Primetime On eExtra Takes Another Plunge With A Rebroadcast Of Kurt En Shura

In the start of 2023, eMedia Investments has been reducing the primetime offering for their eExtra channel starting off with weekends which gave audiences more alternatives with the likes of Sisterhood, Impak and Kruispad axed and merged onto the weekday lineup.

With Afrikaans movies retaining its timeslot every Saturday at 8pm a similar move eExtra's sister channel e.tv made with Sunday Night Movies returned to 8pm as the viewership took a toll for the worst with Kuiertyd Premium serving only a catch-up to other programs.

During the week, a fan asked of what's to become of the timeslot currently used by the Brazilian soap opera, Orphan Of A Nation and the answer is not what we anticipated for the brand at all, Kurt En Shura.

Openview Plus:
- Ratings for SABC 1-3 and e.tv for December 2022
- e.tv to rollout a rebroadcast of Die Put
- eExtra scrapped the launch of 4 telenovelas
- Verdeelde Liefde to return with a second season on eExtra

Introduced back in 2021 as an eVOD exclusive and 2020 on Timeless Dizi Channel, Kurt En Shura follows the love story of Kurt Seyit, an army major, and Shura, a Russian woman. A madly intense whirlwind drama about love, betrayal, friendship, and hope. 

It stars Kıvanç Tatlıtuğ, Farah Zeynep Abdullah, Fahriye Evcen, Elçin Sangu, Ushan Çakır, Demet Özdemir and several others.

My hunch on why it was supplemented by a rebroadcast may have to do with the fact that not a lot of people were viewing at early timeslot and the other solely dealing with the fact eMedia wants to put more of an emphasis into the other aspects of their lineup.

eMedia Investments:
- SABC+ Vs. eVOD: The Consequence Of Free-To-View Television
- MultiChoice and eMedia Investments plan to combat load shedding get a lot of attention
- Ultraview Pride and Ultraview Indian coming soon to Openview
- Could SABC be unveiling another two channels for Openview Ultra?

I mean is it shocking that we're getting Kuiertyd repeats on eExtra despite the existence of ePlesier not really what's more shocking has to do with the timeslot allocation.

Kurt En Shura is expected to air this Valentine's Day which kind of makes the best compliment to that occasion only for it to end in about 3 months.

Cartoonito To Get A Dedicated Channel In France By April 2023

Already established in many territories, its arrival in France responds to the overall strategy of Warner Bros. Discovery to address a new target called “preschool”: girls and boys from 3 to 6 years old. It thus completes the kids portfolio in France already made up of Boomerang and Cartoon Network.

Cartoonito is the best place to laugh and to discover. Batwheels, Bugs Bunny Builder, Lucas the Spider, Interstellar Ella...the heroes amazing chain train kids ages 3 to 6 years in their adventures and encourage them to be curious, to have fun and to be themselves!

Cartoonito, these are new programs and quality, original creations and shows from of Warner's legendary franchises tailored to younger. In an ultra creative, modern, funny and always benevolent, Cartoonito offers the little ones great stories to discover and open up to world around them.

Insidus Games:
- Buzz Lightyear Star Command
- Pink Panther: Pinkadelic Pursuit
- Spider-Man Toxic City
- Baby Felix Halloween

The quality of content and the values ​ conveyed correspond perfectly to the expectations of parents to see their children entertained, discover new things and thrive in a caring environment."

Cartoonito will be available from Monday, April 3 in linear and in SVOD in France at Orange, Free, SFR, Bouygues, Molotov and Prime Video via the Pass Warner, in Belgium with Voo, in Switzerland with Swisscom and UPC/Sunrise.

Warner Press Contact Bros. Discovery Kids France Elise Groothaerdt.

I am very proud that in this year when we celebrating 100 years of Warner Bros. we show our commitment to our youngest public by launching Cartoonito in the EMEA region. In celebrating individuality and originality, Cartoonito offers a safe space where children and their families can laugh and learn alongside characters beloved. We are delighted to introduce a new generation of original productions and to welcome them into the world of iconic IPs from Warner Bros. Discovery pwith adaptations modern versions of fan-favorite franchises like Batwheels and Bugs Bunny Builders.

