Could MultiChoice Be Looking To Add Play Room On DStv And GOtv Platforms In Southern Africa And Likely The Rest Of Sub-Saharan Africa As A Replacement To Akili Kids??? Here's Why

Last month, MultiChoice and Ngwato Nkosi Group unveiled Play Room as a new kiddies channel to DStv. The channel combines fun and learning for children with a mixture of locally produced and international series with titles like Akili And Me and CoComelon dubbed in Zulu.

There are plans to include more languages of course it's not known how many languages Play Room is looking to incorporate to its line-up.

It was also confirmed by the channel themselves that Play Room will for now be available in South Africa. At the moment, it's not viewable in Nigeria, Ghana, Botswana, Namibia, Malawi and other parts of Sub-Saharan Africa.

Play Room served as a replacement to the factual based children's channel Da Vinci. In ROA, Da Vinci was substituted by Nigeria's Teen Africa TV which had since then following the closure of the factual brand expanded to 40 African countries (including MultiChoice's GOtv).

That only leaves Southern Africa without a replacement, as seen with past additions Zee Zonke and NWTV. These brands are all being filtered for Southern Africa despite incorporating local languages while Play Room is being excluded from the the rest of Africa.

MultiChoice had inserted test cards for Play Room in Southern Africa of course questions amount to why these appear in the region if the brand would be tailored only for South Africa like eToonz. If we had to guess, MultiChoice could be looking to launch a localised feed in Southern Africa.

Similar to the likes of Nickelodeon, this feed would come with a varied offering/language with some content sharing between and this includes the bulk of international shows like Paw Patrol, Barbie: Dreamhouse Adventures and Total Dramarama.

With Play Room taking centre stage on channel 300, we presume the feed in Southern Africa would take up channel 311 - just a hunch. But that can only happen if eMedia Investments' free-to-view eToonz gets booted seeing as we do use the same frequencies.

As for ROA, there appears to be some conflict pertaining to the content e.g. Akili And Me (Akili Kids, Kenya) and Henry Danger (Nickelodeon). It would make sense to remove some channels like Akili Kids if the plan would be distributing the exact content in local languages.

Akili Kids which is the East African version of Play Room serves as a multilingual children's channel with content like Akili And Me and Wild Kratts in Swahili. It also offers both fun and learning something that Play Room could look into building for these markets.

News Shorts: Telemundo Africa Enters The New Year With More Decisions, Noah's Park To Make A Landing On Play Room And Celebrate Valentine's With Mpho Popps And South Park On Comedy Central

Decisions enters the new year

During the month, Telemundo unveiled the highly anticipated series Game Of Lies after failing to launch it in 2023. As reported already, the series will replace Lord Of The Skies by January 15 although the late night series would come to a close by 31 December 2023.

With that in mind, Decisions would take up the timeslot for Lord Of The Skies and later Law Of The Heart. We assume Game Of Lies will take up one timeslot of Law Of The Heart which had been distributed as a double bill while we wait on the follow up series.

Queen Of The South was initially set to replace Lord Of The Skies and if I had to guess the series will most likely replace Prisoner Of Love once it ends in February 2024 and another series slated to end in that time is Cennet: The Power Of Destiny.

Play Room rolls out it's first new show in the year

Last month, MultiChoice added Play Room as a brand new multilingual children's channel offering fun and learning with a mixture of locally produced and international content. It serves as eMedia's eToonz first ever rival as it too is based from South Africa.

According to media outlets, Play Room will be rolling out Noah's Park this January after failing to rollout in the channel's launch line-up with Akili And Me taking up its position. The show might air in a different timeslot seeing as it's former timeslot is proven favourable by viewers.

Dreamer the rhinoceros, Honk the camel, Stretch the giraffe and five of their animal friends left Noah’s Ark and set off on a great journey to find a new home. The live-action puppet show consists of 14 episodes which have been weirdly been divided between 2 seasons.

February on Comedy Central

MOST RIDICULOUS WITH MPHO POPPS

5 FEBRUARY @ 21:00 WEEKDAYS

South African celebrities join Mpho Popps for a laugh-filled adventure as they share their reactions, stories, and banter about the funniest clips from the internet.

