New Series Alert: Bitz & Bob And Detention Adventures Coming Soon To Da Vinci Kids - September 2022 Highlights

Kids Programmes
Bitz & Bob — PREMIERE
43 x 15 mins
From September 10th – Saturdays & Sundays 09:15
Meet eight-year-old Bitz and her younger brother Bob as they go on imaginative adventures with their toy friends. Using creative thinking and engineering ideas, they always find a way to save the day!

Detention Adventure — PREMIERE 
20 x 15 mins
From September 12th – Mondays & Tuesdays 16:35
Three brainy friends and the school bully set out to uncover the hidden lab of Alexander Graham Bell. To do so, they must get themselves thrown into detention and find the entrance to a labyrinth of trap-laden tunnels protecting the fabled hidden room.

Continuing Kids Programmes include Briko on Fridays 15:45, Gaming Show (In My Parents’ Garage) on Wednesdays & Thursdays 16:05 and The Deep on Saturdays & Sundays 10:30.

Monthly & Weekly Specials
The Back-to-School Kindness Challenge
We all want our kids to grow up happy, healthy, and capable. That’s why Da Vinci is taking learning beyond the classroom with our Kindness Challenge!
Join us for a whole six weeks of eye-opening programs designed to show kids the power of social-emotional learning and accompany them into a new school year full of kindness. Learn all about teamwork, resilience and being kind to nature in Go Green with the Grimwades and Siyaya: Wildest Cape. Then, practice empathy and care with the heroes from The Pet Rescuers. Finally, cultural exchange and diversity are at the very heart of A Week to Beat the World.
Every Saturday, come build a smarter, kinder world with us. Challenge accepted! 

Saturday, September 3rd from 13:00 to 16:10
13:00 Go Green with the Grimwades — Reduce Litter, Reuse Plastic Bottles, Repair Bikes and Reuse the Wind 
13:50 Siyaya: Wildest Cape — Lambert’s Bay Bird Island - Where The Birds Are In Charge and The Hottentots Holland Mountains - Crossing The Mountains
14:50 The Pet Rescuers — Milestones and The Mono-Eyed Cat
15:40 A Week to Beat the World — Brazil Day 5 and Mongolia Day 1 

Saturday, September 10th from 13:00 to 16:00
13:00 Go Green with the Grimwades — Recycle the Drawers, Reduce on the Beach, Refuse Party Plastic and Reduce Food Miles
13:50 Siyaya: Wildest Cape — Hottentots Holland Nature Reserve - On Angel’s Wings and The Hottentots Holland Mountains - Unfinished Business
14:50 The Pet Rescuers — Bella and Homer
15:15 A Week to Beat the World — Mongolia Day 2-4

Saturday, September 17th from 13:00 to 16:00
13:00 Go Green with the Grimwades — Reuse Wool, Reduce the Heating, Reuse at the Fire Station and Repair Shoes
13:50 Siyaya: Wildest Cape — Kogelberg - Source To Sea and Robberg - Learning About Survival
14:50 The Pet Rescuers — Heidi’s New Home
15:15 A Week to Beat the World — Mongolia Day 5, Japan Day 1 & 2

Saturday, September 24th from 13:00 to 16:00
13:00 Go Green with the Grimwades — Reuse to Make Instruments, Refuse to Mow, Reuse into a Den and Reduce Screen Time
13:50 Siyaya: Wildest Cape — Robberg - The Exploration Continues and Anysberg - Hidden Gem Of The Klein Karoo
14:50 The Pet Rescuers — It’s a Match
15:15 A Week to Beat the World — Japan Day 3-5

Wild Nature Weekend! 
Saturdays & Sundays from 16:40
Escape into the wild with our brand-new block of animal and nature-themed programming that is fun for the whole family! Every weekend, we’ll explore the natural world with shows that inspire an appreciation for our incredible planet. 
Baby Animals — Meet the world’s tiniest, cutest baby animals and see how they travel the road from birth to adolescence and adulthood. From building strong family ties to learning how to escape predators, these little creatures explore the world around them all day long.

Dogs with Extraordinary Jobs — Dogs never cease to amaze us. From Philadelphia, where a blind woman gets a new running mate, to Kenya, where a team of dogs is on daily patrol protecting endangered rhinos from poachers, we travel the world to meet some of these dogs with extraordinary jobs.  

