Roundups #126: House Of Dragons Becomes Most Pirated Series Of 2022, Phoebe And Her Unicorn No Longer Moving Forward On Nickelodeon And Viral Scandal Coming Soon On St Novelas E Plus

Game Of Thrones spinoff hits more bumps on the road

After setting multiple records for HBO and HBO Max, House of the Dragon season 1 has topped 2022's most-pirated TV shows list. The fantasy drama acts as a prequel to Game of Thrones, adapting George R.R. Martin's Fire & Blood novel, and chronicling the downfall of House Targaryen, namely with the death of Paddy Considine's King Viserys and plotting from the Hightower family to overthrow the Targaryens, all culminating in the war known as the Dance of the Dragons. Developed by Martin and showrunner Ryan Condal, House of the Dragon season 1 scored largely favorable reviews from critics and audiences alike, and its success is being seen in even the more unsavory corners of the Internet.

As the year comes to a close, TorrentFreak reports that House of the Dragon has topped 2022's most-pirated TV shows list. Coming in at the top of the list, the HBO series has officially surpassed its predecessor, Game of Thrones, which was dominating the piracy charts even three years after coming to an end. In addition to overtaking the original show, House of the Dragon season 1 also came ahead of fellow fantasy drama, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, and The Boys season 3, Disney+ releases Moon Knight, Obi-Wan Kenobi, The Book of Boba Fett, She-Hulk: Attorney at Law and Andor, Netflix's Stranger Things season 4, and Paramount+'s Halo.

DStv Flex:
- What to expect this January on Curiosity Channel?
- What to expect this January on The Home Channel?
- Reyka renewed for season 2 on M-Net
- What to expect this January on Qwest TV?

The disrespect of Nickelodeon

In June 2020, it was revealed that Nickelodeon had won the rights to Dana Simpson’s comic strip Phoebe and Her Unicorn, a property that the studio was eyeing as a multi-platform franchise across an TV animated series, movies and more. Fast forward to 2022, Nickelodeon axed the project due to it not catering well to boys.

Phoebe and her Unicorn follows 9-year-old Phoebe Howell, a girl in the fourth grade, who deals with childhood challenges alongside her unicorn Marigold, friend Max and enemy Dakota. Phoebe meets Marigold after skipping a rock across a pond, accidentally hitting the unicorn in the face. Freed from her own reflection, the unicorn—named Marigold Heavenly Nostrils—gives Phoebe one wish, which she decides to use by making the unicorn her best friend. Marigold has magical powers, i.e. she can divert or redirect rain and send text messages and broadcast a Wi-Fi hotspot through her horn. Her most highly coveted power though is her “Shield of Boringness” spell, which causes humans to view her as nothing out of the ordinary and allows her to interact with them on a daily basis.

Basically, a network that offers shows such as Monster High, Mysticons, Regal Academy, Winx Club, Legend Of Korra and Miraculous in which they got into legal issues with Disney opted not to move forward with this project because it doesn't cater well to boys.

For those who want to see the post:

Regular Nick:
- Predictions: Nicktoons and Boomerang's untimely demise
- Avatar to return with new animated series on Nickelodeon
- Best & Bester coming soon to Nicktoons
- January on Cartoon Network and Boomerang

New Phillipine series coming soon to St Novelas Plus

Novelas E Plus, a general entertainment channel on StarSat that is home to telenovelas from the Phillipines, Mexico and Turkey is set to rollout a brand new drama series titled Viral Scandal.

Not to be mistaken with the Korean drama High Society Scandal, Viral Scandal follows the lives of a simple family become disrupted when a scandalous video involving their eldest daughter goes viral. It stars Charlie Dizon, Jake Cuenca, Dimples Romana, and Joshua Garcia.

The series premiered on Kapamilya Channel's Primetime Bida evening block, A2Z and TV5, and worldwide via The Filipino Channel on November 15, 2021. It is expected to be premiere on Novelas E Plus by January 13, 2023.

