Tuesday, August 8, 2023
Analysis: Could eMedia Investments Or StarTimes Revive ITV Choice And tvN?
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
Monday, November 28, 2022
BBC UKTV Vs. ITV Choice: Another Attempt At Boosting The BBC On DStv
ITV Choice was an international entertainment channel operated by ITV PLC was home to shows such as Coronation Street, Emmerdale, The Jonathan Ross Show, Doc Martin, Tipping Point among others.
Two years ago, MultiChoice decided to scrap the channel as it faced an uphill with the Brit channels from BBC Studios and opted to distribute selected content amongst various channels as part of their never ending streamlining attempts which led to a bloodbath of DStv customers.
Sure audiences get to see Tipping Point on BBC Brit and Coronation Street on M-Net. But one out of the two aren't even a full-time option while the other funnels their schedule with the same 2-4 shows on a daily basis.
Now comes BBC UKTV, a channel from the forever dominating BBC Studios which seeks to show the advantage they have over DStv with content from BBC Brit and other Brit channels among them include Casualty, Deadly 60, The Great British Bake Off and Yakka Dee.
Taking to account that if this channel happens to be another Mzansi Wethu or Me channel and is accessible to audiences on the premium package perhaps on channel 123. Viewers would be under the impression that the pay-tv reason for removing ITV had to with BBC.
Several others would have another reason to avoid BBC Brit although UKTV kind of play second fiddle in terms of rebroadcasts. Adding another channel to increase the amount of Top Gears would just put a dent in their money bin.
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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- WarnerMedia is working on more content for kids
- R.I.P. FOX, long live Star, will other markets follow?
- Utsav branding takes affect on Vijay TV, will StarPlus and Star Life follow in Africa
- Will Paramount+ lead to the shutdown of several linear channels?
- BBC recognises African animation