywood based channel Star Life had announced the launch of new series A Family Affair with Titli and Bitter Sweet Love only set to debut in March.

A Family Affair tells the story of a woman and four brothers are mysteriously entangled in a complicated relationship that tests the loyalties and love they have for one another. The Philippine drama series aired in 2022 under ABS-CBN Entertainment.

It starred Ivana Alawi as Cherry Red Magwayen, Gerald Anderson as Francisco "Paco" Estrella, Sam Milby as Dave Estrella, Jameson Blake as Andrew "Drew" Estrella and Jake Ejercito as Sebastian "Seb" Estrella.

Based on the Bengali series Irabotir Chupkotha, Bitter Sweet Love (Baatein Kuch Ankahee Si) follows Vandana, a family-oriented woman, and Kunal, a practical man, have contrasting personalities but both like music. As they cross paths, a series of ups and downs ensue in their lives.

Debuted on StarPlus by 2023, the Hindi series starred Sayli Salunkhe as Vandana "Vandu" Karmarkar Malhotra, Mohit Malik as Kunal Malhotra, Karanveer Mehra as Vaibhav Joshi and Jazlyn Tanwani as Tara Malhotra.

Titli tells the story of an orphaned girl who is raised by her uncle and aunt that was traumatized after the events of her first marriage. Later, she meets Garv who hired her as a decorator for his sister's wedding, ends up falling in love with her and devotes himself to God to impress her.

Debuted on StarPlus by 2023, the Hindi series starred Neha Solanki as Titli Mehta, Avinash Mishra as Garv Mehta, Rinku Dhawan as Koel Manikant Mehta and Yash Tonk as Manikant Mehta.

A Family Affair launches on Novela E Plus daily at 20:40 from 20 February. This will be followed by Star Life's new series Bitter Sweet Love which airs at 21:30 from 26 March and Titli which airs at 19:30 from 29 March with Zee World's Vani Rani also airing in the month.

News Shorts: A Rebroadcast Of My Identity And Along Came Love Launches On Star Life And TLNovelas Respectively, Skeem Saam On SABC 1 To Take On e.tv's Scandal This March And Warner Bros. Discovery EMEA Acquired Zig & Sharko Season 4 For Cartoonito

My Identity resurfaces on Star Life

The series explores the controversial life story of a child, Avni Ayesha, born out of wedlock. She is uncomfortable bearing the illegitimate identity that society has painted on her. As a result, Avni develops a strong determination to fight back and does not stop in her adulthood.

It will return to Star Life from 30 January replacing Sacred Relationships.

TLNovelas joins the snooze train with Along Came Love

After being deported and her father died, Luciana decides to return and meet again with the only family she has left: her mother and brother. That is why she travels to the US and shows up at the vineyard where both have worked for the past years, but when she arrives there and meets David, the landowner, she also bumps into an unexpected thing: love.

It will return to TLNovelas from 26 February replacing The Stepmother. This would serve as the first rebroadcast to have aired on the channel since Head Over Heels in 2022 so the channel is now rivalling Telemundo with their repeat padded offering.

Skeem Saam changing timeslots

For years, the SABC1 audience has made a plea, requesting to change the Skeem Saam timeslot, stating that the show timeslot is too early for some as the show broadcasts during the travelling time for a lot of the viewers.

The decision to move Skeem Saam to 19:30 is in line with SABC Video Entertainment's strategy to amplify its primetime local drama offering to its viewers from 19:30 to 21:30 with SABC1s Skeem Saam, Generations: The Legacy, Uzalo and SABC2s Muvhango.

For SABC1, we see this as an opportunity to make the channel edgier and braver and adapt to the audience's needs. The world of television is an exciting platform where we should not be afraid to adapt while upholding our responsibility to shape the youth and societal roles.

Zig & Sharko returns to Cartoonito

WBD (France, Africa), DR TV (Denmark), NRK Super (Norway), Markiza (Slovakia) and ERT (Greece) have bought Zig & Sharko season four (which premiered last fall on French broadcaster Gulli) to begin airing during Q2 to Q4 of this year. And season one is going to K+ Vietnam and Media Prima Malaysia.

Zig & Sharko launched in 2010 and revolves around a hyena’s endless attempts to capture a mermaid who is under the protection of a great white shark. 

The show is performing well on Netflix, according to an engagement report released by the streamer last month. Seasons one and two of Zig & Sharko racked up 40 million hours of viewing time in the first half of 2023 on the platform. 

New Series Alert (Rumour): Arundhati + The Love Of Two + Khukumoni Home Delivery + Gangaram Coming Soon To Star Life

Last year, we unveiled a batch of content rolling out on Star Life alongside several other brands covered on our website. Now the line-up of rumoured shows are set to expand as Star Life is reportedly set to rollout the following programs in the coming months.

• Arundhati: A middle-aged housewife, Arundhati, has dedicated her life to her husband and children. Her husband Anirudh has an affair with his colleague, Sanjana. Arundhati's elder son, Abhishek marries Ankita while Arundhati's younger son, Yash falls in love with Sanjana's niece, Gauri.

• The Love Of Two: Superstar Swaraj Joshi lived happily with wife Vaibahvi but she was very possessive about him their happiness was short lived as Vaibhavi passed away in an accident. After her death Swaraj meets a die hard fan but coincidentally her name is also Vaibhavi which.brings his breaking past in front of him. 