Regular Nick:
- Da Vinci Kids plans co-viewing future
- PBS Kids has yet to rollout the new logo in other countries
- Disney renews 3 adult animated series through 2025
- CoComelon to get yet another spinoff

Prior to its launch in France, it was already confirmed a linear component would rollout in Central Eastern Europe by next month in place of Boomerang. Of course, WBD in Africa remains silent about the latest developments seen internationally.

It wouldn't be far fetched if EMEA took a similar route as Latin America and already mentioned Central Eastern Europe as Boomerang's remaining offering loses more hours to the rise in preschool programming which since 2021 has been regarded as Cartoonito.

On top of soon to be launched dedicated website for Cartoonito, most of the announced upcoming attractions for Boomerang at the MultiChoice Showcase in 2022 such as Interstellar Ella and Batwheels are launching on Cartoonito elsewhere.

Why SWITCH'D On Channel 110 Doesn't Offer Rebroadcasts To kykNET's Primetime Series?

Last month, eMedia Investments had MultiChoice unveiled a batch of pop-up channels which serve as a linear catch-up service to some of their primetime offering while eMedia only runs 1 channel Power Up with MultiChoice SWITCH'D ON comes as two components.

The first SWITCH'D is accessible to DStv Premium, Compact+ and Compact consumers on channel 109 incorporates the best of Mzansi Magic and kykNET & Kie which consists of Gomora, In Die Ysterhand Se Greep, Arendsvlei, Kind Van Die Noodlot, The River and so forth.

The second SWITCH'D is accessible to lower mass consumers particularly Family and Access package on channel 110. The channel incorporates the best of Mzansi Wethu and Mzansi Bioskop with content like The Queen, The River, Lingashoni and Isibaya.

Since launch, the channels were met with mixed reviews particularly for the second SWITCH'D channel as the pay-tv holder opted to only bundle Mzansi Magic's sister channels and exclude kykNET from the offering while as the first incorporates both brands.

DStv Flex:
- Ratings for DStv from December 2022
- What to expect this February on TNT?
- Big Cat Sunday this February on National Geographic Wild
- CBS Reality acquired rights to Killer's Caught On Camera

Why kykNET is not available on channel 110?

The answer is simple MultiChoice offers two versions of kykNET one which is kykNET & Kie is accessible on the Family bouquet alongside Compact, Compact+ and Premium while the other kykNET Lekker can only be viewed on Access.

Taking that to account, both brands are at different stages with various shows take for instance Kind Van Die Noodlot which is halfway through its second season on kykNET & Kie while as the first season recently launched on kykNET Lekker.

Same goes for most of the offering including Arendsvlei, Binnelanders, Getroud Met Rugby, Suidooster and several others.

Why channel 109 is not accessible on the Family bouquet?

Kind of related to the whole reason channel 110 doesn't supply kykNET, Mzansi Magic. The channel offers the latest seasons to various local productions to which the Family bouquet can only view in the coming future so MultiChoice doesn't want to go off spoiling anything.

Thoughts:

Do viewers really need to schedule what's on the screen especially with the power outages I mean wouldn't it make more sense to launch an On Demand service in the menu bar in order to watch these shows at anytime.

Now a week's worth of episodes will be going down the drain because of Eskom and the fact that the population is too busy in their personal lives to keep tabs on daytime repeats.

DStv:
- MultiChoice shares crytpic message about eMedia's 4 channels
- MultiChoice and eMedia Investments gets roasted over load shedding plans
- BBC to close linear channels and move to an internet only digital future
- kykNET Lekker Opened To More DStv Customers For A Limited Time

New Series Alert: Queen Of The Night And How Do I Say This? Coming Soon To Timeless Dizi Channel And Zee World Respectively

Timeless Dizi Channel, a Turkish entertainment channel owned by Canal+ SPI International and Zee World a Bollywood based entertainment channel owned by ZEE unveil respective new series Queen Of The Night (Gecenin Kraliçesi) and How Do I Say This? (Ki Kore Bolbo Tomay).

Queen Of The Night tells the story of Kartal an orphan who is raised by Aziz the man who killed his father. Kartal married Aziz's daughter Esra but falls to Selin and feels obligated to leaves her.

