Recap To The Year: Redemption Cancelled After One Season On BET Africa, Will Be Made Available On e.tv

Redemption is another short lived South African based drama that was co-produced by two of the most notable production companies; Seriti Films, who are known for their masterful storytelling and Burnt Onion Productions, who deliver world-class productions.

Set in a mega church, centres on the Zikode family. After the disappearance of Pastor Simon Zikhode (Themba Ndaba), his daughter Faith (Kwanele Mthethwa), who is on the cusp of an international music career, drops everything to come to her family's rescue.

The cast includes Tina Jaxa, Sthandiwe Kgoroge, Seputla Sebogodi, Yonda Thomas, Pearl Modiadie, Sparky Xulu and newcomers Nkone Mamejta and Toka Mtabane.

Redemption debuted sometime in 2022 as replacement BET's first original soap, Isono and with luck the series managed to attract 80000 households following its expansion from the Compact bouquet over to Access with the latter expected to air on e.tv.

Following the cutback of international programming on e.tv, eMedia Investments has been looking to build their original portfolio with eKasi on eReality and Kuiertyd on eExtra and have even managed to establish partnerships with Amazon Prime Video and BET for content.

Redemption comes as one of the several local projects eMedia Investments has in store for consumers with The Black Door set to get a prequel titled Isitha: The Enemy.

Recap To The Decade: Love Nature Was Ripped Away From StarSat, Could MultiChoice Perhaps Get It A Replacement To National Geographic Wild?

Love Nature is a Canadian based channel owned by Rock Media Holdings. It broadcasts documentaries and television series based on wildlife and nature. It features shows such as Amazing Animal Friends, Battle of the Alphas and Operation Maneater.

Love Nature launched on StarSat in December 2019 alongside The Smithsonian Channel as a replacement to National Geographic and National Geographic Wild operated by The Walt Disney Company respectively amidst their carriage dispute with the brand.

Few months later, both channels were reinstated on the platform and as of 2021 the replacements were axed with the latter expected to return on Paramount+ when it launches in South Africa later in the year while Love Nature remains with no outlet.

In 2021, The Walt Disney Company unveiled plans to close 100 channels in the coming future and this included a range of Disney Channel and National Geographic channels with the brands currently seen on both DStv and StarSat anticipated to go dark in 2024.

With both platforms expected to look at suitable replacements for National Geographic Wild. What are the chances that Love Nature won't just be added onto MultiChoice's DStv?

Several channels currently and formerly on StarSat can be viewed on DStv including Discovery Family, Investigation Discovery and Real Time from Warner Bros. Discovery and DreamWorks from NBCUniversal.

It's the only brand I can think of that might as well rollout under National Geographic Wild as Animal Planet comes out as a premium channel and with most of its content already viewed on Discovery Channel and Real Time perhaps this would be something suitable for StarSat.

Recap To Last Year: Africa Magic Epic Replaced Novela Magic On DStv Compact

Africa Magic Epic (DStv 152) is a West African movie channel operated by M-Net which broadcast films from Nigeria and Ghana and since last year supply a 1 hour segment to the first season of Ajoche and Riona currently on Africa Magic Showcase (DStv 150).

Novela Magic was Africa's first attempt at a dedicated channel for local telenovelas or in this case a rip-off to the likes of Mzansi Wethu, kykNET Lekker and OneZed featuring a lot of rehashed programming such as Zuba, Suidooster, Isibaya and Battleground.

As of May 2023, the channel no longer exists and from last year this was only applicable to South Africa and likely Lesotho with the last fragments of the brand confined to Magic Showcase (DStv 143).

Of course, Riona and Ajoche formed part of Novela Magic's offering before being swapped away alongside the rest of the channel. It's kind of weird that M-Net would make this available on a brand more accustomed to movies as opposed to Africa Magic Family.

Maybe this is their way of making up for the loss of Novela Magic considering the timing of these series entry to the channel and another could be that M-Net similar to 1Magic and Mzansi Magic is looking to create division amongst their consumers.

