'Days Of Our Lives': Could The Sand In The Hourglass Be Heading To A New Era In South Africa?

NBC’s long-running soap opera Days of Our Lives will be leaving broadcast television after 57 years to stream exclusively on Peacock, the network announced on Wednesday. The change means that fans who previously have been able to watch the show for free on broadcast will now have to pay for a streaming service to learn what happens next in the show’s fictional town of Salem.

“With a large percentage of the Days of Our Lives audience already watching digitally, this move enables us to build the show’s loyal fanbase on streaming while simultaneously bolstering the network daytime offering with an urgent, live programming opportunity for partners and consumers,” Mark Lazarus, chairman of NBCUniversal Television and Streaming, said in a press release.

Earlier in the year, Days Of Our Lives was swept out of e.tv's primetime offering as eMedia tries to boost their original offering with eMedia Investments expected to invest R100 million in their streaming endeavours which has seen success as the company was able to obtain half a million registrations and record breaking ratings.

Of course, Days Of Our Lives' absence still haunts a lot of consumers as they've been following the soap for half a century when it began on the free-to-air SABC 3 channel which was known at the time as CCV channel and after the SABC's controversial COO at the time Hlaudi Motsoeneng put up a ban for international series forcing the drama to air close to midnight. 

As seen earlier in the year, the sand in the hourglass for e.tv has come to an end after almost 5 years of broadcast which has some feeling agitated over an outlet to this ongoing soap opera.

Peacock overseas decided to move Days away from cable as the ratings have been slipping on a year to year basis as direct-to-consumer becomes a top priority for international brands like The Walt Disney Company.

Before this news came into affect, Vodacom's defunct streaming service supplied Bold And The Beautiful another ongoing soap opera and rival to Days Of Our Lives after it was swept out of SABC's lineup due to the corrupt bold man thereafter MultiChoice's DStv as AMC International opt to not supply EVA channel which was the home of Bold on cable.

As it is a lot of long format or in other terms old timers like The Simpsons moved from cable to streaming for consumers in South Africa as The Walt Disney Company retracted the FOX channel as they plan to become a digital exclusive platform like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video.

Now Days Of Our Lives being a digital exclusive doesn't seem far fetched and on Peacock although not available in the region as yet wouldn't be far fetched a stretch as well seeing as Days Of Our Lives: Beyond Salem which is a spinoff to be the soap can be viewed on the platform.

Peacock on top of being a streaming service is owned by NBCUniversal the same people that own Days Of Our Lives and now the chances of it suffering the franchise getting swept on this platform is close to zero but questions amount to how this service will eventually rollout in South Africa

As it is, Peacock is just another Showmax holds a lot of third party content, limited original content and is not knowledgeable by a lot of consumers as seen with Netflix and Disney+. In some regions, the platform was able to fold under Paramount+ which is expected in Africa by early next year but that doesn't guarantee it will supply Peacock.

Peacock is a very complicated case as outlined there's not much to offer on the table that you would dump a hamburger for a salad while others found comfort on Paramount+ (also known to some as SkyShowcase). Others got it as standalone as seen overseas while others found comfort in a local provider to which I nominate Showmax.

Say what you want about their owners MultiChoice but NBCUniversal has a tight relationship to the company as they supply the only alternative to M-Net on the DStv platform as others were retracted due to content or management changes. On top of that, the movie offering on Studio Universal can come in handy when you're avoiding cartoons.

New Series Alert: Giving Up My Life Coming Soon To TLNovelas Africa

TLNovelas, Africa's only Mexican entertainment channel available in both Portuguese and English will be introducing a new family drama based on the 2016 Chilean telenovela of the same name titled Giving Up My Life (Te Doy La Vida) which months weeks after the announcement of Head Over Heels (De Que Te Quiero, Te Quiero).

Nicolás is a six-year-old boy suffering from leukemia and to recover he needs a bone marrow transplant. In such a situation, the adoptive parents of the child, Elena and Ernesto will take on the task of searching for the biological father. Thus, they arrive at the mechanical workshop where Pedro works to expose the situation, at which point the young man learns that he had a son from a relationship years ago.

José Ron stars as Pedro Garrido, the biological father of Nicolás portrayed by Leonardo Herrera. Joining the trio in the latest escapades are Nicolás' adoptive parents Elena Villaseñor and Ernesto Rioja portrayed by Eva Cedeño and Jorge Salinas respectively.

Prior to Giving Up My Life's debut in TLNovelas, the family drama was beemed in parts of East Africa in 2021 on the newly launched Swahili telenovela channel Maisha Moto now the series renters the region but to English and Portuguese speaking audiences.

Giving Up My Life is expected to rollout on TLNovelas by October likely in place of Keeping My Family Together as Eva Cedeño is the lead star in both series and as seen with most telenovela channels like Telemundo a show is usually bound either by the theme or the fruits to its labour which is none other than Eva Cedeño.

