News Shorts: Warner Bros. Discovery Acquired Turkish Streaming Service BluTV, Bunk'd To End With A Season 7 On Disney Channel And Disney To Discontinue The FOX Sports Brand In Latin America For ESPN

Max and Discovery+ have a new home in Turkey

For the past three years, Warner Bros. Discovery and BluTV — Turkey’s first local SVOD service — have had a partnership that made WBD a 35% shareholder in BluTV. Since its 2016 launch, BluTV has shown rapid growth both in original content and its content library, leading to the launch of Discovery+ on the platform in 2021. In February, HBO content and kids channels were added to BluTV, giving viewers access to channels like Cartoon Network and Cartoonito, as well as award-winning shows like “The Last of Us,” “Game of Thrones” and “Sex and the City.”

“We are very excited for this new chapter,” Jamie Cooke, GM CEE of Middle East and Turkey at Warner Bros. Discovery, said in a statement. “Turkey has been an important investment territory for us for over 20 years and the acquisition of BluTV brings Turkey’s first local SVOD player into our portfolio. The combination of compelling Turkish content and a broad range of the best international series and shows from Warner Bros. Discovery is an unbeatable recipe to be locally relevant and successful. Together we bring Turkish audiences the most compelling viewing experience and expand the reach of Turkish content globally.”

Fan favourite show has been axed by Disney

Bunk’d, Disney Channel‘s longest-running live-action series, will end its run with the conclusion of its current seventh season. The final installment of 10 new episodes will air in 2024.

Production on Season 7 was suspended in early May due to the WGA strike. At that time, filming had been completed on 12 episodes of the 20-episode Season 7, with eight episodes remaining to be shot. The order has now been increased to 22 episodes, and production on the remaining 10 episodes is underway.

Throughout its run, Bunk’d has been a top performer on linear TV and streaming platforms. Part 1 of Season 7 was summer 2023’s second most-watched live-action series and Top 10 series overall for kids 6-11 in combined viewing across streaming and linear platforms, according to Nielsen data (Live+7 for linear, live for streaming).

Disney is adding more ESPN channels

The Walt Disney Company has confirmed that as from February 15, 2024 it will rebrand all its Fox Sports channels in Spanish-speaking Latin America and Brazil in order to discontinue the brand in the region. The new Pay TV sports channels will be ESPN 5, ESPN 6 and ESPN 7. 

According to the information given by Disney, the changes to be introduced are the following:

-Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela: ESPN EXTRA will be renamed as ESPN 4, ESPN 4 AS ESPN 5, FOX SPORTS 2 as ESPN 6 and FOX SPORTS 3 as ESPN 7.

-Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia and Peru: ESPN EXTRA will be renamed as ESPN 4, ESPN 4 as ESPN 5, FOX SPORTS 2 as ESPN 6 and FOX SPORTS 3 as ESPN 7.

-Chile: ESPN EXTRA will be renamed as ESPN 4, ESPN 4 as ESPN 5, FOX SPORTS 2 as ESPN 6, FOX SPORTS 3 as ESPN 7 and FOX SPORTS 1 PREMIUM as ESPN PREMIUM.

-Central America: ESPN EXTRA is to be renamed as ESPN 4, ESPN 4 as ESPN 5 and FOX SPORTS 3 as ESPN 6.

-Brazil: ESPN EXTRA will change its name to ESPN 6 and FOX SPORTS 2 to ESPN 5. 

News Shorts: VH1 To Cease Transmission In Italy And Possibly Denmark, A Rebroadcast Of The Scent Of Passions Launches Across Africa On Telemundo And Warner Bros. Discovery To Rollout A Rebranded Max Streaming In Latin America By Early 2024

VH1 is closing down in more countries

VH1 was an international entertainment channel which was basically a mash up of MTV and BET. It is operated by Paramount Global and over the last decade the company had been dismantling the trademark with various channels closed in most parts of the world.

Through an electronic programme guide by a viewer in Denmark, VH1 schedule will run until the end of New Year's Day. Thereafter, the channel will no longer have a 24 hour schedule available for consumption leading some to believe the possible demise of the brand.

Considering that the channel will be shutting down in Italy a few days after Denmark's possible closure. It wouldn't seem far fetched if the same fate awaited these consumers as Paramount Global had been exploring a potential sale of the brand under the BET Group.

Telemundo welcomes its third rebroadcast

During the month, it was reported that Telemundo will be increasing the timeslots for the on/off again series Case Closed and Decisions. Also within the new year will be the launch of a new series Game Of Lies starring Maria Elisa Camargo and Arap Bethke.

Prior to its debut, Telemundo will be adding a rebroadcast of The Scent Of Passions in Law Of The Heart's current timeslot from 8 January.

Sebastián Vallejo, a member of the rich family that owns the Casablanca coffee plantation, falls in love with the nice and honest coffee picker Teresa Suárez, known as La Gaviota; their romance is full of difficulties.

Max expands to Latin America

A statement presented by Costa Rican cable operator Tigo confirmed that HBO Max will be relaunched as Max in the next month of February, at a close yet to be defined. The rebranding plans were originally scheduled for the end of 2023 in our region, since the platform has made the change in the United States during the last month of May. 

The new identity of the streaming platform sets aside the characteristic color painted by a powerful new blue, and will bring with it the content of the Discovery+ platform, which was never launched in Latin America except Brazil, as a product of the merger between Warner Bros. Discovery. 