• Khukumoni Home Delivery: A young girl, Khukumoni, successfully runs a food delivery business. However, her life takes an unexpected turn when she is entrusted with feeding a wealthy but emotionally unstable man, Bihan.

• Gangaram: The story involves Gangaram Roy, a charming simpleton guy from a village whose life revolves around music. He is the son of Band Master Nepal Roy, who runs a famous musical band named "Surjhankar." He finds music in everything and dreams big about becoming a successful singer.

Development Alert: Zee One, Star Life, Discovery Science, MSNBC And More TV Channels Exit Zuku TV

During the week, it was reported that Zuku TV had reinstated National Geographic, National Geographic Wild, Baby TV and only 1 ESPN channel. As the latter are currently packaged by MultiChoice's DStv and StarTimes' and On Digital Media's StarSat platforms.

After being replaced by Animal Planet, TLC and Discovery, Zuku TV had opted to remove these channels and worse kill of a few more channels like Star Life, Zee One, Travel Channel, MSNBC, Discovery Science, Real Time, Planet Fun, 360 TuneBox, Zuku Action and Zuku Max.

There had been channels which had suffering signal loss but the above mentioned are just the few channels in which Zuku TV had been reviewing and opted to no longer distribute. Consumers are flooding the socials threatening to cut ties or opt to rival platforms if the latter isn't reinstated.

Three years ago, Zuku TV was left without a decent sports offering and history as you have it took the Bollywood offering. It's not only Zee One and Star Life that are affected but also sister channels like StarPlus and Zee Bollymovies.

In other developments, MultiChoice and StarSat had both lost carriage of Emmanuel TV and Deutsche Welle with one set to go dark by mid-January. This is due to the company's recent review of their portfolio which had seen them do a lot of cost cutting in order to remain afloat.

2024 On Everyday Novelas | New Series Alert: Game Of Lies And Come Back To Me On Telemundo Across Africa | New Seasons Of Die Put And Chrysalis On eExtra | Freemium Debut Of Silver Lining On Zee One | More

e.tv/eVOD/eExtra's Kuiertyd

• Net 20 Minute (20 Dakika): An innocent pastrycook Melek gets accused of injuring an important politician's son. Her loving husband Ali wants to help his wife to escape from prison.

• Blink Kant Bo (Yalı Çapkını): Halis Ağa is the owner of a large jewellery empire and the head of the Korhan family. Even though his son Orhan and oldest grandson Fuat run most of the business, he still makes the most important decisions in the company.

• uBettina Wethu S4: In Season 4 we will see Betty, her comrades, and kin in a whole new light as they realise new goals and fix old wounds. Betty has lost direction, so she sets off to realign and march forward determined to win - without the distraction of personal relationships - her downfall in the past.

• Annekan Die Swa Kry S3 (Kardeşlerim): While the Eren brothers are enjoying the rich life they have, Akif, who is left without a penny, is looking for ways to regain his former power with all kinds of cunning. 

• Ballade Vir'n Enkeling: When well-known writer Jacques Rynhardt disappears, it is up to a journalist to unravel the mystery. To do that, she needs to go back to his childhood and get to know Jacques for who he was.

• Die Agentskap: Four managers of talent agency Ego, namely Kıraç, Feris, Çınar and Peride, deal with difficult situations every day and defend their business visions. They skillfully combine art and business, but their private and professional lives sometimes come into conflict.

Other attractions include final seasons of Doodsondes, Elif, Die Put and Chrysalis.

Telemundo

• Game Of Lies (Juego De Mentiras): It follows Cesar Ferrer whose wife disappears. As he becomes the prime suspect of her possible murder, he takes the investigation in his own hands and fights to keep custody of his daughter. 

• Come Back To Me (Vuelve A Mí): The drama follows Nuria, a woman who begins a relationship with Braulio without knowing he is one of the owners of the company where she works to support her son and sister. The lives of the main characters begin to intertwine after the tragic kidnapping of Nuria's son Andrés. 

Other attractions include the third and final season of Queen Of The South alongside the ninth season of Lord Of The Skies. The channel was also rumoured to be airing content from Colombia's Caracol Televisión and RCN.

TLNovelas (Rumour)

• Overcoming Loss (Vencer La Ausencia): The sisterhood of four women of different origins is shattered when an accident causes them all to lose a loved one. After discovering the causes of the accident, they will share a painful mystery. Rumoured to debut by early 2024.

• Divided Love (Amor Dividado): Abril and Max are two people who have nothing in common. For Abril, family is her priority, while for Max, being successful in the corporate world is the most important thing. 

• Embrace Me Tightly (Abrázame Muy Fuerte): The daughter of a rich man is banished to another city after she is impregnated by one of the servants. She gives birth to a daughter and returns to fight for everything that was taken from her.

• Legacy (La Herencia): The telenovela takes place in an avocado farm called "Santa Catalina", where Severiano del Monte and Catalina Arango, Severiano's wife, and their five adopted sons live. Catalina was never able to get pregnant, but Severiano always wanted to have male descendants and opted for adoption.

•  My Love, My Sin (Amarte Es Mi Pecado): Nora is a poor young woman filled with dreams who lives in the beautiful city of Patzcuaro. Her father and evil stepmother Isaura decide to marry her off to a rich man so that she can have a better life.

• My Secret (Mi Secreto): Valeria is forced to take the identity of her best friend Natalia whom she believes to be dead, in order to avoid going to jail for a crime she did not commit. As she assumes her new reality, Valeria suffers constantly from the fear of being discovered.

