Monday, May 20, 2024
British Streaming Service BritBox Will Be Shutting Down In South Africa After 3 Years By The End Of August
Monday, March 4, 2024
Recap To Last Month: BBC Studios Buys ITV's Britbox International Share
Sunday, March 3, 2024
News Shorts: ITV Studios Unveils New Group Brand Logo, Mzansi Magic Adds 13 Episode Drama Series Obstruction And Standalone Showtime Streaming Service To Close
Tuesday, August 8, 2023
Analysis: Could eMedia Investments Or StarTimes Revive ITV Choice And tvN?
Monday, July 3, 2023
Ginx eSports TV CEO Steps Down After 13 Years
Tuesday, February 21, 2023
Roundups #143: Zig & Sharko Renewed For A Fourth Season On Cartoonito, Young Rock To Make His Freemium Debut On e.tv And ITV Choice Has Been Relaunched On Samsung TV Plus
Zig and Sharko are back for more gags
Xilam Animation, an independent company for the production and distribution of animated programmes, Academy Award-nominated, has secured its first wave of deals for the upcoming fourth season of its iconic non-dialogue slapstick comedy series Zig & Sharko (78 x 7’), as the company prepares to debut the first episode to buyers at MIPCOM.
Launching in September 2023, season four has been acquired by longstanding partner Gulli (France), which has also renewed its partnership across the previous three seasons. Additionally, Xilam has sold the new instalment to existing partners, VRT (Belgium), Discovery (Italy), DeA (Italy), Nickelodeon (India) and Nova (Israel).
Zig & Sharko continues to generate impressive ratings internationally, particularly in India where the series resulted in Nickelodeon becoming the leading children’s channel in its evening slot, across all demos. In Q2 2022, Zig & Sharko was also the fourth best performing series among children aged 2-14 years and outperformed its lead in and lead out shows in all demos in terms of ratings.
The series is currently seen on Boomerang (soon to be Cartoonito). Apparently, the channel wasn't mentioned when news came it meaning the show could have ended after 3 seasons on the channel or they're just taking long to pick it up in any case further episodes are on Boing.
Regular Nick:
- Wonder Pets revival might be in the works for Nickelodeon
- Peacock greenlights two new animated series
- Boomerang to go dark on the DStv platform next month
Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson expresses his charm in new sitcom
e.tv, South Africa's most reliable and free source for English entertainment at the moment home to various local and international productions has acquired rights to NBC's Young Rock currently viewed on M-Net and sister channel, Me.
The sitcom is set in a frame story where Johnson is running as a candidate in the 2032 United States presidential election. Each episode involves Johnson participating in an interview or other conversation which leads him to flashback to a story from one of three periods of Johnson's life (with occasional episodes where all three periods are shown).
In the first season, Johnson is depicted as a ten-year-old in Hawaii; as a high school student in Pennsylvania; and as a college student and football player at the University of Miami.
The series stars Dwayne Johnson, Joseph Lee Anderson, Stacey Leilua, Ana Tuisila, Adrian Groulx, Bradley Constant, Uli Latukefu and Matthew Willig. It is expected to air Saturdays at 19:30 replacing Superstore from March 4th - no update on Grown-ish yet.
Openview Plus:
- Reviewing major changes coming soon to the SABC: early 2023 edition
- Imbewu has been cancelled on e.tv after 5 seasons
- A look at former NBC soap, Passions
ITV Studios and Samsung TV Plus collaborate to launch a number of projects across Europe
ITV Studios had announced a raft of sales and pre-sales deals across its catalogue of scripted and non-scripted content. One of which, Samsung TV Plus launched ITV Choice showcasing the best of ITV Studios including Hell’s Kitchen, Four Weddings and Come Dine With Me.
During the week, ITV Studios expanded their partnership to include a bouquet of channels.
One of the channels is a ‘Hell’s Kitchen’ channel, which will air episodes round-the-clock from the popular U.S. Gordon Ramsay show. The other channel – Storylands – will “become the home for the best European drama” according to ITV Studios. Shows on the channel will be produced by labels which are part of ITV Studios and include dramas such as Norwegian legal series Aber Bergen, the period drama Un Village Français, and the procedural crime drama from the producers of Gomorrah, called Masantonio.
