SABC Sport Is In Talks To Replace DStv As The Sponsor For PSL

SABC Sport has established that the Premier Soccer League [PSL] is currently in advanced talks to replace DStv as a title sponsor.

This will come as a huge shock to the football fraternity considering the service company operated by Multichoice still has a year remaining on a deal that was struck in September 2020 after taking over from ABSA.

An investigation by the public broadcaster has revealed that the discussion now is around whether to cut ties with immediate effect or attempt to find ways to see out the final year without any severe financial implications.

Furthermore, it’s emerged that DStv are concerned about continuing to carry the costs of a partnership that runs into multimillions per season.

With the mooted change of ownership after French media conglomerate Vivendi, the owner of Canal+, announced a firm offer for DStv and Showmax owner MultiChoice, there remains uncertainty over the future of Africa’s biggest pay tv company.

DStv had stepped in when ABSA pulled the plug on a link that existed for more than a decade as the Premier Division backers since 2007, with the PSL financials at the time showing that the revenue from the bank was in the region of R137-million.

It’s not clear just how much DStv put on the table when the five-year deal was confirmed and announced because the league hasn’t made available its financials to the public since the 2019/20 campaign, which was largely affected by the Covid pandemic.

But SABC Sport has been informed it has been slightly lowered, although still well over R100-million per annum.

What was evident is that there was not a lot of disruption given it was business as usual in the domestic league, especially with SuperSport International as broadcasters forking out R600-million per season.

PSL chairman Irvin Khoza has always been adamant that the television rights deal was the lifeblood of a lot of the clubs, some who do not have sponsors and rely on the R2-million grant from the league.

Talks are ongoing to find a replacement title partner either before the 2024/25 season gets underway next month or in the campaign that follows.

Betway, the online gambling company, has been mentioned as a strong candidate.

Efforts to get a comment from both DStv and the PSL proved futile with no response from either organisation at the time of going to print.

The only communication to come from the league to clubs was last week requesting Premiership teams to hold off on finalising their kits as there was work being done on the new “Premier Division logo” for the upcoming season.

RUMOUR. TeenNick Might Be Replaced By Nicktoons In Latin America

The TeenNick channel recently adopted the new Splat graphic to align with the new global identity of the Nickelodeon brand. According to rumors, Paramount Global could discontinue the commercialization of TeenNick in the region and return to the Nicktoons channel, which is dedicated exclusively to broadcasting cartoons. 

Nicktoons already existed in Latin America, but stopped being commercialized in 2020 to make way for NickMusic, using the American music channel signal until today. Later, it was discovered that the channel never stopped broadcasting in Latin Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese. Now, Paramount seems to be reconsidering taking advantage of this signal, which is generated from the European subsidiary of the company. 

The user Nick Latam Promos revealed on X/Twitter that the Mexican cable operator Izzi has a new program for Nicktoons that will go into effect from July 19 at 21:00 hrs MEX, 22:00 hrs COL/PER, 23:00 hrs CHI/ FRI y 00:00hrs ARG . Until now, no other cable operator has updated its programming for the advanced dates of July, so this information should still be taken with caution and not as official.

Nicktoons programming includes series like "SpongeBob SquarePants", "The Loud House", "The Casagrandes", "ALVINNN!!! and the Chipmunks", "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" (2012), "The Twisted Timeline Of Sammy & Raj", and "The Patrick Star Show", due to the relaunch of the channel in Latin America, would make its debut on the region's pay TV. the region. 

On the other hand, the programming of Nicktoons from the 19th of July was recently updated in the system, which increases the certainty of the information. 

In addition, the signals of Nickelodeon for Panregional and Brazil will receive a new programming, with fewer hours dedicated to live-actions, similar to the grid of the Mexican signal. This, along with the rumor of the return of Nicktoons, could be part of an effort by Paramount to give greater priority to animated series in the region.

The story was originally published on TVLaint

Kyle Carrozza, Creator Of Mighty Magiswords On Cartoon Network Arrested For Possession Of Child Pornography

Kyle Adam Carrozza, creator of the Cartoon Network series Mighty Magiswords, was booked last month by the Burbank Police Department on two counts of child pornography possession.

Carrozza, 45, was arrested at an apartment complex in Burbank, California, on the morning of Thursday, June 20, at 7:30 am. The arrest was part of an Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force investigation. The arrest was reported in the Burbank Police Department’s daily arrest log.

