Insidus

SNEAK PEEK: Some Of The Content Coming To MultiChoice Showcase Including Reality, Lifestyle, Movies, Series And Kid Shows

Showmax/M-Net:

Crime And Justice - Detectives Makena and Silas from Kenya's Directorate of Criminal Investigations investigate different crimes, some dealing with social or political impact.

Glasshouse (movie) - confined to their glasshouse, a family survives The Shred, a toxin that erases memory. Until the sisters are seduced by a Stranger who shatters their peace and stirs a past best left buried.

Gossip Girl - eight years after the original website went dark, a new generation of New York private school teenagers are introduced to the social surveillance of Gossip Girl.

Palm Springs (movie) - stuck in a time loop, two wedding guests develop a budding romance while living the same day over and over again.

Succession S1 - S3 - the Logan family is known for controlling the biggest media and entertainment company in the world. However, their world changes when their father steps down from the company.

Ghana Jollof - is the first Showmax Original comedy series in West Africa and is shot in Lagos and Accra.

Via:

Sjefhuis - take eight young, ambitious chefs hungry for their big break and set them up in a villa where they will duke it out to land an apprenticeship with the master chef Bertus Basson — and just let the cameras roll around the clock.

HONEY:

Pastors’ Wives
Season 2
TX: Thursday 13 January 2022 – 7 April 2022
WAT 21:00 | CAT 22:00 | EAT 23:00
13 Episodes
PG13
60 minutes
Genre: Reality
Pastors are often in the spotlight, but in this show, we meet the charismatic women holding it all together in their religious households. We follow them and get to see how unconventionally they live their lives. We also get to witness the dramatic situations they may find themselves in when the pastors’ wives clash.

Kids Kitchen Relay
Season 1
TX: Monday 10 January 2022 – 4 April 2022
WAT 15:30 | CAT 16:30 | EAT 18:30
13 Episodes
PG13
30 minutes
Genre: Reality
Two teams of three kids each, go head-to-head in a relay cooking competition. The teams are given a theme and must cook one dish as a team in three rounds without any communication between team members. They must overcome various challenges, ingredients and cooking requirements to be crowned as the winner and walk away with a prize. Hlonela Mrwetyana and Thato Rampedi host the show, with Chef Zanele Van Zyl as the judge.

Cartoon Network:

Big Blue - sibling adventurers Lettie and Lemo lead a quirky submarine crew to unravel the mysterious secrets of an underwater universe. Along with a magical fairy stowaway named Bacon Berry they must explore and protect their vast ocean-covered planet.

Coach Me If You Can - Daniel Sissou has a secret: his soccer ball is none other than the world's greatest soccer player Erico Platana, transformed by a mad sorcerer. In order to change back, Erico has to deflate his ego and help Daniel become a champ.

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Could National Geographic Be On The Chopping Block Following The UK Alignment To Disney EMEA Production Hub?

The Nat Geo UK-based commissioning and production team has been restructured and now feeds into Disney’s EMEA production hub, reporting to Liam Keelan.

The move is understood to have taken place several weeks ago, with the Nat Geo London-based team now focusing on international productions, regional European and local market productions. The team is also working closely with London-based Sean Doyle, Disney’s Director of Original Production, Unscripted General Entertainment for Europe and Africa, it is understood.

The Nat Geo team, which comprises the likes of Commissioning Editors Carolyn Payne and Simon Raikes, Associate Producer, Development and Production Alexander Lawson and Production and Development Coordinator Daisy Bryant, now reports into Keelan, Disney’s Vice President Original Content, Europe and Africa, whose main focus is Disney+. Keelan, a former BBC Studios scripted exec and BBC commissioner who joined 18 months ago, reports into Diego Londono, EMEA EVP, Media Networks and Content.

'The Outlaws' Producer Big Talk Lands UKTV Alien Drama From 'Ghosts' Stars Laurence Rickard and Ben Willbond
Disney, which owns Nat Geo, is looking to prioritize two-year-old streamer Disney+ and, alongside adult-skewing vertical Star, the Nat Geo vertical sits on the platform, consisting of high-end shows such as Limitless With Chris Hemsworth.

The Nat Geo UK team previously reported straight to Nat Geo US and commissions a number of international and US shows per year including the likes of Buried Secrets Of The Bible, Drain the Oceans and Mars: One Day on the Red Planet.

Given Disney’s desire to drive international subs to Disney+, one UK indie sector source familiar with the team said integrating the two “makes perfect sense.”
Another countered that Nat Geo UK has lost a degree of autonomy that came with pitching ideas straight to the US.

“This feels like a return to an older model where there are more regional commissions and to fund them well they need to get buy-in from other regions,” added the second source.

Disney+ has so far commissioned 21 international series, of which 16 are scripted and five non-scripted, most recently unveiling Spanish drama original Balenciaga (working title) at Disney+ Day, as the team targets 60 by 2024.

