Moonbug Expands Into New Demos And Content

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Since being bought by Candle Media last year and igniting its own M&A strategy, the company is moving forward by focusing on digital-first IPs, acquiring the companies that own them, and investing in an original content pipeline, says managing director Andy Yeatman.

The goal is to turn popular YouTube brands into 365-degree franchises. Moonbug successfully tested and fine-tuned this strategy with preschool brands like CoComelon and Blippi. And now, armed with investment and direction from Candle—which is owned by former Disney execs Kevin Mayer and Tom Staggs—it has marching orders to “think bigger.”

In this new phase of growth, Yeatman says the company will focus on three pillars: geography, new demos and gaming. It will also expand its international focus to include Europe, Asia and Latin America.

Moonbug has done very well dubbing its English-language nursery rhymes into other dialects. But it’s now moving towards creating original content featuring songs and rhymes from cultures around the world in order to increase its relevance with international audiences. To that end, Spanish- and English-language video Los Pollitos Dicen Dance launched in August on YouTube, and the company’s first international series is currently in production in Brazil using local talent. Moonbug also hired former Disney VP Francesca Romana Gianesin in May to lead licensing in EMEA, Australia and New Zealand.

On the content side of its business, Moonbug’s recent acquisition of Singapore-based studio One Animation gives it a greater foothold in Asia, Yeatman says. And that ties into another of the company’s goals—to expand its core target demo. Moonbug has had category-defining success in preschool, but now it’s on a mission to reach kids in the bridge demo of five to eight. And that’s where One Animation comes in.

The studio’s flagship series, OddBods (pictured), is a non-dialogue comedy for five to eights that has aired in more than 180 countries and has 32 million YouTube subscribers. The format travels easily across borders, languages and cultures—a good example of the type of content Moonbug will be focusing on moving forward.

The company also has its eye on gaming. While its previous focus on younger children had historically made it cautious of video games, Yeatman sees the rising popularity of Roblox as having high potential for Moonbug to discover new IPs and expand its own properties.

“The next frontier for us is seeing families interact with our shows as they come off the screen.”

The Search Is On For Africa's Next WWE Superstar, Entries Close By Mid December

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WWE in conjunction with its Sub-Saharan Africa broadcast partner SuperSport, has announced a continent-wide talent search to find Africa’s next WWE Superstar. The campaign was announced today in Lagos, Nigeria, the host city for a multi-day tryout in February 2023.

“The Search for Africa’s Next WWE Superstar” will begin today and is open to citizens of any African country. Submissions will be accepted until December 18. Learn more about the application process at www.supersport.com/WWEAfricaSuperstar.

Interested candidates will be asked to submit a video highlighting their potential to become a WWE Superstar. Successful applicants will be invited to participate in the Lagos tryout in February 2023. A select number of tryout participants will then be awarded an all-expenses-paid experience to continue their tryout journey alongside current and prospective WWE Superstars ahead of WrestleMania 39 in Los Angeles in April 2023. A fulltime WWE developmental contract may be offered to the top-performing participants who will then begin their new career at the world-class WWE Performance Centre in Orlando, Florida.

“Africa is a focal point of our renewed global talent recruitment strategy and this initiative in Lagos will launch what we envision becoming a year-round, multi-country effort to cultivate relationships and identify talent that will resonate with our passionate and loyal African fanbase,” said James Kimball, WWE Head of Talent Operations and Strategy. “The region has incredible potential to serve as a meaningful talent development hub for WWE and we look forward to working with our tremendous partners at SuperSport to uncover the next generation of Superstars through this program.”

“The continent abounds with athletes and Africa has had several WWE Superstars, so this is the perfect opportunity to showcase fresh new talent,” said Marc Jury, Chief Executive of SuperSport. “As there is a massive appetite among African audiences for WWE action and entertainment, we expect this initiative to be very popular with aspirants. SuperSport looks forward to telling this exciting story in the weeks and months to come.”

Last week, WWE and MultiChoice announced a major broadcast partnership that will see Showmax – the leading streaming service available in the region – become the new home of WWE Network in Africa. The partnership incorporates all WWE Premium Live Events, including WrestleMania, as well as WWE Network’s vast library of original and archived programming available to stream on-demand by more people in Africa from early 2023 on Showmax, Africa’s most loved streaming service.

SuperSport, the sport broadcasting subsidiary of video entertainment platform MultiChoice, will continue to broadcast live weekly episodes of Raw®, SmackDown® and NXT® as well as all of WWE’s Premium Live Events in a multi-year extension.

