CBeebies Celebrates Heritage Month By Airing Sleepy Time Stories In Four African Languages

• Seven Sleepy Time Stories to be aired in Isizulu, Sesotho, Tsonga and Afrikaans on CBeebies (DStv channel 306).

• The translated Bedtime Stories will air from 2nd September to the 29th September, every day from 7pm to 9pm

 

 

To celebrate Heritage Month this year, BBC Studios will be translating seven Sleepy Time Stories on CBeebies into an African language, from Isizulu, Sesotho, Tsonga to Afrikaans. The dubbed episodes will air on CBeebies, DStv channel 306, between 2nd September – 29th September every day from 7pm.

 

CBeebies is BBC Studios’ dedicated pre-school channel on DStv, providing children aged six years and under a range of programming designed to encourage learning through play. Sleepy Time Stories will help little ones wind down after a day of excitement and get ready for bedtime.

 

Pierre Cloete, the Commercial Director at BBC Studios in Africa says “To mark heritage month and celebrate the diversity of our nation, we wanted to shine a spotlight on some of our African languages with the help of our pre-school channel, CBeebies. As CBeebies is for little learners, translating a selection of the Sleepy Time Stories to 4 languages will allow our little viewers and parents to learn or develop their language skills while enjoying the shows throughout September”.

 

 

The translated shows will be:

• Goldilocks and the Three Bears (Isizulu, Sesotho, Tsonga to Afrikaans)

• The Elves and the Shoemaker (Isizulu, Sesotho, Tsonga to Afrikaans)

• The Enormous Radish (Isizulu, Sesotho, Tsonga to Afrikaans)

• The Fox and the Hen (Isizulu, Sesotho, Tsonga to Afrikaans)

• The Magic Porridge Pot (Isizulu, Sesotho, Tsonga to Afrikaans)

• The Ugly Duckling (Isizulu, Sesotho, Tsonga to Afrikaans)

• Three Little Pigs (Isizulu, Sesotho, Tsonga to Afrikaans)

• Bluey S2 Set 1 Episode 26: Sleepy Time (to only be translated to Isizulu)

 

The episodes will also be available to stream on BBC Studios Africa YouTube.

 

Could MultiChoice Undergo A Name Change As Speculated With Canal+'s MC Vision?

During the month, it was reported Canal+ was looking to increase their stake in MC Vision from 37% to 75% making them majority shareholder. With co-founders Currimjee Jeewanjee and Co., that will reduce their stake from 57% to 25% with Canal+ looking to enhance its offering in the region.

Canal+ had already made other moves within Africa like purchasing the remaining shares in MultiChoice which too is awaiting regulatory approval. They also own Nigerian production company ROK Studios as well as 30% stake in Marodi TV which is based in Senegal.

One of the questions awaiting is how different MultiChoice will be in the coming years. With Canal+ buying a large chunk of MC Vision it's likely become Canal+ Maurice/Mauritius I mean that's what happened with M7 Group in Europe and NC+ in Poland the result was always a corporate restructure. 

Similar to Poland, Canal+ is MultiChoice's biggest shareholder within the company so whose to say that the trademark won't die out eventually as they could always inherent MultiChoice: A Canal+ Company. That's how M7 Group panned out before the trademark went fully under the knife. 

Unlike most of these entities, MultiChoice doesn't have much Canal+ in the truck outside of ROK and as seen with Francophone Africa. The acquisition could see them incorporate themselves within MultiChoice's existing offering while closing the doors for other brands. 

It could as well even answer the questions regarding MC Vision and MultiChoice as both offer services within Mauritius. Similar to South Africa, Canal+ could as well look to divide operations within Mauritius this way Currimjee Jeewanjee and Co., shares remain intact once the acquisition concludes. 

Important Notice: PBS KIDS Will End Its Run On DStv With Peep And The Big Wide World

PBS KIDS is scheduled to close by the end of the month making it the 12th channel to exit DStv and with its lifespan in Africa growing a lot shorter. The channel opted to reduce its content to just three shows Peep And The Big Wide World, Elinor Wonders Why and Arthur.

MultiChoice hasn't stated whether any of the content viewed on PBS KIDS will eventually resurface on another TV channel. But Brand & Rights 360 who now manage the distribution of PBS KIDS shows had licensed content various broadcasters around the world with Showmax included.

Below is the final schedule of the channel before it ends transmission:

23:55 Peep And The Big Wide World

00:20 WordWorld

00:45 It's A Big Big World

01:15 Pinkalicious & Peterrific

01:40 Arthur

02:10 Wild Kratts

02:35 Martha Speaks

03:05 Nature Cat

03:30 Peep And The Big Wide World

03:50 WordWorld

04:20 It's A Big Big World

05:00 Arthur

05:25 Arthur

05:55 Peep And The Big Wide World

06:15 Peep And The Big Wide World

06:40 Elinor Wonders Why

07:05 Elinor Wonders Why

07:30 Elinor Wonders Why

08:25 Arthur

08:55 Arthur

09:20 Peep And The Big Wide World

09:45 Peep And The Big Wide World

10:05 Elinor Wonders Why

10:35 Elinor Wonders Why

11:00 Elinor Wonders Why

11:55 Arthur

12:25 Arthur

12:50 Peep And The Big Wide World

13:15 Peep And The Big Wide World

13:35 Elinor Wonders Why

14:00 Elinor Wonders Why

14:30 Elinor Wonders Why

15:25 Arthur

15:55 Arthur

16:20 Peep And The Big Wide World

16:45 Peep And The Big Wide World

17:05 Elinor Wonders Why

17:30 Elinor Wonders Why

18:00 Elinor Wonders Why

18:55 Arthur

19:25 Arthur

19:50 Peep And The Big Wide World

20:15 Peep And The Big Wide World

20:35 Elinor Wonders Why

21:00 Elinor Wonders Why

21:25 Elinor Wonders Why

22:25 Arthur

22:50 Arthur

23:20 Peep And The Big Wide World

23:40 Peep And The Big Wide World

Notes

• Elinor Wonders Why has the most airtime on the channel with 15 slots followed by Peep And The Big Wide World with 14 slots.

