Reviewing Major Changes Coming Soon To The SABC

Last month, the public broadcaster was all buzz hosting a last minute showcase where they transitioned to video entertainment announcing further content for their current channels on top of launching SABC+ in place of the former TelkomOne streaming service.

Of course, what remains absent is the two entertainment channels announced in partnership with eMedia Investments last year. Just like SABC+, sources mention that those channels had already entered final stages a while back.

Honestly, it doesn't appear that they'll be anything time soon but with these recent adjustments. It's possible that they'll likely bring them up in the near future or as soon as most of these developments are dealt with.

As mentioned, the SABC has shared a couple of things in which we want to brief everyone on:

* The public broadcaster is heading for another loss making year with R608 million which has just tripled from last year R201 million.
* They failed to hit their targets in terms of commissioning, producing and broadcasting fresh content with most of the blows going onto SABC 1. All 3 channels target 20% of which the top channel reaches 4% with the second channel 14% and least watched 9%.
* The SABC is expected to make a chunk of cash through their newly launched streaming service, SABC+. R6 million in one quarter alongside R31.5 million in the next quarter.
* The revenue for their 3 channels has been negatively impacted following the cancellation of analogue signals.
* SABC+ has about 15000 signups on a daily basis can't say it's surprising considering that they have the most accessible channels in South Africa.
* A new loyalty programme might be in works the aim is to boost the number of TV Licence payers.
* Still bickering want MultiChoice to pay for their 3 channels although other outlets like Openview view them freely.
* A budget for their channels had been shared with the media. From what's known R468 million had been budgeted for which 218 million is spent and R665 million is earned on SABC 1, R141 million is spent and R199 million earned on SABC 2 and lastly R69 million is spent and R79 million is earned on SABC 1.
* SABC 1 will focus more on sourcing youth based content while SABC 2 transitions to current affairs and news.
* They'll be cutting back on the amount of social media handles we assume that they are also referring to shows like The Epic Hangout which too has a social page.
* A cutback on repeats especially on primetime with the axing of non-performing content. We assume The Estate will be saved despite primetime not being one of the top 20 shows on SABC 3.
* Uzalo remains on SABC 1 and Muvhango remains on SABC 2 - remember how the public broadcaster repeated shows on multiple channels well they'll put a stop to that meaning each primary show will air on their primary channel with SABC+ also filling that gap.
* The public broadcaster in partnership with SABC News is trying to find alternatives to the cancelled Special Assignment on SABC 3.

Rumour: The Walt Disney Company To Extend The Reach Of Star Channel

A few years ago, FOX was ripped away from DStv and StarSat consumers across Africa prior to that some regions such as Latin America were fortunate to get a placeholder Star Channel which continued to offer the bulk of content coming to former channel.

Just like FOX in Africa, that too wasn't made to last as Latin America joined the UK, Germany, Australia and several other regions that consolidated their content on the streaming service Disney+ with Europe expected to take the plunge by 2024.

If you're reading this then you must be aware that there's still a number of FOX feeds globally where viewers can tune into shows like The Resident, The Simpsons, How I Met Your Mother, M.O.D.O.K., CSI: Miami, Fresh Off The Boat and The X-Files.

While some of these regions don't have Disney Channel and Disney Junior, there is very much a FOX feed and The House Of Mouse as usual chooses to divide their audience most of which has to do with Disney+.

According to some sources, the remaining feeds of FOX kind of like Latin America are set to rebrand to Star by early 2023 which to me doesn't make any sense as seen in the first region to launch a linear channel based on the Disney+ tile which went to just become only a tile.

If this turns out to be true, I'm more curious on how long this would last I mean it doesn't make sense to pour this much attention on a brand you know will fade away in a year or two.

Take Latin America and a few other regions where these channels were deemed relevant. Disney XD stopped supplying original content while Latin America tried to make it independent, various FOX feeds closed while they got Star Channel all of that effort gone down the drain.

The Simpsons: A Look At Proposed Spinoffs That Never Got Time Of Day

When The Simpsons debuted 35 years ago as a series of shorts on The Tracey Ullman Show, it was hard to expect that it would become one of the most successful and longest-running franchises in movie and TV history. While The Simpsons spun off from (and quickly eclipsed) The Tracey Ullman Show, it seems a little odd that, given the show’s rampant popularity, we have yet to see a spin-off from The Simpsons, itself. The show has occasionally mocked the concept of TV spin-offs – most notably in the Troy McClure-hosted “Simpsons Spin-Off Showcase” – but that doesn’t mean Fox and the Simpsons creative team haven’t attempted to use the show as a springboard to launch another series. Let’s take a look now at some proposed spin-offs of The Simpsons, all of which sound infinitely better than The Cleveland Show.

A Krusty the Clown Series (1994)

One of the first side characters the Simpsons writers fleshed out was Krusty the Clown, so it makes perfect sense that he was the first one Matt Groening tried to develop a series around. With The Simpsons at its creative zenith as well as the peak of its cultural relevance in the 90s, it would have been the perfect time to launch a second series, but the plans for the Krusty show sound a little out there. Groening wanted it to be a live-action series starring Dan Castellaneta, who voices Krusty, Homer, and a solid 1/3 of Springfield’s male residents, as Krusty the Clown. Matt Groening, with King of Queens creator Michael Weithorn, wrote a pilot script about Krusty moving to L.A. to host a talk show. Several visual jokes that seemed a better fit for animation caused trouble with the network. Here’s Groening describing the difficulties:

“We had this running joke in the script that Krusty was living in a house on stilts and there were beavers gnawing their way through the stilts. But somebody at the network pointed out how expensive it was to hire trained beavers – and an equally prohibitive cost would be to get mechanical beavers – so I said, ‘If we animated this, we wouldn’t be having this discussion.’”