Conspiracy Theory: Housewives Has Been Shelved On e.tv As Sunday Night Movies Move Back To 8PM

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Earlier in the year, eMedia Investments decided to scrap their international offering on weeknights as TV providers across the world have seen a major impact in their linear operations as brands like The Walt Disney Company have been moving several shows and films on these brands to their streaming service, Disney+.

eMedia Investments doing what they could do best was trying to fill that gap left by such companies by building their original portfolio with the likes of The Black Door and Is'phindiselo. Even scooped up BET's short lived drama series, Isono.

As it these changes had kind of caused them to lose and gain viewers such as the Sunday Night Movies which is a direct competitor to M-Net's similar offering had seen a plunge in ratings. Not saying that Is'phindiselo performed poorly if anything it was very much a success.

But as it is Sunday Night Movies hasn't been performing well following it's move to 9PM as that offering usually carried a quarter of the channel's Top 10 and from the sudden disappearance you can tell that viewers weren't liking the new changes I mean M-Net had done something like this.

But it was only temporary as they were trying to create hype on new content but eMedia kind of shoot themselves on the foot with this one. Sunday Nights was more edgier and as mentioned carried the brand and these changes killed that part of the channel.

Honestly, I hardly watch much e.tv as part of its existence revolves on eExtra and the other is just indescribable. All in all, I feel these changes had somewhat of a negative effect on those who watched Days and Chicago now it's just complementing SABC's existing portfolio.

And it's sad as I kind of get why they feel the need to do all this and I feel a lot more could have been done so save the little we know of the channel while as expanding their local endeavours.

Sometime ago, I announced that Housewives with its 2 seasons currently streaming on eVOD would have it's first season air on e.tv and as mentioned these changes weren't met with the best of intentions so it was quietly removed from the channel.

Sources say Housewives was added as a sneak peek as they prep up for its release and I think that's a load of polony as Is'phindiselo had its run on the channel. If anything, I'd turn my attention to their local drama, Hustlers.

Currently seen on Mondays at 10pm, the series follows

What I'm trying to say about Hustlers is unlike most of e.tv's shows within the 7PM to 10PM slot. Hustlers runs on a limited basis kind of like Is'phindiselo so it makes very much sense that Housewives will be added in place of the show later in 2023.

New Series Alert: A Rebroadcast Of Zee One's Agent Raghav Aka The Mentalist Surfaces On Zee World

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Zee Entertainment Enterprises (until they find a proper name for the company) has been uploading various exclusive shows onto Zee One even before they debut on Zee World as it is regarded as a spinoff or as some put it a freemium entertainment channel.

So in some way, Zee One isn't completely useless as it is Zee World is currently airing one of their initial shows Guddan with another program set to join the lineup in the coming weeks titled Agent Raghav.

Inspired by CBS's The Mentalist, Agent Raghav is a gifted detective who can sense the nature of the crime by simply taking a look at the victim and deducing the clues mentally. He uses this gift to track the most deadly criminals.

Debuted in 2015, the Indian crime fiction starred Sharad Kelkar in the eponymous role of Agent Raghav Sinha, along with Aahana Kumra, Deepalee Pansare, Danish Pandor, Jason Tham and Mahesh Manjrekar, the latter appeared in a recurring role.

It recieved an Indian Telly Award for Best Thriller And Horror Show despite being a cop inspired drama series goes to show how amazed viewers were on the series. It even scored a 7.2/10 on IDMB.

Agent Raghav replaces I Do daily on Zee World from 14 November.

New Channel Alert: Tune Into The Dedicated Real Madrid 24/7 Channel On StarSat

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StarSat hasn't made a lot of headlines during the year as seen with the likes of MultiChoice's DStv and eMedia Investments' Openview honestly it's almost as if they're isolating themselves. I mean most people are ready to call it quits at this point.

If anything, StarSat as of today only clashes with MultiChoice and eMedia Investments if you're looking at a hub for the best in Phillipine, Mexican, Turkey and Korean dramas. Other than that, there's not much reason to purchase a platform like theirs.

Last month, StarTimes in neighbouring territories unveiled their second sports channel and this comes after the launch of NBA TV despite its existence of ESPN channels supplied to them by The Walt Disney Company now consumers will be treated to Real Madrid.

Real Madrid TV (English) has been broadcasting a 24 hour service since 2005, is the best place for Real Madrid supporters and football fans who long for knowing all the action at the biggest club in world football. It includes Real Madrid News, The Match, Goals of the Month and Press Conference & Training.

These wonderful shows take football fans everywhere. In Real Madrid News, for example, fans can keep up to date with all the latest news on the club in the world. Also, La Liga, Copa del Rey, UEFA Champions League games and Real Madrid’s international friendlies can be shown on it.

Real Madrid TV can be viewable on StarSat channel 254, StarTimes channel 254 (DTH) and 260 (DTT).