Another Channel Bites The Dust, DStv Customers To Bid Farewell To MTV Hits After A Year

Last month, MultiChoice unveiled two new channels at their showcase, Moonbug Kids home to the YouTube sensation CoComelon which is scheduled to rollout later in the week and Qwest TV founded by Quincy Jones which is likely to rollout by November.

Earlier in the month, Da Vinci Kids was on the verge of extinction as MultiChoice opted not to renew their agreement with Macademia for their channel and after receiving positive feedback about the channel's content from consumers those planned were abandoned.

The channel was only able to comment once the issue had been resolved:

We're happy to inform consumers that DStv have now agreed to continue to broadcast the Da Vinci. We remain deeply committed to our challenge of making the world a smarter and kinder place, and to give African children the opportunity to explore and learn 21st Century Skills

Point being made, after the recent scare from the pay-tv brand it was believed that Qwest TV could be used to take the spot of another channel. As Broadcast Media Africa stated, MultiChoice will be adding new channels but most would come at the time another goes off air.

During the carriage battle with eMedia Investments, a spokesperson at MultiChoice was able to confirm that the pay-tv brand was facing transponder constraints with limited space for more channels opted to just try and reinvent their offering.

MTV Hits is set to join other channels which went off air during the year including Lifetime, Tellytrack, Russia Today and ITV Networks. With the channel that only has 19 days of activity before going dark on the platform - 31 October 2022.

MultiChoice had a ray of channels with the shortest lifespan e.g. VOOV now MTV Hits is currently the channel with the shortest lifespan on the platform in this decade.

MTV Hits was added as a replacement to MTV Music24 whose feed was killed off by Paramount Global as they review offering globally alongside VH1 Classic. This was the only channel to not have a local push now viewers have to rely on DMX to catch further international hits.

Recap: Paw Patrol Got A Dedicated Pop-Up Channel On DStv

Earlier this month, a lot of DStv consumers were alarmed to see Paw Patrol take up the whole schedule of Nick Jr I mean a full 2 weeks but what isn't that what PBS Kids did with Arthur a month ago perhaps it's coincidence or this is another indicator to cable becoming obsolete.

A lot of consumers may not be aware but Paramount had often launched pop-up channels dedicated to one of their current shows I mean they had one for Horrid Henry and another for SpongeBob most of these went to Nicktoons in those regions but now it will be a thing in Africa.

As it is, Paramount has been doing a lot of cost cutting for their Nickelodeon channels I mean Nicktoons is on autopilot at this point and Nick Jr. doesn't have much independency as seen already Africa and other parts of the world got 2 weeks of Paw Patrol.

If it's any consolation, Paramount+ is coming to South Africa within the following year and with Asia closing off Nickelodeon and Canadian operators losing exclusivity with Nickelodeon I'm expecting both Nickelodeon and Nick Jr. to become a graveyard for Paramount+.

It's already started with Nickelodeon as they got a lot of Paramount+ originals such as Big Nate, The Fairly OddParents: Fairly Odder, Star Trek: Prodigy and Kamp Koral with Nick Jr. grasping at its straws almost to the point of braindead Nicktoons.

The Paw Patrol Channel is just prove that cable is no longer the centre of attention. I wouldn't mind watching a day's worth of The Loud House but 2 whole weeks is just pushing it.

 

DreamWorks USA Is Falling Apart: The History Of Universal Kids

On October 20th, 2004, the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) announced a partnership with Comcast, HiT Entertainment (now Mattel Creations) and Sesame Workshop to create a new subscription based channel for aimed at children under the age of 4 kind of like Baby TV.

On April 4th, 2005, Comcast announced that the new kids channel would be called PBS Kids Sprout and it launched 6 months later on September 26. At first it launched as an on demand service then it got a channel later.

Unlike PBS Kids, the channel aired adverts however they were minimal and featured products aimed at babies and toddlers. Among the shows to air on the channel were Barney And Friends, Kipper, Pingu, Angelina Ballerina, Boobah, Calliou, Teletubbies and more.

In addition to airing many programming blocks, Sprout did something unique on the channel where it would take several short episodes of a show and combine it into a half hour show of its own complete with interstitials between segments.

2011 to 2013 saw a complex of business decisions that would lead NBC to get full control of the channel.

To summarise, Comcast claimed a 51% share of NBCUniversal at the time leaving them to handle the channel. Apex Partners sold HiT Entertainment to NBCUniversal and claimed their stake in Sprout. Sesame Workshop and PBS solder their share of Sprout forcing PBS to retract PBS Kids from the name by November 2013.