• Deceptions (A Usurpadora): Twins Paula and Paulina were separated at birth and they live different lives when they get reunited. Paula is an evil rich woman who is married to a loving husband, while Paulina lives a humble life.

• Crown Of Tears 2 (Corona De Lágrimas): When Refugio and her three kids, Patricio, Edmundo and Ignacio are thrown out of their home, they arrive by chance in Mexico City where they start a new life.

The channel had gone through a major schedule adjustment with primetime reduced from 7 to 5 days a week. Various content has since then not aired as yet: part 1, part 2 and part 3.

Zee World (Rumour)

• Family Is Everything (Tujhya Majhya Sansarala Aani Kay Hava): The show revolves around Siddharth and Aditi, a couple who falls deeply in love and embarks on the journey of marriage, which joins their respective families.

• Love Conquers (Neem Phuler Modhu): This emotionally charged drama delves into the profound transformation a young woman undergoes after marriage and the formidable challenges she must conquer.

• Between You And Me (Meri Hanikarak Biwi): revolves around the life of two completely different individuals, Akilesh Pandey and Iravati aka Ira Desai. Akhilesh is a village simpleton and an ardent follower of Bajrang Bali. He is illiterate, but a great wrestler, while Ira is an aspiring medical student.

Other attractions include Dholi Beats, Undercover Love and The Rules Of Love. Rumoured content for the channel include His Second Wife, Embrace Me and Mother By Chance.

Zee One (Rumour)

• Age Is Just A Number (Aapke Aa Jane Se): Sahil, a rich young man, falls in love with Vedika, an older woman who has a 15-year-old child. She initially rebukes his advances but feels conflicted after she gets to know him better.

• My New Mother In Law: It follows Jhilmil's carefree life takes an unexpected turn when she becomes a young mother-in-law and the head of the family after getting married to Abir.

• Silver Lining (Choti Si Zindagi): Two girls, look after each other and struggle to survive in an orphanage, after their mother dies and their father abandons them, to marry another woman.

• Married Again (Punar Vivaah): A widower and a divorcee get together to provide the love of both parents to their children and eventually form a bond. However, their life takes an ugly turn when an obsessed lover interferes.

• Once There Was A King (Ek Tha Raja Ek Thi Rani): In 1945, a King named Ranaji returns to his home in Ameerkot after six years fighting against the British. Ranaji ends up meeting a woman named Gayatri, the daughter of a rich zamindar.

• Krishi (Afsar Bitiya): Krishna wants to get a good education to become a block development officer and improve her family's life. However, she faces many hardships along the way.

Star Life (Rumour)

• Love You So Much (Bohot Pyaar Karte Hai): The show is about a girl named Indu who lives with her younger sister and parents. Indu loves a guy named Mahesh and wants to go meet him and propose to him for marriage. She goes to meet him with her dad but finds that he has already married someone else. 

• Mehndi Hai Rachne Waali: Pallavi, a young widow, is a family-oriented woman. However, when she crosses paths with a money-minded businessman, their personalities clash and sparks fly.

• Pandya Store: Gautam and Dhara Pandya, a middle class married couple, manage the Pandya Store. Apart from their business, Dhara also looks after Gautam's three younger siblings.

• Stand By Me, My Beloved (Saath Nibhaana Saathiya

2): Gehna, a young girl, works as a domestic help for the Desai family. Despite being ill-treated by them, she continues to show kindness. Soon, she finds Anant coming to her defence.

• The Accidental Mayor (Nimki Mukhiya): The story, set in a small village in Bihar, deals with the life of Nimki, a carefree, materialistic girl who accidentally becomes the Mukhiya (chief) of the village. Nimki is mad about cinema, a dreamer and unaware of the darkness of the world. 

Everyday Novelas Shorts: Skeem Saam Undergoing Timeslot Changes On SABC 1, Ratings Flop Nikiwe To End With 1 Season On e.tv, eExtra And Star Life To Hit A New Low With Respective Rebroadcast Of Weaving A Tale Of Love And The Evil Eye

Skeem Saam is being repositioned

Entertainment commentator, Mlu reports that the SABC1 soapie, Skeem Saam will be changed from 18:30 slot to 19:30 from 2024.

The soapie will be competing with e.tv’s most-watched soapie Scandal!, and Mzansi Magic’s latest telenovela, My Brother’s Keeper.

Viewers of the youth soapie are concerned the show will lose viewers as Scandal! owns the timeslot with an average of 5 million viewers per month and continuously changes storylines.

A fan-favourite is coming back to Star Life

The Evil Eye follows Mohana, a 250-year-old Daayan, lives off of humans' life-force to stay young. However, when she sets her evil eye on the Rathod family, trouble and misfortune follow them everywhere. It dwells on family, drama, romance, supernatural and horror.

It will broadcast on 18 December replacing Mismatched.

Nikiwe is getting canned on e.tv

"The show launched in April 2023 and filled the 18:30 slot. Unfortunately, the show has not continued to deliver anticipated ratings. The channel continually reviews programmes and storylines to ensure we give our viewers the best local entertainment. Further information regarding the replacement show will be shared soon."

It lost 500,000 viewers just a month after its debut.

