Wednesday, December 20, 2023
The Simpsons: Night Of The Living Treehouse Of Horror (GBC)
Tuesday, December 19, 2023
New Series Alert: Eternal Love Coming This January To eExtra
Synopsis for Eternal Love:
A free-spirited woman's soul inhabits the body of a timid woman from a different time. She must find a way to balance her double life when she falls in love with two different men.
Based on the novel of the same name, it starred Yang Mi as Bai Qian/Si Yin/Su Su, Mark Chao as Mo Yuan/Jin Lian/Ye Hua/Zhao Ge, Ken Chang as Zhe Yan, Zhang Gong as Bai Zhi, Ma Rui as Fox Queen, Leng Haiming as Bai Yi and Yu Menglong as Bai Zhen.
As of August 2018, Eternal Love had reached 50 billion views, becoming the most watched television series in the world. The series has also attracted large number of foreign fans, which was said to mark a new renaissance for Chinese television.
Based on the novel of the same name, it consisted of 57 episodes each with a 1 hour duration. The first episode is slated to air on weekdays at 16:15 from Monday 1st January reviving the Asian drama timeslot on the channel and further cutting down on the repeats.
eMedia's 4 Channels Recieve Another Extension On MultiChoice's DStv, Might Go Dark By August 2024
At the time, MultiChoice mentioned that they had been phased with transponder constraints and that eMedia's 4 channels didn't fit their 5 year content strategy. eMedia Investments showed that MultiChoice did have enough satellite capacity and that their channels do abide by local quotas.
Following their cancellation, MultiChoice was met with severe backlash from various DStv consumers. Overtime, the pay-tv operator managed to supplement this offering with the expansions of KIX and PBS Kids alongside further new channels, DreamWorks and Movie Room.
By August of that year, eMedia Investments had recieved numerous extensions for their 4 Openview channels. After MultiChoice was planning to remove it by July 2023 and could have removed it by January 2024 will probably be able get it over with by August 2024.
Alas this case will have a 2 year and 6 month duration and despite how some people (including myself) wish these parties could have solved their issues much sooner.
Just know, eMedia's 4 Openview channels future were predicted by the end of May 2022 - Openview. MultiChoice has refused eMedia's attempts for a possible extension and honestly the Competition Tribunal can only help them recieve compensation at this point.
From MultiChoice's perspective, these 4 channels don't really have much to offer as I've mentioned for the past year eMedia Investments had been bundling these channel's content on e.tv and a selection of content is also accessible on DreamWorks and M-Net Movies.
That doesn't mean they aren't performing to their potential I feel similar to Zee One or BBC UKTV. These channels will hold more use to consumers that don't have access to the content residing within DStv.
The only issue here which is similar to what Nismedia had with Glow TV before it's departure is sustainability. eMedia Investments would have cutback on content in order to stay afloat as about 40% of their revenue is on DStv.
DStv Without E! Entertainment??? As NBCUniversal Looks To Close The Channel In The UK
Hayu serves as the digital counterpart of both E! Entertainment and Bravo which is also operated by NBCUniversal. From 2024, consumers wanting to watch shows like Keeping Up With The Kardashians and Below Deck Mediterranean would need to view it on the streamer.
The news of its demise doesn't come as much of a shock following its closure in Germany by 2022. At the time, it was outlined that the feeds in the UK and Eastern Europe were anticipated to continue but from what we can see that was short lived.
If we had to guess why E! Entertainment was getting culled its probably similar to Disney's reasons for the terminating the FOX/Star general entertainment brand in parts of the world. The latter are putting more focus toward their direct to consumer business which has been making waves for a while now.
NBCUniversal has been cutting back on the original content slate for E! Entertainment which resulted in content from Bravo being added to the lineup. The idea of E! Entertainment becoming a thing of the past wouldn't seem far fetched or at least in regions where Hayu exists.
Hayu is available in United Kingdom, Ireland, Albania, Italy, Australia, Denmark, Canada, Netherlands, Belgium, Philippines, Hong Kong, Germany, Spain, Portugal and Poland. Although Hayu is not available in South Africa or anywhere in Africa the latter would form part of Showmax's existing offering.
Monday, December 18, 2023
Development Alert: Peacock To Cease Transmission In The UK By Next Year, Content To Launch Elsewhere
Peacock is an international streaming service operated by Comcast which features first run series and leverages a vast library of films and series from NBCUniversal. Similar to Showmax, it also featured third party content from the likes of UK's BBC and ITV brands.
Since it's inception, Peacock has been able to add roughly 30 million paid subscribers which is little compared to Netflix and Disney+ which we fortunate to accumulate over 100 million subscribers. It took over a year for NBCUniversal to just duplicate this in other regions.
Due to some economic factors, Peacock never got a standalone service internationally or at least not by name. In parts of Europe, it is known as SkyShowtime which forms part of a joint venture with Paramount Global which also grants consumers access to Paramount+.