The move follows ITV Studios’ launch of four non-scripted YouTube channels last year – Our World, Our Life, Our Stories and Our Histories. The agreement will see Samsung TV Plus – Samsung’s free ad-supported app – broadcast content from the ITV Studios catalogue 24/7 across all Samsung Smart TVs made in 2016 and onwards, as well as select Galaxy devices.
Ruth Berry, Managing Director at ITV Studios Global Distribution, commented: “We are very excited to partner with Samsung TV Plus to launch FAST channels in EMEA. We have an amazing library of 90,000+ hours of IP and the FAST/AVOD space is a key strategic focus for ITV Studios as we look to provide global audiences with new ways to access some of our best-known scripted brands, formats and non-scripted entertainment content.”
Video Entertainment:
- BBC to close linear channels and focus on digital future
- HBO Max no longer produces live-action programs for kids and family
- Triggerfish working with Disney+ on a Star Wars project
Friday, December 16, 2022
Roundups #120: Lioness Returns For A New Season On M-Net, The Proud Family: Louder And Prouder Gets Season 2 Renewal And BritBox To Add Two New Doccies To Their Lineup
Another local drama gets a season 2 renewal
Shannon Esra returns to TV screens as Samantha Hugo when M-Net's (DStv 101) edgy thriller drama, Lioness, returns for its second season next year.
Lioness returns for season 2 on 16 January. It follows the story of a woman fresh out of jail for fraud and returning to a life even more fractured than when she left.
"After the cliffhanger finale of season 1, season 2 picks up with Adrian Hugo's (played by Jacques Bessenger) second wife (played by Carla Classen) in desperate search for her missing husband," a press statement reads. "The fiercely protective mother (as the titular "lioness") that she is, Samantha must shield her son Liam (played by Joshua Eady), no matter the cost."
DStv Flex:
- The Heartless coming soon to TLNovelas
- What to expect this January on The Home Channel?
- Reyka renewed for season 2 on M-Net
- What to expect this January on Qwest TV?
- Reviewing major changes coming soon to the SABC
- What to expect this December on TNT?
The Proud Family is back on Disney+
The Proud Family: Louder & Prouder fans rejoice as the Proud Family revival gets renewed for season 2!
But, before we delve deeper into what we know about the upcoming new season on Disney+, we have to mention that the series is unquestionably making its mark as it recently won the Outstanding Casting for An Animated Program award at the first Children’s & Family Emmy Awards.
Season 2 of The Proud Family: Louder & Prouder will hit the airwaves in February and is expected to feature a stellar list of new guest stars. According to JustJaredJr.com, here are some of the voices that we can expect to hear in upcoming new episodes and the names of the characters that they will portray.
- Gabrielle Union as Talia Rouge
- Chance the Rapper as Darrius St. Vil
- Normani as Giselle
- Leslie Odom Jr. as Kwame
- Anthony Anderson as Ray Ray
- Gymnasts Dominique Dawes, Gabby Douglas and - Laurie Hernandez as themselves
- Holly Robinson Peete as Dr. Lord
- Maury Povich as himself
- Storm Reid as Emily
- Courtney B. Vance as Merlin Kelly
- Liana Mendoza as Singing Judge
Regular Nick:
- Best & Bester coming soon to Nicktoons
- Moonbug Kids gets a dedicated cameo account
- January on Disney Channel
- January on Disney Junior
- January on Da Vinci Kids
- The concept of Cartoonito and Boomerang (review)
BritBox picks up two British actor documentaries
The Ghost of Richard Harris debuted in September 2022 at the Venice Film Festival. The actor is known to modern viewers best as the Original Dumbledore, but he had a long career before Harry Potter, including starring in the Oscar-nominated This Sporting Life and Camelot. However, he was even better known for his hard-partying ways, with a reputation for drinking and riotous behavior.
The documentary will feature his children, who followed in his footsteps to Hollywood, including Jared Harris (The Crown), Jamie Harris (Carnival Row), and director Damian Harris (Brave The Dark), as well as co-stars Vanessa Redgrave and Dick Cavett, and his late wife, Elizabeth Harris.
