Media24 To Close City Press, Daily Sun, Rapport And Beeld In October

Media24 will reportedly be closing 4 of its print publications in October, including Daily Sun, Beeld, Rapport and City Press.

This according to a report by Moneyweb which cites four sources have confirmed the media house’s decision to shut down some of its mainstream publications.

In 2020, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Media24 considered the closure of 5 magazines and 2 newspapers.

A total of 510 positions were impacted and the company consolidated several positions in a long-term restructuring process.

It is now reported that a rapid decrease in circulation numbers has led to the decision to shut down the 4 publications mentioned above.

As reported by Moneyweb, it is unknown whether Media24 will continue with the online brands for these publications which lives as sub-sections under News24 and Netwerk24 websites.

Rapport’s circulation reportedly fell from 335 000 in 2000 to just 60 000 in 2024.

City Press declined from 233 000 to just 14 000, while the Beeld dropped from 100 000 to 20 000.

News Shorts: TPA Noticias Broadcasts The Angola ICT Forum 2024 For Consumers In South Africa, DStv Access Gets More Kids Channels Alongside SuperSport Football And TBN And Disney Channel Potential HD Feed Likely Scrapped On DStv

Angola ICT Forum 2024 is also viewable to DStv consumers in South Africa 

Mário Oliveira welcomed the participants to Angotic/2024. On the occasion, the minister listed the sector's challenges that began 45 years ago and that now allow the country to be at the forefront of leadership in the ICT sector in Africa. Despite all the achievements already achieved, the leader of MINTTICS said that the focus continues on ensuring infrastructures capable of revolutionizing communications on the continent with a focus on optical fiber and cable networks. These commitments, according to the minister, are visible in the quality of ICT services and the continuous training of national staff, to respond to the country's challenges.

MultiChoice allocated TPA Noticias on channel 530 to all DStv Premium, Compact+, Compact, Family, Access and Easyview customers from June 13th to 15th as part of the commemoration.

DStv Access gets more entertaining 

MultiChoice decided to add Cartoonito, Disney Channel, Nicktoons and DreamWorks to DStv Access from June 15th to July 7th as kids are at home for the school holidays. Weirdly enough, no open window had been announced for their Family to Compact audience.

Older audiences can enjoy the best sporting action on channel 205 until July 16th. Other content also offered on SuperSport Football include Premier League, UEFA Champions League, Serie A and La Liga.

TBN and Disney Channel HD is a bust

A few years ago, MultiChoice was working on two HD feeds for both TBN and Disney Channel, and from the looks of the duration had been in development hell. Now TBN had been phased out for Zambezi Reloaded while Disney Channel by Racing240.

Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network are already in high definition and were commonly known as the big 3 alongside Disney Channel. Those numbers continue to fall short on MultiChoice's end while with TBN I think what's more shocking was its nomination for such frequency. 

Developing Story: StarSat Scraps Possibly Delays Price Increase Following News Of Its Possible Closure In South Africa

Not long ago, it was announced that StarSat would implementing a price increase effective from July 1st. Now the pay-tv company has removed any mentions of such across their social platforms following possible news of its closure in South Africa. 

On Digital Media, the parent company and license holder for StarSat's broadcast license was said to be revoked by ICASA. With sources mentioning that they had until September 18th to address staff and the various parties affected by this matter.

StarSat in these regards is exploring all the regulatory and legal issues regarding its licencing. This could have been the contributing factor as to why any mentions of these prices had since been taken down.

But StarTimes continues to sell their decoders when in such regards you would have to pause the distribution of your products. Various consumers worried and concerned wonder what will happen with AMC, One Free Televisual and Da Vinci.

MultiChoice had packaged and once distributed some of the channels viewed on their platform. The demise of StarSat means none of this content would be available in South Africa while others like CBS Reality and National Geographic reside on DStv.

Another downside pertains to the local offering viewed on the platform such as One Freestate Televisual and Rising Sun TV. Unlike the latter above whose reach extends to Africa, these are regional channels and as such don't have much avenues to stay on air.

News Shorts: Supa Strikas To Be Dubbed In IsiZulu For Play Room, Zee World Is Living Every Moment With New On Air Look By June 17 And Zambezi Reloaded Might Be Relaunching On DStv In The Coming Weeks

Supa Strikas goes local

As reported, Play Room had acquired rights to Supa Strikas after being made available to multiple kids channels on DStv already. The channel will add a new spin toward the animated series by dubbing the show in Zulu being the first for older viewers.

When Play Room launched later in 2023, it was only the preschool offering that received such treatment with Cocomelon and Akili And Me. With the soccer stars set to join this trio daily at 17:00 from 17 June.

Zee World is lighting your viewing experience 

Zee World was launched back in 2015 and has since then become one of the leading destinations for Bollywood entertainment. It's success led to the additions of Zee One, Zee Alem in Ethopia and the recent Zee Zonke in Southern Africa. 

Now the channel is gearing up for a new campaign titled Living Every Moment from June 17 with Zee World that is set to rollout updated graphics. 

Fan favorite channel makes a comeback

Zambezi Reloaded was added onto MultiChoice's DStv as catchup channel to Zambezi Magic. This was only applicable to consumers in Malawi after MultiChoice had its DStv license suspended with consumers having to catchup on past episodes during the festive season. 

Now MultiChoice appears to be looking at possibly reviving the channel for the second time of course the intentions for this iterations has yet to be mentioned. 

New Series Alert: Jeyran Currently Streaming On eVOD, Might Launch On eExtra Or eSeries

With little to no publicity from eMedia Investments on the endeavors on their platforms. The streamer eVOD added the Iranian historical drama 'Jeyran' making this the first outside of Istanbul to be allocated on the platform following Dayan, Destructive Beauty. 

It captures the 6 years of the life of Naser al-Din Shah and his favorite mistress, Jeyran and takes place in Iran, 19th century, after the death of Amirkabir. The king of Persia, Naser al-Din Shah Qajar, falls in love with Jeyran, who loves Siavash.

It starred Parinaz Izadyar as Jeyran, Bahram Radan as Naser al-Din Shah, Amirhossein Fathi as Siavash Panjsangi, Mahdi Pakdel as Salman, Setareh Pesyani as Noghreh, Ghazal Shakeri as Malekzadeh and Samira Hassanpour as Galin Khanum.

Jeyran made its debut on the Iranian network Home Video on February 13, 2022 with 52 episodes having being filmed. The forbidden love story is currently streaming on eVOD with more details regarding its availability on Openview to be announced soon.

In other developments, eMedia Investments will be adding more content from BET with a second season of Black Tax. No word as to why eMedia Investments would allocate season 2 on e.tv instead of season 1 airs Saturdays at 19:30 from June 15.