More Turkish Dramas Rolling Out Soon In Africa: "Yabani" + "Kızıl Goncalar" + "Şahane Hayatım" + "Aşk Yeniden"

Below is second batch of confirmed shows for Africa (not rumoured) each whose broadcasters have yet to be announced for reasons beyond my capacity. The list is in random order so so there's no guaranteed timeframe on when each show will be released.

Yabani

Yabani follows the remarkable journey of Ali, who was abducted as a boy and ended up working for the gang that kidnapped him. After enduring years of hardship, Ali renames himself Yaman and escapes his captors to build a new, better life together with his three friends. Things are not easy for this new family, but they work hard and are able to leave their dark past behind. Through it all, Yaman somehow manages to keep his soul pure and never succumbs to the darkness that surrounds him.

Things get complicated when Yaman meets Rüya, a beautiful girl from the rich side of town. 

Kızıl Goncalar

“Kızıl Goncalar” tells the poignant story of Meryem, who grew up in an Islamic sect and was married at 14. Now she is battling to prevent her daughter Zeynep from suffering the same fate as the bride of the sheikh’s grandson Cüneyd. They face a tumultuous journey, filled with tension and romance, as conservative and progressive beliefs clash.

The sheikh wants a morally pure bride for Cüneyd and the sect’s elders see Zeynep as a suitable candidate. Horrified by the idea, Meryem seeks guidance from her sister-in-law, a Koran teacher who was expelled from the sect. Given the sect’s power, they shy away from complaining officially and decide that they must flee.

Şahane Hayatım

The series focuses on the life of Sebnem Gümüşçü, an unfortunate woman who was born with great injustices and during her growing up journey began to work hard to overcome them and do everything necessary to forget the crimes that occurred in the past. More late in her criminal past he began to pursue her and she began to form part of her daily life, as long as she lived a wonderful life.

Aşk Yeniden

Zeynep is a headstrong and bold girl living in Istanbul with her Fisherman father Şevket, who loves his daughter unconditionally. Zeynep falls in love with a guy named Ertan, and later leaves her home to elope with him to America. In America, they live quite happily until Zeynep discovers of being pregnant, but Ertan asks her to abort the baby. Ertan leaves Zeynep after she refuses to do so. Zeynep breaks down and gives birth to a baby boy, Selim. But, she comes back to Turkey after 10 months as she unable to living with a baby and surviving in a foreign land.

On the other hand, Fatih Şekercizade, who belongs to a well-established and elite family of Turkey. He had been facing the pressure of being from an elite family from his mother who happens to be making his decisions from his childhood and has betrothed him to the girl of her own choice. 

Why Warner's Upcoming Restructure Will Serve As A Minus To Cartoon Network And Discovery Channel?

Warner Bros. Discovery is looking to fold most of its cable networks which comprise of Cartoon Network, TNT and Investigation Discovery under the division Global Linear Networks. This comes after Comcast announced plans to unbundle majority of its cable networks later in the year.

Cartoon Network, TNT and Investigation Discovery being spun off from Warner Bros. Studios won't improve anything there for the average consumer. For Warner Bros. Discovery, this brand split means they'll be able to reduce expenses and less being spent on new content for these brands means more revenue.

Internationally, Warner Bros. Discovery always felt spun off they have proven that on a number of occasions. Take for instance, Cartoon Network has relied on imports like Jade Armor and Hero Inside or regional shows like CN To The Rescue and The Amazing World Of Gumball to build up their schedule so that's unlikely to change.

So you could say with this change what this means for Cartoon Network is similar to that of Universal TV where their parent company will rely heavily on M-Net or Showmax rather than their respective networks for these shows. If you look overseas, the current executives are moving most of Cartoon Network's shows from Max to Netflix.

If anything, the lack of content for these cable networks could lead both MultiChoice and Warner Bros. Discovery to further streamline their portfolio. This transaction has a bigger effect on the factual part of the company which comprise of HGTV, Food Network and Travel Channel.

Unlike Cartoon Network and TNT, these networks had a lot of dependency on these properties and with the current state of pay-tv I expect for less to be invested towards these brands. Some channels like Discovery Family could get booted off while others like Food Network are either sold or turned into an import for Discovery+.

February 2025 On Universal TV, E! And Studio Universal Across Africa | Channel Premieres: E! Live From The Red Carpet (Grammy Awards) | Returning Shows Including Harry Wild | More

Universal TV

NCIS

Season 20 – Channel Premiere

Premieres Monday 3rd February at 8pm

Special Agent Alden Parker is still on the run while the NCIS teams up with the Hawaiian agents to try to clear his name. Main suspect: the Raven.

MAGNUM P.I. 

Season 5 – Channel Premiere

Premiere Friday 21st February at 8pm

It’s the fifth and final season, with Magnum, Rick and Higgins taking down Hawaii’s most dangerous criminals and solving seemingly impossible cases.

