Paramount And Amazon Reportedly Enter Talks For New Streaming Bundle

Recently Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery announced a deal that would see Max, Hulu, and Disney+ bundle. After that Comcast announced a bundle of Peacock, Netflix, and Apple TV+. Now Bloomberg is reporting that Amazon and Paramount are in talks about a possible streaming bundle.

According to the report, Paramount and Amazon are in early talks to offer a bundled version of their streaming service. Paramount already owns multiple streaming services, including Paramount+ and BET+. They could be bundled on their own through Amazon channels or possibly bundled with Amazon’s own streaming services like Amazon Prime Video or MGM+.

The talks are not a done deal, and Bloomberg says it is possible nothing may come from them. Paramount has also reportedly been in talks with Peacock about a bundle option, but no deal has been reached at this time.

Bundles have widely been seen as a quick way for services to gain subscribers. They are also seen as a way to lock in subscribers for longer. Increasingly streaming services are fighting a growing trend of cord cutters rotating streaming services in 2024. This impacts profit, and customers binge everything they want in a month or two instead of keeping a subscription long term. Bundles could tempt customers to be locked in for longer by offering more content.

British Streaming Service BritBox Will Be Shutting Down In South Africa After 3 Years By The End Of August

Launched in South Africa by August 2021, BritBox was a joint venture between British broadcasters BBC Studios and ITV which was home to content accessible on BBC Brit, BBC Lifestyle, BBC Earth, CBeebies and BBC UKTV all of which were accessible on MultiChoice's DStv. 

South Africa was the only African region to offer BritBox and one of eight countries across the world. It is also the second region looking to not close its operations following the UK by the end of April as operations were merged with ITV's existing offering. 

BBC Studios had acquired global rights to the remaining shares of BritBox International. Under this agreement would continue to offer content from ITV with the deal described as a "tremendous opportunity to grow its services and take it to new heights".

Unlike the UK, BritBox will not be replaced with another streaming service and if anything further content is likely to resurface on MultiChoice's Showmax and Netflix. As BBC Studios despite serving as a rival broadcaster continued licensing content to other platforms. 

The news of its demise comes after Acorn TV had closed its doors in the market by the end of 2022. Since then, BBC Studios was the only broadcaster to offer the best in British entertainment now consumers have until the end of August to use their services.

Statement from BritBox about its closure in South Africa 

BritBox has made the difficult decision to discontinue its service in South Africa to align with the brand's strategic priorities. This decision follows careful consideration of market dynamics and business objectives. We sincerely appreciate your past support on behalf of our entire team.

It will cease operations in South Africa by Friday, August 30, 2024. 

Development Alert (Rumour): Star Life Reinstates Daytime Repeats Of Evil Affairs And Beyond Love, Moves Rebroadcasts Of My Identity, Game Of Love And The Evil Eye To Late Nights

During the week, it was reported that Star Life would be adding repeat slots to their late night shows, Beyond Love and Evil Affairs. After one of the two were embroiled in ongoing complaints from viewers about the visuals and themes in the shows.

The idea was to keep the uncensored entertainment in the night which was met with backlash from various viewers. As some could only catchup with daytime repeats and the decision to remove these shows only led to a decline in viewers.

Star Life opted to give these shows additional slots in the night but the times were so horrendous. Viewership for any TV channel is usually much lower in the timeslots of Evil Affairs and Beyond Love but the channel opted to worsen it by repeating them by 1am.

Viewers were once again outraged by the decision and took to Facebook and Instagram to post their displeasure with the channel.

Now it looks like Star Life will backing off in restricting these shows as an updated programme guide for next month sees Evil Affairs and Beyond Love getting their daytime slots back. So the question will there be censorship we'll have to wait and see.

But that's not the only change the channel could be making by next month. There's still no official word on any of these developments but from what we can see rebroadcasts of Game Of Love, My Identity and The Evil Eye move to the 3am to 5am timeslot. 

Similar to Evil Affairs and Beyond Love, these shows will no longer have repeats outside of these timeslots. As mentioned while Beyond Love and Evil Affairs get their timeslots back, Jhanak and String Of Love replace The Evil Eye at 11pm with Anupama at 5pm.

On the upside, viewers get Beyond Love and Evil Affairs daytime repeats and on the other any chance to relive nostalgic moments had gone down the drain. 

Development Alert: Nicktoons Global (Including Africa) Might Be Debuting Splat Rebrand Soon

Earlier in the month, Nicktoons got the Splat rebrand in the UK after it failed to do so in Africa earlier in the year. Amidst the rebrand in the UK, there were rumours that remaining feeds of the channel would also adopt this new logo within the month.

Surprise, several viewers had spotted the soon-to-be launched logo for Nicktoons between shows. As pictured above, the logo is now in the top right corner as seen with sister channels Nickelodeon and Nick Jr. and from the looks of the graphics these designs are likely from European feeds.

As some readers are aware, most of Paramount’s channels particularly in Europe had been globalized with some brands like BET and MTV Base still seen with local variations. 

