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Important Notice Dated 30 May

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As some readers are aware, we have been less active on the site as this is part of many enhancements to improve reader's experience. We are currently distributing other content on X (Formerly Twitter) while our Facebook account continues to offer the best of Insidus.  During this time, we have been prepping up new content which we will share in the coming days.

Warner Bros. Discovery Hinting At More Mergers And Acquisitions Through Interviews

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Warner Bros. Discovery, just over two years after closing the merger of WarnerMedia and Discovery, will be “opportunistic” about seeking M&A deals in the next two or three years, president and CEO David Zaslav said. “I think some companies will be for sale,” Zaslav said, speaking Thursday at the Bernstein 40th Annual Strategic Decisions Conference in New York. “We can be opportunistic but we’re going to be very disciplined.” “I think there’s likely going to be some consolidation. There are a lot of players. There are a lot of players that are losing a lot of money,” Zaslav said. “One of the reasons why we really fought to drive our free cash flow and pay down our debt is to be in a position — as we roll out globally, as we fight to build our business — that we’re a healthy company.” Speaking of losing money, Warner Bros. Discovery reported full-year 2023 revenue of $41.3 billion, down 4% on a pro-forma basis, and a net loss of $3.13 billion (versus a net loss of $5.36 b

Skydance Sweetens Offer For Paramount Global

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David Ellison’s Skydance has sweetened its offer to acquire Paramount Global, Deadline has learned, in an attempt to make it more palatable to the company’s Class B stockholders after they trashed the outlines of a previous deal and threatened to sue. Ellison’s original offer was to buy out Par’s controlling shareholder Shari Redstone for a significant premium, resulting in a windfall for her, and then merge Skydance into Paramount keeping the combined company public. Stockholders wanted to be bought out at a premium as well. Skydance, backed by Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison and Gerry Cardinale’s RedBird Capital, sweetened the offer once late last month — offering to buy out a certain number of Class A voting shares from stockholders other than Redstone — as an exclusive monthlong negotiating period with Par ended. But it wasn’t enough to woo holders of the Class B non-voting stock, who are the majority of shareholders. As the Skydance exclusive talks ended with no deal,

"Trouble In Bollywood": You Have My Heart Rolls Out On Star Life From June 8th, Titli's Future Remains Uncertain

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During the month, Star Life made the dastardly deed of halting daytime repeats of Evil Affairs and Beyond Love . This had caused an uproar of angry viewers demanding for them to be reinstated with Star Life only opting to move further repeats to late nights. Now it looks the channel will be embroiled in more drama in the coming days as a new titled You Have My Heart is slated for June 8th. The only problem would be the timeslot allocation as it takes up 21:30 where Titli's is currently residing.  Various consumers are concerned that Titli could suffer a similar fate as Beyond Love. As some readers are aware, Beyond Love has several seasons fully develop and Star Life is ending its journey with only 1 season currently and not airing back to back. Titli will end with only 71 episodes having being aired on the 21:30 timeslot. There were rumours that the nature of the show had to do with its demise and although that's not proven we presume Titli could replace Beyond L

Important Notice: SPI International's Kino Polska Is Getting A New Logo On June 3rd

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Kino Polska will feature a completely new visual setting, more modern and adapted to current trends. According to the broadcaster, its introduction is intended to both encourage new viewers to discover the rich world of Polish cinematography, as well as to more strongly emphasize the film character of the channel, which is inscribed in its DNA.  With the introduction of a new channel design, we want to intrigue both our existing viewers and attract the attention of new ones. We are passionate about Polish cinema, so we want to encourage everyone to choose Kino Polska - both younger and older, representatives of different generations. The station plays an important role in building the identity of different generations and connecting them, educating younger viewers about their roots and history, and reminding older viewers of their youth. In this way, we build the value and impact of the Kino Polska brand, whose mission is important for subsequent generations - says Patrycja