HARRY WILD

Season 3- Territory Premiere

Continues Fridays at 8pm, season finale 14th February

Retired English professor Harry and Fergus take on more cases, including the apparent suicide of a singer, the replacement of a chef’s entrée at a restaurant and more.

E!

Valentine Special

Weekdays in February from 3rd – 14th at 21:00

What better way to celebrate Valentine’s than to romance-up the schedule this February? Featuring: Dating No Filter.

E! Live From The Red Carpet: The 2025 Grammy Awards

Monday 3rd February at 19:00

Join E! for a night of glitter and glamour at this annual event celebrating the best in today’s music. See who’s wearing what as the stars strut their stuff in LA.

Studio Universal 

Comedy After Dark

10th – 14th February

Mon – Fri @ 9:45pm

It’s the month of love, but here on Studio we do Valentine’s a little differently! Expect the unexpected: time travel, magical masks, and Eddie Murphy snogging Eddie

10th February: Knight and Day 

11th February: Norbit

12th February: The Mask

13th February: Palm Springs

ACTION WEEKEND–JET LI

15th – 23rd February

Sat & Sun Double-bills from 8pm

Master of kung fu, Jet Li got his nickname “Jet” because of his speed and grace. In February we put our Action Weekends into his very capable and extremely fast hands!

15th February at 21:55: The Legend of Fong Sai-Yuk 2

22nd February at 21:35: Cradle 2 the Grave

23rd February at 20:00: Tai Chi Master

23rd February at 21:35: Romeo Must Die

The Eclipse Of Traditional TV: eMedia And MultiChoice Navigate The Streaming Tide

With Comcast looking to offload its cable networks we turn our sites to both MultiChoice and eMedia Investments whose 2024 was somewhat dismal or dramatic at least for one of the two. MultiChoice ousted 11 channels while undergoing a takeover by Canal+ which is awaiting approval from South African regulators.

eMedia Investments has rounded another year with no additions despite promises to add a few more channels as Ultraview's future is being questioned after OUTtv and FUSE reverted to eVOD.

Let's face it, consumers don't prioritise TV as much in recent years as Netflix has become the hangout spot for shows like Squid Games and Wednesday. MultiChoice has been focused on everything from streaming, insurance and cybersecurity but saving the once dominant DStv platform.

Even the financially challenged SABC's top rated soaps are grasping through straws as their viewership continues to plummet. Uzalo that serves as the dominant player amongst the foe stood at 4.8 million in October 2024 which is a 21% drop from 6.1 million in October 2023.

This is the reason MultiChoice has been selective when it comes to sourcing content take for instance Zee Zonke. The only reason this channel was able to stay afloat is due to Zee TV's existing footprint in the market same goes for SuperSport Schools that established it's presence on YouTube as School Sports Live.

If anything things haven't been greener for eMedia's Ultraview offering as part of its offering had been merged with eVOD, consumers are curious on what's next for the brand. Since it's rollout, it was met with heavy criticism for its pricing and content offering while being compared to DStv so a majority are expecting for it to be dismantled.

When it was introduced, Eskom was going full force with power cuts although that withered DStv hasn't recovered and as for Ultraview it never had a fighting chance. Remember eMedia Investments hadn't disclosed consumer numbers for Ultraview but it's assumed to have under 500 subscribers.

In general, adding new channels has been more riskier in recent years MultiChoice had done that with One Freestate Televisual and NWTV which lasted for about 3 months. Even if the plan were to restructure, SABC has done that numerous times with SABC 3 and it still hasn't saved its fallen viewership.

Rumour: Universal Kids, The American Counterpart Of DreamWorks Channel Is Shutting Down

A major shakeup is happening to one of NBCUniversal’s linear channels. Universal Kids, a channel focused on children’s programming is shutting down later this year.

Cord Cutters News first learned that it will reportedly shut down on March 6, 2025, which is the day it’s also being removed from Spectrum TV.

Launched in 2005 as PBS Kids Sprout, the network changed its name to Sprout in 2009. In 2013, Comcast, the parent company of NBCU, acquired a full ownership stake in the network and fully rebranded it to Universal Kids in 2017.

Over the years, the network was home to popular children’s shows including Sesame Street, The Berenstain Bears, Where’s Waldo, American Ninja Warrior Junior, The Wiggles, and other NBCUniversal programming.

The network was aiming to compete with Disney Junior and the Nick Jr. Channel in the children’s programming space. However, Universal Kids struggled to maintain viewership in an increasingly competitive market with the rise of streaming services like Netflix, and Disney+.

This news comes months after it was announced that Comcast has officially spun off its linear TV networks, including USA Network and MSNBC into SpinCo. The Universal Kids shutdown and the spinoff are part of a larger strategy by NBCUniversal to streamline its operations and focus on more profitable ventures. The spinoff will take around one year to complete as NBCU tries to navigate through the ongoing transformation within the media industry.

NBCU hasn’t officially announced if the channel is going dark however, Cord Cutters News has independently confirmed that the network is shutting down on March 6, 2025.

This was originally published by Cord Cutter News.