BBC News Channel Loses 1M UK Viewers After International Merger & Presenter Purge

The BBC News channel has lost 1M viewers in the UK after it was merged with BBC World News as part of the corporation’s efforts to slash costs.

BBC News’ audience reach in April stood at 9.7M viewers, according to figures published by Barb, the UK ratings body. This was down 9% from 10.7M in March and 23% from 12.6M in April 2022.

The 9.7M figure was comfortably BBC News’ worst audience reach in at least 16 months, though it is likely to be longer, given Barb’s figures only date back to December 2021.

BBC News remains the most-watched news network in the UK. Its closest rival is Sky News, which had a reach of 7.7M last month. New entrants GB News and TalkTV posted audiences of 2.8M and 1.4M respectively.

April was the first month that BBC News broadcast merged output with World News, with the channel taking on a more international flavor, even though it does split for big domestic stories.

Presenters familiar to UK audiences, including Ben Brown and Jane Hill, have exited the channel as part of the changes, which have proved unpopular with employees.

Insiders said BBC managers were warned about a potential ratings slump and Barb’s figures were “entirely predictable.” One person said the channel’s agenda was “relentlessly global,” while a second added: “The UK viewer never knows what they’re going to get.”

A third insider said the audience drop was indicative of a wider downward trend in news viewing. They argued, however, that viewers still come to the BBC for big stories, such as elections, and online engagement is increasing.

Ofcom has voiced concerns about the merger and it is understood that representatives from the UK media regulator visited BBC News last month. Kevin Bakhurst, Ofcom’s outgoing Group Director, said the BBC’s failure to properly explain the changes had resulted in “a lot of uncertainty for audiences.”

The BBC first suggested the channel merger last May as part of measures aimed at plugging a £1.4B ($1.7B) hole in its finances after the license fee was frozen. It has also positioned the merger as an opportunity to reinvent the BBC’s news output for a digital age.

Disney To Launch Single App In The Us With Disney+ & Hulu, Questions Lurking Over Star

During Disney’s quarterly results, Disney CEO Bob Iger announced that in the United States, they will be launching a single app, which will incorporate Hulu content into Disney+.

Each app will still be available individually, and this might be a way around Disney getting ready to bring together Hulu and Disney+, until Disney sorts out its ownership of Hulu from Comcast.

Bob Iger stated that the one-app experience will offer a better service to its subscribers and increase advertising revenue.

“While we will continue to offer Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+ as standalone options, this is a logical progression of our [direct-to-consumer] offerings that will provide greater opportunities for advertisers while giving bundle subscribers access to more robust and streamlined content, resulting in greater audience engagement and ultimately leading to a more unified streaming experience,”
This follows other moves being made by studios, like Comcast and Warner Brothers Discovery, who are consolidating their apps. Disney feels it can spend more money advertising its major movie and show releases by marketing a single app.

The single-app experience will launch in the United States by the end of the year. Disney’s tech teams have been working on migrating the Hulu legacy system into the Disney+ tech, since early last year, and the teams referred to the project as “Nu-Lu”.

Bob Iger has had conversations with Comcast about buying its stake in Hulu, which Disney can force to happen in 2024. In the last few months, Bob Iger has come to the conclusion that offering more general entertainment with Disney+ content is what they need to do.

“What we’re doing right now — because we own two-thirds of Hulu, and we have an agreement with Comcast that may result in us owning 100 percent — is we’re really studying the business very, very carefully, all those competitive dynamics with an understanding that we have a good platform in Hulu.

We have very strong original programming, actually highly awarded original programming, some delivered by FX, which is a great not only producer but brand, and we also have a good library, so it’s a solid platform. And it’s also a very attractive platform for advertisers. It’s already proven to be valuable for them and advertising is proven to be valuable for us. But the environment is very, very tricky right now and before we make any big decisions about our level of investment, our commitment to that business, we want to understand where it could go”.

Bob Iger has said that the addition of Star to Disney+ internationally has been very successful and they want to offer more general entertainment alongside Disney, to reduce churn, increase revenue and reduce costs.

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