AMC+ To Launch Streaming Service Across Europe In 2023, No Indicator On When Or If It Will Roll Out In The UK And Africa

Even more American prestige TV is headed to Europe. This week it was announced that AMC+ will find its way onto small screens in the Central and Eastern European (CEE) markets.

AMC Networks’ executive vice president Levente Málnay — who was speaking at the NEM Dubrovnik European TV conference — revealed that the streaming platform will be available to CEE customers in 2023.

The streaming service combines original programming along with series and movies from various other AMC-owned streamers and studios, including Shudder , Sundance Now, BBC America, IFC, and more. So the content on the service already has significant international influences but Málnay added that as AMC+ expands, it would focus on balancing specific regional content with its own U.S.-based programming.

 

The news comes at a time of expansion for the fledgling platform. AMC+ began streaming in June 2020 and grew its reach to the Australian market last year. As of the end of the first quarter, AMC’s combined streaming services — both under the AMC+ umbrella and the individual services — have reached 9.5 million global subscribers.

Málnay indicates that the streamer will take “baby steps” when planning larger-budget offerings, but he also suggested that local dramas may be in development as well. In Q1, AMC saw 3% year-over-year revenue growth, but profits dropped by almost 15% for the same period, due in large part to the enhanced investment in content creation. Domestically, AMC has also worked to ensure subscribers can easily find its streaming channels, making them paid add-ons to services such as Amazon Prime Video and YouTube TV.

 

An AMC+ release will bring hit shows like modern classics “The Walking Dead ,” “Better Call Saul,” and “Mad Men” to CEE.

Additionally, in April, AMC+ announced that it would be enhancing its offerings by bringing a new movie from corporate sibling IFC Films to the streaming service every week immediately following its theatrical release.

AMC+ is a premium streaming bundle that includes the best from AMC, BBC America, IFC, SundanceTV, Shudder, Sundance Now, and IFC Films Unlimited containing original, award-winning series, popular movies, festival favorites, plus horror, sci-fi, true crime, and thrillers. You can subscribe to AMC+ for $8.99/month (R153.84/month) or save over 40% with the annual plan for $59.88/year (R1005.88/year).

AMC International Giving Their Channels Weird Names Ahead Of Paramount+ Launch In Africa By 2023

Paramount+ is a streaming service owned by the company of the same name (without +) that is home to brands like Paramount Network, CBS (CBS Drama, CBS Justice and Horror Channel), Showtime, Comedy Central, MTV, BET, The Smithsonian Channel, Nickelodeon and Nick Jr.

As some consumers are aware Paramount will be rolling out their streaming service by 2023 in the Middle East and Africa and question loomed in regard to the linear offering across the world.

Although the company had no intentions of ending their linear operations that doesn't exclude the possible reduction or restructure to their portfolio as seen in the UK with their CBS channels this past week.

 

AMC International formed a joint venture with the company for CBS Reality, CBS Justice, CBS Drama and Horror Channel since 2012 under the brand Chellomedia and even before and after becoming majority stakeholder the channels had a share of repeats.

After nearly a decade, the CBS channels would be laid to rest by the end of June as Paramount is scrapping the CBS branding since they'll be present on Paramount+ kind of like what they did with the Paramount Network and in doing so comes the new names.

Update: CBS Reality will remain the same for now but there's more to the story as there's a channel that goes by the name Reality in the UK. In other developments, CBS Reality will be getting an additional channel Reality Xtra.

 

Other channels like CBS Justice discontinued and merged onto Legend which serves as a replacement to Horror Channel which in turn becomes a part time channel Horror Xtra with the current CBS Reality getting a sister channel Reality Xtra.

If you've watched MTV, Travel Channel and TLC then you'll be able to realise that the brand names don't match with the offering and that's the case with these new channels.

Apparently, the content in question on these channels will remain the same Reality Xtra will air drama series although the name appears to make it a reruns or edgier version of CBS Reality and imagine they're instilling crime on horror.

