New Series Alert: e.tv Welcomes First Local Telenovela Of The Year, Nikiwe

Last year, it was announced that e.tv would be bidding farewell to the medical drama Durban Gen after 2 seasons. Not long ago, it was reported that Imbewu and Isono would be following the drama in the second quarter of the year.

After months of anticipation as to what would await the future of these timeslots on the channel. eMedia Investments unveiled a brand new local drama Nikiwe which is set to replace Durban Gen from Monday 24 April in the same timeslot, 18:30.

The series follows the lives of the Radebe family, witnessing the rise and fall of a family empire based in the surrounds of Diepkloof Extension, Pimville and Orlando, Soweto.

It's executively produced by Thomas Gumede and Lungile Radu for Parental Advisory Productions, creators of game shows Uyang'thanda Na? and Perfect Match, and the Mzansi Magic drama series Abomama. Thomas Gumede also serves as director.

In a statement with e.tv Executive Producer Mark Madai:

“Exciting times are ahead of us, as a channel we fell in love with this story concept because it also follows the lives of the youth, we’ve explored all possible dilemmas that this market would go through and translated them to screen, giving viewers a product that they’ll resonate with, night in, night out."

Ahead of its debut, e.tv will debut a trailer for the show on Friday, 24 March at 10:00 click here

Destined By Fate: Woh To Hai Albelaa And Bohot Pyaar Karte Hai Are Also Rumoured To Be Rolling Out On Star Life

In the last few months, Star Life has been unsatisfying adjustments to their lineup. Instead of pumping the breaks on some of their shows they'd rather cut their airtime even worse take another show for a ride as seen with Closer To My Heart and Lost In Love.

This is only due to the fact that Lost In Love was starting to catch-up to their Indian counterpart so they rather retain the show instead of following what fellow competitors Zee World and Star Life would do by dividing the episodes between seasons.

Now sources have confirmed the presence of another new series, Destined By Fate. It is set to occupy the second half of Anupama's timeslot meaning just like Closer To My Heart and Lost In Love these shows will all be allocated in a 30 minute timeslot.

Compared to most other series, the channel hasn't provided much info about the show but from what our sources conducted it's likely the rumoured shows Woh To Hai Albelaa (He Is Very Unique) or Bohot Pyaar Karte Hai (Love You So Much).

Based on the Tamil series Eeramana Rojave, Woh To Hai Albelaa tells the story of former best friends Balwant Sharma and Dhanraj Choudhary who due to a fight between their children Krishna and Sayuri, their families become enemies.

It stars Shaheer Sheikh as Krishna "Kanha" Choudhary, Hiba Nawab as Sayuri "Sayu" Sharma Choudhary, Kinshuk Vaidya as Nakul Choudhary and Rachi Sharma/ Dharti Bhatt as Rashmi "Rashu" Sharma Choudhary.

Bohot Pyaar Karte Hai tells the story about a girl named Indu who lives with her younger sister and parents. Indu loves a guy named Mahesh and wants to go meet him and propose to him for marriage. She goes to meet him with her dad but finds that he has already married someone else.

It stars Karan Grover as Ritesh Malhotra, Sayali Salunkhe as Indu Raina Malhotra, Kiara Sadh as Zoon Raina Malhotra, Shireen Mirza as Kamna Pankaj Malhotra and Sanjay Swaraj as Pankaj Malhotra.

Destined By Fate will replace Anupama daily at 18:30 from 3 April.

RUMOUR: Warner Bros. Discovery Latin America Dives Into The World Of Soap Operas With TNT Novelas

Turner Network Television, Inc., a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery, registered a new trademark derived from TNT in Latin America, for the moment only in Argentina and Chile, as verified by INPI and INAPI, industrial property institutes for both countries, respectively.

The new trademark registered in recent days bears the name of "TNT Novelas", and it is unknown exactly what it is, although the company has already presented a logo.