While all of this began in July 2012, Sprout began to run NBC Kids and Mi Telemundo respectively. This was a block that aired Saturday mornings aimed at younger children.

On September 26, 2015, Sprout recieved a refresh.

On May 1st, 2017, since Sprout was owned entirely by NBCUniversal. They announced that the channel would rebrand into Universal Kids and begin airing shows aimed at preteens at primetime hours. They would continue producing original content some from DreamWorks Animation that NBCUniversal purchased in 2016.

Unfortunately this change seemed to negatively impact the channel's viewership. It dropped by 30% in 2017 and a cut of 73% percent in 2018.

In June 2019, to try and recover Universal Kids financially they stopped producing new original content and shifted their focus to acquired series. But still in 2019 they were the lowest viewed channel in the United States with only 31,000 viewers per day luckily the decline dropped to 3%.

So it seems Universal Kids has fallen from its prime in recent years. Why is this?

I believe it is because of the brand change not everyone was familiar with Universal Kids even though it was the same channel. The new changes turned people off the channel. I think they could have slowed the rebrand perhaps add the changes to the lineup and take use of an intermediary name like Universal Sprout.

It seems like Universal Kids is in trouble and I mean soon to be terminated kind of trouble, can they dig themselves out of this?

At the moment, Universal Kids hasn't updated their programming and offers less and less content which often signals the downfall of a brand but with it being ranked the 132nd most watched channel in the United States one would hope but with cable becoming endangered I doubt.

 

Warner Bros. TV Layoffs: Studio Cuts 26% Of Workforce; Unscripted & Animation Divisions Merge; Workshop & Stage 13 Shuttered

Warner Bros Television is cutting more than a quarter of its workforce as part of its parent company’s drive to cut costs.

The studio is cutting 26% of personnel, a total of 125 positions, across scripted, unscripted and animation.

It was mentioned on Monday that cuts would likely come today and we revealed earlier that Warner Bros. TV was shutting down digital production arm Stage 13 and its Warner Bros Television Workshop – a key plank in finding and mentoring new and diverse talent.

These cuts come with a number of structural changes put in place by chairman Channing Dungey, particularly in unscripted and animation. She called the move “incredibly difficult” as she pointed to a “tumultuous time” in the industry (read her full memo to staff below).

The television studio is the latest arm of Warner Bros Discovery forced to make cuts in order to save at least $3 billion after the merger overseen by David Zaslav. It comes after HBO and HBO Max laid off 14% of staff, around 70 people, in August.

The total number of employees losing their jobs is 82, some 19% of the current workforce, while Dungey and her team are also not filling 43 vacant positions. This means that there are a total of 125 positions eliminated.

UNSCRIPTED
On the unscripted side, which continues to be run by Mike Darnell, President of Warner Bros. Unscripted and Alternative Television, there are some strategic changes across its three divisions: Warner Horizon Unscripted Television, Telepictures and Shed Media.

The company is combining the creative development and programming roles across Warner Horizon Unscripted Television, which is behind series such as The Voice and The Bachelor, and Telepictures, which produces The Jennifer Hudson Show and previously made The Ellen DeGeneres Show.

Bridgette Theriault and Dan Sacks will run Warner Horizon, following the departure of Warner Horizon’s Brooke Karzen after 20 years. David McGuire will run Telepictures.

The move comes after the bringing together of many of the divisions’ back-end functions as part of a restructure in 2020 that saw Kevin Fortson, in physical production, and Matt Matzkin, in business affairs, legal and finance, work across all three divisions. Both Fortson and Matzkin remain.

Shed Media, which is behind series such as Bravo’s Below Deck Adventure and a number of The Real Housewives shows, will remain a stand-alone unit led by Lisa Shannon and Dan Peirson.

The studio is not merging Warner Horizon Unscripted Television and Telepictures fully, ostensibly because of the differences in the ways that the shows are produced. Warner Horizon makes union shows and Telepictures is non-union.

There will be no changes on the international side, where Warner Bros operates more than 20 production companies across the world, or at All3Media, which comes to the company via the Discovery ownership stake.

SCRIPTED
On the scripted side of the business, Brett Paul will remain as President of Warner Bros Television, which is not making any structural changes to the way that business is run, having previously brought together Warner Bros Television and cable/streaming unit Warner Horizon Scripted Television in 2020.

Clancy Collins White will continue to run development and Vicki Dummer will oversee current programming, both continuing to report to Dungey. Adrienne Turner will continue to run comedy development and oversee the comedy team. Adam Glick continues to serve as head of business affairs, Sue Palladino as head of production, and Mele Nagler as head of casting.

Cuts will be made at lower levels of this division.