Peter O’Toole – Along the Sky Road to Aqaba only just debuted recently at the end of November 2022 in Spain. Directed by Jim Sheridan, who ironically also appears in The Ghost of Richard Harris, the documentary is structured into four acts, each introduced by a quote from or about the Lawrence of Arabia star to encapsulate that period of his life.
Nominated seven times for Best Actor, the new documentary covers everything about O'Toole from his self-belief to his alcoholism, using his own words, gleaned from 100s of hours of footage, allowing him to act as a narrator for his own life. It also includes interviews with O’Toole’s family, artists, actors, and directors, including Sir Kenneth Branagh, Brian Cox, Stephen Fry, Sir Anthony Hopkins, and Sir Derek Jacobi.
YouTube Premium:
- VH1 is making a comeback to international shores through BET
- DStv Streama bundles Disney+
- The Walt Disney Company to expand the reach of Star Channel
- Acorn TV shutting down in South Africa
- TelkomOne rebrands into SABC+
- New Spider-Man series coming to MGM+ and Amazon Prime Video
Tuesday, July 19, 2022
New Channel Alert: Celebrate Islamic Culture With MultiChoice's Latest Addition To The DStv Platform, INX Prime
Islam the religion of over 1 billion people hungry for content that resonates. Join Interactive Network Experience Prime (INX Prime) for the future in a rapidly changing world for the Islamic experience.
Africa was first to recieve Muslim historically and today 446 million people are adherent of the Islamic faith across the continent one of the highest in the world. The South African Muslim community forms part of the backbone of the country integral to its history and future contributing as artisans, business people and sensationals in all spheres of daily living and nation building.
Islam is a way of life, INX Prime reflects in the ethos with homegrown programming created in South Africa and carefully curated from across the globe with state of the art studios and houses in Johannesburg as well as links to studios in the major metropolitan areas and a commitment to sourcing stories from the lesser covered regions and communities we are the channel of choice for all face and cultures who seem to be inspired, appreciated and enlightened.
We will celebrate the modern Muslim while honouring and remembering the stories of those who brought us here. Our editorial direction is based on the Islamic values and commandments. As it is enshrined in the holy quran and prophetic teachings and examples of Prophet Mohammed.
INX Prime creates and showcases the Islamic identity of our diverse South African Muslim society while also benefitting from world-class international programming from other channels that share our vision. We are committed to empowering women throughout our programming and production department with emphasis on youth development and enabling indigenous African media and on-screen talent.
We are an Islamic lifestyle channel focused on creating an holistic approach to experience and living the Islam in the modern age.
Our programming schedule features a breakfast show with community news and happenings, trending items, health and mindfulness speeches, media reviews to entertainment.
Mid afternoon programming is dedicated to children's content with an array of popular animation series and a tailor made local magazine show which gives our young viewers their own platform to showcase their talent and happenings.
A range of women talk shows and magazine shows features late mornings on weekdays and caters for all hosts and guests across all African languages.
Evening primetime keeps the mind edutained with current affairs and local and international Islamic talk shows, reality and documentaries. Other key programming deliverable sent outside live broadcasts of community events, local dramas series and telenovelas with morals and values that they core while providing a platform for performers, young talent and media graduates to sharpen their skills.
Also in our programming is creative programming aimed at showcasing talent, feature films Friday which follows on the M-Net's Sunday Night aimed at getting families around the TV after ending the prayer of the day.
Format shows that feature weddings, cook offs, cars and reality TV concepts and live crossings 5 days a week to holy cities with our very own reporters on the ground. Journey with us as we realise an Islamic channel with something for everyone.
Friday, June 17, 2022
New Channel Alert: As Predicted, Hilaal TV Makes Its Way To The DStv Platform As A Replacement To ITV Networks
ITV Networks is set to go off air on the DStv platform by the end of this week and unlike certain channels where viewers have it to wait a couple of months or a year for them to be replaced, ITV's replacement arrives in a few days.