One of the most logical theories indicates that TNT Novelas could become a successor or a relaunch of the current cable channel TNT Series, launched in 2015, which in recent years has incorporated multiple soap operas into its daily programming. The creation of a new channel is not ruled out either, although there is no basis to support this hypothesis.

There is no official information regarding TNT Novelas at the moment.

In other developments, Warner Bros. Discovery has been phasing out the TNT brand name across Europe in the general entertainment category. Not sure where that leaves the current TNT Africa but for now we assume the channel will remain intact in the market.

Warner Bros. Discovery kicked off its global centennial campaign in January, under the banner Celebrating Every Story, in advance of Warner Bros. Studios 100th Anniversary on April 4, 2023. Several of their channels have been joining the festivity with a lineup of content.

Recap To The Past Month: The Mysterious Disappearance Of The Spice Bouquet On The Openview Platform

Earlier in the month, eMedia Investments unveiled the first batch to the pay-tv venture Openview Ultra known as Ultraview Pride or just Pride. It is basically an LGBTQ type bouquet consisting of two general entertainment channels one of which DStv reject, OUTtv and FUSE.

During the launch consumers were kind of curious as to the fate of Spice TV which is basically an expansion to the current Bollywood offering seen on the Openview which like Pride TV comes with two channels for the time being, Zee Family and Star Select.

They were rumours sometime ago that just like BBC UKTV failed launch on Openview that eMedia Investments was having issues with one of the channels in question but that seems highly unlikely as eMedia Investments held a dance party this past week.

If I had to guess, eMedia Investments was planning to do some grand gesture for the offering ahead of its debut on the Openview platform. Similar to Pride which too a similar festivity months prior.

Although eMedia Investments has yet to provide any further details about a potential rollout. I wouldn't be shocked if they unveiled it in the coming weeks or before May in fact considering when these channels were unveiled to the public beforehand.

As for the channels in question, Zee Family is said to be a direct competitor to the current Zee TV both owned by Zee Entertainment Enterprises. I wouldn't be shocked if Star Select did the same with StarPlus both are owned by Disney Star (formerly Star India).

Just curious as to why companies like Warner Bros. Discovery and the already mentioned like to build competition for themselves. In the above-mentioned case, you could say it helps consumers explore other parts of India but for Warner not really.

New Channel Alert: MultiChoice To Add Mustaeina TV As Second Ramadan Based Pop-Up Channel To The DStv Platform From April

Mustaeina TV, founded in 2017 is an Islamic lifestyle channel, aimed to rightly re-trace the steps and educate Muslims and Non-Muslims audience towards the better understanding of Islam according to Qur'an and sunnah via various activities such as: Soul lifting sermons, halaal skits, vox-pop, modest, fashion, nasheed, talk show etc.

Started as an online Dawah TV and aimed to become the biggest all Islamic and all Hilaal TV platform out of Nigeria with our own broadcasting station, a network where your mind is always at rest, devoid of any form of fitnah and haram views and tunes without compromising high quality visual contents.

In the past years, Mustaeina TV has supplied various content across platforms and television stations primarily in Nigeria with the likes of Silverbird and TVC both of which can be viewed on DStv and GOtv platforms.

As mentioned across several platforms MultiChoice will allocate Mustaeina TV on channel 197 through the DStv platform in the coming weeks. Making it the second Ramadan based pop-up channel to be seen across their platforms.

The first being Hilaal TV started out as Ramadaan TV a pop-up channel in 2022 for similar intentions as Mustaeina TV and was well recieved amongst consumers that MultiChoice opted for a full-time brand and it wouldn't be shocking if Mustaeina TV underwent something similar.

From what sources mentioned about the channel it's basically another Rhema TV as it will broadcast 4:05pm to 4:35pm daily in the whole month of Ramadan featuring shows like Artiste Focus, Icovers and Mosques From Across The World.

I get this channel doesn't have much content but Hilaal TV took a similar path as they only broadcast original programming same goes for INX Prime wherever that one maybe so why not Mustaeina TV making it the second Nigerian religious channel after Emmanuel.