Programming Alert: Fatmagul Swept Off eVOD's Kuiertyd Section

eVOD has been making adjustments to their offering for several months now which is common for most beginners as the platform expands its offering and consumer base with the likes of Microblast TV, 360 Sport and the existing content packaged onto their eMedia's stations.

Fatmagul, one of eMedia's very few English dubbed shows on top of being the first and loved show by audiences of the brand. As seen in those past months, the popular Turkish series was slotted with other dramas in the Afrikaans section of eVOD despite not being Afrikaans itself.

It led to a lot of speculation on what would become of non Afrikaans dubbed Turkish shows but taking these recent adjustments to account it's safe to say where it's fate might like should eMedia opt to rectify that mistake.

At launch, eMedia had a slot for their Korean and Bollywood offering some of which have been viewed on eExtra and with these adjustments the slot had expanded to International Dramas where you get more out of the usual two like Johnny Vs. Amber, Madiba and Tainted Love Leke.

Fatmagul would fit perfectly in that section as opposed to Afrikaans section which carries a lot of limitations but I'm not judging its presence there but most who do browse that section would expect 100% Afrikaans when you can't expect the same from Mzansi Magic.

Instead of redirecting shows (as eMedia will never advertise changes) rather just keep Fatmagul where its currently seen and duplicate it onto sections of the platform and see how far it gets from there.

Roundups #81: The Doodlebops And Fast And The Furious Spy Racers Has Been Uploaded Onto eToonz, Reeva Steenkamp Documentary Coming Soon To M-Net And The Flash Cancelled After 9 Seasons By The CW

Home is where the happy is

eToonz, South Africa's only free-to-air kids channel on Openview and soon on DStv as eMedia had been granted rights to reinstate the channels following pending investigation which could take up to 6 months welcomed two series Doodlebops and Fast And The Furious: Spy Racers.

Doodlebops follows Deedee, Rooney and Moe Doodle a rock and roll band as they hang out and practice their song and dance routines in the coolest rehearsal space imaginable. The series features music, dance, comedy and pro-social educational issues.

Fast And Furious: Spy Racers based on the popular franchise Fast And The Furious follows the adventures abound as a group of teenagers infiltrates an elite racing league controlled by a nefarious organization that is bent on world domination.

M-Net is bringing Reeva Steenkamp to life with a three-part docuseries

It has been nine years since Steenkamp was brutally shot and killed by her world-famous paralympic athlete boyfriend Oscar Pistorius - a murder still deeply embedded in the minds of millions worldwide.

M-Net announced that it would be airing #MyNameIsReeva on #MNet101 on 25 August at 20:30. The docuseries seeks to depict the untimely passing of a beautiful, intelligent, and loved woman in her prime.

The CW continues to get chopped

It’s official: The upcoming ninth season of The Flash on the CW will be its last. It will debut in 2023 and consist of 13 episodes, making this the shortest season of its run.

The 13-episode midseason order would put The Flash series finale just weeks ahead of the planned June 23 release of Warner Bros.’ The Flash movie starring Ezra Miller as the title character. Coincidentally, the long-delayed film originally was announced just a week after The Flash series’ October 7 premiere on the CW. The series’ ending is expected to wrap its own storyline and not set up the movie in any way, sources said.

The CW brass has been diligent about giving its signature series a proper ending, when possible. The Flash is one of two legacy shows whose next seasons will be last, along with Riverdale.

Rumour: MultiChoice To Upgrade 3 Channels To High Definition

This year, MultiChoice had made several changes to their entertainment offering while as sourcing out new content for its consumers while some of the older offerings get a boost which is the case for these 3 channels as an HD feed is currently underway on the DStv platform.

As outlined but MultiChoice on HD channels:

"It depends on whether at that specific moment we have capacity - satellite capacity in the sky - and depending on where we launch."

"Sometimes we might have capacity on IS20 - which is a satellite that sits over Southern Africa - but we don't have over Eutelsat 36B which sits over the rest of sub-Saharan Africa - that's the complication of it."

"Secondly, but actually most importantly, does the content lend itself to display HD in the best possible way?...," explained Aletta Alberts.
"Sometimes when we launch a regional channel it probably won't be in HD. It depends on the channel."

Which is the case for these trio that are rumoured to take that leap into the digital world.

Only available in Zambia and the only regional channel on the list is Power TV Zambia's youth entertainment channel which features mainly music and reality shows is the first on the list go to high definition.

The Home Channel, South Africa's first in command to offer reality programming based on real estate and home improvement will be the second channel to join the HD trio. This comes after eMedia Investments launched the duplicate, The Home Channel+ on the Openview platform.

Last but not least, Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) the 24 hour commercial-free channel that offers inspirational programming that appeal to people in a wide variety of Protestant, Catholic and Messianic Jewish denominations will be the first religious channel on DStv to recieve HD capability.