During the festive season, e.tv and Rewind temporarily changed their lineup. On e.tv side, they did the usual for 20:30 take the 5 for 1 while Rewind scrapped almost everything for marathons of sitcoms and dramas with films.
Now the festive season has wrapped up and e.tv will be resuming with their prime time viewing but on Rewind's area it becomes even more complicated to handle.
For starters, the outdated episodes of Scandal, soon-to-be-cancelled Rhythm City and cancelled soapie Backstage aren't part of the lineup. Instead, the channel will air reruns of Una Maid En Manhattan, Naagin, Meri Aashiqui Tum Se Hi, Die Vreemdeling and Imbewu's YESTERYEAR STOCK. Perhaps it's just a drafted schedule.
Everything else somewhat remains even the sitcoms and drama series but this is where things get interesting.
Telemundo's Corazon Valiente (Fearless Heart) and Los Miserables (For Love And Justice) are added to the channel's lineup. These two telenovelas aren't new to the market but they are definitely are to the eBrand so Rewind is no longer recycling meals from their restaurants.
Corazon Valiente follows childhood friends Ángela (Andrea Fonseca) and Samantha (Ximena Duque) who were separated by fate for years reunite and become bodyguards for those who need protection. Los Miserables follows a woman named Lucia "Lucha" Duran (Aracley Arambula) is accused of a crime she hasn't committed and has to find a way of not going back to prison a second time.
With this in mind, is it possible that there's a rebrand coming soon to e.tv set of channels now that Rewind has exclusive programming and eExtra is more reliant on telenovelas particularly Indian and Turkish content.
Perhaps, the reason for eExtra favouritism is over the fact these two type of shows pull has a major following and huge fanbase. Other than that the offering is very unique from what you can find on DStv.
The reason Indian soaps get early timeslots is possibly due to the fact there's many of them available in the market and that eExtra put it in a timeslot where it doesn't clash with the shows on Glow TV, Star Life and Zee World while the Turkish content "was" barely available within the market until TDC arrived for which both channels still offer a unique lineup and TDC might take longer to bring the Turkish content seen on e.tv and eExtra.
With that in mind, maybe Rewind will invest more into American and Mexican telenovelas from Telemundo and Azteca since these shows are accessible not only in South Africa but across Sub-Saharan Africa.
Maybe the object now for eMedia Investments is to deduct the amount of DStv already seen on their channels.
The Indian offering can be found on DStv Indian package so why put that on eExtra it's easy to give those who don't have that package an opportunity to watch them. The reason for it's early timeslots is to ensure that it doesn't clash with the Indian offering on Glow TV, Zee World and Star Life. They give this content attention because of its popularity and the fact that there's less English stations repeating them.
The Turkish lineup has been doing well for a long time. There was no home for the content by then some stations even abandoned them. eExtra was one of the few stations for that in Africa alongside some telenovela channels on StarTimes. MultiChoice recently launched a Turkish channel and it will be while before anyone there can see repeats from eExtra.
Perhaps these changes has something to do with the upcoming streaming service OpenView+, for those who are unaware a lot of companies like Disney, ViacomCBS and WarnerMedia have launched their own streaming services and due to that some countries had to witness the demise of certain channels.
eMedia Investments might follow these companies and streamline their offering. I don't see them shutting down anything likely replacing, adding and improving their current channels.
Rewind's days are numbered at this point or at least the name perhaps they'll call it eBinge or eSeries.
With eExtra I don't see them throwing away the name as yet even with the overflow of telenovelas. They have an Afrikaans block (Kuiertyd) which is used for other content but then again they might duplicate the block on the other channels and reduce it on eExtra leaving the door open for a name change.
News&Sports might become seperate channels perhaps it doesn't look like eMedia Investments is interested in getting another sports channel and France24 will likely go off air on the platform.
eToonz might replace Craze or vice versa I mean eMedia Investments might want to put their focus on one kids brand so they could even find another name and use it for both brands.
eNolly could be revived under another name but this time it also airs Rhythm City, Scandal and Backstage to easen the blow of Rewind and eExtra.
2021 is shaping up to be an interesting year for TV
Read Also:
- OpenView's upcoming streaming service
- New Turkish telenovela coming in January on eExtra
- New Telemundo telenovela coming in January on eExtra
- Review on e.tv channels
- eToonz better e.tv kiddies lineup needs more variety if it wants to succeed
- Upcoming shows on eToonz
- SABC wants platforms like OpenView to pay TV licence
