Development Alert: SuperScreen Pop-Up Channel To Rollout On The DStv Compact Bouquet To Kick Off The Final Premier League Season

SuperSport viewers will, for the first time ever, be able to view all 10 matches of the final Premier League season on one channel simultaneously thanks to our one-of-a-kind SuperScreen.

The innovative viewing experience is set to add to the thrill of match day 38, the climax of the 2023/24 Premier League season, on Sunday 19 May 2024.

Viewers will miss none of the action from 10 different venues across the UK as Manchester City and Arsenal compete for the Premier League title, while the final Uefa competition places will also be decided as well as the last relegation place.

The SuperScreen, which will be available only in South Africa on DStv Channel 199, will begin with the Premier League build-up that will air at 15:30 on Sunday, ahead of kick-off at 17:00 (all times South African).

SuperSport will also roll out the SuperScreen during the final match day of the DStv Premiership season on Saturday 25 May and the feature will form an integral part of the immersive viewing experience for the Paris Olympic Games starting on 26 July 2024.

Said SuperSport CEO Rendani Ramovha: “At SuperSport, our goal is to always innovate and to find new ways of enhancing the viewing experiences for our passionate sports fans. To be able to bring all 10 Premier League matches into one channel at the conclusion of yet another exciting season is the stuff that fans dream about.

“The channel will also be crucial for fans who don’t want to miss a moment’s action during the Paris Games. With SuperSport broadcasting every gold medal event live, with eight dedicated channels covering the Olympics, this will no doubt add to what is expected to be a memorable and spectacular event.”

The SuperSport SuperScreen on DStv Channel 199 will be available for DStv Compact, Compat Plus and Premium subscribers in South Africa.

Disney, Fox and WBD Unveil Name of Sports-Streaming Venture: Venu Sports

The joint venture of Disney/ESPN, Fox Corp. and Warner Bros. Discovery to package together a sports streaming bundle has a name — Venu Sports.

“We are excited to officially introduce Venu Sports, a brand that we feel captures the spirit of an all-new streaming home where sports fans outside of the traditional pay TV ecosystem can experience an incredible collection of live sports, all in one place,” Pete Distad, CEO of Venu Sports, said in a statement. “As preparations for the platform continue to accelerate, we are singularly focused on delivering a best-in-class product for our target audience, built from the ground up using the latest technologies to engage and entertain discerning sports fans wanting one-stop access to live games.”

Disney, Fox and WBD unveiled their partnership in February, positioning the new streaming bundle as a way to reach consumers who don’t subscribe to pay TV. It’s pegged to debut in the fall of 2024. The trio in March announced the hiring of Distad, who worked for a decade at Apple and most recently was responsible for Apple TV+ business, operations and global distribution. Distad is based out of the Venu Sports offices in L.A.

Pricing and a specific launch date haven’t been announced for Venu, which will combine ESPN+ with the three companies’ linear TV networks that carry sports programming (ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, SECN, ACCN, ESPNews, Fox, FS1, FS2, Big Ten Network, TNT, TBS and truTV).

When the joint venture was announced, some had jokingly dubbed it “Spulu,” a mash-up of “sports” and “Hulu,” which had originally been formed as a JV among TV broadcasters.

The venture also launched a new website at venu.com. A notice at the bottom of the landing page says, “Launch is conditional on receiving regulatory approval and is expected for Fall 2024.” The site’s terms of service indicate that it’s operated by “Rookie Enterprises, LLC,” a subsidiary of Fox Corp. In announcing the new name, the three companies also noted that the JV is still pending the “finalization of definitive agreements amongst the parties.”

The Justice Department reportedly has planned to review the three-way venture to look at anticompetitive implications, and last month two leading congressional Democrats expressed concerns that the JV may “result in higher prices for consumers and less fair licensing terms for upstream sports leagues and downstream video distributors.” Meanwhile, streaming TV provider Fubo filed a federal lawsuit seeking to block the JV service’s launch, alleging the venture violates antitrust laws. On May 2, Fubo, DirecTV, Dish Network, Newsmax and others sent a letter to members of Congress calling for hearings on the state of competition in the pay-TV market, specifically calling out the Disney-Fox-WBD joint venture as “rais[ing] serious competition concerns that call for Congress’s immediate oversight.”

Venu (pronounced “venue”) will be made available directly to consumers via a new app, the companies said. Subscribers will also have the ability to purchase it in a bundle, including with Disney+, Hulu or Max.

The JV’s new name and brand identity were developed in partnership with R/GA, a global design and advertising firm. According to a spokesperson for the company, the Venu Sports name “takes inspiration from where live sports lives: the stadiums, arenas, speedways, octagons, courts, rinks, ballparks and more, where fans come to watch and connect with the action.”