However, the bigger moves in scripted was the closure of digital studio Stage 13 and the end of its workshops, which we revealed earlier Tuesday.

The scripted moves are a continuation of the TV group’s changing business, particularly an increasing focus on streaming and cable programming, which is thought to include around 65% of its current programming, amid the decline of broadcast TV.

This has been further extenuated by the ownership change at the CW, where Warner Bros TV and CBS Studios were the sole feeders of its scripted originals pipeline.

ANIMATION
In animation, Warner Bros Television is bringing together some of the creative and programming teams within two of its three animation studios: Warner Bros Animation and Cartoon Network Studios.

While current programming, casting, legal and business affairs had worked across all three (the group includes Hanna-Barbera Studios Europe), it will now bring together development and production teams at Warner Animation and Cartoon Network Studios.

The three labels will continue and will continue to be run by Sam Register.

The kids and family series development team will be led by Audrey Diehl, adult animation development will be led by Peter Girardi, and animated longform series development will be led by Sammy Perlmutter, with Bobbie Page leading main production. Ed Adams will continue as EVP and GM.

Shows that come out of these divisions include Invincible Fight Girl, Unicorn: Warriors Eternal and Adventure Time: Fionna & Cake.

The company said that multiple projects remain in active production and development and despite the restructuring, production output is “relatively unchanged.”

Here is Dungey’s note to staff today:

Team,

Today I write to you with sad news and a heavy heart. As many of you have already learned, some of our treasured colleagues will be leaving the company because of restructuring and realignment within our group. This was strictly a business decision, made as thoughtfully and compassionately as possible by studio leadership. But understanding that doesn’t make this moment any easier. These colleagues are more than just people with whom we’ve worked, they are part of our work family. We spend more time together than we do with most other people in our lives. Because of that, this loss is painful and difficult. For those impacted by the changes, I want you to know how grateful I am for your contributions – in some cases, spanning decades – and how deeply sorry I am.

There are a few changes happening within WBTVG that I would like to make specific note of here:

As part of the strategic realignment on the unscripted side, run by Mike Darnell, President, Warner Bros. Unscripted Television, we are making some changes aimed at finding synergies within the group, which includes Warner Horizon Unscripted Television, Telepictures, and Shed Media.

As you may have read yesterday, Brooke Karzen, head of Warner Horizon Unscripted Television, informed us in the last few weeks that she would like to try something new with her career after a highly successful 22-year run at the company. Brooke has been synonymous with The Bachelor brand for more than 20 years, overseeing the original show and developing The Bachelorette, Bachelor in Paradise, and many other extensions that have propelled The Bachelor into a global hit franchise. Her other successes include Emmy winner The Voice, Ellen’s Game of Games, and the Friends and Harry Potter reunion specials, to name just a few. Please join me in saluting Brooke for her tremendous accomplishments and wishing her the best in the future.

As a result of Brooke’s departure, Bridgette Theriault and Dan Sacks will now be leading Warner Horizon. We are combining some creative development and programming roles to work across both Warner Horizon and Telepictures, with David McGuire continuing to lead Telepictures. Lisa Shannon and Dan Peirson will continue to run Shed Media.

Working across all three unscripted divisions, Kevin Fortson continues to lead all aspects of physical production (including budgeting, scheduling, staffing, and more), and Matt Matzkinmaintains oversight of all business affairs, legal, and finance for unscripted series.

In Animation, run by Sam Register, President, Warner Bros. Animation and Cartoon Network Studios, we are implementing a new streamlined structure in which the development and main production teams will now work across both Warner Bros. Animation and Cartoon Network Studios. The kids and family series development team will be led by Audrey Diehl, adult animation development will be led by Peter Girardi, and animated longform series development will be led by Sammy Perlmutter, with Bobbie Page leading main production. This is an extension of the cross-studio teams that have already been in place for current programming, casting, legal and business affairs, and artist relations. Ed Adams will continue as Executive Vice President and General Manager.

On the scripted side, run by Brett Paul, President, Warner Bros. Television, our senior creative leadership team remains in place. Clancy Collins White continues to head up development, with Vicki Dummer as head of current programming. Adam Glick continues to serve as head of business affairs, Sue Palladino as head of production, and Mele Nagler as head of casting.

We will be closing Stage 13, which was founded in 2017 under the former Warner Bros. Digital Networks division as a studio for original digital shortform programming and has produced past series such as Special and It’s Bruno! for Netflix, Two Sentence Horror Stories for The CW/Netflix, and more. WBTV has already been supervising Stage 13 development and programming since 2020. Any existing Stage 13 projects in development will be absorbed within WBTV, which continues to be committed to finding new voices and providing opportunities for its richly diverse creative collaborators to tell authentic stories. I want to thank Diana Mogollón for her passionate leadership of Stage 13 and for the groundbreaking series that she and her team produced.

