Could KykNet And Mzansi Magic Undergo Further Restructure As Canal+ Edges Closer To MultiChoice?

For those who haven't heard the news already, VIU which serves as one of the various streaming services competing with Netflix, Showmax, Amazon Prime Video and Disney+ now offers Afrikaans programming. After announcing plans to curate content in local languages original and dubbed programs like Eerste Liefde Laaste and Trom.

This isn't the first time that VIU has curated local content as they've licensed numerous projects from the SABC such as Skeem Saam, Uzalo, Muvhango and uBettina Wethu.

VIU aside from being a subsidiary of Canal+ who is currently in the process of completing it's acquisition of MultiChoice is very much like Showmax when it comes to scale and content. Should this deal move ahead, DStv consumers are likely to be seeing more imports on Mzansi Magic and KykNet.

Although from everyone's understanding, Canal+ would retain a 20% stake in MultiChoice SA there is ways to navigate those restrictions. KykNet has become a Southern African brand by filming content in Namibia and Botswana where this restriction wouldn't apply and another as we already mentioned is VIU.

VIU would continue curating content from the market with KykNet and Mzansi Magic serving as imports to select shows as seen with Showmax. For someone who uses Showmax wouldn't this render the mentioned brands obsolete as most of their shows would be accessible elsewhere.

That's what already seen with 1Max as its confined to premium package despite consumers on the mentioned offering getting Showmax at no extra charge. This is also a meant to serve as a placeholder to Me but seeing as it's not a lower tiered channel it's basically redundant.

Smile TV, Former StarSat Channel Is Shutting Down In The US

 Smile Of A Child (also known as Smile) was a Christian based children's network operated by Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) with a mixture of animated and live-action content. The channel offered shows like Superbook, Quigley's Village and Veggie Tales.

Through their website, it was announced that Smile would cease to exist from January 12th with content being integrated to Yippee TV and TBN+ both of which are streaming services. In other countries, TBN's 24 hour channel of the same name offers an educational block for most shows.

Prior to Smile's demise, StarTimes served as one of the various broadcasters to distribute the channel before TBN made the decision to close its offering internationally. It had been alleged that Smile was struggling to garner traction in most of these markets which is the reason all of the content reverted to TBN.

If Smile TV's demise has taught us anything is to preserve life while you still got it. This is further indication that cable networks aren't the latest fashion trend right now as Comcast looks to discard most of its cable networks while the remaining networks offer very little to new content.

2025 could shape up to be one of the most historic years for cable networks aside from Comcast you have Warner Bros. Discovery spinning off its cable networks from Max and Warner Bros. Pictures followed by Skydance's aggressive takeover of Paramount Global.

Could We Baby Bears Be Getting Cancelled On Cartoon Network After Two Seasons?

SABC 3 To Debut Turkish Dramas "The Unusual Suspects" And "Meyrem" In The Month Of January

SABC 3, a South African based free-to-air entertainment channel operated by the SABC which offers a mixture of content in English and Afrikaans has announced the additions of The Unusual Suspects and Meyrem. Both shows will occupy the 16:30 and will basically rival with e.tv's Die Agentskap which comes at 16:00.

Synopsis for The Unusual Suspects

Feyza, Zuhal and Nehir surprise their husbands to celebrate the anniversary of their husband's hotel. However, this surprise has unexpected consequences. These women, who suddenly find themselves in the middle of various actions, will enter the world of men quite eventful.

The limited series starred Bennu Yıldırımlar as Feyza, Yasemin Kay Allen as Zuhal, Ceren Moray as Nehir, Beril Pozam as Zeynep, Berk Hakman as Yalçın and Pamir Pekin as Gökhan Aktemur.

Synopsis for Meyrem 

A tragic accident binds three lives forever: Meryem, who takes the fall for a crime she didn’t commit; Oktay, the prosecutor who was actually behind the wheel; and Savaş, the grieving husband seeking vengeance. Meryem’s sacrifice to protect Oktay leads to a dramatic courtroom battle where love and truth become entangled in a web of deceit and revenge.

The melodrama starred Furkan Andıç as Savaş Sargun, Ayça Ayşin Turan as Meryem Akça, Açelya Topaloğlu as Derin Berker, Serenay Aktaş as Burcu Aktar, Cemal Toktaş as Oktay Şahin, Bestemsu Özdemir as Beliz Bilen and Kenan Acar as Güçlü Tekiner.

The Unusual Suspects will air daily at 16:00 from Monday 6 January on SABC 3 with Meyrem replacing it once it ends on Monday 20 January.

Recap To Last Year: Cartoon Network Merges Feeds In Some Parts Of Europe

The Cartoon Network station uplink , or signal source for operators, has undergone quite a significant transformation. In the past, the version for our region, referred to as CEE (Central and Eastern Europe), was intended only for the Czech, Slovak, Hungarian and Romanian markets . The original RSEE feed  intended primarily for the Balkans has now been absorbed into this feed , along with the Polish one . Now, in addition to the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania, the "new CEE" also serves Poland, Serbia, Croatia, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Macedonia, Moldova, Albania and others.

The sister station for the little ones, Cartoonito , or the competing portfolio of Nickelodeon stations , operates on a similar principle of a universal feed for many countries, with regional "opt-outs" for filler and advertising. Internally, this de facto old-new pan-European feed, similar to the one in the nineties, is called " Europe 2/Europe - East" . This is because similar cuts have also occurred in Western European markets - specifically in France, Germany and Portugal .

For this block, another playout is called " Europe 1/Europe - West" . A large part of the markets, especially from our corner, broadcasts the program without commercials and uses trailers and filler in the form of program excerpts between programs. Commercials have remained for now, for example, in Hungary and Poland. In the territory of the former federation, advertising has been missing from broadcasts for over a year. Its deployment in our country was represented by Atmedia from 2018 to 2022 .

Thanks to these steps, the program scheme had to be unified and the station graphics adjusted . The content page has been updated with the EPG program guide and will be somewhat revitalized through the deployment of more thematic blocks. The first visible visual change is the logo adjustment. The station identifier has become larger and moved more to the upper right corner. It has also lost transparency. The viewer can therefore better recognize which station they are watching. Logos have had a similar appearance for a long time, including in England and the USA .

The old jingles from the " Check It 4.0" era have also disappeared from the broadcast and everything is now set in a newer " Dimensional" guise. Reminders for the next show have moved from the bottom right corner to the top next to the logo. They are smaller and more animated. The bumpers for the next show are also more sophisticated thanks to the use of newer branding and unified with the recently added idents.

Premieres have a yellow sticker with black glitter instead of a small purple exclamation mark behind the logo in the lower left corner. There they also have an icon with a smiling smiley face of the aforementioned filler. At the end of the programs, dubbing cards of the producers of the individual versions are displayed - such a list is familiar to users of streaming services, for example.

Thanks to these changes, the operator will save costs and will be able to be more flexible in any further changes regarding the scheme or graphics. This modification was not directly communicated. The station has been present on our market practically since its entry into the European continent in the early nineties. However, it was officially launched here only in 2017, when it received a Czech audio track and subsequently advertising - before replacing it with the current filler.

Since 2018, it has been broadcasting in high definition Full HD, which gives it a certain advantage over competing stations Disney Channel, Minimax and Nickelodeon . The website is also still in operation, although according to our information, it should be turned off in favor of the Max platform containing a number of broadcast programs. These changes were described in detail for MediaGuru.cz by reader Lukáš Jaro , who has been following the activities of WarnerBros. Discovery for a long time.

The article was originally published by MediaGuru