Judging by the info available at the moment, its clear that these changes could have been last minute or organised in a short duration.

 

Taking that to account, is it possible another restructure is on the cards and perhaps with alternate names I mean Poland has the AMC brand and if not another name perhaps aligning the content with the brand names.

Last resort would include cord cutting as these channels are very much outdated even onto the new brands and the idea of AMC and Paramount operating less channels at this point doesn't seem far fetched.

If there's a brand I'd have to praise for its uniqueness then its CBS Reality I get this feed doesn't supply original content but the way this channel incorporates less repeats is astounding. Even more interesting is how their former brand name Reality (E)Xtra was revived.

CBS Justice Is Out For The Count While CBS Reality's Future Remains Up In The Air On DStv

During the week, it was announced that Paramount and AMC International the party in charge of CBS Justice and CBS Reality in Africa will be scrapping the CBS branding from their products by shortening (CBS) Reality and killing off CBS Justice for the male skewed channel, Legend.

As it was the first time this news was announced no one could expect what possible outcome awaited the CBS channels on DStv but through a promo for CBS Justice's replacement you can clearly get a clear perspective to the whole situation.

Legend is said to not only incorporate CBS Justice but offer content with sci-fi, horror and adventure and I won't go over the details with the programming as some viewers may not recognise anything from there but by looking at it you can clearly see where this channel stands in Africa.

 

CBS Justice in the UK offers drama series like Walker, NCIS: Los Angeles and CSI while the feed in Africa carries a lot of factual content some I might add are better than what's seen on Investigation Discovery like Forensic Files, Killer Couples and Snapped.

If anything I wouldn't be surprised if CBS Justice merged onto CBS Reality to form something else or for both of them to get discontinued to its entirety as seen in some regions but here's why I think merging would be the likely outcome.

Alternative names for the supposed channel: Zone Reality and Reality (E)Xtra.

Alternative names should it remain as two channels: Zone 1 & 2, Reality 1 & 2, Reality and Reality (E)Xtra.

 

Before CBS Justice was added in Africa, CBS Reality was the main home to all the content seen on there if anything the downside was the timeslots as most crime or detective stuff aired in the early hours of the day (5am or 6am) down to the night (8pm to 11pm).

The merging of these brands would bring more comfort to those on CBS Reality who once had access to this content and who knows it might even reduce amount of Judge Judys or escalate onto another program but who knows really as it was repetitive by then.

 

But if other channels can't fix that issue why burden that onto CBS Reality. The important thing is that there's plenty to watch outside Judy or Cheaters. The only burden at this point would have fallen onto DStv customers.

As seen in the last couple of months, MultiChoice has lost at least 8 channels and not much replacements are on the cards. If CBS Justice doesn't get replaced by the supplier (Paramount and AMC), will the distributor (MultiChoice) seek alternatives or continue leaving empty gaps.

DStv Is Set To Lose CBS Reality And CBS Justice In Revamped Channel Offering By Paramount Global And AMC International

2022 brought a whirlwind of changes for viewers on the DStv platform as MultiChoice scrapped e.tv's 5 channels, ITV Networks, fliekNET and Tellytrack. They where those brands that went out unexpectedly and beyond anyone's control like Russia Today and Lifetime.

As the world continues adapting viewers should expect more changes I mean not all changes are good (e.g. Me) but the point one would have for these changes is survival which is where CBS Reality and CBS Justice reside in.

 

By the end of June, the British counterpart of these channels which also manage the channels in Africa will be revising their channel offering by scrapping CBS Justice for Legend while as CBS Reality is shortened to Reality.

Due to the launch of Paramount+, AMC and Paramount are eliminating the CBS branding from all their products or at least on their linear channels and shocking turn for these two channels is the programming.

 

CBS Justice's replacement Legend will not only cover the crime but the supernatural section of their portfolio while the UK had CBS Horror viewers in Africa relied on CBS Reality for this offering. On top of paranormal, they'll offer thriller and sci-fi.