Hilaal TV was reported earlier this month after MultiChoice put up Ramadaan TV but this time as a permanent addition and Hilaal TV operating the brand alongside a promo lead us to believe that the pop-up will undergo a name change.
Hilaal TV is said to be the best Islamic channel in Africa heck there's even speculation that the Ramadaan TV was experimental or a trial to permanent channel which we now know as Hilaal TV and that ITV's demise was destined long before its presence on DStv.
As mentioned previously, some of the content available to the channel includes Tafseer Of Surah Kahf By Sheikh Suliman Moola and Live Crossing For Zohr From Madinah Munawwarah basically the same batch of shows from Ramadan TV.
Hilaal TV will be made available to the same customers that had access to ITV Networks which was DStv Premium, Compact+, Compact, Family, Access, Easyview Indian + Add-on packages from 18 June.
Wednesday, May 25, 2022
New Channel Alert (Rumour): Could Islam Channel Be The Supposed Replacement For ITV Networks When It Goes Off Air On DStv?
Following the termination of Lifetime and quite possibly the 4 e.tv channels, MultiChoice announced after nearly a decade that the Islamic community channel, ITV Networks currently seen on channel 347 would go off air on the DStv platform from June 17.
In those string of developments it was mentioned that the pay-tv platform will seek another Islamic channel.
Here's the thing ITV Networks was added on DStv from June 2012 but as a replacement to the UK based Islam Channel which is still available on the platform in other African countries.
The signs of ITV's demise was clear as day I mean the channel stopped providing an EPG and just like Lesotho TV all you got was the channel's name. Prior to that, they were some technical setbacks again the signs were visible.
Now on to the replacement channel, MultiChoice said they'll announce the supposed channel in due course but it wouldn't pose as a shocker if it happened to be Islam Channel.
MultiChoice operated Islam Channel in 2009 before getting snubbed for ITV Networks. The channel offered news and current affairs programmes, children and women"s programmes, as well as Quaran recitals in Arabic with English subtitles, Islamic values and doctrine.
MultiChoice’s General Manager Content Aletta Alberts said: The channel is another example of MultiChoice’s commitment to meet the diverse viewing and cultural requirements of our customers.
Then again why add ITV Networks to replace I mean there's a lot of gaps in that area that MultiChoice could have made it a complimentary to Islam Channel as the Christian market seems a bit overcrowded.
As mentioned, the channel is currently occupying the space of ITV Networks. Would it be a shocker if MultiChoice were to just relaunch the channel or perhaps just cancel it for everyone else in the rest of Africa for another Islamic channel like Sunnah TV.
As of this moment, although MultiChoice says although it's taking iTV away that DStv subscribers will still have access to Radio Islam (DStv 826) and Channel Islam Internationale (DStv 865).
Friday, April 22, 2022
The History Of A Former DStv Channel, Carlton's SelecTV
Carlton Select was UK's leading entertainment channel owned by Carlton Television. It originally launched in June 1995 as SelecTV, by the independent production company of the same name, before being purchased by Carlton in 1997 who relaunched it as Carlton Select.
During 1985-1991, the channel was part of a bid for an ITV franchise after the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) prevented them from purchasing Thames Television and were only fortunate to provide a news service to the channel.
Other aspects that occurred in that timeframe was the purchase of Ladbrokes (Central), the sports betting company owning up to 30% which finally gave them its first stake in a terrestrial broadcasting company.
During 1992-1994, Carlton launched a news station London News Network as part of a joint venture with London Weekend Television broadcasting news and other regional content and acquired full ownership of Ladbrokes.
They also faced some heavy backlash from the Independent Television Communication (ITC) for providing a wide range of "unimpressive and very disappointing" programmes for the ITV network which were "neither distinctive nor noticeable high quality".
Between 1995 and 1996, Carlton launched its first channel Carlton Food Network and SelectTV was introduced broadcasting various content from their Food Network alongside other content like Airline, Birds Of A Feather, The Golden Girls and Yesterday's Dreams.
It also formed part of DStv's initial offering when it was introduced in 1995 and was eventually purchased by Pearson a year later.