Non-scripted offerings include David Beckham competition Save Our Squad.

Keelan has spent the last couple of years building up his team and it now features two ex-Channel 4 commissioners, Sean Doyle and Lee Mason, who oversee non-scripted and scripted respectively, while Johanna Devereaux is also Director, Scripted Content, EMEA.

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Read Also:
- A+ possibly coming to DStv
- More Africa Magic channels on DStv???
- Could G4 launch in Africa perhaps to replace Ginx TV?
- Female wrestling promotion launching in 2022, could SuperSport pick it up?
- Star Life rebranding to Life OK???
- Travel Channel going off air on DStv???
- Could SABC Encore and Children be in development?
- Warner TV might be replacing TNT
- tvN working on becoming permanent in Africa

Another One Bites The Dust: Love Nature Reportedly The Next Victim To Get Culled By StarSat

A month after The Smithsonian Channel, the Canadian-based Love Nature featuring documentaries related to wildlife and nature goes off air on StarSat across Africa by the end of November.

Love Nature launched 2 years ago alongside The Smithsonian Channel as replacements to National Geographic and National Geographic Wild as StarSat had been going through a contractual dispute with The Walt Disney Company.

The demise of Love Nature leaves a big gap in the viewership as so many channels were culled from the platform including FOX, SA Music, SA Playlist, St Eyethu and a range of Discovery Channels.

Just like Smithsonian, fans of Love Nature will have rely on National Geographic to give viewers the best in factual and educational programming, and hope that doesn't get culled as well.

2021 has proven to be weak year on the basis of new channels. So far the platform launched MUTV, Zimbabwe's Jit TV, the ANC inspired C12 TV, Fashion TV, Roots TV and 3 Zee TV channels.

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Read Also:
- Female wrestling promotion launching in 2022, could StarSat pick it up?
- Star Life rebranding to Life OK???
- Could SABC Encore and Children make their way to StarSat?
- African Animation Network launching an experimental animation block
- Warner TV might be replacing TNT
- Canal+ acquires majority stake at SPI International
- Timeless Dizi Channel got a streaming service

Cartoonito Launching As A Linear Channel!!! Did Kidscreen Let The Cat Out Of The Bag?

As WarnerMedia in Europe, Middle East and Africa gear up for the return of Cartoonito. WarnerMedia sourced out several content with the recent addition Spookies as reported by Kidscreen greenlit for the "linear channel" in 2023.

Cartoonito launched in several markets either as a programming block or linear channel and viewers feeling agitated wonder the possible implications it will have to their viewing.

In Latin America, the brand is set to replace Boomerang by the end of November with several shows being phased out except for Tom And Jerry and Scooby-Doo which are considered preschool for that market.

If this format is duplicated, Boomerang's death will be less painful for everyone. Cartoonito might be stocking them up to increase their success rate and eventually dump them.

November is almost up with Bionic Max and Dino Ranch nowhere in site on Cartoon Network and Boomerang respectively. The possible delay could have something to do with the rollout of Cartoonito.

WarnerMedia plans to offer over 50 preschool series within the next 3 years and such amount can't be confined to mere block.

Streamlining forms part of WarnerMedia's vision for the market seeing that HBO Max will arrive in 2025. We could be looking at another Tom And Jerry where the mouse eventually gets caught.

A+ Afrique Coming Soon To DStv??? Is This How Canal+ Plans To Exercise Their 15% Stake Of MultiChoice And Could This Lead To More Channels?

Ever since the French broadcaster made an entry to Africa. They've made a name for themselves after acquiring Nigeria's ROK and IROKO Studios even maintaining a 70% stake in Dizi and FilmBox's parent company SPI InternationaI .

The thing that intrigued the media mostly about Canal+ is their objective with MultiChoice. They currently own a 15% stake and attempted to acquire their African counterpart several years back.

It doesn't look like they're ready to back down as they've slowly been obtaining a portion of the brand. With their current stake they've managed to get 1Magic alongside several DStv channels to their own platform in various regions.

Seeing that Canal+ cater for French speaking territories it only seems logical for there to be a lack of channels or at least in markets that aren't familiar with this group.

Through a private website you have a file for a channel owned by Canal+ titled "A+ Afrique Test". It may seem like nothing but "test" could imply anything at this point.

There's not much Canal+ on DStv aside from the three ROK channels. Its possible that the 15% puts them at a disadvantage so if they'll likely be fortunate once acquiring more shares.

About A+ Afrique
Sentimental intrigues, captivating thrillers, comedy and exciting fictions, A+ devotes 100% of its air time to African series produced throughout the continent and thus positions itself as The African Series TV Channel.

Broadcast in more than 20 countries in West and Central Africa, A+ has become French-speaking Africa’s standard-setting channel, seeking to reflect the continent’s various identities and defining features, and to be resolutely oriented toward Africa’s future.