Matt Groening and Fox then began to work on an animated Krusty spin-off, but contract negotiations stalled, and Groening moved on to developing Futurama, a series that does not require the use of beavers – mechanical or trained.

Tales from Springfield (1996)

The greatest strength of The Simpsons has always been its deep bench of supporting characters. While many of these tertiary Springfieldians seem like broad cartoonish characters on the outside, they’re often revealed to be rich, three-dimensional figures underneath who are capable of carrying their own episodes of the show. After the success of the 1996 episode “22 Short Films About Springfield,” an episode composed of nearly two dozen vignettes centering on the show’s recurring characters, the writers began batting around the idea of developing a new series following these lesser-known Springfieldians. Tales from Springfield would have told three different short stories each week, focusing on secondary characters and occasionally telling stories about the Simpsons family members’ past and future.

Matt Groening concluded that the show didn’t have enough writers to script two simultaneous series, so the idea was shelved. The Simpsons has enough wonderful recurring characters to fill several additional series, and this seems like it would have been a logical and worthwhile spin-off at the time, but it wasn’t meant to be.

A live-action Troy McClure movie (mid-90s)

Prior to his tragic death, Phil Hartman, who voiced recurring Simpsons characters Troy McClure and Lionel Hutz, amongst others, expressed an interest in starring in a live-action film based on McClure. While Matt Groening has said that this was only an idea and no script was ever written, several of the writers were fond of Hartman’s idea. While the Krusty spin-off seems a little harder to pull off, Phil Hartman has proven he’s adept at playing smug, superficial guys like McClure in live-action roles, and it’s a shame we never got to see him play Troy McClure in non-animated form.

Credits: Bradford Evans

Roundups #115: Tom And Jerry In New York Cancelled On Boomerang And HBO Max, Lord Of The Skies Returns For An Eighth Season On Telemundo USA And The Addams Family Spinoff Wednesday Is A Global Success On Netflix

Tom And Jerry likely cancelled on HBO Max

Based on the 2021 theatrical film, Tom and Jerry In New York settle in to their new digs at the Royal Gate Hotel and unleash mayhem across the Big Apple, inciting chaos uptown, downtown and everywhere their manic escapades take them.

The series premiered in the same year on HBO Max and was made available to Cartoon Network and Boomerang channels internationally with a total of 13 episodes each with a duration of 21 minutes over 2 seasons.

Since November 2021, no more episodes had been ordered and with the reconstruction of Warner Bros. Discovery it wouldn't be shocking if it were cancelled considering how the theatrical film performed.

Regardless, the crew are working on the preschool series Tom And Jerry Time for Cartoonito.

Aurelio returns for another season on Telemundo

It's official! Telemundo revealed the premiere date for season 8 of 'El señor de los cielos'. Through its social networks, the television house shared a video where Aurelio Casillas (Rafael Amaya) is seen being tortured in jail.

"They took me out of the grave, they made everyone believe that I was dead. Locked up, tortured, like an animal, but there is no caged animal that does not want to escape and that does not want to return to its herd. The family is not touched, much less if they are Casillas", the protagonist is heard saying.

Season 8 of 'El señor de los cielos' premieres on Tuesday, January 17, 2023 on Telemundo.

For the continuation of the story, one of the actors who confirmed his return was Isabella Castillo, who shines with Isidro (Garbiel Bonilla), who returns with his role as the son of Aurelio Casillas (Rafael Amaya). Another beloved character is Tata (Wendy de los Cobos), who published an image with her fictional son, Ismael Casillas.

Wednesday becomes a global sensation

Wednesday, the comedy-horror series from Tim Burton about the titular daughter of the Addams Family starring Jenna Ortega, made its highly anticipated debut on Netflix last week on November 23. In that time, the series has been well received by critics and has now even broken a Netflix viewing record! The show is now at the top of the list for the most viewed hours of a Netflix debut for an English-Language TV series at a staggering 341.2 million hours viewed in its first week.

The eight-episode series came in at #1 on the global Netflix Top 10 for the week of November 21 - November 27, with it reaching the top spot in 83 countries, a feat that has only been achieved by Season 4 of Stranger Things. The series was also featured in the Top 10 of all 93 countries tracked. Burton serves as both director and executive producer on the series with Alfred Gough and Miles Millar acting as executive producers, writers, and showrunners. Fellow executive producers include Steve Stark, Andrew Mittman, Kevin Miserocchi, Kayla Alpert, Jonathan Glickman, Gail Berman, Tommy Harper, and Kevin Lafferty.

GBA: Samurai Jack Amulet Of Time

The game follows Jack's quest through seven areas to obtain the elemental gem pieces of an amulet that can send him back to his own time. As more gemstones are collected, the player unlocks more of Jack's weapons and abilities, such as a super jump and a battle hammer.

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