Also, following the conclusion of the current 2022–23 edition of the Warner Bros. Writers’ Workshop in April, we will be closing the Warner Bros. Television Workshop program, which includes both the Writers’ Workshop and the Directors’ Workshop. Both workshops have been instrumental in training the next generation of creative talent in the industry. While we will no longer have these formalized programs in place, we remain committed to developing and mentoring emerging talent and preparing them for careers in television.

As of this writing, all the impact conversations for WBTVG are complete. Out of respect to our colleagues, we will not be distributing a list of those impacted. Your direct managers will provide you with information about roles changing within specific groups. Your P&C partner will be available as well to address any questions or concerns. During this period of transition, please support each other, and be gentle with one another.

These are challenging times in the world at large, and a tumultuous time in our industry. For this kind of change to hit so close to home is incredibly difficult. But my hope is that these changes, made with an eye to a more focused business strategy, will strengthen and stabilize our company, maintain our great creative output, and better position us for continued future success.

Yet today we are losing members of our work family that we love, whose hard work has helped make our success possible, and for that I am truly sorry. I want everyone who is leaving to know that your contributions mattered, and the shows that you helped bring to life will always be part of the Warner Bros. Television Group legacy. Thank you for being part of our story.

With the deepest gratitude,

Channing

 

Roundups #102: Trevor Noah To Exit The Daily Show, Hugh Jackman To Return As Wolverine In Deadpool And Keanu Reeves No Longer Part Of Upcoming Series Devil In The White City

Trevor Noah is exiting The Daily Show

It’s the end of the road for Trevor Noah’s tenure at Comedy Central’s The Daily Show. The comedian announced during the September 29 episode that, after seven years as host spanning back to 2015 when he took over for Jon Stewart, he’s decided to move on.

After noting that he recently reflected on fans’ support for the show on an international level, Noah told the studio audience that he found himself “filled with gratitude for the journey. It’s been absolutely amazing. It’s something that I never expected.” He went on: “And I found myself thinking throughout the time, you know, everything we’ve gone through: the Trump presidency, the pandemic, just the journey of, you know … the more pandemic. And I realized that, after seven years, my time is up. But in the most beautiful way. Honestly, I’ve loved hosting the show. It’s been one of my greatest challenges. It’s been one of my greatest joys. I have loved trying to figure out how to make people laugh, even when the stories are particularly shitty on the worst days. We’ve laughed together, we’ve cried together. But after seven years, I feel like it’s time.”

A Comedy Central spokesperson released a statement on Noah’s departure after his announcement was posted to Twitter: “We are grateful to Trevor for our amazing partnership over the past seven years. With no timetable for his departure, we’re working together on next steps. As we look ahead, we’re excited for the next chapter in the 25+ year history of The Daily Show as it continues to redefine culture through sharp and hilarious social commentary, helping audiences make sense of the world around them.”

Hugh Jackman returns to the MCU

The Wolverine is back as Hugh Jackman gets back in the gym to once again sport the muscular frame of the beloved X-Men character. It has now been confirmed that Jackman will reprise the role of Wolverine in the upcoming Deadpool 3, an announcement that came as a huge surprise to Marvel fans.

Hugh Jackman first played the role of Wolverine over two decades ago in the first X-Men outing. While the actor was praised for his portrayal, Jackman has since revealed that he only had a few weeks to prepare. Hence, why his physique is far less impressive than it would eventually become. Jackman has now played the role multiple times, each time putting in the hard work to bring the Marvel superhero to life in live action, with the actor often topping the list of the greatest physical transformations.

While the plot of Deadpool 3 is currently unconfirmed, it is looking more and more likely that the threequel will follow Wolverine and Deadpool embarking on a road trip. Something that Ryan Reynolds seemingly revealed last year.

Keanu Reeves no longer making his first major American television role debut

Keanu Reeves will no longer star in the Hulu series adaptation of “The Devil in the White City,” Variety has learned exclusively from sources.

The show was first put into development at Hulu in 2019 and was officially ordered to series at the streamer in August 2022. It is based on the book of the same name by by Erik Larson.

Per the official logline, the show “tells the true story of Daniel H. Burnham, a demanding but visionary architect who races to make his mark on history with the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, and Dr. H. H. Holmes, America’s first modern serial killer and the man behind the notorious ‘Murder Castle’ built in the Fair’s shadow.”