New Series Alert: The Day Henry Met And Earth To Luna Coming Soon To Play Room

Play Room, a South African based children's channel operated by Ngwato Nkosi Group that offers fun and learning with a mixture of locally produced content part alongside international shows is set to debut two new series, The Day Henry Met and Earth To Luna.

The Day Henry Met follows a charming, inquisitive Irish lad, meets something new like the knight or a whale, it becomes the focus of his journey of discovery and adventure, ultimately teaching viewers about real-life objects and occupations.

The series was allocated on Nick Jr. by September 2017 and since then has won numerous awards the first for Best European Work at Cartoons at The Pulcinella Award. This was followed by Best Animation award at the Irish TV Gala Awards. 

Earth To Luna follows the adventures of Luna, a young girl who is in love with science, her little brother Jupiter and their pet ferret Clyde. Unlike The Day Henry Met the series targets a wider spectrum between the ages of 4-9 year olds.

The series debuted in the United States by 2014 on Universal Kids and Discovery Kids. Since then over 200 episodes had been filmed across eight seasons each with a duration of 15 episodes.

The Day Henry Met airs daily at 11:00 on Play from 14 May and Earth To Luna airs daily at 17:15 from 20 May.

"Analyzing Kuiertyd": Why e.tv's Kelders Van Geheime And Annekan Die Swa Kry Have Simultaneous Broadcasts On eExtra?

During the week, eMedia Investments unveiled their first local Afrikaans soap, Kelders Van Geheime. After SABC had shuttered 7de Laan back in 2023 and moved further Afrikaans content to SABC 3, eMedia had continued to bolster the entertainment. 

Initially being reduced to merely dubbed content from Turkey, eMedia Investments expanded the lineup to include local productions Ouma Sarie and Die Fakulteit. Both of which currently have exclusive runs on eExtra serving a minority of e.tv's viewers.

As some readers aware, Annekan Die Swa Kry is currently being transmitted on both e.tv and eExtra in the same timeslot. Kelders Van Geheime was also anticipated to follow the same route with eExtra doing weekly repeats on Saturday nights.

From what was understood about eMedia's decision to get Kelders Van Geheime at 18:00 on eExtra. It was to give consumers on the channel time to view this new soap without it getting in the way of Elif which now comes on 30 minutes later.

But Annekan Die Swa Kry's inclusion still remains very much a mystery to date.

From what we've hypothesized is that eMedia Investments is positioning eExtra as their go to destination for Afrikaans content like KykNET. Getting Annekan Die Swa Kry and Kelders Van Geheime was probably an alignment on eExtra and with e.tv exposure.

Reducing the Guilty Pleasures a name given to the non-Kuiertyd stuff was probably a means to reduce their focus in that area. Not that consumers weren't watching Naagin or Rebel Princess but similar to Judge Judy on e.tv exist as overflows.

When a channel doesn't have much content on their plate they either reduce their duration or increase the airtime for their content. Overflow is what you consider Kuiertyd's daily repeats on e.tv or Eternal Love or Naagin on eExtra - additional content. 

You just don't prioritize these areas you would find new episodes and rebroadcasts of Naagin in the same timeslot. Then you have Kuiertyd's primetime block on eExtra where a current TV program is phased out for another with repeats loaded on ePleiser. 

Disney & ESPN Reportedly In Talks To Acquire The NFL

Back in July 2023 it was reported that Disney is in talks with the NFL, NBA, and MLB to have them take joint ownership of ESPN along with Disney. Now it is being reported that Disney is close to a deal that would see ESPN take over the NFL Network in a deal with the NFL.

Exact details of the deal are unknown but earlier reports said that the NFL would offer their games to be aired on ESPN in exchange for a small share of ESPN. Exactly how much the NFL would own of ESPN is unknown. It is also unknown if this deal will still include the NFL taking part ownership of ESPN.

According to CNBC, theNFL could include Disney taking a stake in the NFL Network, NFL.com, and RedZone. With ESPN taking over production of all three. This could help both sides benefit by giving the NFL access to ESPN productions and Disney access to NFL money. The Wall Street Journal also added that the NFL+ service could be a part of this deal with Disney.

Disney currently owns 80% of ESPN, and Hearst owns 20%. Disney could easily sell part of ESPN to the NFL and NBA and still own a controlling majority of ESPN.

For now, we will have to wait and see what happens. Now that ESPN is building its own direct-to-consumer streaming service, it clearly is looking for partners to help make that a reality.

News Shorts: Explore The Wilderness With Peak Zoo On Play Room And eExtra's Primetime Slot Plummets With A Repeat Of Forbidden Passion

Play Room is going Scottish 

Peek Zoo is an Irish animated children's television series based on a book series by Kevin Waldron. The show follows the life of zookeeper Mr Peek and his children Jimmy and Violet, who solve problems and mysteries with the help of the animals in the zoo.

The series airs daily at 08:30 replacing one timeslot of Magic Cellar or at least in the daytime. We presume the show will be in English which is why they're evading from airing it in the night as the channel has a one hour block for languages. 

eExtra loads up on the reruns 

As if it isn't enough that Annekan Die Swa Kry and Kelders Van Geheime is telecast on both e.tv and eExtra. The channel has even reduced the Asian offering to merely one timeslot which too is repeats now the Indian offering is set to undergo further downsizing. 

Beyhadh is currently airing on the channel at 13:45 and from 8 May this offering will be axed in favor of Forbidden Passion which ended earlier in the year.

Similar to Telemundo and TLNovelas who both saw a drop in primetime during the course of 2024. It appears that eExtra is undergoing a similar procedure but with the guilty pleasure timeslot home to English dubbed dramas from Asia and India. 

"Enter The Splat Zone": Paramount Rebrands Nicktoons In The UK, Might Rebrand Alongside TeenNick In Parts Of Europe And Africa In The Coming Weeks

In 2023, Nickelodeon revived one of their iconic logos "The Splat" and incorporated it with the current font of the brand. A year after its rollout, there's still various countries that have yet to go Splat as Nicktoons in the UK rebranded earlier in the week.

As reported by NickALive, the rebrand occurred on Worker's Day being May 1st in parts of UK & Ireland. Based on Nickelodeon’s recently launched Splat logo, the rebrand includes new on-air graphics such as bumpers, promos and idents.

Last year, MultiChoice and Paramount had reached a new agreement which would see Nickelodeon in the rest of Southern Africa switch to high definition. This was also accompanied by the revamped Splat logo which was introduced months prior.

At the time, it was also stated that Nicktoons and Nick Jr. would undergo a rebrand before the end of 2023. None of which come to pass as Nick Jr. was only fortunate to go Splat by February of this year (due to globalization) with Nicktoons that has yet to switch.

Insiders report that the designs of Nicktoons and TeenNick's global feeds might be updated by May 20th. Although, that's still awaiting confirmation 

most feeds are aligned or handled within the UK so the timeframe of the rebrand would only seem logical.

This may more likely include the Nicktoons feed in Africa cause as mentioned part of the feed is globalized with some local variations. It was long speculated after the feed had switched from the U.S. graphic designs to the one situated in parts of Europe.