Everyday Novelas:
- Nurses S3 coming soon to Telemundo
- Fearless Heart coming soon to Telemundo
- Prediction: What to expect on Telemundo by next year?
- Prediction: What to expect on TLNovelas by next year?

Cartoonito Is Coming!!! As Boomerang Is Set To Close Down In Central Eastern Europe By March 2023

Cartoonito is a brand name Warner Bros. Discovery gives to Cartoon Network's preschool offering since it's rollout in 2020. It has been well established in Europe and since then several original shows have been produced.

Notable shows include Batwheels, Bugs Bunny Builders, Little Ellen (scrapped) and upcoming shows like Tom And Jerry Time, Scooby-Doo And The Mystery Pups and Jessica's Big Little World.

As seen in various markets, Cartoonito operates as a linear channel and comes with programming blocks on Cartoon Network and Boomerang part of which has started gaining traction after news of another Boomerang closure came in.

Insidus Games:
- Tom And Jerry: Infurnal Escape
- Tom And Jerry: The Magic Ring
- The Wild Thornberrys Movie
- The Wild Thornberrys: Chimp Chase

Two years after Cartoonito rollout in Latin America, sources revealed that Boomerang in Central Eastern Europe will also be rebranding the channel to Cartoonito in March since then several shows such as Looney Tunes Cartoons had exited the schedule.

Of course, Boomerang in most EMEA regions had become a preschool hub even before Cartoonito with shows like Grizzy And The Lemmings, Masha And The Bear, Pat The Dog and in some shocking news Mr. Bean so it's possible that the feeds could remain for the time being.

Take one factor to account, the channel is out of content as their remaining shows such as Looney Tunes Cartoons and Tom And Jerry In New York have already been shelved while as Legend Of Spark and The Adventures Of Little Penguin are technically preschool.

Regular Nick:
- CBeebies picks up second season to Tish And Tash
- Best & Bester coming soon to Nicktoons
- We Baby Bears currently the only original program on Cartoon Network
- January on Cartoon Network and Boomerang

If anything, I'd expect more Boomerang channels to follow or at least ones identical to the EMEA feeds as we got some OGs that have yet to air not that we're behind on anything but it would make sense for the rebrand to happen once they launch.

I'd love to see Warner Bros. Discovery create a lot of hype and save up content for the Cartoonito channel but from the looks of the feed in EMEA even CEE you got to wonder how much content is being saved up ahead of its launch or not being used as a pawn.

SABC Parliament Has Been Scrapped For Upcoming DTT Channel, Might Be Added Onto Openview And DStv

During the week, the public broadcaster unveiled a promo where several of their anchors announced the launch of an influential news channel which will serve as a complimentary to SABC News covering Afrikaans, Zulu, Xhosa basically all 12 indigenous languages.

The channel is said to not offer English news bulletins or at least from what other places are showing as they're leaving that to the current SABC News channel carried exclusively onto MultiChoice's DStv and also available on their DTT platform.

As discussed, no name had been shared for the channel as it gears up for an early 2023 release on DTT platforms.

SABC:
- Reviewing major changes coming soon to the SABC
- TelkomOne's transition into SABC+
- SABC 1 title card registered for Openview
- SABC Children appears to have wrapped production

From what several consumers have shared SABC Parliament, a brand which formed part of the public broadcaster failed DTT plans have been shelved or restructured better yet to cater for this new channel with shows like Fokus, Leitlho La Schaba and Ngula La Vuthi.

All of this are basically repeats from SABC 1-3 and News and also summarised my theory for this new channel just another OpenNews which might as well have more success than eMedia's failed News And Sport channel.

SABC:
- Could SABC Encore revival be scrapped?
- A former SABC channel was added onto Openview
- SABC Movies' dream journal
- SABC Education not launching on Openview

Taking the content to account, it's possible that this might be one of the two entertainment channels eMedia Investments failed to launch in 2021 and also one of the three yet to be launched channels on DStv to replace eMedia's 4 channels.

The public broadcaster is behind on launching new channels but the details about this upcoming channel matches the description promised to Openview consumers about the two channels in 2021: it would carry a lot of existing and archived material.

