My Holiday Card To Readers: A Prediction Of What's To Come In 2025

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 SOUTH AFRICA

• Canal+ gets the greenlight to acquire MultiChoice 

- MultiChoice rebrands to MultiChoice: A Canal+ Company.

- Canal+ is given control over M-Net, SuperSport, DStv and GOtv while other shareholders manage the brands licenses in South Africa and focus on Showmax, Namola and SuperSportBET.

- Canal+ looks to reduce DStv's linear offering as they look to extend the reach of France24, Zacu TV and W-Sport. 

- M-Net Movies 3 and 4 merge into one channel as M-Net continues to simplify it's offering. 

- Canal+'s Novelas TV extends its reach to Anglophone countries on DStv and GOtv replacing Telemundo and also offers content in local languages.

- Cartoon Network West and East African feed is made available to consumers in Southern Africa (not South Africa) on channel 313.

- Play Room gets a branded block on Mzansi Wethu and extends its reach to other African countries.

- eMedia's 4 channels eExtra, eMovies, eMovies Extra and eToonz exit the DStv platform with further content on Openview.

• Free-To-Air Households 

- eMedia Investments discontinues Zee Family and Star Select from the Openview platform.

- Muvhango gets cancelled for the second time on SABC 2, Isidingo revival/spin-off is being developed.

- Netflix acquires rights to SA's Got Talent previously held by the SABC and Family Feud SA from e.tv.

- SABC looks to launch two separate divisions one targeted on their archives and SABC+ with the other comprising of SABC 1-3 and Sport. They look into reducing commissions on these channels as they explore possible partnerships with VIU and Netflix.

GLOBAL

• Canal+ looks to acquire Senegalese based company Marodi TV and Nordic pay-tv provider Viaplay with MC Vision rebranding to Canal+ Mauritius.

• Star on Disney+ rebrands to Hulu 

• We Baby Bears cancelled on Cartoon Network after 2 seasons alongside Kiff on Disney Channel and Rock, Paper & Scissors on Nickelodeon.

• Skydance gets approval to acquire 77% stake in Paramount Global making them majority shareholder

- Comedy Central, MTV and Nickelodeon fold under the division MTV Entertainment Group away from Paramount Pictures and CBS Studios.

- Pluto TV and Paramount+ are merged to one streaming service.

- BET Media Group and The Smithsonian Channel are put up for sale.

• Comcast finalizes transaction with proposed spin-off

- Comcast continues to license various content to new company which comprise of E!, USA Network, Oxygen and Syfy.

- Sky Group becomes an independent company and retains its pay-tv services and studios in parts of Europe.

- New company looks to acquire some assets from Warner Bros. Discovery.

- Universal Kids is closed down in the United States as further shows move to Peacock alongside Telemundo in Africa.

- MSNBC and CNBC retain their trademark but retract the Comcast logo.

20+ TV Predictions Set To Shake Up South Africa And Global By 2024

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PLEASE NOTE WHATEVER YOU READ BELOW ISN'T FACTS BUT ARE BASED ON ASSUMPTIONS

2023 has been a very hectic year for South African households following the ongoing blackouts which had jeopardized various businesses in the market. Despite this cable providers had progressed with in terms of content and linear channels and made these past months productive for journalists, bloggers and various other media outlets.

Since we've reached the final stage of the year I thought of drawing up some first impression guesses for the coming year based on stories I've been following for a while and others based on assumption.

Presenting some predictions for the coming year

Local

> eMedia's 4 channels go dark on the DStv platform before 31 August 2024.

> KykNET NOU! ends its run on the DStv platform with further content folded under KykNET. 

> Universal TV rebrands to Sky Witness while Studio Universal is replaced by Sky Cinema. Not much changes is added to the content following the switch.

> WildEarth ends its run on the DStv platform with further content on People's Weather, Curiosity Channel and BBC Earth.

> Discovery+ launches as a freemium service on DStv Stream alongside Paramount+. It features content from Discovery Channel, MTV, Nickelodeon, HGTV, TLC and Food Network.

> eMedia Investments and OUTtv form a joint venture with the streaming service, eVOD.

> Power Up goes dark on the platform and gets replaced by eLocal featuring programs produced by eMedia Investments with Kuiertyd repeats folded under ePlesier. It also airs content produced exclusively for the eVOD streaming service.

> SABC Variety and SABC Lehae (also known as SABC eKhaya and formerly SABC Parliament) are added onto the Openview platform. They are also made available on StarSat and DStv alongside SABC Education.

> France24 exits the Openview platform and this is due to the popularity of SABC Lehae.

> Play Room expands to regions across Southern Africa on channel 311 and ROA as a replacement to Aliki Kids.

> SuperSport launches a locally dubbed sports channel in Southern Africa. It offers football, wrestling, tennis, swimming, netball and rugby.

> Days Of Our Lives makes a comeback on Showmax and is also made available on DStv.

> Ignition TV extends its reach to the Openview platform through eReality.

> E! Entertainment adds drama series to the lineup with Till Jail Do Us Part and Diary Of Gigolo. The channel rebrands to Bravo and also includes content from Oxygen under the new name.

> eToonz expands its lineup with the launch of a second children's channel, eJunior. It broadcasts from 08:00 to 22:00 with shows like Peppa Pig, Barbie Dreamhouse Adventures, Fireman Sam and CoComelon.

> Muvhango is cancelled after 27 seasons with last episode slated within the year.

> SuperSportBET gets a dedicated TV channel, Ginx TV goes dark.

> Zee TV debuts another locally skewed entertainment channel but for West Africa titled Zee Naija. Promises to have reality shows, educational content, movies and drama series all of which will be dubbed in local languages.

> eMedia Investments reduce the prices of their Ultraview packages and rolls out a third bouquet home to various Asian dramas and films from tvN and KBS.

International

> E! Entertainment, Studio Universal and Universal TV ends its run as a linear channel in parts of the world with further content added to Peacock and Sky.

> Sky acquires majority stake in Disney's remaining linear offering in part of Europe. Therefore extending the reach of Sky Kids in parts of Europe under Disney Channel with Disney Junior becoming Sky Junior with National Geographic Wild folded under National Geographic.

> Hulu replaces the Star brand internationally.

> FX replaces the Star channels seen in parts of Latin America and Europe therefore making the Star brand exclusive to India.

> True Crime, a joint venture between AMC Networks International and Paramount Global expands to parts of Europe as a replacement to CBS Reality.

> Ginx TV ends its run as a linear channel to become an online only brand.

> Showtime Group's linear offering is being put up for sale alongside NBCUniversal. As mentioned prior, NBCUniversal's International operations particularly in Europe are managed by Sky which is also owned by Comcast.

> Paramount Network is discontinued this is due to the launch of Paramount+ With Showtime.

> Universal Kids ends its run in the United States.

> Cartoon Network cancels We Baby Bears after 2 seasons, Disney Channel cancels The Ghost And Molly McGee and Pretty Freakin Scary and lastly Nickelodeon cancels Monster High and Rock, Paper, Scissors.