Reality will likely focus on softer programming such as Judge Judy, Animal Hoarding, Cheaters, Three Day Nanny and Shocking Emergency Calls, as consumers likely lose out on shows like Haunted Case Files and Scariest Night Of My Life to Legend which is technically a premium channel.

 

The change is expected to be completed by the end of June and it hasn't been stated exactly when this format will rollout in other regions or or look identical to the main feed.

As seen in Poland and several Portuguese speaking regions, the channels were given alternate brand names or shuttered down as there's rumours going around that Paramount Global and AMC International are disbanding due to the rollout of Paramount+.

CBS Reality: Why The Judge Judy Channel Isn't As Bad As It Appears To Be?

CBS Reality has been available on DStv for as long as Zone Reality was around before ChelloZone got purchased by AMC International. The offering consisted of factual programming ranging from courtroom, medical, lifestyle, crime and drama.

One of the shows that have become a pillar to this brand is Judge Judy. The cancelled daytime court show has been seen as a double bill on weekdays and 10 hour marathon on weekends.

 

It's one of the reasons why some viewers take this channel for granted and the other reasons was the volume of repeats available on the channel. Believe it or not, CBS Reality is far behind on Judge Judy.

Trust me, I don't see anything wrong with that but e.tv being a free-to-air is three seasons ahead. Not that the channel can't keep up but they often pull a FOX and air the same episodes continuously and bring in two seasons yearly (technically FOX).

 

Unlike FOX, CBS Reality was saved back in 2019 when Viacom and CBS merged onto a single unit before becoming Paramount. I know Judge Judy seems to set some people off but outside of that the channel has got plenty on offer like Botched Bodies, Motorway Patrol and Animal Hoarding.

In my opinion, CBS Reality is one of the most decent if not best reality stations on DStv if you're trying to keep away from any type of wife ranging from house to sport even teen moms, weddings and celebrity filled programming.

AMC International Launched AMC Crime And AMC Break In Spain And Portugal

Later in April, AMC International announced the terminations of Crime + Investigation and BLAZE with both brands now known as AMC Crime and AMC Break in Spain and Portugal as part of readjustment to strengthen the AMC brand.

Of course, AMC International doesn't mention whether or not these changes will have an affect to the linear offering in other regions. Particularly with CBS Reality and CBS Justice which are part of a joint venture with Paramount.

 

Paramount has been trying to build their branding and it wouldn't be shocking if AMC International were trying to have another wack at that idea with these channels.

AMC Break is a mashup of E! and Motor Trend/Ignition offering a selection of sports themed content such as documentaries on high level athletes like Serena Williams and Muhammad Ali with automobile programs like Top Gear.

 

Just like CBS Justice, AMC Crime focuses on themes of criminal investigation, forensic and topics in the true crime genre with a series on Madeline McCann where they reveal new evidence that can hopefully track the victim's whereabouts.

AMC Break and AMC Crime will be AMC International's second attempt in bolstering their offering which has been viewed as old-fashioned and way past its prime amongst several consumers who were fed up with the endless repeats of Judge Judy or Lizard Lick Towing.

Crime & Investigation Ceased Transmission In Spain And Portugal

Crime & Investigation owned by A+E Networks a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company, Sky UK and Hearst Corporation is home to true crime programming like On The Case With Paula Zahn, Homicide Hunters and Green Eyed Killers.

A month ago, A+E Networks UK which is in charge of History and soon-to-be-defunct Lifetime in Europe pulled the plug on Crime+Investigation for viewers in Spain and Portugal for AMC Crime while the brand remains onboard in Africa through VIU for the time being.

 

 

Crime & Investigation was once available on DStv until MultiChoice got into a fist fight with A+E Networks which would have also led to the early termination of Lifetime and History before they were able to settle their differences.

As mentioned, Lifetime will be going off air soon and it led me to the theory that A+E Networks might be planning to halt their linear operations with most of their content likely being made available to Discovery+.