Carrozza’s Mighty Magiswords debuted on Cartoon Network’s CN Anything app as a 15-second micro-series in 2015. The show was “custom created for the way young audiences consume media today,” Rob Sorcher, then-chief content officer for Cartoon Network, said in 2016. “This is about how stories can be told in new ways and how a community can play together.”

Nearly 400 pieces of platform-specific content were created around Carrozza’s show, including shorts, vlogs, web/mobile games, and interactive narrative content. Then, in 2016, Cartoon Network turned the project into a linear tv series, which lasted for two seasons and over 90 episodes.

According to Carrozza’s Linkedin page, he had most recently been a board artist on Nickelodeon’s The Fairly OddParents: A New Wish and The Casagrandes Movie. His other credits include storyboarding on Warner Bros. Animation’s Animaniacs reboot, Apple TV+’s The Snoopy Show, Disney Junior’s Doc McStuffins, Disney’s Fish Hooks, Frederator’s Bravest Warriors, and Nickelodeon’s Fanboy & Chum Chum, as well as doing character layout on Paramount’s Spongebob Squarepants: Sponge Out of Water. He also created the short MooBeard the Cow Pirate for Nickelodeon’s Random! Cartoons.

Carrozza has been charged under California penal code 311.11(a), which is possession of child pornography, and an enhanced 311.11(c) charge, which is for individuals knowingly in possession of at least 12 videos, or 600 images, of child pornography.

The offenses can be charged as either a misdemeanor or felony and are punishable by up to one year in county jail or up to five years in state prison. If found guilty of either charge, Carrozza will be ordered to register as a sex offender with law enforcement. The crimes he is accused of do not apply to drawings, figurines, statues, or films rated by the Motion Picture Association.

The story was originally published on Cartoonbrew.

Weird Development. Canal+ Super Sport Logo Bares Similarities To M-Net's SuperSport Logo

During the month, Canal+ Group opted to make some minor adjustment to the Canal+ Sport trademark in Poland. The company opted to separate the trademark with Canal+ retaining its linear presence but now as Canal+ Extra with Sport forming Super Sport.

Speculation going around is that brand name derives from the acquired company MultiChoice who used the trademark since its launch in 1986. Similar to Canal+, MultiChoice at some point had stylised the trademark as two separate words as seen above. 

Notice how the spacing from M-Net's SuperSport resembles that of Canal+ for starters. Both logos "Super" is aligned to the left with different font and styling while "Sport" on the other hand is aligned to the right and both are displayed in bold.

As for the linear lineup, Canal+ is now using a blue background for this revamped offering as opposed to when it was green with Canal+ Sport. Interesting to note, SuperSport's font color is also blue while it's previous logo had a blue background. 

Speaking of M-Net's SuperSport, they'd often had been spotted using the 2D "S" logo with some curious on whether a potential rebrand could be on the cards with the latest one in black and white like Canal+ version. 

It kind of seems a bit coincidental that Canal+ Sport arrangements comes around the time Canal+ is finalizing terms of its acquisition of MultiChoice. What's funny is that MultiChoice once owned the Canal+ Premium channel in Poland when it was FilmNet.

Now Canal+ is basically uniting estranged relatives in the hopes to survive a Netflix dominant world. 

Channel Moves. Primetime On eExtra's Kuiertyd Moves Up Almost An Hour Early With Jeyran

Last month, it was reported that eMedia Investments had scooped up rights to more foreign shows outside of Istanbul with Jeyran.  Currently streaming on eVOD, the series is slated to air on eExtra daily at 16:15 from Wednesday 24 July. 

This would prove my hypothesis regarding eMedia's increased local investment toward eExtra following inclusions of Annekan Die Swa Kry and Kelders Van Geheime. eMedia Investments is likely positioning eExtra as their KykNET channel.

After SABC had further reduced its local efforts following cancellation of 7de Laan and move of Afrikaans content on SABC 3. eExtra had seen a demand in their offering which led to inclusions of European drama Sommerdahl Moorde and local rugby show BÔll And Ôll.

The downside as some have seen the Asian offering had been axed unless similar to the latter eMedia Investments is looking to dub those as well for eExtra's Kuiertyd or the eVOD streaming service. 

More info on Jeyran

Jeyran captures 6 years of the life of Naser al-Din Shah and the titular character/mistress 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.