New Channel Alert: ST Toons Coming Soon To StarTimes Platforms Across Africa Later This Month

After relaunching ST Movies on their platforms, StarTimes will be expanding the kiddies lineup with the addition of a second kids channel, ST Toons. With ST Kids inheriting the Nickelodeon DNA ST Toons will lean more onto Nicktoons. 

According to StarTimes, ST Toons will be a comprehensive cartoon channel covering Chinese, international and African programming. It would serve as a competitor to existing players such as eToonz and Play Room both of which are based in South Africa. 

Third party shows set to form part of the lineup include SpongeBob SquarePants, Totally Spies!, Power Rangers and Transformers. Still no word on the local portion coming to ST Toons if we had to guess they'll probably dub select shows in local languages. 

ST Toons will launch on channel 310 on DTH and 351 on DTT or least from what African officials mention. It will be available from the Basic package which serves as the African counterpart of Max with no word on a package for StarSat consumers in South Africa.

ST Toons will join other children's channels such as ST Kids, Baby TV, Da Vinci, Kartoon Channel, Toonami, Boing and CBeebies.

News Shorts: Warner TV To Rollout As A Free-To-Air Channel In The Czech Republic, Come Back To Me To Rollout On Telemundo Across Africa And Historical Drama We Were The Lucky Ones To Stream On Disney+ In April

Warner TV expands to other parts of Europe

The Czech Republic will have a brand new free-to-air TV channel next month as Warner TV launches on 2 April. It will be managed as part of the local Czech linear Warner Bros. Discovery portfolio.

Vaclav Palecek, Distribution and Business Development at Warner Bros. Discovery in the Czech Republic & Slovakia, said: “Starting April, Czech viewers will be able to enjoy the wide range of content, including movies and series, on Warner TV. We are close to launching our first free-to-air channel in the market and we will bring a great content library on-air for all the viewers, from classical films to popular series.”

In the Czech Republic, Warner Bros. Discovery operates 18 pay TV linear channels (Discovery, Eurosport 1, Eurosport 2, Eurosport 4K, HGTV, TLC, Travel Channel, Investigation Discovery, Cartoon Network, Cartoonito, CNN, Food Network, Animal Planet, HBO & HBO 2 & HBO 3, Cinemax & Cinemax 2) and the HBO Max streaming platform.

William Levy returns to Telemundo 

For its 2023 upfronts earlier last year, Telemundo announced William Levy was joining its star roster line-up in the new original romantic series Come Back To Me (Vuelve a Mi). It is set to launch April 8 at 22:00 replacing Game Of Lies.

In Vuelve a Mí, Levy is Santiago, whose love interest is actress Samadhi Zendejas, in her first leading role as Nuria.

The drama, set in Ciudad de Juárez and Ciudad de México, follows Nuria, a woman of humble means, who begins a relationship with Braulio (Ferdinando Valencia) without knowing he is one of the owners of the company where she works to support her son and sister. The lives of the main characters begin to intertwine after the tragic kidnapping of Nuria's son Andrés. And when she least expects it, Santiago (Levy) enters her life to become the great love of her life and the pillar that keeps her hope alive.

New Hulu original launching soon

Disney has announced that the upcoming original series, “We Were The Lucky Ones”, will be coming to Disney+ globally on April 17th 2024.

Based on Georgia Hunter’s New York Times bestselling novel, the television adaptation of “We Were the Lucky Ones” is a limited series inspired by the incredible true story of one Jewish family separated at the start of World War II, determined to survive and reunite. “We Were the Lucky Ones” demonstrates how in the face of the twentieth century’s darkest moment, the human spirit can endure and even thrive. The series is a tribute to the triumph of hope and love against all odds.

The series stars Joey King, Logan Lerman, Hadas Yaron, Henry-Lloyd Hughes, Amit Rahav, Sam Woolf, Michael Aloni, Moran Rosenblatt, Eva Feiler, Lior Ashkenazi, and Robin Weigert.