 

 

Compared to Lifetime and History, Crime & Investigation hardly had original content except for the ones they've licenced exclusively through other studios making it a much easier target.

If they chose to remove Crime & Investigation so soon they realised local providers had a set of alternatives to cope with the loss. On DStv, you have CBS Justice and Investigation Discovery for Crime & Investigation while Lifetime has E! and TLC.

New Series For M-Net, 1Magic And Showmax (Rumour #4): "Would I Lie To You", "61st Street", "The Garcias", "Come Dance With Me", "The Man Who Fell To Earth" And More

Would I Lie To You (American Remake)
In all rounds, the scoring system is the same: teams gain a point for correctly guessing whether a statement is true or not, but if they guess incorrectly the opposing team gets a point. Prior to the sixth series, it was impossible for viewers to follow the scores until they were read out at the end of each round, as some questions are edited out. However, from the sixth series the scores were re-recorded to reflect what had made the edit and not the whole recording.

61st Street
Moses Johnson, a promising, black high school athlete, is swept up into the infamously corrupt Chicago criminal justice system. Taken by the police as a supposed gang member, Johnson finds himself and his lawyer Franklin Roberts in the eye of the storm as police and prosecutors seek revenge for the death of an officer during a drug bust gone wrong.

 

 

The Garcias
'The Garcias' chronicles an American family based in San Antonio, Texas who are gathered for a summer vacation in their fancy beach house in Mexico. 'The Garcias' is a groundbreaking reboot of The Brothers Garcia, which was the first English-language sitcom to have an all-Latino cast and creative team.

Come Dance With Me
The show pairs young dancers with a family member that has supported their training, and the pair perform a dance together for a panel of judges before the determining who continues to the next round. The show was created by LL Cool J and Chris O'Donnell.

The Man Who Fell To Earth
Based on the novel of the same name, the series follows an extraterrestrial who lands on Earth seeking a way to ferry his people to Earth from his home planet, which is suffering from a severe drought.

The First Lady
A revelatory reframing of American leadership, told through the lens of the women at the heart of the White House.

The Baby
When 38-year-old Natasha is unexpectedly landed with a baby, her life of doing what she wants, when she wants, dramatically implodes. Controlling, manipulative and with violent powers, the baby twists Natasha's life into a horror show. Where does it come from? What does it want? And what lengths will Natasha have to go to in order to get her life back? She doesn't want a baby. The baby wants her.

 

I Love That For You
Joanna Gold, an aspiring host for shopping channel SVN, who lies that her childhood cancer has returned in order to keep her job; the story is inspired by Bayer's personal experience with childhood leukemia.

Tokyo Vice
In 1999, American student Jake Adelstein has relocated to Tokyo and must pass a written exam in Japanese to have the chance to join the staff of a major Japanese newspaper. He succeeds in becoming their first foreign-born journalist and starts at the very bottom. Taken under the wing of a veteran detective in the vice squad, he starts to explore the dark and dangerous world of the Japanese yakuza.

Gaslit
The series is about the Watergate scandal and focuses on several untold stories, including Richard Nixon's subordinates, deranged zealots, and the whistleblowers who would eventually bring the whole enterprise crashing down. The story will center on Martha Mitchell, a celebrity Arkansan socialite and wife to Nixon’s loyal Attorney General, John N. Mitchell. Despite her party affiliation, she is the first person to publicly sound the alarm on Nixon's involvement in Watergate, causing both the presidency and her personal life to unravel. As attorney general, Mitchell is forced to choose between Martha and the president.

 

 

We Own This City
The miniseries details the rise and fall of the Baltimore Police Department's Gun Trace Task Force and the corruption surrounding it.

The Offer
Oscar-winning producer Albert S. Ruddy 's never-before-revealed experiences of making The Godfather (1972).

The Thief, His Wife And Canoe
The Thief, His Wife And The Canoe explores John Darwin's big scam and how it was carry out. It also shows how his wife Anne became complicit in her husband’s bizarre deception to avoid bankruptcy, as she played the grieving widow and tried to convince the world, their friends, the police and insurance companies that John had gone missing while canoeing off the North East coast.