With SABC Parliament scrapped, you've got to wonder what's become of the SABC Encore revival and SABC Children. Honestly I wouldn't be surprised if these suffered the chop as well but the channels were just clear speculation.

New Series Alert: A Woman Of Steel Coming Soon To TLNovelas Africa

Not to be mistaken with competitor Telemundo's 2015 series Woman Of Steel, the Mexican based brand TLNovelas offering dramas that contain romance, drama, comedy and other socio-economic situations will be introducing a new series, A Woman Of Steel (Soy Tu dueña).

Valentina's life is turned upside-down after her fiancé Alonso leaves her at the altar. She becomes a different woman and her new attitude sends her to the family's hacienda, where she governs with a firm hand and soon this protagonist becomes the town's villain.

Everyday Novelas:
- Nurses S3 coming soon to Telemundo
- Fearless Heart coming soon to Telemundo
- Prediction: What to expect on Telemundo by next year?
- Prediction: What to expect on TLNovelas by next year?

Based on the 1995 telenovela La Dueña, it stars Lucero and Fernando Colunga as the protagonists with Eduardo Capetillo as the co-protagonist, while Gabriela Spanic, David Zepeda, Sergio Goyri, and Jacqueline Andere stars as the antagonists.

In December 2022, TLNovelas unveiled another series The Heartless starring Livia Brito and José Ron is scheduled for to be released later in the month in place of Giving Up My Life so A Woman Of Steel will likely take up Overcoming Heartbreak in February.

DStv Flex:
- What to expect this January on Curiosity Channel?
- What to expect this January on The Home Channel?
- Reyka renewed for season 2 on M-Net
- What to expect this January on Qwest TV?

Boomerang Vs. Cartoonito: Warner Bros. Discovery's Attempt At Reinventing A Family Friendly Platform

Cartoonito was relaunched on Boomerang in April with shows like Thomas And Friends: All Engines Go!, Lucas The Spider and CoComelon with plans to add at least 50 preschool titles in the near future or at least before the recent cutbacks come into effect following the merger.

One thing I believe will happen is the 50 titles but what seems far-off would be the duration. As it is, Cartoon Network's (including Cartoonito) ratings continue to plummet overseas but the brand has seen success in other countries.

But the one brand I see Warner Bros. Discovery doesn't take to account is Boomerang. As it is, the channel appears to be autopilot relying on the few programs it acquired or aired during the year including Looney Tunes Cartoons, Ninja Express and Mr. Bean.

Insidus Games:
- Tom And Jerry: Infurnal Escape
- Tom And Jerry: The Magic Ring
- The Wild Thornberrys Movie
- The Wild Thornberrys: Chimp Chase

All in all it appears that all the attention once given to Boomerang is being reverted to Cartoonito as they've got a lineup of existing preschool shows like Masha And The Bear, Legends Of Spark and Grizzy And The Lemmings.

Boomerang has been considered a family channel for nearly a decade now that Warner Bros. Discovery wants to put that focus on Cartoon Network. It kind of makes sense for the channel to adopt a new identity and for that I'm referring to their preschool brand, Cartoonito.

Cartoonito exists as a mere block on the channel and there hasn't been a lot of new content that doesn't mean it's not impossible to convert Boomerang. As mentioned, they've already got a set of existing content that fit the preschool brand current offering internationally.

Regular Nick:
- CBeebies picks up second season to Tish And Tash
- Best & Bester coming soon to Nicktoons
- We Baby Bears currently the only original program on Cartoon Network
- January on Cartoon Network and Boomerang

On top of that there is the matter of upcoming productions such as Interstellar Ella, Batwheels and True And Rainbow Kingdom all of which being preschool were registered for Boomerang.

Although, I have yet to see them rebrand the channel there hasn't been any new content that caters to the demographic of Zig & Sharko, Looney Tunes Cartoons or Ninja Express likely having to do with the recent Redraw Your World taking to effect on Cartoon Network.