South Park Valentine Stunt

Wednesday 14th February @10pm

Miss Teacher Bangs a Boy

Tweek x Craig

Proper Condom Use

Bebe's Boobs Destroy Society

Raisins

Stupid Spoiled Whore Video Playset

Follow That Egg

Cartman Finds Love

January 2024 On Cartoon Network And Cartoonito Across Africa (Drafted) | New Series Alert: Hero Inside | Returning Shows Including Pokémon And Bugs Bunny Builders | More

Cartoon Network

• Hero Inside (New Show): animates a childhood fantasy, unlocking

a world where your favorite super hero can appear

before you just by saying their name. The adventure

begins after Scott, a cartoonist and free spirit, mysteriously vanishes after drawing 100 superheroes across 100 comic books, without ever publishing. 

• Pokemon: Sun And Moon: Ultra Adventures: This season takes place in the Alola region and follows the continuing adventures of Ash; his classmates Lillie, Lana, Mallow, Kiawe, and Sophocles; Ash's rival, Gladion; and antagonists James, Jessie and Meowth of Team Rocket. 

Cartoonito

• Lu And The Bally Bunch: A ladybird with a brand-new social life is still learning the social skills to handle it.

• Bugs Bunny Builders: Bugs, Lola, Daffy, Porky and Tweety use their amazing vehicles to take on the looniest construction builds while learning valuable lessons -- they never give up, because The Looney Builders always get the job done.

• Batwheels: Superpowered vehicles Bam, Bibi, Red, Jett and Buff join forces to fight crimes and protect citizens trapped in dangerous situations in Gotham City.

• Beantastic: Cartoonito will have you in stitches as Mr. Bean celebrates Teddy’s birthday by letting him choose what to do – from going crazy in a toy store to having a firework party! The live action episodes feature Mr. Bean sharing a train car with a loud and annoying stranger and accidentally stealing a baby.

• Zig & Sharko: Zig the hyena lives all alone on a desert island and schemes to eat Marina, a mermaid who asks a shark friend to protect her.

Scooby-Doo Mystery (SEGA)

The player controls Norville "Shaggy" Rogers, who is followed around by Scooby, while Fred, Daphne, and Velma make brief appearances, often at the beginning and end of a mystery. The object of the game is to solve puzzles to progress, uncover the mystery and catch the monster/criminal to win the scenario. 

Download Now

News Shorts: Impact Wrestling To Revert Back To The TNA Trademark In Hard To Kill, Second Chances Rumoured To Debut On Zee World In The Coming Days And uBettina Wethu Season 4 To Replace Nikiwe After It Ends

TNA is making a comeback

We are told the company has quietly polled long-term fans of the promotion earlier this year and learned that many of them stated they preferred the TNA name. Fans who have chanted "TNA" since the promotion returned to the road have also been a factor in the company thinking about making the change and then finally flipping the switch back.

There was a lot of TNA nostalgia several years ago when the promotion brought back the TNA title with Moose as titleholder with the original plan for the company to revive TNA as a separate TV series and possibly promotion out of a TNA reunion PPV but the COVID-19 pandemic stalled those plans before they were dropped. Instead of two different promotions and TV series, instead TNA has returned as the name of the company.

The plan is for Impact to close out the remainder of the year and then transition over to the TNA name in January with the Hard to Kill PPV in Las Vegas being the first official TNA show.  

Second Chances coming to Zee World

Yash (Shreyas Talpade), a rich and esteemed business tycoon, yearns for real love. While he falls in love with Neha (Prarthana Behere), the journey ahead is not going to be an easy one for him. Will he be able to win Neha’s heart?

Second Chances (Mazhi Tuzhi Reshimgath) debuted on Zee One earlier in the year and according to sources the series is rumoured to launch on Zee World across Southern Africa from 29 December but there has been no mention of the show by the channel yet.

uBettina Wethu takes the front seat

During the month, it was revealed that Nikiwe would be axed by early 2024 after it struggled to garner traction following its debut earlier in the year. eMedia Investments in not so shocking news had enlisted the fourth season of uBettina Wethu on e.tv's line-up.

After phasing out the 18:00 timeslot drama timeslot for locally produced reality shows on eReality. It lead consumers to wonder what fate awaited uBettina Wethu and as predicted sometime ago it would take up Nikiwe's timeslot.

In Season 4 we will see Betty, her comrades, and kin in a whole new light as they realise new goals and fix old wounds. Betty has lost direction, so she sets off to realign and march forward determined to win - without the distraction of personal relationships - her downfall in the past.