Nikiwe which will end sometime in early 2024 on e.tv and its streaming service eVOD also starred Muzi Mthabela, Clementine Mosimane, Kenneth Nkosi and Israel Matseke Zulu.

eExtra is cutting down on new programs

A few months ago, eExtra in a bizarre twist added a primetime repeat of Annekan Die Swa Kry at 17:05 which comes 5 minute after it airs on e.tv. Now it will be airing a rebroadcast to one of their most recent shows Weaving A Tale Of Love from Wednesday 20 December.

The last time this happened was with the Zee TV line-up viewed on weekday afternoons and this lasted about a year before adding new episodes of Surrender In Love and Twist Of Fate. Now the channel appears to be following a similar route with the Asian line-up.

News Shorts: People's Weather Loads Up On New Documentary Guardians Of The Forest, Divya-Drishti Gets A New Release Date On Star Life And Warner Bros. Discovery Scraps Tooncast And TCM From Brazil By The End Of 2023

People's Weather is travelling to Zambia

People's Weather, an environmental and wildlife channel currently viewed on DStv and Openview had announced the launch of a new documentary Guardian Of The Forest from Tuesday 5 December.

Explore how the magnificent Luangwa Valley in Zambia is working to protect its forests, biodiversity and livelihoods. With investable carbon offsets, the Luangwa Valley is making Africa shine by helping save the planet by reducing emissions through the proper management of forests, surrounding communities and their interaction with nature. 

Star Life is giving the run-around

During the month, Star Life was initially slated to launch the supernatural drama Divya Drishti but to many viewers surprise the current rebroadcast to A Magical Love Story would take up its timeslot daily at 23:00 with repeats still at 17:00.

Through an updated EPG, Divya Drishti is anticipated to replace Mismatched at 22:00 from Sunday 24 December - exactly as I anticipated. Of course, we take "premiere dates" on both Zee World and Star Life with a grain of salt and rather focus on the program in general.

Sky boots two WB channels

Through a viewer in Brazil, it was announced TCM and Tooncast would be exiting Sky on 31 December 2023. It's currently unknown whether this affects Latin America but prior to the termination consumers across Europe would be losing Discovery Turbo Xtra and Discovery Science.

Tooncast was a Latin American adaptation to the current Boomerang and Boing channels seen globally as the channel would leverage content viewed on Cartoon Network while TCM was viewed as a retro movie channel home to films from the 60s to 00s.

Before TCM's exit in Brazil the channel was shuttered across the UK and if one had to guess the reason for these terminations. Warner Bros. Discovery is probably removing non-performing channels as they've seen a decline in relevance from advertisers and viewers.

News Shorts: Fireman Renewed For Season 16 On JimJam And e.tv, History Channel Unveils It's Early 2024 Lineup Across Africa And A Magical Love Story Takes Up Primetime On Star Life (Divya Drishti Cancelled)

Fireman Sam renewed for 16th season

New international distribution deals have also been secured for previous seasons of both shows, which are based on Mattel brands, with the greenlights and distribution deals part of a multi-year co-development, production, distribution and licensing agreement between Mattel and WildBrain.

Fireman Sam will return in a new 26 x 10-minute season, which is scheduled to begin delivery in spring 2024. The new season is currently in production at WildBrain’s Vancouver animation studio.

Showmax secured Fireman Sam for S11-15 plus Heroes of the Storm and Alien Alert specials with e.tv securing the first two seasons while JimJam a pay-tv channel only picked up one season to the program.

History unveils its January lineup

Brand New Episodes HISTORY’S GREATEST MYSTERIES WITH LAURENCE FISHBURNE S4

6 January 

Saturdays 20h15 

The second instalment of season 4 of History’s Greatest Mysteries With Laurence Fishburne, cont nues to examine the top theories surrounding the world’s most confounding unsolved mysteries. In these episodes Fishburne turns the microscope on what secrets Stonehenge might hold and another archaeological enigma, the ‘Nazca Lines’ which are 2,000-year-old geoglyphs in the Peruvian desert. Fishburne, together with top historians, authors, scient sts, and researchers, invest gates enigmas such as Cleopatra’s missing tomb and the lost gold of WWII. Repeat: Sundays 19h25

Brand New & Exclusive SECRETS IN THE ICE S3

16 January 

Tuesdays 19h25 

Secrets In The Ice S3 goes to the most remote, cold, and inhospitable places on the planet to reveal great mysteries that were once frozen in t me. Merging CGI re-creat ons, advanced scanning technology and scient fi c research, the series invest gates many curiosit es that have been lost for millennia, or never seen before. Secrets In The Ice explores how and why they ended up in the most desolate and distant corners of the planet, and contemplate what may st ll be concealed in the frozen depths. Repeat: Next Day 11h45

Brand New & Exclusive CURSE OF OAK ISLAND S11

26 January 

Fridays 20h15 

The hit series The Curse of Oak Island returns for season 11, with the Lagina brothers’ boldest plans yet to solve the 228-year-old treasure mystery. Cont nued dig eff orts take place within the infamous Money Pit, Lot 5 and beyond while stunning discoveries cont nue to be unearthed on Oak Island. Addit onally, the team’s research leads them to embark on a journey overseas that will off er new and shocking evidence that could fi nally connect the Knights Templar to the centuries long tale. Is this the year that marks the end of the world’s longest treasure hunt? Repeats: Mondays 12h35

Star Life cutting back on shows

Star Life is an international entertainment channel operated by Disney Star which is home to variety of English dubbed Bollywood series and movies. The channel currently offers 13 TV series which is somewhat around the range of its premium counterpart, StarPlus.

