As you already know 2020 has been a chaotic year to me it's kind of like a trailer to 2021 as this year was kind of paused for most people and businesses. Things were suppose to happen only for others to be delayed.
This year, we witnessed a lot of channels shutting down in (South) Africa so I'm not expecting that to stop next year. In 2020 alone, we lost TV Mall, Sundance TV, SABC Encore, FOX Life, ITV Choice, BBC First, FOX Life and Disney XD.
Compared to all the other years, the kids area has experienced exponential growth on DStv and for the first time in over a decade MultiChoice actually reviews the offering in that area.
We got to see pop-up channels such as Toonami, ZooMoo, Mindset POP and for a while Da Vinci Kids. Just as you thought they've filled up the gap Disney XD was taken away and CBeebies was added to easen the blow.
A few months back I drew up a list of possible candidates that might occupy Disney XD spot. Now I'll be expanding as far as looking into possible candidates for other empty spots such as channels 300, 304 & 312-317.
The list of candidates goes as follows:
1. K-TV - this is M-Net former children's channel I mean there have been a couple of brands that were revived like PBS Kids, G4, Real Time, TBN, Sony Channel etc. but there's also chances that this will never happen seeing that channels such as KykNet & Kie, Mzansi Wethu and KykNet Lekker have dedicated kids blocks. At the end of the day they could bring it up as a kids channel offering content in English and other (South) African languages like Akilli TV perhaps even under another name. This year M-Net conjured up a ton of repeat channels for lower bouquets expecting more to surface next year I mean the kids one makes sense considering the timeslots and airtime they're given on the 3 M-Net channels.
2. Akilli Kids (Kenya Only) - A free-to-air children's channel aka Kenya's version of eToonz for children under 14 years of age with shows such as Team Umizoomi, Ubongo Kids and Wonder Pets. The channel's content is in English and Swahili. From what I hear the channel is gaining some traction in its respective market. If DStv Kenya considered adding the channel they would join DStv South Africa as another market with a free-to-air children's channel.
3. Baby TV - this channel is catered for toddlers pretty much for an audience that's much younger for Disney Junior. You get to learn rhymes, play games, listen to music and other activities. It was suppose to be on DStv a decade ago don't know what led them not to acquire the channel. Since Disney is the proud owner of this brand you can't help to wonder what the future holds for this brand considering the lack of attention towards it.
4. BabyFirst - is an Asian-American TV channel owned by First Media that produces and distributes content for babies' ages 6–36 months and their parents through television, the internet, and mobile applications. The channel is owned by First Media. The content is intended to develop an infant's skills, such as color recognition, counting and vocabulary. Pretty much a competitor to Baby TV.
5. Fix & Foxi - is an international children's entertainment brand founded by the German company Your Family Entertainment. Themed around Rolf Kauka's Fix and Foxi characters, the name is used to operate television channels in multiple languages around the world. Some of the content can be found on ZooMoo.
6. SABC Education (SA Only) - this is your typical Mindset channel with less grade based programming and filled with archived shows from SABC 1-3 under this banner. The channel is still coming to DStv at an unconfirmed date according to SEVA.
7. African Animation Network - this upcoming channel promises to air African produced animation and by the looks of it hopes to build up its own animation. The team behind it are still working on the channel.
8. Discovery Kids - is a children's television channel that is owned by Discovery Communications. The brand is available in Latin America, India and MENA. The version we could adapt to is the one in MENA that was the case with Discovery Family plus not a lot clashes there.
9. Other - African based channels similar to Nickelodeon, Da Vinci and Mindset. It could be SA Youth TV and Teen Africa TV. Then again it could another channel from an existing supplier.
Now to get to the hard part Disney XD might not be the last kids channel to go off air as these ones are likely to get booted off as well.
1.1. In future it wouldn't be shocking if the Nick brand downsized from 3 to 2 channels considering the duplication of the Junior brand. From that point they would be tying with Disney and WarnerMedia that only provide 2 kids channels on DStv.
1.1. The first scenario would be that Nickelodeon gets all the original programming including the ones from Nick Jr.
1.1.2. Nicktoons and Nick Jr channel get scrapped for Nickelodeon+ channel perhaps they could even keep the Nicktoons brand considering how popular it is but just invest more time in acquisitions for the channel while supplying reruns from Nickelodeon.
1.1.3. It wouldn't be a complete loss for Nick Jr the brand would be active in a block and the Ethiopian version will still supply the channel.
2. eToonz - the channel is filled with a lot of ton of DreamWorks/NBCUniversal originals. There's chances that it could breathe in the same room as the DreamWorks Channel since the channel has a mixture of cartoons that can be found on other kids channels.
2021 holds a lot of mystery and intrigue on cable.
Read Also:
- Elliott From Earth coming soon to Cartoon Network
- We Baby Bears coming soon to Cartoon Network
- January on Disney Channel
- January on Disney Junior
- More countries shut down Disney XD
- January on ZooMoo
- January on Da Vinci Kids
- BBC acknowledged African animation
- TV Kids hosts global event
- Upcoming kids shows for Africa
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