News Shorts: Play Room Acquires Broadcasting Rights To Cave Club, Baby Cele Joins Season 2 Of Sibongile And The Dlaminis And Raid The Cage Delayed On SABC 2

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Cave Club is now part of the Play Room family  Welcome to a land of adventure, exploration, and even dinosaurs. Join five fearless friends as they discover the unexpected origins of some of today's most popular trends and tackle relatable issues. These B.F.F.s will be the first to see and do everything-starting with the first-ever best friends' group, Cave Club. It will air daily at 07:30 from 6 June. Baby Cele Joins Season 2 of Sibongile & The Dlaminis Baby Cele is joining season 2 of Sibongile & The Dlaminis as Samkelisiwe, Bab’Ntombela’s sister, and it looks like she is set to shake things up for her former friends Deliwe and Phetheni. The three met as young women and connected over their shared experience of being scammed, but she got the short end of the stick in this friendship trio, which sets her on a path for revenge. Baby Cele is one of the extremely talented actors in Mzansi and she has showcased her talent on productions like Mzansi Magic’s Rin

Development Alert: Star Plus Undergoes Timeslot Changes In Africa With Maati Se Bandhi Dor Added To The Lineup, Telecast Of Lost In Love Replaces Beyond Love On Star Life

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Star Plus is a general entertainment channel that distribute Bollywood based films and series part of which are made available to Star Life. The parent company Disney Star also operate Star Bharat, Star Select, Star Gold and Vijay TV in the region. During the week, the channel had made several schedule adjustments to their existing offering with Pandya Store (a long awaited show for Star Life) aired its last episode on Sunday night. This would be replaced by another original show Maati Se Bandhi Dor. Maati Se Bandhi Dor follows a hard-working Vaiju who labours in the fields to support her family and village, but she finds her life facing an unexpected challenge when Rannvijay dismisses her as a potential wife. Ankit Gupta and Rutuja Bagwe star as the lead characters.  Ghum Hai Kisikey Pyaar Meiin moved from 20:00 to 19:30 with Udne Ki Aasha moved from 18:30 to 20:15 both of which run for 45 minutes. The latter Anupama and Yeh Hai Chahatein remain intact in their current tim

Recap To The Decade: Canal+ And MultiChoice Unveil New DStv Package Catered For Francophone Africa

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Canal+ is a French based pay-tv provider operated by Vivendi that distribute various films, series and TV channels. It is also one of MultiChoice's biggest shareholders owning almost of the pay-tv company as it looks to take full ownership and get a JSE listing.  Canal+ and MultiChoice are no strangers to one another as they had done numerous content deals e.g. Blood Psalms. Another being Canal+ attempt at acquiring MultiChoice Africa (excluding South Africa) which was quickly blocked from mentioned parties.  With Canal+ current stake within MultiChoice, they were able to distribute channels already viewed on their platforms through a separate package/add-on targeted at Francophone Africa known as DStv English. The name DStv English comes from the fact that MultiChoice's services are well-known within the English speaking countries (or Anglophone) and with DStv being a household name. Another derives from offering viewed on these platforms. DStv English comprises

Is SABC Still Planning To Expand Their Operations To MultiChoice's DStv And eMedia Investments' Openview?

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In 2021, reported rivals eMedia Investments and the SABC had extended the agreement to include SABC Sport alongside SABC's 19 radio stations. This would sit alongside SABC 1-3 with plans to add two entertainment channels to the existing line-up.  These channels never came to fruition to Openview consumers since the agreement was announced despite promises to unveil them. The only thing known about these brands is that the premise is similar to SABC Encore with plans to include new content.  Prior to this, MultiChoice and StarSat were in discussion to launch another TV channel from the public broadcaster, SABC Education . Similar to these two untitled channels on Openview, SABC Education hadn't launched yet and only resides on SABC's DTT and SABC+. There had been mentions that MultiChoice similar to eMedia Investments could be looking to add more TV channels from the SABC which is delaying the rollout of SABC Education. Another that an SABC Encore based channel w