Last month, it was announced that Star Life would be rolling out its third supernatural drama Divya Drishti in place of Night Of Doom in its conflicted primetime schedule serving as one of the few 45 minute offerings on the channel as the latter is padded with 21 minute shows.

As seen through an updated EPG, the current rebroadcast of A Magical Love Story will also be airing at 23:00 once Night Of Doom ends on 13 November. Theoretically, it is believed that Divya Drishti could commence in 2024 perhaps in place of Mismatched.

Interesting to note, A Magical Love Story will be ending soon so maybe Mismatched moves to 23:00 as Divya Drishti takes up the 22:00 timeslot.

New Series Alert: Divya Drishti And The Broken Marriage Vow Coming Soon To Star Life And Novela E Plus

Based on the British drama series Doctor Foster, The Broken Marriage Vow follows the life of A seemingly perfect home gets shattered by broken trust and infidelity, bringing forth catastrophic effects into the lives of the couple, their son, and everyone else involved. 

It starred Jodi Sta. Maria as Dra. Jill Victorino, Zanjoe Marudo as David Ilustre, Sue Ramirez as Alexis "Lexy / Lex" Lucero and Zaijian Jaranilla as Gio V. Ilustre.

Divya-Drishti tells the story of the characters of the same name who are sisters with divine powers of seeing and manipulating the future but get separated by an evil witch, Pishachini. However, they vow to reunite and destroy the witch together.

It starred Nyra Banarjee as Divya Sharma Shergill, Sana Sayyad as Drishti Sharma Shergill, Sangita Ghosh as Pishaachini, Adhvik Mahajan as Rakshit Shergill and Mishkat Varma as Shikhar Shergill.

The Broken Marriage Vow S1 will air daily at 20:40 from 28 October on Novela E Plus while Divya-Drishti will air daily at 23:00 from 12 November on Star Life.

Reliance In Talks To Buy Majority Stake In Disney's Star Indian Business

Over the past few months, there have been many reports that Disney has been looking at its options with regards to its business in India, called Disney Star, formerly known as Star India, which it acquired when it purchased 20th Century Fox in 2019. Disney Star includes the streaming service Disney+ Hotstar, film studios such as Star Studios, an array of over seventy linear channels, and much more.

In the past few months, Disney has been having talks with many different businesses, including Sony, Blackstone, Sun TV and New Delhi TV, about potentially selling some or all of its assets in India. According to Bloomberg , Reliance Industries Ltd, which is owned by Asia’s richest tycoon Mukesh Ambani, is getting close to completing a deal to buy Disney Star in a cash and stock deal. Disney is valuing its Indian business at around $10 billion (down from the $15 billion it was worth before Disney purchased it in 2019), and Reliance is valuing the business between $7 and $8 billion.

Disney is still looking to keep a minority stake in the company, but it would sell a controlling stake in Disney Star. But it still may keep hold of some assets. There might also be some regulatory issues that could cause delays with the buyout. We’ve seen with other large mergers that the Indian government might require some assets to be sold off separately.

It’s expected that the announcement of a deal could be made as early as next month. Disney does have a quarterly financial investors call on November 8th 2024, so announcing this deal, could help Disney offset the costs of buying out Comcast’s stake in Hulu, which is estimated to cost around $9 billion. Allowing Disney to basically sell off one business to cover its purchase, allowing Disney to focus on its core markets. Reliance would merge some of its media units into Disney Star.

JioCinema, which Reliance runs, has been a thorn in Disney’s side, having paid billions of dollars to get the Indian Premiere Cricket league rights, which resulted in Disney+ Hotstar losing over 20 million subscribers. Plus, recently, JioCinema also picked up the rights to HBO content, which was then removed from Disney+ Hotstar.

It’s unknown if Disney+ Hotstar will continue in its current setup or be merged with JioCinema. Could Disney+ just operate separately in India, without the Hotstar branding and content, which could move over to JioCinema? There are certainly more questions than answers right now.

So, what does this mean for Disney+ and Hulu around the world?

At the moment, officially, no deal has been announced, and no details on what’s actually going to happen have been revealed. There are many variables and potential outcomes from Disney selling its Indian assets. Selling Star India wouldn’t likely have much impact outside India, other than a potential move away from the Star branding and maybe changing the name of Disney+ Hotstar in some countries like Indonesia.

If Disney does sell off Disney Star, it wouldn’t be a huge surprise to see the Star hub within Disney+ around the world, rebranded to Hulu once Disney completes its purchase from Comcast. Disney has rebranded many linear channels to Star in countries worldwide, which might be another issue that results in more rebranding. While in Latin America, Disney runs a streaming service called, Star+, which is a Hulu & ESPN+ hybrid, but there is always hope Disney unifies Star+ and Disney+ in that region, to be similar to how Disney+ works internationally. The Star brand has only been used by Disney since 2019, and arguably, the brand is very generic and could easily be changed.

Disney is still running Hotstar as a separate streaming service in many countries, including Canada, Singapore and the UK, so those could be included in the deal. Hulu does have some Hotstar content from India, so this could continue to be licensed or eventually removed.

If Disney+ Hotstar was completely sold off, it would obviously have a significant impact on the global subscriber numbers for Disney+. However, Wall Street may prefer this, since a Hotstar subscriber generally brings in less than 60 cents per month, compared to over $7 outside of India. Investors may also like a more leaner Disney, focused on its core brands.