The Pet Rescuers — The Pet Rescuers follows the adventures and challenges of a devoted team on a mission to give abandoned pets another chance at a happy life. This heart-warming series will take you on an extraordinary journey and restore your faith in humanity.

Animal Embassy — Entertaining and informative, this series will take you behind the scenes of Loro Parque - one of the world’s best zoos. Packed with engaging characters - both animal and human, Animal Embassy reveals the unshakeable devotion to conservation and animal welfare. 

Amazing Animal Friends — Discover some of the most incredible and unusual animal friendships. From the duck obsessed with a dog in France to the elephant that thinks she is a buffalo in Zimbabwe, we explore what brings these species together and how they form their extraordinary bonds.

Morning Brainiacs
Every day from 06:00 to 09:00
Early risers unite! Start the day off on the right foot with this collection of fun and educational programmes that will engage your kid’s brain and get them ready to take on the school day. 
06:00 Do You Know?
06:30 Siesta Z
06:45 Darwin & Newts 
07:00 PinCode 
07:20 Mily Miss Questions 
07:30 Marvellous Makes
07:35 Addison
07:50 Doki
08:05 Kosmix 
08:15 The Fixies 
08:25 Superhero Sprinter Galore
08:35 Wild Kratts 

Scooby-Doo: Shaggy And The Ghost Blocks APK Download

Developer: Kiloo Aps
Genre: Puzzle

A game based on Scooby-doo-bi-doo-bi-doo cartoon. You have to play for Shaggy, his best friend, who should pass a long way to go through the game, so be careful as you will find a lot of ghosts! The game consists of aTetris with the elements of an adventure.

Download Now

Hints: MultiChoice To Add More SABC Channels To The DStv Platform

eMedia Investments and MultiChoice have been beefing over the carriage agreement for eToonz, eExtra, eMovies and eMovies Extra on which these 3 new SABC channels were set to replace but following the court's recent ruling complicates things for these channels as MultiChoice doesn't have much room for more channels.

In an interview earlier in the year, the SABC promised new content for the current SABC 1-3 alongside these new channels while also changing the way content would be distributed amongst their brands as they gear up for the launch of their long awaited OTT platform.

These new channels which are likely the same ones eMedia Investments failed to launch last year although there that much hasn't been confirmed would it be shocking if it was true as these brands were set up to replace eMedia's channels on the DStv platform.

From the info presented to the press about Openview's long awaited SABC channels, consumers should expect a lot of archived material as seen with SABC Education but as more viewers glue themselves to these brands expect some fresh content every now and then.

I'm no wizard in this but wasn't this how most if not all eMedia's brands panned out and following its expansion to the DStv platform you saw an increase in primetime so yeah these new channels have to be the same ones coming to the Openview platform.

Onto the specifics for these channels, SABC hasn't provided any detail in that regard but they have been giving a couple of teasers like SABC Sport 2 alongside the return of SABC Encore.

SABC Sport 2 comes out of the fact that the main channel SABC Sport has seen success on the Openview platform but as mentioned on several occasions they're not financially fit to launch more channels unless they have a reliable source of income and regardless this is a brand that MultiChoice wouldn't really want on their platform.

SABC Encore on the other hand is an uphill battle not that channels can't relaunch on DStv but for the time that it ran on DStv. There wasn't anything worth exploring that viewers hadn't got on SABC 1-3 but as mentioned in an interview they plan to revive the brand on another platform that doesn't it can't come back.

All the channels needs is improvement over whether it can launch again it's a mystery maybe this channel will launch on Openview and a seperate entertainment channel likely called SABC Entertainment surfaces on DStv as SABC had been tinkering with the brand names.

The second channel SABC Education has been going through development hell and as speculated most of this is on SABC as MultiChoice had been waiting on the other two channels to surface but as usual the public broadcaster can't meet up to a deadline.

The last channel is a complicated scenario, SABC had registered an SABC Parliament while Openview is expecting repeats that's not the case with this channel but seeing as they are replacements it's better to just cut that out of the list and look at another potential channel, SABC Children.

I know out of the 3 channels 2 cater for children but remember SABC Education revamped their lineup in 2021 and just like Da Vinci Kids also includes content for adults. The channel offers shows like Skeem Saam, Afro Cafe and Speak Out something you wouldn't find a lot of toddlers watching.