In the UK, that's where things only worsened for the streamer as Peacock was "bundled' in a manner that Disney+ would bundle FX and National Geographic. With that in mind, Peacock didn't have much variety or better yet not all the content was accessible altogether as seen in the United States.
Forming a union on Sky made no sense at all, Comcast owns Sky which is basically the European counterpart of NBCUniversal. It would have seemed logical to get these two together instead of marketing it as standalone now the brand is dying down in the region.
On January 9, 2024, Peacock will officially conclude its services in the UK: the “app” on Sky’s devices will be shut down, and most of its shows on NOW are currently marked as scheduled to be removed by that date.
Some of Peacock’s programming will be redistributed across Sky’s various channels, and some shows will transition to the Hayu app.
Recap To The Year: SABC Silently Revived And Rebranded The Controversial SABC Encore Channel, Now On DTT As SABC Variety
Following its exit from the DStv platform, the SABC was looking to continue the channel on another platform and since then there had been no updates or at least from the SABC. On their DTT platforms, the public broadcaster still had its remains within the channel number.
Often it would serve as a catch-up/pop-up channel to content viewed on SABC 1-3 (including Sports). This channel would often stream on TelkomOne (now SABC+) for mostly the sporting content before being removed.
During the year, the public broadcaster gave SABC Encore a facelift with the channel undergoing yet another name change, SABC Variety. As mentioned, the public broadcaster remained silent regarding the developments of this channel alongside the much anticipated SABC Lehae.
We assume similar to SABC Sport's expansion to Openview, the public could be looking to possibly launch these channels on more platforms. It doesn't seem fetched as their current STBs aren't seen as sustainable with consumers base said to be in less than 500,000 households.
News Shorts: Moonbug And Toikido Commune For PeaKeeBoo, Cape Town TV To Debut New Edutainment Series Side Hustle Susters And Doodsondes Season 5 (And Likely Season 6) Linear Release Date Reportedly Revealed
A new short form series debuts on YouTube
London’s Moonbug Entertainment and British toyco Toikido are embarking on a franchise-building partnership for a new short series called PeaKeeBoo.
The preschool project, featuring 2D animation with CG-animated backgrounds, will star three tiny creatures (Pea, Kee and Boo) who are enthralled by all of the sights and sounds of nature. Moonbug is producing a 30 x one-minute first season that’s already slated for a global premiere sometime in 2024 on its Moonbug Kids YouTube channel (10.4 million subscribers).
The companies are now working out a 360-degree franchise strategy for PeaKeeBoo, with plans to eventually launch toys, books, apparel, playsets and games.
Cape Town TV announces their first show for the year
'Side Hustle Susters – van passie tot profyt’ is an Afrikaans edutainment female empowerment show by women for women, created by Dee Theart (who is also the presenter of the show), in conjunction with Cape Town TV.
The show confronts the scarcity of female jobs by educating and inspiring women to pursue their own business ventures. Every episode includes a weekly “side hustle suster” (female entrepreneur guest) and a weekly female business coach/expert guest talking about various business topics. The female narrative will be at the centre of the conversation.
Season 1 is set to air in early 2024.
Doodsondes season 5 and 6 (final) to debut on eExtra???
During the year, eMedia Investments mysteriously shelved the final seasons to the FOX original Doodsondes (Yasak Elma) to eVOD. With the first two seasons broadcast on eExtra only for the other two seasons to end up on e.tv with questions surrounding the finals.
According to sources, Doodsondes Season 5 is scheduled to air from the 1st of April. So the only show we know that is ending closer to that period is Roekeloos Dade (30 March) and if accurate we might have uncovered the first replacement to one of their current shows.
Synopsis for Doodsondes Season 5:
Six months have passed since the explosion in Hasan Ali's house. After the explosion, Ender and Yıldız were injured, while Hasan Ali passed away. After the investigation, it is understood that Hasan Ali's enemies carried out the bombing and the case is closed.
Sunday, December 17, 2023
Gravity Falls | Pilot | Disney Channel
Sometime in 2010, animator Alex Hirsch began work on a pitch pilot for what would soon become the hit Disney mystery series Gravity Falls. Created in Adobe Flash, the pilot ran for 12 minutes and was essentially a cut-down version of the first official episode, "Tourist Trapped."
In a Reddit IAMA conducted by Alex Hirsch, when asked if the unaired pilot would ever be released, he replied that it "would be like showing you awkward photos from my high school prom", and that he wouldn't want it to be seen. Additionally, the pilot used licensed songs that Hirsch didn't have the right to use commercially, meaning that there may have been legal problems with releasing it, on DVD or otherwise.