For Disney+ Hotstar subscribers, it does bring up many questions about what happens could be merged together and what the future is for its content. Internationally, it brings the Star branding into question. But ultimately, Disney does seem like its less interested in running a vast linear, streaming and studio business in India, instead treating it like more other countries in the world.

It’s important to note, that no final decision has been made, and Disney could still decide to hold onto the assets, but the Star Studios and linear channels, being sold off does seem much more likely.

GoQuest Media Will Now Handle Distribution Of Disney Star Across Africa

Indian broadcaster Disney Star, which operates the Disney+ Hotstar streaming service, has signed an exclusive distribution deal with Mumbai-based distributor GoQuest Media.

The pact sees GoQuest becoming the sole distributor for Disney Star’s content portfolio across Africa, including content dubbed in both English and Hindi and encompassing TV and OTT rights to Disney Star’s linear programming catalogue.

Across a TV network that the company claims reaches more than 700 million viewers in nine languages every month and its successful streaming platform, Disney Star generates more than 20,000 hours of original content every year, including general entertainment, sports, films, infotainment, kids and lifestyle content.

The catalogue GoQuest will be shopping in Africa includes Anupamaa, Imlie, Kasauti Zindagii Kay, Yeh Jaadu Hai Jinn Ka and Chandra Nandini, under an agreement that “represents a strategic move to bring popular Indian content to a wider African audience,” according to the two parties.

The move comes after GoQuest has introduced foreign-language titles to Africa over the past 10 years. GoQuest MD Vivek Lath said: “Our track record, strong partnerships and knowledge of the region and local audiences have positioned us as the ideal team to introduce Disney Star’s Indian collection to this market.”

Sudhir Nagpal, head of international business at Disney Star, added: “Africa has a strong viewer base for our content, especially for our series across languages. We continuously seek opportunities to connect with our audience and this collaboration with GoQuest Media is another step in that direction.”

New Series Alert: Night Of Doom Coming Soon To Star Life

Star Life, a general entertainment home to various Bollywood entertainment from StarPlus like Anupama and Not Without My Family and second English dubbed channel in Africa was reported to allocate a  picked up rights to supernatural horror, Night Of Doom (Qayamat Ki Raat) as teased in 2021.

The series was produced by Twist Of Fate's very own Ekta Kapoor and features Karishma Tanna, Vivek Dahiya, Nirbhay Wadhwa, Saurish Singh Athwal and Madhurima Tuli. It will be the first supernatural series in a long while as the last one A Magical Love Story which was launched in mid 2021.

Set in the year of 1993, the story begins with a newly wedded couple, Suhasini and Mahendar going to a Ram temple at Ramnamgarh to hand over Suhasini's wedding chain to the idol of Lord Rama and receive the deity's blessings. The train stops at the station and Mahendar's loyal driver Birju comes to fetch them and to drive them till the temple. Not realising that Birju is possessed, they follow him. Suhasini and Mahendar enter the temple when suddenly, Mahendar recalls that they have forgotten the wedding chain in the car so Mahendar goes to fetch it, asking Suhasini to stay here. Meanwhile, Suhasini witnesses strange eerie occurrences in the temple premises while exploring the region which includes absence of a bell as well as any idol of Lord Rama inside the temple and passing of a cat out of nowhere. She trips off a door and falls down the stairs that lead into the temple's basement that happens to be a Tantrik named Kalasur's lair. As soon as Kalasur sees her, he gladly welcomes her inside and offers to spend the night with her and make love. This frightens Suhasini and she yells for help. This is followed by a struggle by Suhasini to escape the Tantrik's clutches and a duel between him and her husband Mahendar. Suhasini runs away screaming for help. While fighting with the Tantrik, Mahendar loses consciousness and Kalasur shape-shifts into Mahendar's form.

Meanwhile, Suhasini reaches the palace of Thakur Prithvi Singh Suryavanshi and asks them to save her husband from Kalasur. Just then, Kalasur arrives there in Mahendar's disguise and Suhasini, scared out of her wits, pleads everybody to get the Tantrik at the temple arrested. As everyone goes in search of the Tantrik, Kalasur takes Suhasini in a bedroom inside the palace and tries making love to her. But luckily Suhasini sees the reflection of the Tantrik in the glass ceiling and pushes him away. As she reaches for the door to exit the house, the Thakur's family returns with the real Mahendar, a priest and few village men because they had found an unconscious Mahendar at the temple instead of the Tantrik. The priest traps Kalasur inside a circular ring of holy ash on the floor. The Tantrik still doesn't accept defeat. He keeps insisting on making love to Suhasini which irks Mahendar to no extent. He threatens to burn Kalasur into ashes, but the latter remarks that his ashes would rise in air and coalesce to resurrect him. Next, Mahendar threatens to bury the Tantrik alive, but he says that his skeleton would rise from underneath the ground to revive him. Mahendar then strangles Kalasur and chokes him, but Kalasur manages to get an upper hand and lifts Mahendar up in the air grabbing his throat. Suhasini requests Kalasur to leave Mahendar unharmed but he pays no heed and insists on having a one-night stand with her. This invokes the ferocity and strength inside Suhasini who lifts up a villager's axe and chops off Kalasur's right arm that had grabbed Mahendar's throat. Next, she cuts the Tantrik's head off. As a result, the beheaded Tantrik curses Suhasini's family that since he couldn't make love to Suhasini, no woman from her family must consummate her marriage hereafter or else death would befall on her. He also remarks that Suhasini would never know the reason why he had chosen her and wanted to make love to her. The priest then orders Lakha, a villager to lock the Tantrik's arm, head and body separately and hide them in different places so that the Tantrik can never assimilate his body parts together and resurrect himself.

