Hasbro has locked in ABC Australia as a new broadcast partner for its CG-animated adventure series Transformers: EarthSpark (26 x 22 minutes).
The first 10 episodes of this family-friendly show from eOne and Paramount will debut in December on linear channel ABC ME and the ABC iview streamer. The remaining 16 episodes will air next year.
The show will join several other eOne series already in ABC’s lineup, including Peppa Pig and PJ Masks .
Hasbro has been paving the way for EarthSpark‘s Australian expansion this month, launching toys related to the show at mass retailers throughout the country.
The series premiered globally on Paramount+ in 2022, and eOne inked deals for the toon earlier this year with several international broadcasters, including Gulli (France), Channel 5 (Singapore), TV Cultura (Brazil) and Super! (Italy). In July, the
BBC picked it up for CBBC and BBC iPlayer, where it’s among the top-10 most-watched shows on the app, according to a release.
Following the inception of Disney+, multiple Disney Channels have been closing down across the world as the company looks to consolidate their content to the streamer. They've also been looking at possibly selling their linear offering of course this is applicable to the United States.
But from what this entails, Disney is working towards a deadline to the remaining linear offering with Asia set to close theirs by the end of the year with a lot of European countries still harvesting most channels and other regions which have yet to receive Disney+.
Last month, Disney closed a number of linear channels across Asia and this included National Geographic and National Geographic Wild. They also managed the brands of the same name whose feeds had since then been managed within EMEA following these closures.
Despite having its operations merged with Africa, National Geographic Wild to date still has varied offering from the rest of Europe which brings to question it's future as a pay-tv channel.
From what we've heard, Disney EMEA now takes charge of National Geographic Wild but unlike Disney Channel it appears Disney Asia still maintains control of the channel. Either National Geographic Wild will integrate probably by 31 December 2023 or close down to its entirety.
Prior to the demise of Disney MENA, the FOX channel remain intact within these regions. Considering that Disney in Asia and EMEA no longer supply the FOX brand as further content has been integrated to Disney+ it's likely that the channel will close down.
Another theory that would come in mind would be having Disney merge the FOX MENA (Arabic) with the ones seen in Portugal and Mozambique (Portuguese). Seeing as most FOX channels such as FX and FOX Movies trace back to these territories its the only liable option.
Play Room (stylised as Playroom) is a children's channel operated by Ngwato Nkosi Group which offers fun and learning with popular animated shows dubbed in Zulu alongside live-action shows. The channel is set to go live on all packages from November 6 on channel 300.
From what we've been able to uncover, MultiChoice lent Play Room the frequencies formerly used by one of their other TV channels, VUZU. An HD/SD feed is currently being test run on their platforms with various Movie Room holding slides.
Bumpers/Idents/Promos/Banners
Similar to Movie Room, MultiChoice and Ngwato Nkosi Group tease the launch of Play Room through various banners none of which relate to the programming.
Schedule/Programming
As mentioned, Movie Room holding slides are occupying the 24 hour lineup. Below is a drafted weekday schedule with weekends being occupied by the holding slides so we assume the channel will have a varied offering during those times alongside the weekday offering.
12 October
23:59 Noah's Park
00:29 Jabu's Jungle
00:59 Oddbods
01:19 Cocoland
01:29 Noah's Park
01:59 Jabu's Jungle
02:29 Oddbods
02:49 Cocoland
02:59 Noah's Park
03:29 Jabu's Jungle
03:59 Oddbods
04:19 Cocoland
04:29 Noah's Park
04:59 Jabu's Jungle
05:29 Oddbods
05:49 Cocoland
05:59 Noah's Park
06:00 Oddbods
06:20 Cocoland
06:30 Noah's Park