SelecTV programming traced back to the 80s and Carlton Select was introduced in 1997 as part of an attempt to change the image of the channel of course there was not much difference from either one as the timelines were kind of close to each other.
Things were only moving up for Carlton as they were able to launch DTT platform British Digital Broadcasting as part of a joint venture with British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB) before having full control as ITC forced BSkyB to retract and purchased a Racks Film Distributor which had 740 films in their collection.
In 1998, The Guardian publishes a series of articles alleging the wholesale fabrication of a 1996 Carlton documentary, The Connection which had purported to film the route by which heroin was smuggled into the United Kingdom from Colombia. An internal inquiry at Carlton found that The Guardian's allegations were in large part correct and the ITC, fines Carlton £2million for multiple breaches of the UK's broadcasting codes.
Around that period, BSkyB launched their DTT service carrying their set of channels alongside Carlton Select, Carlton Food Network (another DStv channel) and new entries Carlton Kids, Carlton Cinema and Carlton World.
A year after the launch, Carlton began phasing out the company name from all their products and it wasn't until the 2000s that Carlton Select, Carlton World, Carlton Kids were eventually discontinued.
Carlton World followed shortly after and Carlton Food Network became a joint venture with Sainsbury to form Taste CFN which lasted a year leaving Carlton with a movie channel, Carlton Cinema.
Carlton partnered up with BSkyB (now Granada PLC or Sky UK) to launch ITV Digital from existing brands and that lasted a few months as well. Granada PLC had various brands which were scrapped for ITV1.
Carlton Cinema ceased transmission and in 2003 the Carlton brand was no more as it merged with Granada PLC to form ITV PLC. All the products from Carlton were credited to ITV.
ITV PLC went on to form an international channel ITV Choice (formerly Granada UKTV, Granada TV and ITV Granada) which some may see as a reincarnation to SelecTV and various other entertainment channels from the two former brands.
Just like every other carnation, ITV Choice was eventually discontinued by 2020 in its last region Africa. There hasn't been a reason for the sudden dismal in various other markets but the local provider in Africa being MultiChoice opted to supply their content to various other channels.
ITV Choice brought shows like Emmerdale, Coronation Street, Tipping Point, The Jonathon Ross Show, The Chase and Doc Martin. Modern and original programming that past counterparts had the misfortune of excluding.
In the end, ITV hasn't been successful in the linear space with the likes of BBC and regional providers. Of course, ITV provides various channels in the UK with Ginx TV also being British being the only linear channel available internationally.
But if you look at it the content can be viewed on multiple stations globally so that has to count for something.
Friday, March 26, 2021
Britbox Video Streamer To Launch In South Africa Later In The Year With Content From ITV And BBC
Another video streaming service will be launching in South Africa in the second half of 2021 with BritBox, the joint 50/50 streaming venture between BBC Studios and ITV, that announced that it will become accessible to South African consumers later this year.
BritBox, an ad-free subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) streaming service will join the quickly getting crowded video streaming market in South Africa where Netflix SA fiercely compete with the likes of MultiChoice's Showmax, VIU, Vodacom Video Play, TelkomONE, Amazon Prime Video and Apple TV+.
Meanwhile the South African public broadcaster is working on launching its own SABC streaming service, while Discovery+, Paramount+, HBO Max and Disney+ are still to launch in the territory and across the rest of Africa as well.
BritBox will serve as somewhat of a replacement for the ITV Choice channel and the BBC First channel that both shuttered on MultiChoice's DStv satellite pay-TV platform during 2020.
BritBox carries on-demand content in the form of British box sets, drama premieres and live events, as well as new and exclusive original commissions.
South Africa will be BritBox's 5th worldwide territory to launch in, following launches in the United States and Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia.
"The launch of BritBox in South Africa is yet another step in the platform’s trajectory towards international expansion. We’re delighted to bring the service to a brand new territory and continue towards establishing BritBox as a premium VOD brand across the world," says Martin Goswami, ITV group strategic partnership and distribution director, in a statement.
Paul Dempsey, president of global distribution at BBC Studios, says "We know that South African audiences have a real connection to British television and we can’t wait to bring them even more great shows, on-demand, that we know they will love".
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