Nicktoons' African feed was part of this latter but may not be the case entirely. Sometime in 2023, the channel's older kids lineup matched of Germany, Turkey, Arabia and Asia so it didn't seem that much coincidental that we'd rebrand altogether. 

Several rumours point toward the channel rebranding later in the following week. I mean considering the UK had rebranded much earlier you'd presume other feeds would follow within a 3 month timeframe if not sooner.

Disney Channel Remains Silent On A Season 3 Renewal Status Of The Villains Of Valley View With Some Fearing It Got Cancelled

The Villains of Valley View is an American comedy television series created by Chris Peterson and Bryan Moore that premiered on Disney Channel on June 3, 2022. The series stars Isabella Pappas, Malachi Barton, Reed Horstmann, Kayden Muller-Janssen, James Patrick Stuart, and Lucy Davis.

Synopsis for The Villains of Valley View 

At the center of the story is teenage Havoc, who stands up against the leader of all villains, forcing her entire family to change their identities and relocate to a Texas suburb where she now goes by the name Amy. With the help of her effervescent new neighbor Hartley, she must somehow hide her superpowers and quell her villainous nature in favor of something she's fought against all her life — being normal.

Since its inception, The Villains Of Valley View was met with a lot of praise with Sportskeeda describing as it as a "resounding success" with an interesting premise. This was followed by Common Sense Media which gave it a 3 out of 5 star ratings for its depiction of positive messages and role models.

During the year, Disney Channel had axed Bunk'd which served as the longest running live-action show on the network. This was followed by cancellations of The Ghost And Molly McGee, Saturdays and Raven's Home with fear lurking around The Villains Of The Valley View. 

As some readers are aware, there was an actor's strike last year which caused several productions to go on hiatus if not get cancelled. According to some insiders at Disney, this had contributed the network to go slow on renewals ensuring that the content is successful. 

The Villains Of Valley View's chances of a season 3 is dependent on how many people were tuning in during the second season. Of course chances of that seem to be slim as some of the cast are rumoured to have other projects in development.

Was Toonami Initially Meant To Be The Official Broadcaster Of All Elite Wrestling And Adult Swim In Africa, Here's Why?

Toonami is an animation brand operated by Warner Bros. Discovery that catered for young adults. It is home to DC legends such as Batman, Superman, Green Lantern and Justice League alongside anime like DragonBall and Inazuma Eleven.

It was also home to select shows from Cartoon Network like Secret Saturdays, Symbionic Titans and Ben 10: Omniverse.

As some readers are aware, Toonami once resided in France and since last year had been folded under Warner TV. Although various content from Toonami remained intact, Warner TV isn't necessarily a youth oriented but more youth infused.

Warner TV was being structured as a TV channel for archived material from Warner Bros. Studios and this includes content from Adult Swim. This came in celebration of their 100 year anniversary with expansion plans still underway across Europe.

Now from what some recall here, the same people who operated Toonami (now Warner TV) in France also managed the feed in Africa. By the time the feed transitioned from a children's channel to an adult channel a similar outcome awaited Africa. 

Unlike France, Africa's feed didn't offer any content from Adult Swim or wrestling promotion, All Elite Wrestling. Toonami was reduced to content from its current trademark, anime and DC shows.

Although the latter skipped Toonami, Warner Bros. Discovery did however acquire rights to these titles for TNT. Estimated guess for this was accessibility, Kwesé TV had exclusive rights to Toonami at the time but it wasn't accessible as MultiChoice's DStv.

Another reason, Kwesè TV had shuttered their doors in 2018 and Toonami was running through laps to retain their presence. It was on Cell C's Black until it closed a year later with MultiChoice and StarTimes that only revived it by 2020.

During this time, Toonami in France had acquired rights to both Adult Swim and All Elite Wrestling. Interesting to note, TNT also garnered rights to Adult Swim (temporarily) within that timeframe with All Elite Wrestling that followed a year after Toonami's relaunch. 

This timeframe could corporate with the possible inclusion of Adult Swim and All Elite Wrestling on Toonami in Africa. 

Sony & Paramount Sign Non-Disclosure Agreement Allowing Deal Talks To Start

Sony has signed an NDA with Paramount Global, a move that will give it access to the books and allow deal talks to move ahead, sources hears.

Sony and private equity giant Apollo kicked things off previously with a preliminary bid of $26 billion, but what’s being contemplated now is not that, but something narrower. A look at the books is necessary to move forward in any case.

The non-disclosure agreement comes two weeks after a Paramount’s month-long exclusive negotiating window with David Ellison’s Skydance ended with no deal but the indie studio still hanging in, still interested.

After a few weeks passed with no Sony NDA, there’s was speculation its interest was waning as it considered the significant regulatory hurdles, and that’s possibly what’s at play in looking for a different kind of deal.