07:00 Jabu's Jungle
07:25 Animal Time
07:40 Oddbods
08:00 Cocoland
08:15 Noah's Park
08:40 Cocoland
08:50 Noah's Park
09:20 Jabu's Jungle
09:45 Animal Time
10:00 Oddbods
10:20 Cocoland
10:30 Noah's Park
11:00 Jabu's Jungle
11:30 Oddbods
11:50 Cocoland
12:00 Animal Time
12:15 Oddbods
12:40 Noah's Park
13:10 Jabu's Jungle
13:35 Animal Time
13:50 Oddbods
14:10 Cocoland
14:20 Noah's Park
14:50 Animal Time
15:05 Jabu's Jungle
15:30 Noah's Park
16:00 Oddbods
16:20 Cocoland
16:30 Noah's Park
17:00 Jabu's Jungle
17:25 Animal Time
17:40 Oddbods
18:00 Cocoland
18:10 Noah's Park
18:40 Animal Time
19:00 Jabu's Jungle
19:30 Oddbods
19:50 Cocoland
20:00 Noah's Park
20:30 Jabu's Jungle
21:00 Oddbods
21:20 Cocoland
21:30 Noah's Park
22:00 Oddbods
22:20 Cocoland
22:30 Jabu's Jungle
23:00 Oddbods
23:20 Cocoland
23:30 Noah's Park
15 October
00:00 Thomas & Friends
00:15 Holding Slide
06:00 Oddbods
06:25 Enchantimals Tales From Everwilde
06:45 Barbie: Dreamhouse Adventures
07:10 Holding Slide
15:00 Playroom Live
16:05 Game Shakers
16:30 Henry Danger
17:00 Sanjay And Craig
17:30 Oddbods
17:55 Enchantimals Tales From Everwilde
18:10 Barbie: Dreamhouse Adventures
18:40 Paw Patrol
19:05 CoComelon
19:30 Henry Danger
20:00 Playroom Live
21:00 Game Shakers
21:30 Enchantimals Tales From Everwilde
21:50 Barbie: Dreamhouse Adventures
22:15 Holding Slide
16 October
23:35 Noah's Park
00:10 Noah's Park
00:35 Animal Time
00:50 Animal Time
01:20 Jabu's Jungle
01:45 Jabu's Jungle
02:10 Oddbods
02:30 Oddbods
02:50 Cocoland
03:00 Animal Time
03:20 Jabu's Jungle
03:45 Jabu's Jungle
04:10 Noah's Park
04:40 Noah's Park
05:10 Noah's Park
05:42 Animal Time
06:01 Oddbods
06:30 Cocoland
06:40 Thomas & Friends
06:55 Paw Patrol
07:25 Jabu's Jungle
08:00 Holding Slide
08:16 Oddbods
08:40 Cocoland
08:50 Bino And Fino
09:05 Animal Time
09:20 Enchantimals Tales From Everwilde
09:35 Barbie: Dreamhouse Adventures
10:00 Barbie: MagicTouch
10:30 Oddbods
10:59 Thomas & Friends
11:15 Animal Time
11:30 Jabu's Jungle
12:00 Holding Slide
12:16 Oddbods
12:45 Bino And Fino
13:00 Game Shakers
13:30 Game Shakers
14:00 Henry Danger
14:30 Sanjay And Craig
15:00 Henry Danger
15:30 Sanjay And Craig
16:00 Game Shakers
16:30 Game Shakers
17:00 Henry Danger
17:30 Sanjay And Craig
18:00 Oddbods
18:30 Cocoland
18:40 Thomas & Friends
18:55 Paw Patrol
19:25 Holding Slide
19:41 Oddbods
20:10 Jabu'sJungle
20:35 Bino And Fino
20:50 Cocoland
21:00 Henry Danger
21:30 Sanjay And Craig
22:00 Game Shakers
22:30 Game Shakers
23:00 Henry Danger
23:30 Sanjay And Craig
17 October
00:00 Oddbods
00:30 Holding Slide
00:46 Barbie: Magic Touch
01:15 Bino And Fino
01:30 Animal Time
01:45 Enchantimals Tales From Everwilde
02:00 Barbie: Dreamhouse Adventures
02:30 Barbie: Magic Touch
03:00 Henry Danger
03:30 Sanjay And Craig
04:00 Game Shakers
04:30 Game Shakers
05:00 HenryDanger
05:30 Sanjay And Craig
06:00 Oddbods
06:30 Cocoland
06:40 Thomas & Friends
06:55 Paw Patrol
07:25 Jabu's Jungle
08:00 Jabu's Jungle
08:30 Bino And Fino
09:00 Animal Time
09:15 Enchantimals Tales From Everwilde
09:30 Barbie: Dreamhouse Adventures
10:00 Barbie: Magic Touch
10:30 Oddbods
11:00 Thomas & Friends
11:15 Animal Time
11:30 Jabu's Jungle
12:00 Jabu's Jungle
12:30 Bino And Fino
13:00 Game Shakers
13:30 Game Shakers
14:00 Henry Danger
14:30 Sanjay And Craig
15:00 Playroom Live
16:00 Game Shakers
16:30 Game Shakers
17:00 Henry Danger
17:30 Sanjay And Craig
18:00 Oddbods
18:30 Cocoland
18:40 Thomas & Friends
18:55 Paw Patrol
19:25 Bino And Fino
19:40 Jabu's Jungle
20:10 Jabu's Jungle
20:35 Bino And Fino
20:50 Cocoland
21:00 Playroom Live
22:00 Game Shakers
22:30 Game Shakers
23:00 Henry Danger
23:30 Sanjay And Craig
Notes
• Akili And Me is also slated to rollout on Play Room but since tests were underway the show hasn't been seen in the lineup while CoComelon has been removed as further tests were underway.
• The tween offering hasn't seen much new additions aside from Barbie: Magic Touch. From what the offering entails the latter will most likely form part of the launch lineup unlike the preschool offering which has seen a lot of reshuffling.