SuperSport Schools Celebrates Successful Partnership With Mzwandile Mali-Tournament

SuperSport Schools celebrates a successful partnership with the Mzwandile Mali Schools Rugby Tournament run by the Lincoln Mall Leadership Foundation.

We are delighted to announce the successful streaming of the Mzwandile Mali Schools Rugby Tournament in the Eastern Cape over the past few weeks, the tournament has garnered incredible support from the community showcasing the passion and enthusiasm for rugby in the region.

We are proud to have covered the thrilling matches leading up to the finals on the 15th of March at Isaac Wolfson Stadium Live on DStv Channel 216 and the SuperSport Schools App.

The tournament was named after Mzwandile Mali, father of Lincoln Mali has not only provided a platform for young talents to showcase their skills but has also fostered a sense of community and sportsmanship among participants.

In addition to the upcoming finals, SuperSport Schools is excited to announce the coverage of the touring teams’ matches set to take place in Kent, United Kingdom on 6-12 October 2024, this presents a unique opportunity for the chosen 22 players to gain international exposure and experience, further enhancing their rugby journey with the support of the Lincoln Mali Leadership Foundation.

DreamWorks Animation Rumoured To Be "Undergoing Further Restructure" As It Closes TV Division

DreamWorks Animation Television is a American based production company operated by NBCUniversal that distributes various animated titles. It is home to award winning productions such as Shrek, The Croods, How To Train Your Dragon and Boss Baby.

Accompanied by this, DreamWorks Animation Television operated several 24 hour channels across the world including Universal Kids (US), Sky Kids (UK) and DreamWorks Channel (Europe, Asia and Africa).

Following last year's dismal performance at the global box-office, it was announced that the brand would "no longer be producing films independently". By 2025, two upcoming films are said to headed by Imagework known for Hotel Transylvania and Spiderverse.

At the time fear lurked around the move away from in-house production with mass layoffs likely on the cards and downsizing of new content in the coming years.

In an interview with Kung Fu Panda co-director, it was revealed that most if not all TV divisons headed by DreamWorks Animation Television had been dissolved with the company reportedly wrapping up some "final projects" likely The Wild Robot.

It is currently unknown what fate may await short form projects like Megamind Rules and Jurassic World: Chaos Theory. Considering that the latter was based on existing IPs its likely that these will remain operational for the time being if not scrapped.

But considering the current state of DreamWorks Animation Television, we may be seeing less content of this stature going forward. Of course, the company had produced various content outside existing IPs such as Fright Krewe, Curses! and The Mighty Ones.

This had been more noticeable mainly through their preschool counterpart DreamWorks Jr., home to shows like Gabby's Dollhouse, Pinecone & Pony, Doug Unplugs and Rhyme Time Town.

Development Alert: Can You See Me To Make Freemium Debut On Zee One With Trinayani Making Its Pay-TV Debut On Zee World

Zee World is pay-tv channel operated by Zee Entertainment Enterprises that offers a variety of English Dubbed Bollywood series and movies. Since 2021, Zee One was added as a lightweight version to the network serving reruns while building a unique lineup.

As reported through several platforms, Can You See Me will be airing on Zee One from 31 March with Trinayani airing on Zee World in Southern Africa in April alongside Sister Wives.

Synopsis for Can You See Me

Inspired by Casper Scare School, the comedy-drama Can You See Me (Bhootu) revolves around a friendly girl ghost named Bhootu who always tries to help others, often causing light mischief and mayhem in the process.

Broadcast on Zee World in 2022, it starred Arshiya Mukherjee as Bhutu Majumder, Subrata Guha Roy as Johor Dalal and Animesh Bhaduri as Deepen Majumder.

Synopsis for Trinayani

Trinayani tells the story of a girl named who can foresee anything bad or harmful that is happening to others. Since whatever she forewarns the villagers about comes true, they accuse her of having an inauspicious tongue.

Broadcast on Zee One in 2023, it starred Shruti Das as Trinayani Basu, Gourab Roy Chowdhury as Driptobroto Basu, Jasmine Roy as Jasmine and Debjani Chattopadhyay as Sanjukta Basu.