Night Of Doom premiered on StarPlus in 2018 and was met with positive reception for its gripping storyline, use of the cast members and ability to balance between good and evil. It managed to pull 5.8 million viewers in its opening week in India.

From the 4th of September, Imlie and My Desire will be halved on Star Life ahead of the series rollout. My Desire will air from 20:00 and Imlie wiil follow 30 minutes later at 20:30 with Night Of Doom to occupy the 22:00 timeslot.

New Series Alert: Faltu And Strings Of Love Coming Soon To Star Life

Star Life, a Bollywood based entertainment channel operated by Disney Star that is home to variety of original films and series is set to rollout two series: Faltu and Strings Of Love.

Faltu tells the story of a frustrated married couple names their fourth child Faltu (Useless) after her parents' frustration at the birth of a third girl and a stillborn twin son. However, her life changes when fate introduces her to young cricket coach Ayaan Mittal.

The female led drama stars Niharika Chouksey as Faltu Ayaan Mittal, Aakash Ahuja as Ayaan Mittal, Drishti Thakur as Tanisha Mittal, Thakur Rajveer Singh as Pappi Ji, Mahesh Thakur as Janardhan Mittal and Vibhavari Pradhan as Savita Mittal.

Based on the Bengali series Gaatchora, Strings Of Love (Teri Meri Doriyaann) follows two sibling duos whose bond will form with whom, the decision lies in the hands of God. Angad and Sahiba are pressured into marriage and from there their love hate story starts.

The family based drama stars Vijayendra Kumeria as Angad Singh Brar, Himanshi Parashar as Sahiba Kaur Brar, Tushar Dhembla as Garry Baweja, Roopam Sharma as Seerat Kaur Baweja, Jatin Arora as Veer Singh Brar and Prachi Hada as Keerat Kaur Monga.

Both series debuted a few months apart from each other with Strings Of Love being the youngest debuted earlier in the year. Considering how far off they are on StarPlus, Faltu and Strings Of Love will occupy the 18:00 and 18:30 timeslot respectively from 7 August.

Everyday Novelas Summary: 13 Things You Probably Missed About Zee World, Zee One And Star Life

If you are watching the following channels, then you should probably take note of the following:

1. Star Life

• A rebroadcast of A Magical Love Story launches July 17th. Synopsis is available on the following link: click here

• Rajjo comes to an end in August

• Two series that were expected to rollout on the channel were never allocated: Pandya Store and Night Of Doom

• Ram Setu (Movie) premieres 30 July at 3pm: it follows an atheist archaeologist who turns into a believer, faces a challenge to prove the existence of 'Rama Setu' before the evil forces destroy the heritage site of India.

2. Zee World

• The short lived series If You Were Not There is replaced by His Mistress's Child. 

• Bollywood movies no longer air on the feed seen across Southern Africa.

• All series air 7 days a week from 2pm to 11pm.

3. Zee One

• Between You And Me gets an additional repeat timeslot replaces the 2pm slot.

• Now we know why Zee World is a 24/7 series channel, movies air twice a day at 3pm and 11pm.

• Trinayani and Between You And Me are the most popular series on the channel.

• This Is Fate (YAWN!) might replace Between You And Me.

• Jodha And Akbar replaces Bridal Material from August 18th. Details available on the following link: click here

Disney Exploring Possible Sale Of Indian Business Home To Star Life And Star Select

Walt Disney (DIS.N) is exploring options to sell or find a joint venture partner for its India digital and TV business, a source with direct knowledge said on Wednesday.

The talks are in a "very, very nascent" stage and no potential buyer or partner has been approached so far, and it remains unclear how the process will pan out, the person added.

"Talks have begun internally (on) what makes sense to do," said the source, adding discussions were being driven by executives at Disney headquarters in the U.S.

Disney did not respond to a Reuters request for comment. The company's shares closed up 1.6% on Tuesday.

The Wall Street Journal was first to report news of Disney's talks and said the company had reached out to at least one bank about ways to help the India business grow, while sharing some of the costs.

The discussions come at a time when Disney has faced increasing pressure due to the emergence of Reliance Industries' (RELI.NS) streaming platform JioCinema, run by Asia's richest man, Mukesh Ambani. He has been marketing his streaming platform by offering free access to Indian Premier League cricket tournament, digital rights of which were earlier with Disney.

Research firm CLSA has estimated Disney+ Hotstar's subscriber base shrank by nearly 5 million users in India after it lost the digital rights for IPL.

Reliance's broadcast venture Viacom18, which runs JioCinema, also struck a deal with Warner Bros in April for HBO and other popular content such as Succession. Several of these top rated shows earlier aired in India on the Disney platform.

Viacom18's shareholders include Reliance, Paramount Global (PARA.O) as well as Bodhi Tree, which is a joint venture between James Murdoch and a former Star India executive, Uday Shankar.

Disney's India business comprises the Disney+ Hotstar streaming service and Star India, which it took over when it acquired the entertainment assets of 21st Century Fox in 2019.