• Various local content has been added like Jabu's Jungle, Bino And Fino and the long-awaited Akili And Me so it's very likely that the channel is looking to get more homegrown shows like uBongo Kids or perhaps even Showmax originals Twende and Jay Jay The Chosen One.
• Playroom Live is the only offering that remains intact during these test runs so as mentioned through press statement it would serve as a 1 hour youth offering and also the program has maintained its stance on the channel compared to other programs.
The Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) Max streamer will launch in 22 European countries in spring 2024 and France and Belgium later next year, the media outfit revealed today.
Opening Mipcom Cannes with a keynote, interntional boss Gerhard Zeiler and EMEA Head of Streaming Leah Hooper Rosa brought highly-anticipated news of the rollout of the new streamer in the continent, which is rebranding from HBO Max with a bigger offering.
The Nordics, the Netherlands, Iberia and CEE, which already have HBO Max, will gain access to the rebranded streamer in the spring.
There will then be a “second wave” of launches later next year including in France and Belgium, which currently don’t have HBO Max, although WBD has an output deal with Amazon locally in France.
The service launched earlier this year in the U.S. and other territories. It will launch later in the UK due to the pre-existing content deal between Sky and WBD.
“The content breadth is so huge and we are enabling customers to find this content,” added Hooper Rosa. “And then they are increasing their time watching this breadth of genre, so streaming provides another avenue that compliments our distribution.”
“We promised the market $3B synergies, now we are on the way to $5B and who knows where we will end up?,” Zeiler went on to say.
He talked up the success that WBD has had with its goal to “execute as efficiently as possible” its “defining mission and vision.”
Following the Warner Bros merger with Discovery, new boss David Zaslav said he was targeting $3B synergies, which has seen the merger of teams and thousands of layoffs, but that synergy figure has crept up and up, confirmed by Zeiler today to be approaching $5B by next year.
He reiterated a “culture eats strategy for breakfast” mantra and said “we are one company not six or seven diluted units.”
Zeiler has seen something off an exodus in his international team of late but this wasn’t addressed at Mipcom. He set a new team earlier this month following a spate of exits including the likes Priya Dogra, Pierre Branco and Hannes Heyelmann alongside Robert Blair, who had worked in Warner Bros sales for 25 years.
Warner Bros Discovery’s JB Perrette warns that the global streaming market faces pain and consolidation over the next three to five years, but he says that the merged group has what it takes to be among the big five groups that pull through.
And, to win the war of attrition and consolidation, WBD may choose not to fight every battle.
Perrette, WBD’s CEO and president of global streaming and games, said that the company’s Max streaming product is to be rolled out in a largely pre-determined sequence, one that arrives in Latin America and Europe before arriving in parts of Asia. But, speaking on Wednesday at the APOS conference in Indonesia, Perrette said that in some markets Max may never happen, and that WBD may favor local partnerships instead.
“If we think we’re going to have success and profitability, if our market differentiation is viable enough to make a go of it and have a profitable business over a three-to-five year timeline [then we will launch Max.] If the answer is ‘no’ because the market has ARPUs that are just too low or it is way over-served by a ton of other players, who are spending on a ton of content and losing a ton of money, we may say this is not the right time,” said Perrette.
“If we think we can be successful based on the three metrics that we have [profitability, market share and scale] then, yes, great, we’ll go and figure out how best to tackle it. But if the answer is no, we don’t see a path, then we’ll find partnerships and other ways to go to market.”
Perrette dropped a heavy hint that India, already the battleground for a seething cluster of local and international streaming players, may be prime example of a market where Max would be a player too many.
Perrette’s tactical approach flows from a macro assessment that the streaming market has gone too far too fast and that WBD, in particular, needs to return to rationality and profitability.
“We went through a decade of great oversupply and great under-pricing and we are in a period of rationalization and embracing the aggregation [process] There’s structural aggregation and there’s rebundling,” said Perrette. “I think you’re working towards a world where, over the next five to 10 years, you’re going to end up with three to five feasible players, in addition local champions in individual markets.”
Despite the chastening outlook, Perrette declared himself “very optimistic” that WBD has the strategy and content to be among the players that make it through the current tightening phase. “We lost $2 billion last year. We are now profitable in the first half of this year,” he said.
“I have high confidence. The IP we that have – between HBO, the Warner studio, all the factual content from Discovery side, to the DC Universe, “Harry Potter” — that, at the end of the day, great stories and great IP is what wins the day. Our portfolio gives us an absolute entitlement to be in that last group.”
Local product partnerships may be on the horizon too. “One of the areas we’re very focused on is we have great IP, things like DC franchises, which historically has been very English-language dominant, but where we can open and bring characters from that universe and originate local IP with a partner in that market. We think it’s not just investment entirely ourselves, but there may be creative ways to partner with existing local players,” said Perrette.