‘The Thundermans Return’ Gets Spinoff Series At Nickelodeon With Original Series Cast Members

The superhero Thundermans are off to solve more crimes. Nickelodeon Studios has given a green light to a new spinoff series based on characters from the hit live-action movie The Thundermans Return.

The spinoff series will follow Phoebe and Max, played by original series cast members Kira Kosarin and Jack Griffo, who are sent undercover to handle a new threat in the seaside town of Secret Shores and bring Chloe (Maya Le Clark) along to develop her superhero talent. Production will begin in Vancouver in August, with premiere details to be announced at a later date.

In the spinoff, Chloe (Le Clark) forms a bond with two classmates while they investigate suspicious activity coming from the local school, who don’t realize their new friend has secret powers. As the danger increases, the Thunderman trio must stay in town indefinitely, leaving the squabbling twins in charge of raising their younger sister.

The Thundermans Return feature-length movie. based on the hit live-action superhero comedy series The Thundermans, follows the superpowered family as they attempt to live a normal life while using their superhuman abilities to stop crime. It premiered earlier this year to stellar ratings, ranking as the number-one entertainment telecast for the year to date in Live+3 across all cable among Kids 6-11. It reached 1.6 million Total Viewers throughout its premiere weekend (March 7-10) across airings on Nickelodeon and Nick At Nite (4 telecasts).

The Thundermans premiered on Nickelodeon in October 2013 and wrapped its four-season run in 2018, ranking as the number-one series across all TV among Kids 2-11 and Kids 6-11. Created and executive produced by three-time Emmy-winner Jed Spingarn, the scripted half-hour series follows superhero twins with opposite personalities, Phoebe and Max Thunderman, as they navigate their way through school, friends and a family of extraordinary superheroes, all while keeping their true identities a secret. .

The series is executive produced by Jed Spingarn (Big Time Rush, Jimmy Neutron) and Sean W. Cunningham & Marc Dworkin (The Thundermans, Julie and the Phantoms). Kira Kosarin is executive producing. Jack Griffo is also an executive producer on the series. Production of the series for Nickelodeon Studios is overseen by Shauna Phelan, Head of Nickelodeon & Awesomeness Live-Action. Brian Banks serves as Nickelodeon’s Executive in Charge of Production.

Repeats Are Back!!! Evil Affairs And Beyond Love Get Extended Airtime On Star Life With A Twist

During the month, Star Life halted repeat broadcasts of Evil Affairs due to several complaints about its themes and depiction of Hinduism. This had also affected their other show Beyond Love as it shares the 10pm slot with Evil Affairs.

This news was met with mostly negative feedback from consumers as some could only keep up with daytime repeats. As some consumers had been forced to miss a week worth of Beyond Love and Evil Affairs.

Based on consumer feedback at the time, Star Life had stated they would work on finding a solution to the broadcasts. As seen moments ago, the channel opted to rather keep these shows on late nights but opted to reshuffle its lineup in those hours. 

Repeats of Imlie were currently reserved at 1:30am and this was followed by Anupama at 2am. This portion will be phased out for Evil Affairs and Beyond Love with no word on when exactly when these changes will be applied. 

Judging by the timeslots and the scheduling, we presume more shows could be affected by these changes or its repeats slots e.g. The Evil Eye and Game Of Love. Beyond Love and Evil Affairs were grouped together and all of a sudden that's not the case here.

Disney Is ‘Pretty Dramatically’ Reducing Spending on Traditional TV Content, CEO Iger Says

Disney CEO Bob Iger said that as the traditional pay-TV universe continues to shrink, the company is cutting its investment in programming for linear entertainment TV networks while amortizing overall content spending across streaming platforms.

The strategy is “to reduce pretty dramatically our investment in content specifically aimed at those traditional networks,” Iger said Wednesday at MoffettNathanson’s 2024 Media, Internet and Communications Conference in New York. The conclusion Iger reached after reviewing Disney’s TV business when he returned as CEO in the fall of 2022 was that “it’s not a growth business, but it could become an important component to our ability to basically engage with the consumer.”

Iger gave credit to Dana Walden, co-chair of Disney Entertainment, who oversees the portfolio of linear networks, for managing the transition. Disney will invest in some traditional TV areas, Iger said, but it is managing traditional networks and the streaming platforms under the leadership of one executive — Walden on the entertainment side, and ESPN chair Jimmy Pitaro on the sports side — whose goal is “basically to drive bottom-line growth.”

For example, when ABC airs a new episode of “Grey’s Anatomy” or “Abbott Elementary,” it goes on Hulu “pretty quickly” and “what we’re getting is unduplicated audiences. We’re basically aggregating greater audience and we’re amortizing costs,” Iger said. Disney is “doing that across the board,” at ABC, Disney Channel, National Geographic and other networks, and “it’s working,” Iger added.