Despite that, on July 25th, 2016, Alex revealed that if the puzzle that was a part of the unofficial Cipher Hunt was completed, then he would release the pilot online. It was completed about a week later,[3] and on August 3rd, 2016, it was released on The Mystery of Gravity Falls' website under the username of RETURNBACKWARDS and the password of TOTHEPASTAGAINTHREE. It was also uploaded to YouTube with little to no difficulty or conflict (albeit private).
Saturday, December 16, 2023
The Rise And Fall Of Von Dutch: How The Brand Name Became A Curse?
Hulu’s docuseries The Curse of Von Dutch: A Brand to Die For dives deep into the wild story behind the brand Von Dutch, beginning with its inception in the ‘90s and following through its chaotic and messy downward spiral. Popularized in the mid-2000s, the company was and is best known for its trucker hats, though celebrities including Paris Hilton, Jay-Z, and Britney Spears were spotted in everything from Von Dutch bags to T-shirts during its heyday. Von Dutch’s success was short-lived, though: infighting over the creative vision for the brand caused internal tension at the company, and public interest dropped off by the 2010s. Here’s what you need to know about the Y2K apparel line and its demise ahead of the Hulu show.
Who Is Von Dutch?
Unbeknownst to most of the celebrities and athletes who wore the brand, the Von Dutch name and concept came from the work of Kenneth “Kenny” Robert Howard — a mechanic and car detailer who, in the 1950s, started making art under the name “Von Dutch.” Howard’s work involved painting hot rods with pinstripes, flames, and eyeballs, helping to set the stage for the subcultural movement know as Kustom Kulture. (More recent discussions of Howard have highlighted his racist and Nazi-sympathizing beliefs.)
However, Howard died in 1992, meaning he wasn’t even alive when the Von Dutch brand took off.
Who Founded Von Dutch?
After Howard’s death, several people sought to capitalize on his name and legacy. “It was basically this grab by a lot of people that claim that they came up with the idea or went through the proper steps to own something that you never really should be able to own in the first place,” Andrew Renzi, the director of The Curse of Von Dutch, told the New York Times.
One of those people was Los Angeles art collector Ed Boswell, who’s often cited as the founder of Von Dutch and appears in the docuseries to assert his stake in its success. However, the company did not begin in earnest until 1996, when Howard’s daughter sold the rights to the Von Dutch name to Michael Cassel, a former drug dealer who’d just finished a four-year prison sentence, and his mentee Robert “Bobby” Vaughn. It’s generally Cassel and Vaughn who receive credit for taking Howard’s signature and making it the logo for the Von Dutch clothing line people know today.
Many of the clothing items that Von Dutch was known for were historically associated with a working class lifestyle. But the simple addition of the Von Dutch logo transformed the trucker hat from something worn by actual truck drivers into a trendy accessory sported by the rich and famous — a tension that the stars known for popularizing the brand were likely unaware of.
“There’s implicit power dynamics in the appropriation of garments like this because you can pick and choose what garments you’re wearing, but leave behind the labor and legacy of people who originally wore these garments in the context that they wore them in,” fashion historian Emma McClendon told the New York Times.
Why Is Von Dutch Bad?
Beyond Howard’s racist and anti-semitic roots, the Hulu series attributes Von Dutch’s decline to a number of factors, suggesting that the company may have been a money-laundering scheme and also hinting that the brand did business with someone connected to drug cartels.
But it’s certain that things really began to spin out of control in 2005, when Von Dutch co-founder Bobby Vaughn shot and killed a friend who he alleged attacked him with a broken bottle. He was arrested and charged with first-degree murder, and though he was acquitted after a jury ruled Rivas’ death was justifiable homicide, the controversy marked the beginning of the end for the brand.
Who Owns Von Dutch Now?
In 2000, Cassel and Vaughn were in need of funding and decided to bring in Danish entrepreneur Tonny Sorenson, who invested in the company and took over as CEO. Sorenson hired French fashion designer Christian Audigier to help expand the brand’s reach, but Cassel and Vaughn didn’t like Audigier’s direction and worried that they were “selling out.” By the time Audigier left Von Dutch in 2004, their signature trucker hats were reportedly generating tens of millions of dollars in revenue. However, the success of Von Dutch started to wane in the later aughts, and Sorenson sold the brand to French footwear company Groupe Royer in 2009.
What Happened To Von Dutch?
Though Von Dutch never officially stopped production, public interest in the brand dropped off for nearly a decade. In 2019, the company hired Ed Goldman as the acting general manager of Von Dutch North America in order to help revive the brand and reach a new generation. With ‘90s and 2000s nostalgia at an all-time high, it certainly seems like the ideal moment for Von Dutch to attempt a comeback — and it could be working. Celebrities including Megan Thee Stallion and Saweetie have been spotted wearing Von Dutch apparel, and the brand recently collaborated with Young Thug on a streetwear collection.
Credits: Justice Namaste, Bustle
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