Recap To The Year: StarTimes Acquires Exclusive Rights To TNA (Formerly Impact Wrestling) For Consumers In Africa, Exits eMedia Investments' Openview Platform

TNA Wrestling (formerly IMPACT Wrestling) — a subsidiary of Anthem Sports & Entertainment and a division of Anthem Sports Group— announced a partnership with global entertainment platform StarTimes, bringing exclusive TNA content to more than 30 countries throughout Africa by January 2024.

The agreement further extends TNA’s reach, making the world-class wrestling organization’s flagship weekly series TNA IMPACT! widely available to over 45 million users in locations such as Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania, South Africa and the Ivory Coast, among many others. As part of the deal, StarTimes viewers will also be able to enjoy exclusive TNA+ specials and hard-hitting Pay-Per-View events, including landmark spectacles such as Bound For Glory.

Since its inception in 2002, TNA has established itself as one of the largest professional wrestling organizations in the world, and the premier destination for wrestling fans. Fueled by blockbuster stories, marquee matchups and larger-than-life personas, TNA’s roster puts the spotlight on some of the industry’s brightest stars, boasting international talent that includes Alex Shelley, Chris Sabin, Eric Young, Eddie Edwards, Moose, Josh Alexander, Jordynne Grace, Gisele Shaw, Frankie Kazarian and more.

“Africa has long-boasted a passionate wrestling audience, who have warmly embraced our programming and our athletes,” said TNA Wrestling President Scott D’Amore. “We are proud to partner with StarTimes to bring exclusive TNA content to subscribers throughout the continent, and we hope they will enjoy the exciting plans we have in store for what promises to be one of our biggest years yet!”

“We very much look forward to working with TNA Wrestling in 2024 and bringing our audiences exciting wrestling programmes. It’s also our honor to have so many thrilling events and star wrestlers on our platform. By cooperating closely with TNA Wrestling, we aim to expand the influence and fans base of wrestling in Africa continent through this partnership,” said Ben Li, StarTimes Sports Broadcasting & Production Center Director.

New Series Alert: Play Room Reportedly Acquires Broadcasting Rights To Supa Strikas With eExtra Set To Rollout Weekly Rugby Talk Show BÔll And Ôll

Play Room teases new series 

During the week, Play Room shared a cryptic post of an upcoming show to viewers on their social platforms. It didn't take long for viewers to quickly guess Supa Strikas as the logo is visible within the background of the character's sock.

There's also the matter of the font color for "COMING SOON" which matches that of Supa Strikas. Taking to account, Play Room also licensed shows from Moonbug including Oddbods and Cocomelon. 

From our initial guess, the series will likely rollout in June most presumably at 17:00 replacing Sanjay And Craig.

eExtra greenlits new series with weird title

BÔll & Ôll is a new weekly rugby talk show focusing on the pulse of South-African rugby, namely, the community. The show will put the emphasis on the Club, the Player, the Game, and the Community.

Hosted by radio and TV presenter JP Keyter and rugby legend Ashwin Willemse, who will unpack, discuss, and analyse all things rugby in South Africa – bringing to the fore nostalgic SA Rugby events and happenings.

 

BÔll & Ôll premieres on Openview eExtra Sunday 26 May at 18:30. The show will repeat on e.tv every Saturday at 18:00.

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News Shorts: Disney Junior Looking To Rebrand Simply To Disney Jr. Along With Series Premiere, WildEarth's Live Safaris Relaunch On People's Weather And StarTimes Debuts New Swahili Dubbed Telenovela Channel ST Swahili Plus

DJR is no more

Earlier in the year, Disney filed a new trademark for Disney Junior known simply as DJR. This had garnered poor reception from long time fans of the channel with some questioning Disney's loyalty for the brand as the trademark seemed dull and unimaginative.

During the month, Disney unveiled a trailer for the upcoming animated series The Little Mermaid based on the live-action of the same name. This was accompanied from what looks to be revised logo of DJR now Disney Jr. following Nick Jr. with ending their last name as initials.