“We’re going to continue to see erosion in terms of subs for those businesses, but we’re going to actually continue to drive profitability because we’re managing our costs so effectively,” Iger said. “We feel comfortable with our hand right now, because we’re using those networks efficiently and effectively.”

During the MoffettNathanson session, Iger said when the company first launched into the streaming business in 2019 with Disney+, “we were neophytes” — and overinvested in content.

“As we got into the streaming business in a very, very aggressive way… basically, we invested too much,” well ahead of “what was truly monetizable,” he said. That contributed to billions in losses, he said, and “It resulted in volume, not quality.”

After Iger returned as CEO in November 2022, Disney restructured its operating divisions so that creative executives have P&L accountability for what they spend on content and the revenue it generates. Iger said it’s key to have a CEO with “a deep creative background”: “The entire organization knows there’s some guy in the corner office watching everything carefully… Good isn’t good enough — it has to be great.”

On streaming, Disney’s major push in the near term is to boost engagement in order to reduce churn. As part of furthering that goal, Disney+ has integrated Hulu for subscribers of both services, and Disney+ will add an ESPN tile in December that will offer non-ESPN+ subscribers a “taste” of live games and programming (while ESPN+ customers will get access to all the content within Disney+). In addition, Disney is going to crack down on illicit password sharing, starting in limited markets in June followed in September when it will roll out “more aggressively across the globe,” according to Iger.

Another way Disney plans to increase engagement is using artificial-intelligence technology to deliver more personalized content experiences to users. “That first great experience has to be dynamic,” Iger said of Disney’s streaming services. “Every time they open the app it has to be something different — this is where AI will just be a huge, huge important tool to do all this.”

Iger said coming soon to ESPN will be a customized version of its popular news and highlights show “SportsCenter,” which will serve content based on a user’s favorites sports or teams. When you turn on ESPN to watch “SportsCenter,” Iger said, “it should know I’m a Knicks fan. We are actually working on that.”

Iger didn’t comment on ESPN’s specific sports rights negotiations, including its current talks with the NBA. But, he said, “We have passed on things. We knew we couldn’t buy everything.” That said, ESPN has “the most in terms of volume and the most in terms of audience engagement.”

“We aim to manage a portfolio of rights that will enable ESPN to maintain a leadership position in sports,” Iger said. In that way, “you protect your economics… If you’re a sports fan, you need ESPN.”

"Wizards Beyond Waverly Place": Disney Channel Reveals Official Title For Upcoming Spinoff To Wizards Of The Waverly Place

Selena Gomez revealed the new Wizards Of Waverly Place spinoff will be known as Wizards Beyond Waverly Place during Disney’s upfront Tuesday. She also shared two first-look images you can find below.

The photos give fans a look at grownup Alex and Justin Russo, played by Gomez and David Henrie, who are reprising their roles. A secondary image introduces the spinoff’s new characters: Billie, portrayed by Janice LeAnn Brown, and the Russo family, played by Mimi Gianopulos (Giada Russo), Alkaio Thiele (Roman Russo) and Max Matenko (Milo Russo).

Wizards Beyond Waverly Place follows an adult Justin Russo, who has chosen to lead a normal, mortal life with his family, Giada, Roman and Milo. When Justin’s sister Alex brings Billie to his home seeking help, Justin realizes he must dust off his magical skills to mentor the wizard-in-training while also juggling his everyday responsibilities — and safeguarding the future of the Wizard World.

Premiere Date: From Disney Branded Television, the series is slated to premiere on Disney Channel and Disney+ later this year.

It was revealed in January that Disney Branded Television had greenlit a pilot which was followed by a series pick up in March.

Jed Elinoff and Scott Thomas serve as writers and executive producers, along with Gary Marsh, Gomez and Henrie. Andy Fickman directed and executive-produced the pilot and will direct multiple episodes.

Raven's Home Cancelled After 6 Seasons On Disney Channel, Pilot Spinoff Titled Alice In The Palace In Development

Raven-Symoné is extending her relationship with Disney, which she has called home for many years, with a new multi-year overall deal at Disney Branded Television. Under the pact, she will produce, direct, and develop projects across linear and streaming, with a focus on multi-cam comedies.

First off, she will executive produce and direct sitcom Alice in the Palace, which has received a pilot order. It is an Alice-centered spinoff from Raven-Symoné’s Disney Channel multi-camera comedy series Raven’s Home, which will not return for a seventh season. Its most recent Season 6 concluded its run in September 2023.

The deal with Raven-Symoné, which also includes continued acting and hosting opportunities, and the order for Alice in the Palace fits into Disney Branded Television’s strategy of building a new Disney Channel lineup of multi-camera sitcoms. In doing that, the company’s executive team has been leaning into classic Disney Channel IP. The Raven’s Home spinoff follows the pilot order for a Wizards Of Waverly Place followup, executive produced by Selena Gomez, which went to series titled Wizards Beyond Waverly Place.