Latin America will be the first region at an international level in which HBO Max will make the switch to Max, as at the moment it was the first territory outside the United States to launch the service. Also in 2024, Max will reach Europe and Southeast Asia. This last region is especially relevant, as HBO Max never reached it.

Development Alert: Disney Star And Reliance Are Merging To Form A Media Powerhouse, Might Lead To The Merger Of JioCinema And Disney+ Hotstar

Disney has taken another big step toward realigning its India strategy. The company has signed a non-binding term sheet with Reliance Industries that would see the two merge their Indian operations, the completion of which would create one of India’s biggest entertainment empires. 

Under the terms, Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance group would own 51% of the merged entity through a combination of shares and cash. Disney would hold the remaining 49% of shares.

The term sheet was finalized at a meeting last week in London that saw Bob Iger advisor Kevin Mayer representing Disney and Ambani advisor Manoj Modi there for Reliance. According to the Economic Times, the duo has been working for months on terms.

The merger deal is expected to be completed by February, even though Reliance is said to be hoping to wrap it up in late January.

Iger, who has cut thousands of jobs this year and faces pressure from activist investor Nelson Peltz, said on last month’s earnings call that Disney would like to stay in India, but try and “strengthen our hand, improve the bottom line.”

Hotstar, the streaming outlet initially launched by Star India, came under Disney’s control as part of the $71.3 billion acquisition of 21st Century Fox assets in 2019. Disney has used the Star assets in various ways to help attain its goal of 300 million to 350 million overall streaming subscribers by 2024. 

Recap To The Month: Byron Allen Offers To Buy BET From Paramount Global For $3.5 Billion

Allen, who is founder and CEO of Allen Media Group, emailed Paramount Global senior executives and board, offering $3.5 billion for BET Media Group, which includes the BET cable channel, VH1, BET Studios and streaming service BET+, sources familiar with the situation confirmed to Variety. That’s up from $2.7 billion that Allen had offered earlier in 2023.

Reps for Paramount Global and Allen Media Group declined to comment. Bloomberg first reported on Allen’s renewed offer for BET. Other potential buyers of BET Media Group include BET CEO Scott Mills, a 26-year veteran of the company, and Chinh Chu, a former executive at private-equity firm Blackstone executive who runs CC Capital Partners, who have discussed a price tag of under $2 billion, Bloomberg reported.

In the email to Paramount brass, Allen wrote, “You are pursuing an inside sale at a below-market price with management that will not yield the highest price for the stockholders. We believe it would be an egregious breach of fiduciary duty by the Paramount Global management team and board of directors if BET is sold for anything less than the highest price, particularly, in order to provide a sweetheart deal to an insider at the expense of public shareholders.”

Earlier this year, Paramount Global had been exploring the sale of a majority stake in BET Media Group, with bidders said to include Allen, Tyler Perry and Sean “Diddy” Combs. In August, Paramount called off the bidding process for BET because “a sale wouldn’t result in any meaningful deleveraging of its balance sheet,” the Wall Street Journal reported.

The renewed interest in a deal for BET comes amid talks between Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount Global about a potential merger. Meanwhile, Shari Redstone, whose National Amusements owns a controlling stake in Paramount Global, has been in talks to sell her shares in NAI, according to multiple reports.

A deal for BET Media Group would dramatically expand Allen’s media empire. Allen Media Group, which encompasses Entertainment Studios (founded 30 years ago as CF Entertainment), owns 12 cable networks, including the Weather Channel, JusticeCentral.TV, Cars.TV and Pets.TV, a theatrical movie distribution company and a stable of 28 broadcast stations affiliated with the Big Four broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC). Allen Media Group also produces, distributes, and sells advertising for 73 television shows, making it one of the largest independent producers/distributors of first-run syndicated TV programming for broadcast stations. The company has nearly 2,300 employees.

Recap To The Week: eMedia Investments Acquired Broadcasting Rights To The Supernatural Drama Salt Of Love (Namak Issk Ka), Folded Under Naagin On eExtra

During the week, eMedia Investments welcomed another supernatural drama in place of Naagin without any prior notice to the media. The show in question is actually referred to as Namak Issk Ka (Salt Of Love) but on eExtra's programme guide it's listed as Naagin. 

Namak Issk Ka revolves around an item girl named Kahani Verma who goes by the name of Chamcham Rani and a rich businessman, Yug Pratap Rajput, who are childhood friends who became separated in an accident. Yug and Kahani meet after 15 years. This is when Yug learns that Kahani is an item girl.

Produced by Gul Khan and Deepti Kalwani under 4 Lions Films, it starred Shruti Sharma as Kahani Yug Pratap Rajput, Aditya Ojha as Yug Pratap Rajput and Antara Biswas as Iravati Verma in leading roles.

Similar to Naagin, this show was also broadcast on Colors TV and consists of 187 episodes each with a duration of 22 minutes. But questions amount to the sudden removal of Naagin could it be possible that eExtra is missing episodes or there was some error with their distributors.

Namak Issk Ka was broadcast on Christmas Day on eExtra or at least from a viewer's word. This isn't the first time a channel pulled a switcheroo during the year another instance was with Crown Of Tears and If They Let Us on TLNovelas and eVOD with Wie Laaste Lag and Annekan Die Swa Kry.