More Repeats Coming Soon To The Openview Platform??? As Beef! And Dare Lie To Me Were Scheduled To Air On e.tv

Not to be mistaken with eKasi: Our Stories much less eKasi+, eKasi is a programming block on eReality that eMedia Investments use for original productions like Beef! or Pay Back The Money alongside other content like Date My Family or Our Perfect Wedding.

Since 2022, eMedia Investments has been working on building their original slate which led to the decline of international content on e.tv as they want to reshape the channel to better compete with brands like SABC 1 and Mzansi Magic which seen success for such content.

e.tv is shaping up to become another SABC 1 which too has seen a lot of rebroadcasts (such as The Estate) build their lineup or in e.tv's case Kuiertyd and eNCA.

During the month, eMedia Investments reshuffled primetime having shows like Devi and Checkpoint air on Sunday with repeats throughout the week to compliment The Last Word With Shahan Ramkissoon and these changes caught viewers by surprise.

From the looks of the channel's EPG, these changes kind of seemed rushed as they have the ABC comedy, The Goldbergs listed under the channel. For those not viewing on Openview, the international lineup on e.tv was supplemented by eXposed.

Anyways as I'm looking, I noticed e.tv has Beef! and Dare To Lie Me scheduled for 11 June. The only problem is Devi is airing where Beef! would be seen with CrimeWatch in Dare To Lie Me's timeslot. All of this kind of proves my point these changes were rushed.

It's not surprising to see these shows on the channel considering how much airtime is latched onto eExtra's Kuiertyd as well as the local series and films produced by eVOD. It was only a matter of time as this content costs them a lot of money and e.tv gives them exposure.

Considering that the week these series were slated to air has The Goldbergs it's likely to be phased out alongside the sitcom. But if I had to guess, it will probably air in the timeslot used by My Wife Rules which is 1 hour and the individual series 30 minutes.

Development Alert: LM Radio And TransAfrica Radio Stop Airing On The Openview Platform

LM Radio, a Mozambican based radio station catering to the oldies with hits from the 50s and 80s alongside the youth centric TransAfrica celebrating pop culture and featuring content for the trendsetters become the next channels to get culled from the Openview platform.

LM Radio was added on the Openview platform in February 2015 serving as one of the few radio stations on the platform while as TransAfrica Radio was introduced alongside eMovies Extra in October 2016.

Openview doesn't mention why these channels have been switched off but recommend consumers to their 25+ regional stations (19 of which are operated by the public broadcaster). Although, these brands are no longer on the platform it remains on DStv.

In eMedia Investments' annual report, they announced plans to rollout a few more channels in the current fiscal year alongside new decoders which would come with more memory and WI-FI capabilities. They recently launched 4 channels under the pay tier, Ultraview.

Openview added 513 840 activations, taking the total activations to just shy of 3.2 million and this doesn't include Ultraview. eMedia did not say how many of those who have activated set-top boxes remain current viewers of the platform same goes.

News Shorts: The New Series SuperKitties Makes Its Highly Anticipated Debut On Disney Junior Africa Alongside Hamster And Gretel On Disney Channel Africa, My Desire Shortened To 30 Minutes This June In Favour Of Timeless Love And History Channel To Cease Transmission In Russia

More kiddies entertainment for DStv customers

SUPERKITTIES
FROM 1 JUNE AT 08:00
DISNEY JUNIOR
Ginny, Sparks, Buddy and Bitsy are not only cute and cuddly kittens, but are also brave, smart, strong and kind, and turn into SuperKitties when trouble arises.

HAMSTER & GRETEL
FROM 16 JUNE AT 15:15
DISNEY CHANNEL
Gifted with amazing superpowers, Gretel and her pet hamster decide to join hands with her teenage brother to protect their city from evil supervillains.

My Desire to lose a half hour

As mentioned earlier in the year, Star Life has halved most of their primetime series with Lost In Love and Anupama currently on air for 30 minutes (21 minutes if you're avoiding the ads). Reason being they want to these soaps to collide with the current offering in India.

During the month, Star Life unveiled the Star Bharat original, Timeless Love (Na Umra Ki Seema Ho) a story about a couple with an age gap who have to fight tooth and nail in order to be together.