If one has to guess Disney was probably taking to account consumer's feedback and altered the trademark to something more simple and familiar, Disney Jr. The new logo is anticipated to coincide and form part of a marketing campaign to promote The Little Mermaid. 

WildEarth on Openview 

Last month, MultiChoice at the request of WildEarth yanked the channel from DStv consumers in Africa. This formed part of a bigger conspiracy within MultiChoice as 10 other channels had exited including Me, Ginx TV, B4U Movies and NWTV. 

Since December, WildEarth had been supplying People's Weather their live safaris extending their reach to Openview. This was quietly yanked off from the lineup sometime ago with WildEarth reporting its reinstatement on People's Weather from 1st June. 

As some readers are aware, WildEarth had been undergoing a restructure and trying to build its content slate so that and possible distribution fees contributed to its disappearances from the channel with WildEarth now on 3 to 5 days a week.

Sunrise airs Wednesdays to Sundays at 06:30, On Safari and Sunset airs Fridays to Sundays from 14:30.

More telenovelas on StarTimes 

After eMedia Investments and MultiChoice had invested in locally dubbed programming which had spawned their own TV channels, ePleiser and Zee Zonke. StarTimes is hopping on the bandwagon with a Swahili dubbed telenovela channel, ST Swahili Plus. 

ST Swahili Plus is set to go live in East Africa on channel 162 and 432 on the Classic and Super packages. Programs set to join the lineup include Chandra Nandani, The First Nanny and The Iron Heart.

Paramount And Amazon Reportedly Enter Talks For New Streaming Bundle

Recently Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery announced a deal that would see Max, Hulu, and Disney+ bundle. After that Comcast announced a bundle of Peacock, Netflix, and Apple TV+. Now Bloomberg is reporting that Amazon and Paramount are in talks about a possible streaming bundle.

According to the report, Paramount and Amazon are in early talks to offer a bundled version of their streaming service. Paramount already owns multiple streaming services, including Paramount+ and BET+. They could be bundled on their own through Amazon channels or possibly bundled with Amazon’s own streaming services like Amazon Prime Video or MGM+.

The talks are not a done deal, and Bloomberg says it is possible nothing may come from them. Paramount has also reportedly been in talks with Peacock about a bundle option, but no deal has been reached at this time.

Bundles have widely been seen as a quick way for services to gain subscribers. They are also seen as a way to lock in subscribers for longer. Increasingly streaming services are fighting a growing trend of cord cutters rotating streaming services in 2024. This impacts profit, and customers binge everything they want in a month or two instead of keeping a subscription long term. Bundles could tempt customers to be locked in for longer by offering more content.

British Streaming Service BritBox Will Be Shutting Down In South Africa After 3 Years By The End Of August

Launched in South Africa by August 2021, BritBox was a joint venture between British broadcasters BBC Studios and ITV which was home to content accessible on BBC Brit, BBC Lifestyle, BBC Earth, CBeebies and BBC UKTV all of which were accessible on MultiChoice's DStv. 

South Africa was the only African region to offer BritBox and one of eight countries across the world. It is also the second region looking to not close its operations following the UK by the end of April as operations were merged with ITV's existing offering. 

BBC Studios had acquired global rights to the remaining shares of BritBox International. Under this agreement would continue to offer content from ITV with the deal described as a "tremendous opportunity to grow its services and take it to new heights".

Unlike the UK, BritBox will not be replaced with another streaming service and if anything further content is likely to resurface on MultiChoice's Showmax and Netflix. As BBC Studios despite serving as a rival broadcaster continued licensing content to other platforms. 

The news of its demise comes after Acorn TV had closed its doors in the market by the end of 2022. Since then, BBC Studios was the only broadcaster to offer the best in British entertainment now consumers have until the end of August to use their services.

Statement from BritBox about its closure in South Africa 

BritBox has made the difficult decision to discontinue its service in South Africa to align with the brand's strategic priorities. This decision follows careful consideration of market dynamics and business objectives. We sincerely appreciate your past support on behalf of our entire team.

It will cease operations in South Africa by Friday, August 30, 2024.