The series ensembles the cast of Meryem Uzerli, Murat Yildirim, Ugur Polat, Funda Eryigit, Selim Bayraktar, Deniz Celiloglu, Burak Deniz, Seda Akman and several others.

How Do I Say This? follows Radhika, a budding fashion designer abandoned by her lover a night before their wedding. Eventually, she develops a close bond with the owner of an apparel company, Virat.

DStv Flex:
- What to expect this February on TNT?
- Big Cat Sunday this February on National Geographic Wild
- CBS Reality acquired rights to Killer's Caught On Camera
- Trafficked With Mariana Van Zeller returns for a third season on National Geographic

The series ensembles the cast of Krushal Ahuja, Swastika Dutta, Rahul Dev Bose, Manosi Sengupta, Uday Pratap Singh, Sanghasri Sinha Mitra, Tanushree Bhattacharya Bose and several others.

Queen Of The Night currently has a 5.6 rating out of 10 stars amongst 500 consumers on IDMB while as How Do I Say This? has a whopping 7.8 rating of 10 stars.

Both series are expected to rollout in the coming week Queen Of The Night by the 7th internationally on Timeless Dizi Channel while as How Do I Say This? by the 9th of February on Zee World.

Everyday Novelas:
- Nurses returns for a season 3
- The origin story of Forbidden Passion
- New Series Alert: eMedia Investments Acquired Broadcasting Rights To Turkish Romcom, Aşk Mantık İntikam
- Close To My Heart coming soon to Star Life

Virtual Reality Offers A Huge Opportunity For African Filmmakers

Africa has a habit of leapfrogging technological hurdles and coming out ahead of countries considered more developed – look at our adoption of mobile phone payments, mobile payments and internet connectivity solutions. We lead in proptech, we’re drawing massive investment in fintech and medtech solutions developed on the continent are being rolled out across the world.

Virtual Tech, Real Applications

While Virtual Reality (VR) is still a novelty technology in much of the rest of the world, it is flourishing in Africa in the gaming, healthcare, mining, advertising and property industries and is being explored as a tool in education. The expansion of the tech will create its own value chain, which will help filmmakers transition more easily into VR production – giving our own storytellers the opportunity to innovate, dream, think and push boundaries on their own terms.

Africa has the opportunity to combine it with our own compelling stories and storytelling methods to position ourselves as leaders in its use. VR offers filmmakers the opportunity to make films in new ways, since immersion is a given. Harnessing the tech effectively will help develop the African storytelling narrative, giving our filmmakers ownership over both production and consumption and ensuring that our stories are told, our way.

Removing Cost Barriers

The rapid decline in cost of VR technology – both to produce and view films – gives African filmmakers an incredible opportunity too. As it becomes cheaper for consumers to adopt VR tech, it opens up immersive content consumption opportunities for anyone who has a headset and a compatible mobile phone – reducing filmmakers’ reliance on expensive cinema set-ups and the cost of encoding films to operate on the tech. Indeed, with piracy a rampant problem across the continent, delivering films directly to users without an intermediary has huge positive financial implications for filmmakers and producers.

The ability to use the same platforms and distribution methods levels the international filmmaking playing field, going some way toward levelling financial obstacles and giving the heart of filmmaking – the power of the story – a chance to shine. Since storytelling has been at the heart of African culture since the continent birthed the human race, we have a chance to lead by combining the available tech and our skills as storytellers.

VR at this year’s JFF

Four VR films are being showcased at JFF this year – two from South Africa and one each from the US and Taiwan – as part of the Exploring VR Experience.

Azibuye – The Occupation (South Africa) is a VR / 360 degree which premiered at Sundance Film Festival in 2020. Container makes visible the ‘invisiblised’ bodies enabling our consumer society, confronting slavery through an ever-transforming shipping container, the past becomes the present, the invisible become visible. Meta’s The Soloist is a ground-breaking two part series following mountaineer Alex Honnold’s soloing adventures through the US and into the Alps. The Man Who Couldn't Leave integrates the stories of numerous political victims of Taiwan’s ‘White Terror’, told through the form of an undelivered family letter.

The Joburg Film Festival (JFF) kicks off across Jo’burg on 31 January, showcasing some of the finest films from over 35 countries across the globe, including 20 African premieres and 27 South African premieres, until 5 February.