Alice in the Palace picks up when Alice (Mykal-Michelle Harris), Raven’s young cousin, returns to England and reunites with Duchess Clementine (also portrayed by Harris), a young royal who looks exactly like her. In the process, Clementine gets a taste of the fun side of “normal” life, while Alice gets a taste of the finer side of “regal” life.

Raven’s Home developers Jed Elinoff and Scott Thomas will write the pilot and executive produce.

“Raven is a true trailblazer who constantly pushes creative boundaries in acting, producing, and directing,” said Ayo Davis, president, Disney Branded Television. “For six incredible seasons, Raven’s Home has been a cornerstone series for Disney Channel, bringing joy, laughter, and tackling real-life issues in a relatable and meaningful way for kids and families. We are delighted to continue our close relationship with Raven for many years to come, starting with new spin-off Alice in the Palace.“

Raven’s Home, a spinoff from Raven-Symoné’s teen sitcom That’s So Raven, earned five Children’s and Family Emmy nominations during its run. Raven-Symoné’s credits also include Disney Channel original movies The Cheetah Girls and Cheetah Girls 2, which she starred in and executive produced. On Broadway, she appeared in Sister Act, and she also starred in feature films A Girl Like Grace, College Road Trip, The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement, Dr. Dolittle and Dr. Dolittle 2. In addition to her work as star, executive producer and director on Raven’s Home, she’s directed episodes of Disney Channel series Sydney to the Max and Pretty Freekin Scary.   

“Disney Channel has been the canvas for my creative expressions since I was 15 years old,” added Raven-Symoné. “After years of telling stories filled with heart, laughter, and togetherness, I’m excited to embark on the next chapter of this creative journey alongside my Disney family.”  

Raven-Symoné has been honored by the NAACP Image Awards, Daytime Emmy Awards, Gracie Allen Awards, NAMIC Vision Awards, Teen Choice Awards, BET Comedy Awards, Kids’ Choice Awards and Black Reel Awards. She is repped by Verve and The Pacella Law Group.  

Development Alert (Rumour): Invincible Fight Girl Commissioned By Cartoon Network Might Be Heading To Adult Swim

Invincible Fight Girl is an upcoming American animated action-comedy television series created by DC Super Hero Girls' Juston Gordon-Montgomery. It follows Andy, a young girl who dreams of becoming the greatest pro wrestler of all time.

Assuming the wrestler alias "Fight Girl", Andy sets out into the bizarre and colorful Wrestling World, determined to make a name for herself. Along the way, she meets cynical retired champ, Aunt P; the endearingly innocent Mikey, a great wrestling analyst-in-the-making; and the unscrupulous Craig, who doesn’t so much love wrestling as he does scheming ways to profit off it. 

The series was greenlit by Cartoon Network in 2021 alongside Unicorn Warriors Eternal and My Adventures With Superman. It had since then through several delays due to corporate restructure which had several already completed films and series being erased from existence. 

There were others like Batman: Caped Crusader and Merry Little Batman that were shipped to rival platforms, Amazon Prime Video. With some positioning being done to Cartoon Network as shows like Unicorn Warriors Eternal and My Adventures With Superman fold under Adult Swim.

Cartoon Network is no stranger to character driven content as there was Samurai Jack, Ben 10 and Adventure Time. But for some reason, it seems like corporate is trying to keep such content away from the channel and focus more on comedic shows. 

During the week, a user on X had mentioned Invincible Fight Girl was being previewed on Adult Swim due to its wrestling plot. This means Tiny Toons Looniversity would be the only original program on the network in 2024 as the latter Inyanu: Child Of Wonder and Totally Spies! are licensed. 

Although, there hasn't been official confirmation it wouldn't seem far fetched considering how originals on both Cartoon Network and Cartoonito has been screwed over in the last months.

Development Alert: BSK TV Network To Rollout On DStv Platforms In Sierra Leone

BSK Television Network, under the astute leadership of Dr-Bernadette Sanko Kamara serves as a game-changer across the Africa continent. Its presence on StarTimes Channel 200 and soon DStv ensures widespread accessibility, fostering a sense of unity and connectivity among Africans.

The network's commitment to showcasing diverse voices, promoting cultural exchange, and addressing pertinent issues resonates deeply with young audiences, both in Sierra Leone and throughout Africa. 

The channel had a soft launch at Radisson Blu - Mammy Yoko Hotel, marks a significant milestone, signaling the beginning of an era of innovative television programming and meaningful engagement for Africa

BSK Television Network's emergence as a prominent media platform holds immense potential to inspire, educate, and empower the next generation of African leaders and change-makers. 

BSK Studios LLC is the parent company which encompasses the BSK Streams, BSK TV Network and the BSK Radio.