As seen through an updated programme guide, Timeless Love will air for an hour (42 minutes if you're avoiding ads) from June 1st to June 4th at 19:30 to 20:30 meaning My Desire will be getting the short end of the stick in a 30 minute timeslot.

History is the next international channel to depart Russia

Following Russia's invasion to the Ukraine, several international outlets such as The Walt Disney Company, Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery had opted to retract their services within the region with Russia Today being phased out from international outlets.

A+E Networks, being one of the few international outlets to offer their services within the regions with History and H2 had announced their termination across Bulgaria with H2 that went dark during the week with History expected to follow by the end of June.

History is still available in Italy, Portugal, Germany, Spain, UK and Ireland, Asia, India and South Africa.

Review: The Dominance Of Bollywood, Turkwood And More On The Openview Platform

Openview is a free-to-view platform owned by eMedia Investments that is currently available in over 3 million households offering a range of reality shows, drama series, movies, telenovelas, cartoons and so much more.

Since the rollout of the pay-tv tier to the platform, Ultraview offering content from India with Zee Family and Star Select as well as LGBTQ and youth oriented content from OUTtv and FUSE. eMedia Investments ranks as one of the most diverse brands out there.

For those using Openview, it's no secret that the red brand has caught the love bug for two markets Istanbul (Turkwood) following the success of Kuiertyd which has contributed a lot for eExtra's primetime and further bolstered the offering on e.tv and ePlesier.

The second is their love for Bolly with 2 dedicated channels and a programming block on eExtra with another 2 channels on Ultraview. eMedia Investments is currently sitting with 4 channels and a part timer with Turkwood sharing content amongst 3 brands.

In hindsight, Openview's Bollywood offering helps cutback on rebroadcasts unlike eExtra's Kuiertyd which has seen doppelgangers on e.tv and ePlesier. The same could be said about the public broadcaster SABC 1-3 and Sport channels which has done content sharing.

But unlike Zee One and Star Life, eMedia's channels offers more timeslots for other content from movies, reality shows, cartoons and more versus Bollywood dramas and 2-4 hour weekly movie slot again it's the variety that counts in this scenario.

For those who've skipping out on Anupama or Imlie due to unforeseeable circumstances, take into account such content has been limited across the Openview platform leaving space for more variety or in this case eExtra's Dayan, Destructive Beauty and Naagin.

If you feel that Openview has more Indian channels take to account the locals SABC 1, SABC 2, SABC 3, e.tv, SA Music, People's Weather and SABC Sport which contributes to our point there's more local than Bolly on the Openview platform.

The only challenge is that consumers are being feed more of the same thing as mentioned Dayan Destructive Beauty and Naagin or Doodsondes and Soete Wraak on eExtra which isn't entirely bad but one could learn from e.tv's incorporation of variety.

New Series Alert: His Mistress's Child Coming Soon To Zee World

Zee World, a general entertainment channel operated by Zee Entertainment Enterprises home to various English dubbed Bollywood movies and series will be rolling out a new family drama from its Hindi counterpart &TV, His Mistress's Child (Doosari Maa).

Synopsis for His Mistress's Child:

His Mistress's Child is the story of a woman living in Uttar Pradesh with her husband, two daughters and in-laws. Her happy, peaceful family life comes to a screeching halt when she and her husband unknowingly adopt his illegitimate child. The show captures the lead protagonist Yashoda's journey of coming to terms with her husband’s past and her conflicted, rocky relationship with her stepson.

Neha Joshi and Aayudh Bhanushali are the main cast in the serial. Nidhi Uttam, Mohit Dagga, Anita Pradhan, and Sunil Dutt play the supporting roles.

Since it's launch on &TV in September 2022, His Mistress's Child has managed to produce over 100 episodes with more currently in production. It's unknown how many episodes would be made available on Zee World as seen with Radha Mohan and Aparajita.

His Mistress's Child will be rolling out on Zee World in the coming months. No word on which feed of the channel will be airing it first but the show joins the list of other ongoing shows in the market including Anupama, My Desire, Unfortunate Love and Twist Of Fate.