Entertainment Inside Us (Insidus)

For CBeebies, the pubcaster has commissioned Mojo Swoptops (52 x 11 minutes) from Blue Zoo and Tararaboom. The CG-animated preschool series stars an anthropomorphic vehicle who solves the problems in his local community by literally donning new headgear, such as helicopter blades. The series is based on Cindy Black’s book series of the same name. CBeebies has also greenlit the animated series Rafi the Wishing Wizard from BBC Studios Kids & Family Productions, about a family of modern-day wizards who face the challenges of living in a bustling city. And for the six-to-12 demo, CBBC has ordered Black Dog Television’s Pickle Storm (10 x 22 minutes), a live-action series about the adventures of a nine-year-old who has to leave his fantasy world and seek refuge in the UK. In renewal news, CBeebies has reupped Maramedia’s animated/live-action preschool series Olga da Polga (13 x 11 minutes) for a second season. It’s about an eight-year-old girl, her family and her pet guinea pig,

BBC Studios Kids & Family and CBeebies have commissioned new preschool series Hey Duggee’s Squirrel Club from Studio AKA. A spinoff of the London-based prodco’s Hey Duggee, the new 2D-animated series centers around a friendly dog who encourages his animal friends to try new things. A release date hasn’t yet been announced for the 26 x seven-minute show. BBC Studios Kids & Family and CBeebies have also renewed the original Hey Duggee series for a 20 x seven-minute fifth season, which will premiere sometime in 2025.  Since its debut on CBeebies in December 2014, several broadcasters have picked up Hey Duggee, including Nick Jr. (US), Tencent Video (China) and Cartoonito (Italy). The show remains popular—it was the most streamed CBeebies title on BBC iPlayer in 2022 and the second most-watched series on CBeebies between January and August this year, according to the pubcaster. Hey Duggee also made the leap from screen to stage this year with Hey Duggee The Live Theatre Sho

Hasbro has locked in ABC Australia as a new broadcast partner for its CG-animated adventure series Transformers: EarthSpark (26 x 22 minutes). The first 10 episodes of this family-friendly show from eOne and Paramount will debut in December on linear channel ABC ME and the ABC iview streamer. The remaining 16 episodes will air next year.  The show will join several other eOne series already in ABC’s lineup, including Peppa Pig and PJ Masks . Hasbro has been paving the way for EarthSpark‘s Australian expansion this month, launching toys related to the show at mass retailers throughout the country. The series premiered globally on Paramount+ in 2022, and eOne inked deals for the toon earlier this year with several international broadcasters, including Gulli (France), Channel 5 (Singapore), TV Cultura (Brazil) and Super! (Italy). In July, the BBC picked it up for CBBC and BBC iPlayer, where it’s among the top-10 most-watched shows on the app, according to a release.

Following the inception of Disney+, multiple Disney Channels have been closing down across the world as the company looks to consolidate their content to the streamer. They've also been looking at possibly selling their linear offering of course this is applicable to the United States. But from what this entails, Disney is working towards a deadline to the remaining linear offering with Asia set to close theirs by the end of the year with a lot of European countries still harvesting most channels and other regions which have yet to receive Disney+. Last month, Disney closed a number of linear channels across Asia and this included National Geographic and National Geographic Wild. They also managed the brands of the same name whose feeds had since then been managed within EMEA following these closures. Despite having its operations merged with Africa, National Geographic Wild to date still has varied offering from the rest of Europe which brings to question it's

Play Room (stylised as Playroom) is a children's channel operated by Ngwato Nkosi Group which offers fun and learning with popular animated shows dubbed in Zulu alongside live-action shows. The channel is set to go live on all packages from November 6 on channel 300. From what we've been able to uncover, MultiChoice lent Play Room the frequencies formerly used by one of their other TV channels, VUZU. An HD/SD feed is currently being test run on their platforms with various Movie Room holding slides. Bumpers/Idents/Promos/Banners Similar to Movie Room, MultiChoice and Ngwato Nkosi Group tease the launch of Play Room through various banners none of which relate to the programming. Schedule/Programming As mentioned, Movie Room holding slides are occupying the 24 hour lineup. Below is a drafted weekday schedule with weekends being occupied by the holding slides so we assume the channel will have a varied offering during those times alongside the weekday offering. 12 Oct

The Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) Max streamer will launch in 22 European countries in spring 2024 and France and Belgium later next year, the media outfit revealed today. Opening Mipcom Cannes with a keynote, interntional boss Gerhard Zeiler and EMEA Head of Streaming Leah Hooper Rosa brought highly-anticipated news of the rollout of the new streamer in the continent, which is rebranding from HBO Max with a bigger offering. The Nordics, the Netherlands, Iberia and CEE, which already have HBO Max, will gain access to the rebranded streamer in the spring. There will then be a “second wave” of launches later next year including in France and Belgium, which currently don’t have HBO Max, although WBD has an output deal with Amazon locally in France. The service launched earlier this year in the U.S. and other territories. It will launch later in the UK due to the pre-existing content deal between Sky and WBD. “The content breadth is so huge and we are enabling customers to find this

Warner Bros Discovery’s JB Perrette warns that the global streaming market faces pain and consolidation over the next three to five years, but he says that the merged group has what it takes to be among the big five groups that pull through. And, to win the war of attrition and consolidation, WBD may choose not to fight every battle. Perrette, WBD’s CEO and president of global streaming and games, said that the company’s Max streaming product is to be rolled out in a largely pre-determined sequence, one that arrives in Latin America and Europe before arriving in parts of Asia. But, speaking on Wednesday at the APOS conference in Indonesia, Perrette said that in some markets Max may never happen, and that WBD may favor local partnerships instead. “If we think we’re going to have success and profitability, if our market differentiation is viable enough to make a go of it and have a profitable business over a three-to-five year timeline [then we will launch Max.] If the answer is

Powerkids Entertainment Ltd. (Singapore) and Boneli Entertainment (Italy), the production arm of publisher Sergio Bonneli Editore S.p.A., have joined forces to crack the first-ever 3D CG-animated series based on the popular children’s character Martin Mystère, a.k.a. Martin Mystery. The comics introduced by SBE in 1982 follows the titular hero, an adventurous Renaissance man who applies his broad knowledge of history and antiquities to unravel enigmatic events around the world. Created by Italian comic-book legend Alfredo Castelli, Martin’s adventures have sold millions of copies across Europe as well as a 2D animated series that premiered 20 years ago. Martin Mystère: The New Animated Series will feature state-of-the-art animation techniques and storytelling crafted to appeal to all ages, according to the producers. “We’re thrilled to be working with Bonneli Entertainment, the production arm of the comic-book publisher Sergio Bonneli Editore, on this exciting new project,” said Manoj

The first trailer for the upcoming Dragon Ball DAIMA anime premiere was shown at the franchise’s panel at the 2023 New York Comic Con on Thursday, October 12, 2023. Previously leaked with the subtitle Magic rather than DAIMA, the new anime series is set to premiere in Fall 2024 according to this latest and first teaser trailer. One of the key differences between Dragon Ball DAIMA anime and the leaked Magic details seems to be exactly who is turned into a child via a wish with the Dragon Balls. Whereas the Magic leaks claimed that just Goku and Shin would be turned into children, it seems that the entire mainline cast of the series has suffered the same fate. While information on the series is somewhat minimal at this time, Dragon Ball DAIMA seems to be a new canonical mainline anime set around the same time as when Super takes place. Fans also get a look at the apparent upcoming antagonists for the anime, who’ve seemingly been watching the Z Fighters and all their past struggles this e