The source, who declined to be named as the talks are confidential, said it will be difficult to find an outright buyer in India as the enterprise value of the India business was seen around $15-16 billion when Disney took over Fox's business.

Star India, which was rebranded as Disney Star last year, encompasses dozens of TV channels and a stake in a movie production company.

Disney, like its peers in streaming and the wider media industry, is cutting costs as macro economic headwinds weigh on its advertising revenue and subscriber growth.

In February, the company said it would cut 7,000 jobs as part of an effort to save $5.5 billion in costs in a sweeping restructuring of the company.

Schedule Update: A Magical Love Story And King Of Hearts Coming Soon To Star Life And Zee One Respectively

King Of Hearts - premieres 1 July on Zee One

Siddharth, a hotelier, takes up the responsibility of repairing the relationship between his independent wife, Roshni, and his enterprising mother-in-law, Durga Devi.

It stars Ravi Dubey, Nia Sharma, Achint Kaur, Indraneil Sengupta, Shiny Doshi, Ahmad Harhash and Mouli Ganguly.

A Magical Love Story - premieres 17 July on Star Life

It tells the story of Aman who lives under the dark shadow of a Jinn while Roshni is blessed with angelic qualities. What turn will Aman and Roshni's lives take when the two entangle in a 'magical' love story?

It stars Vikram Singh Chauhan, Aditi Sharma, Shruti Sharma, Smita Bansal and Garima Vikrant Singh.

News Shorts: The New Series SuperKitties Makes Its Highly Anticipated Debut On Disney Junior Africa Alongside Hamster And Gretel On Disney Channel Africa, My Desire Shortened To 30 Minutes This June In Favour Of Timeless Love And History Channel To Cease Transmission In Russia

More kiddies entertainment for DStv customers

SUPERKITTIES
FROM 1 JUNE AT 08:00
DISNEY JUNIOR
Ginny, Sparks, Buddy and Bitsy are not only cute and cuddly kittens, but are also brave, smart, strong and kind, and turn into SuperKitties when trouble arises.

HAMSTER & GRETEL
FROM 16 JUNE AT 15:15
DISNEY CHANNEL
Gifted with amazing superpowers, Gretel and her pet hamster decide to join hands with her teenage brother to protect their city from evil supervillains.

My Desire to lose a half hour

As mentioned earlier in the year, Star Life has halved most of their primetime series with Lost In Love and Anupama currently on air for 30 minutes (21 minutes if you're avoiding the ads). Reason being they want to these soaps to collide with the current offering in India.

During the month, Star Life unveiled the Star Bharat original, Timeless Love (Na Umra Ki Seema Ho) a story about a couple with an age gap who have to fight tooth and nail in order to be together.

As seen through an updated programme guide, Timeless Love will air for an hour (42 minutes if you're avoiding ads) from June 1st to June 4th at 19:30 to 20:30 meaning My Desire will be getting the short end of the stick in a 30 minute timeslot.

History is the next international channel to depart Russia

Following Russia's invasion to the Ukraine, several international outlets such as The Walt Disney Company, Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery had opted to retract their services within the region with Russia Today being phased out from international outlets.

A+E Networks, being one of the few international outlets to offer their services within the regions with History and H2 had announced their termination across Bulgaria with H2 that went dark during the week with History expected to follow by the end of June.

History is still available in Italy, Portugal, Germany, Spain, UK and Ireland, Asia, India and South Africa.

Review: The Dominance Of Bollywood, Turkwood And More On The Openview Platform

Openview is a free-to-view platform owned by eMedia Investments that is currently available in over 3 million households offering a range of reality shows, drama series, movies, telenovelas, cartoons and so much more.

Since the rollout of the pay-tv tier to the platform, Ultraview offering content from India with Zee Family and Star Select as well as LGBTQ and youth oriented content from OUTtv and FUSE. eMedia Investments ranks as one of the most diverse brands out there.

For those using Openview, it's no secret that the red brand has caught the love bug for two markets Istanbul (Turkwood) following the success of Kuiertyd which has contributed a lot for eExtra's primetime and further bolstered the offering on e.tv and ePlesier.

The second is their love for Bolly with 2 dedicated channels and a programming block on eExtra with another 2 channels on Ultraview. eMedia Investments is currently sitting with 4 channels and a part timer with Turkwood sharing content amongst 3 brands.

In hindsight, Openview's Bollywood offering helps cutback on rebroadcasts unlike eExtra's Kuiertyd which has seen doppelgangers on e.tv and ePlesier. The same could be said about the public broadcaster SABC 1-3 and Sport channels which has done content sharing.

But unlike Zee One and Star Life, eMedia's channels offers more timeslots for other content from movies, reality shows, cartoons and more versus Bollywood dramas and 2-4 hour weekly movie slot again it's the variety that counts in this scenario.

For those who've skipping out on Anupama or Imlie due to unforeseeable circumstances, take into account such content has been limited across the Openview platform leaving space for more variety or in this case eExtra's Dayan, Destructive Beauty and Naagin.

If you feel that Openview has more Indian channels take to account the locals SABC 1, SABC 2, SABC 3, e.tv, SA Music, People's Weather and SABC Sport which contributes to our point there's more local than Bolly on the Openview platform.

The only challenge is that consumers are being feed more of the same thing as mentioned Dayan Destructive Beauty and Naagin or Doodsondes and Soete Wraak on eExtra which isn't entirely bad but one could learn from e.tv's incorporation of variety.