If you look at the possible 3 channels, the idea doesn't seem far fetched as MultiChoice has plenty of entertainment channels and while as with SABC I don't envision them adding anything that could rival with SABC 1-3 any further than SABC Encore/Entertainment.

Could eMedia Investments' Local Endeavours Lead To The Recreation Of The eKasi+ Channel?

eMedia Investments has been building their local portfolio with the likes of The Black Door, uMbali, Housewives, Is'phindiselo, Daryn's Gym and Atlantis and I don't know about you but all this kind of leads to the thought of a standalone channel.

eKasi+ was another property of eMedia Investments seen on the Openview platform when it first launched in the market. At the time, eMedia's local endeavours usually hit a bump on the road on top of working under a limited budget which is why it's known to viewers as eExtra.

eExtra has achieved a lot of milestones on eMedia's portfolio following the success of Kuiertyd which has a hub on eVOD and standalone channel on the Openview platform. It even lead MultiChoice to build their own Kuiertyd through kykNET & Kie.

But the fact is eExtra doesn't cater to the same audience as eKasi+. While eExtra is viewed as an alternative to kykNET and the dismal Afrikaans offering on SABC 2 with eKasi+ it was taking on the likes of SABC 1 and Mzansi Magic's Wethu and Bioskop channel.

I'm not saying eMedia had no reasons to throw the channel away as eKasi+ was very much repetitive and struggling to hit the standards seen on SABC 1 which is why there was that existing bulk of eExtra available on the channel alongside WWE.

But with this fresh offering coming to their stable with more expected in the near future. It wouldn't be a bad idea to revive a concept similar to eKasi+.

I'm not expecting any exclusive content to run on the channel but function more like SABC's Encore channel or M-Net's Mzansi Wethu where the channel offers a selection of archived material alongside current shows from e.tv like The Black Door, Scandal and Imbewu.

What Really Happened To Mindset Network's Health Channel?

It was on pilot mode in 2003, The Mindset Health Channel, a partnership between Mindset Network, the National Department of Health and Sentech, provided a multimedia platform, to deliver uplifting health education and promotion on critical health issues, including tuberculosis the HIV and AIDS pandemic, on a mass scale.

The channel, which began broadcasting TV programmes in October 2003, had advanced to Internet datacasting reaching an increasing number of clinics and hospitals. From 48 sites in the pilot phase, Mindset Health had 298 established sites throughout South Africa.

The satellite uplink provided by Sentech allowed datacasting directly to users with information in video, multimedia and print available on demand.

"When patients gather in a clinic they can watch a TV programme in the waiting area, while a healthcare worker independently explores in-depth clinical management material on a PC," says Tricia Hobson, Marketing Manager, Mindset Network. This can be interrupted and returned to at a time convenient for the healthcare worker.

The public broadcast, offering 'infotainment' delivers education and promotion on HIV and AIDS (prevention, management, treatment and care), tuberculosis, other major diseases such as maternal and infant health, and the underlying issues such as gender violence, in multiple languages through, drama, public service announcements, documentaries, interviews and discussions.

"Mindset Health sources high-quality content from a number of our media content partners, including SABC, Soul City, Love Life, Khomanani, Community Health Media Trust and Kagiso Educational Trust," says Hobson. The content is available in five languages - English, SeSotho, isiZulu, isiXhosa and Afrikaans.

Healthcare workers and nurses report that the programmes provide an invaluable resource of up-to-date information which adds enormous value to their counselling and administrative efforts.

The Mindset Health Channel aimed to broadcast to 4 000 public healthcare sites, and hospitals as wall as private clinics, prisons and community centres, educating 97 000 nurses and 36 million South Africans.

To do this will require a variety of project and funding partnerships to support the roll-out as well as to sustain usage among both the patients and the healthcare workers in the public health sector.

"We believe these targets are quite within reach and the satellite technology supporting the Mindset Health Channel has the capacity to deliver quality content to South Africa and beyond," says Pranill Ramchander, Sentech's Portfolio Manager: Corporate Communications.

The afterlife of Mindset Health

In a media enquiry, Mindset Network revealed that a lack of funding led to the termination of the health channel contributing to that was the severed partnership with Department of Health as they had no means of keeping the channel sustainable.

A decade after its termination, the nonprofit organisation partnered up with pay-tv giant MultiChoice for a spinoff to the current Mindset TV which catered to Grade 4-9 and ran throughout the pandemic and went dark in the same year with further content available on the main channel.