Sony just wants the studio. Some industry players believe Apollo mostly wants the studio lot as a real estate play. Paramount Global’s CBS broadcast assets might need to be sold off. Sony might not be able to own them under foreign ownership regulations, and may not want to. As things stand, Apollo’s current station holdings would put it over the Congressionally mandated broadcast cap.

Hollywood values the lot and is backing Ellison, although some question the circa $5 billion valuation put on the company as part of a proposed two-step deal. Skydance said its latest capital raise in the fall of 2022 valued it at over $4 billion. A merger of two studios envisioned in a Sony deal is, of course, unpopular with the town that saw downsizing when Disney acquired 20th Century Fox. Combining another two studios also poses a regulatory risk.

Paramount Global shareholders, on the other side, kind of hate the Skydance deal since it leaves the company public with the bulk of proceeds going to Redstone to acquire her controlling stake. Ellison, backed by Larry Ellison and Gerry Cardinale’s RedBird Capital, sweetened the pot once offering to buy out some shares from common shareholders. It did not appease them and its not sure anything would. It’s also not clear if they have a case to sue as they’ve been threatening legal action from day one. The Skydance deal would keep the company together at least at first and inject fresh capital into highly indebted company. Jeff Shell would step in to run things under David Ellison.

Shareholders loved the Sony-Apollo $26 billion cash offer. It will be interesting to see what they think with that no longer on the table.

Could MultiChoice And Canal+ Continue To Operate Separately After The Acquisition?

During the year, Canal+ had expressed interest in acquiring remaining shares of the DStv parent company, MultiChoice. Initially serving as a minority shareholder with around 6%-8% in 2020 now owns almost half of the pay-tv company in 2024.

As some readers are aware, Canal+ possible takeover of MultiChoice won't be a simple walk in the park. There's various legal procedures which they have to go through particularly with the Competition Commission seeing as Canal+ is a foreign investor.

According to mandate, Canal+ can only have 20% voting rights of the company. If a takeover is to happen, we could be faced with the possibility of MultiChoice losing its status as an official broadcaster in South Africa.

MultiChoice serves as a monopoly in their current field extending their doors to over 50 countries across Sub-Saharan Africa. It is home to SuperSport, Africa's biggest player in the sporting industry all of which might be folded under French management.

Canal+ intends to play good sport and abide by whatever condition are set by local legislation. This isn't the first rodeo as they snatched French broadcaster Orange TV film and pay-tv group alongside M7 Group a pay-tv brand based in Europe. 

The intention is to unify MultiChoice with their current operations and better equip it to take on the likes of Netflix and Disney+. MultiChoice's pay-tv dominance had seen declines in recent years particularly in South Africa which puts them at uncertainty. 

If this deal were to move around some guesses here is that Canal+ may be exempted from some properties like M-Net, Mzansi Magic and KykNET. Perhaps those will be structured like Moja Love and SABC News were funding is being splashed to keep it on air.

Other brands like Africa Magic and SuperSport could be under the division of Canal+. Same goes with MultiChoice Studios, although channels like M-Net remain untouched in these matters the content however is all under French management. 

Honestly such scenario wouldn't really seem to far fetched. When Disney had acquired 21st Century Studios this exempted FOX News and the American feed of FOX even Canal+ acquisition of Orange TV this was a subsidiary not the parent company, Orange S.A.

MultiChoice and M-Net could continue to operate independently with less expenses. This new division would probably put more focus on Showmax and select few linear channels with someone appointed to manage these assets while others opt for Canal+.

Development Alert (Rumour): Transformers: Earthspark Reportedly Cancelled On Nickelodeon And Paramount+ After 2 Seasons

Transformers: EarthSpark is an animated television series based on the Transformers toyline by Hasbro. It was developed by Dale Malinowski, Ant Ward and Nicole Dubuc for the streaming service Paramount+ and also Nickelodeon. 

Synopsis for Transformers: Earthspark 

Fifteen years after the space bridge to Cybertron is destroyed, ending the civil war between the Autobots and the Decepticons, the Malto family relocates from Philadelphia to the small town of Witwicky, Pennsylvania. There, young Robby and Mo Malto witness the birth of a new breed of Earth-born Transformers called Terrans, who become emotionally bonded to the two via special cyber-sleeves on their arms.

The first season premiered on Paramount+ in the United States by November 11, 2022 and was produced by Entertainment One in partnership with Nickelodeon Animation Studio, with animation services provided by Icon Creative Studio.

In February 2023, a second season of Transformers: Earthspark was commissioned by the network which is set to rollout in the United States by June 7, 2024 and elsewhere sometime in the year. 

According to a user named Protoman, this would be the final season with "someone" working on the next iteration to Transformers. Ratings were reportedly low for Transformers: Earthspark which affected toy sales and other merchandising. 

Taking to account availability of Paramount+, this isn't a streaming service available on a wider scale like Netflix but is more like SkyShowcase in Europe - regional. It's broadcast on Nickelodeon channels was atrocious with very little airtime as they were weekly. 

Now the possible cancellation is being cited as low viewership perhaps with proper marketing the show could have expanded wider as Monster High.