• Pinkalicious & Peterrific, Wild Kratts, Martha Speaks and Nature Cat are least aired shows as they obtain 1 slot.

Does eMovies' Possible Demise And Movie Room's Inclusion Hint At A Possible Restructure On DStv?

Since 2022, eMedia Investments and MultiChoice had been having a carriage dispute regarding e.tv's 4 channels on DStv: eToonz, eMovies, eMovies Extra and eExtra. These channels were ousted on DStv by May of that year and were reinstated due to pending legal matters.

MultiChoice which is currently in the process of being taken over by French giant Canal+ had outlined two reasons for ousting these channels. The first having dealt with repeats viewed on those channels and another transponder constraints which led to several channels exiting DStv. 

Within this year, Movie Room conceived by Newzroom Afrika's co-founders Ngwato Nkosi Group was introduced as a replacement for eMovies. It would curate a mix of locally produced and international movies but similar to the fallen only bolstered the existing offering from DStv.

This is coming from the company that restricted brands like BBC UKTV and Magic Showcase from premium and mid tier subscribers as a way to combat repeats. Only for these channels to be allocated on the mentioned packages despite already having access to the content in question. 

If anything, one had to wonder if Movie Room will perhaps be holding a much bigger position within MultiChoice's bouquet of channels as seen with Moja Love and SABC News. M-Net had closed Me and 1Magic as part of continued efforts to bolster the lineup on Showmax.

This has left consumers of Compact and Family in disarray as those who would need to watch America's Got Talent or Magnum Pi would need to upgrade to Compact+ for 1Max or subscribe to Showmax. Now why would anyone do that if they can get this on Openview with a once off payment. 

Although Universal and E! would retain some of this content, there is that matter of consistency while Chicago Med would be on its ninth season, Universal is still behind by four to six seasons which could take several years same goes with Movie Room which is leaning in the same corner as TNT.

With MultiChoice and M-Net's continued efforts to streamline their offering what could transpire now is the dismantling of M-Net Movies if not the entire movie offering perhaps M-Net Movies 3 and 4. As this offering on DStv has become bloated despite attempts at cutting back on repeats.

Similar to how consumers of Me had to turn to Universal for Magnum Pi and The Equalizer. The same outcome would await M-Net Movies as those viewing those channels can still get plenty of international content on Studio Universal, TNT and Movie Room.

CineMagic could extend its arm to more households as a means to bolster the local offering on these channels especially during Africa Month. Who knows maybe Canal+ will use FilmBox Africa to substitute for part of this offering and merge the two premium movie channels into one.

VIU Looking To Become The Third Broadcaster To Rival With eExtra's Kuiertyd

VIU is an Asian based streaming service that is formed as part of a joint venture with PCCW Media Limited and French broadcaster Canal+. Residing in more than 20 countries, VIU is estimated to have reached over 60 million users as the streamer plans to build up on its content slate.

Canal+ which serves as partner is currently in pursuit of Showmax's parent company MultiChoice after garnering stakes is now sitting at 45%. The plan should this acquisition succeed is to create an African powerhouse that can take on giants like Disney and Netflix. 

Another plan on the cards would be introducing international content in local languages particularly Afrikaans. eMedia Investments has been doing this since 2018 and had since then become popular within South Africa literally doubling the viewership of SABC 2's 7de Laan.

KykNET became eMedia Investments' first competitor in such pursuit as this offering was rolled out through KykNET&Kie. Both of which are owned by MultiChoice, with Canal+ looking to acquire this could lead to additional programming as the channel had simplified this offering in May.

Although Showmax had already been producing Afrikaans content for their audiences none of which rival with shows like Doodsondes or Sommerdahl Moorde. But rather the niche part of Kuiertyd with only a variant of these viewers with Bôll And Ôll and Ja, Daddy Kan Lekker Eet.

It will be interesting to see how these shows will do in terms of distribution cause with Canal+ owning KykNET they could use it promote these endeavors. Another scenario would be shopping these series to other broadcasters like the SABC since they are technically insolvent. 

The public broadcaster has been looking at cost cutting measures aside from possibly selling SABC 3 another was reducing budget costs for shows like Muvhango. VIU has been the official distributor to some of their shows like Uzalo and Skeem Saam.

Press statement about the inclusion of dubbed programming 

The demand for foreign content is so great that part of Viu’s strategy for the next year is to dub more and more of these titles into South African languages to make them more accessible.

While K-dramas are geared more towards English speakers, Turkish content is more aligned with Afrikaans audiences. Kelly said part of the growth in demand for Turkish content is due to the gap left by long-running Afrikaans shows like 7de Laan reaching end of life.

For Viu, the dubbing of content in Afrikaans gives the company an opportunity to use internationally sourced content to contribute to the local economy by employing local vocal talent. “The Turks are doing well in TV production, particularly in the long-running dramas. We work with some of the best dubbing providers in the country and we want to make sure we don’t do our audience a disservice in that,” said Kelly.