 

Whitney, A Look Back
Lost performances and rare moments with Whitney, featuring new details about the days leading up to and following Whitney's death.

Bill Maher: Adulting
From the stage of Miami's Fillmore Theater, Bill Maher returns for a scathing hour of his signature commentary on hot-button issues, bringing his no-holds-barred perspective to cancel culture, quarantine, Q-Anon and everything in-between.

As Expected, EVA And EVA+ Stop Airing On DStv Later In March

This news doesn't come as a shocker to me I mean since last year both channels hit the repeat button and the only stable thing about the brand was CBS' Bold And The Beautiful.

EVA operated by AMC International launched back in March 2015 as an alternative to Telemundo offering Portuguese telenovelas from companies that didn't have a platform within the market. Two years later they launched EVA+ for those outside South Africa.

Now both of them are set to go off/shut down on March 22nd at 23:59 CAT I was expecting March 31st but this part makes sense since it launched mid March. EVA+ was probably given an open window as that one launched in October.

According to MultiChoice, they no longer have broadcasting rights to the channel and told fans to look out for more novela channels (likely tvN).

So even though EVA and EVA+ will be shutting down and won't be replaced you can find some of its shows on TLNovelas with Telemundo having a similar offering. MultiChoice will likely expand the alternatives to even include Timeless Dizi Channel (TDC), tvN (as mentioned earlier) and Novela Magic.

So basically these channels which I theorized would go off air since last year became the first batch of channels to fly out the window on DStv in 2021.

MultiChoice hasn't bothered to answered viewers on the fate of Bold And The Beautiful I wouldn't be shocked if it surfaced on another channel likely an M-Net channel.

Read Also:

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The Next Channel Which Might Get Booted On DStv Is EVA

EVA owned by AMC International, is the home of the very best contemporary telenovelas from Latin America and around the world, starring the "newest" and most brilliant actresses and actors form Latin America tv. A potent mix of love, jealousy and betrayal. The channel launched 5 years ago on DStv channel 141 with shows from Azteca TV, Venevision and Caracol Television.

In 2017, MultiChoice Africa (not South Africa) decided to add a second EVA channel (EVA+) for those without EVA kind of like what ViacomCBS had with the two BET channels on DStv. At the time that plus channel had 90% repeats.

AMC International is seemingly neglecting the EVA channels for starters the main channel mostly has double bill of Bold for fresh entertainment other than that it's repeats while EVA+ is a just a catch-up channel. If EVA is still breathing it's more likely for Bold and the Beautiful.

MultiChoice had plenty of channels in EVA's position like Sony Channel and Sony MAX that channel was still relevant for The Amazing Race then there was AMC for Fear The Walking Dead with its successor (Sundance TV) adding some documentaries.

If a company wants to guarantee themselves longevity they should be milking off on a variety of products instead of one e.g. E! with The Kardashians, Zee TV with KumKum Bhagya and CNN with Trump.

Discovery is pulling through despite the changes they had over the years. They manage about 9 channels in South Africa and only 3 are used for repeats. Then there's Nicktoons which was a reruns channel for past animation on Nickelodeon until ViacomCBS decided to give it some exclusive programming it may offer more than the main channel thanks to acquisitions and a block but Nickelodeon is still dominating.

In short if you're going have a +1 channel make sure you have enough programs in your vault like at least 5 years worth of programming and EVA was around since 2015 and only got a second channel after two years. If you're going to expand after a shorter period you must have achieved a lot within that period what did EVA achieve after two years in general.

MultiChoice is adding 2 telenovela channels and 1 Korean channel what are the chances people pay attention to EVA once it's available. The likelihood is that they'll lure viewers away from EVA and a portion from Telemundo. Even FOX Life is hanging around these three channels the likelihood is EVA and FOX Life get canned from the platform with these three new channels keeping viewers occupied.