Disney Channel To Debut New Series "Ayla And The Mirrors" In March 2025 For Viewers In Europe, Middle East And Africa

Disney Channel, an American based children's channel offering content for kids and tweens with a mixture of live-action and animated content has acquired rights to the series Ayla And The Mirrors. Known as Ayla Y Los Mirrors in Spain, the series will broadcast daily on Disney Channel at 17:00 CAT from 10 March.

Described as a coming of comedy series, the first season will comprises of 30 half hours episodes. It starred Liz Burnette, Violeta Madel, Daniela Monter, Cristian López, Camino Moreno, Israel Menéndez, Alicia Chojnowski, Selu Nieto, Mar Abascal and Anastasia Russo.

Synopsis for Ayla And The Mirrors

Ayla, a rich and spoiled girl, is orphaned after the unexpected death of her millionaire father. She suffers post-traumatic shock that leaves her without memories of her past. While the police try to find out her identity, she is sent to a shelter called El Bosque. There she meets Inés, her new roommate, and The Mirrors, a group of boys and girls from the center with a passion for dancing. 

With their help, Ayla finds her place and discovers a surprising ability: hearing the feelings of others through musical visions. But not everything will be so easy for Ayla. Her aunt Esmeralda keeps a close eye on her to make sure that the girl is not a threat to her newly inherited fortune.

TLNovelas To Debut New Series "Happily Ever After" In March 2025 Across Africa

TLNovelas, a Mexican based entertainment channel operated by TelevisaUnivision that distribute a variety of Portuguese telenovelas is set to rollout a new series titled Happily Ever After. Known in Mexico as Eternamente Amándonos, the series will commence on March 31st, 2025 replacing The Path Of Love once it ends.

Synopsis of Happily Ever After 

Paula Bernal and Rogelio Iturbide, two people with very different lives, instantly fall in love upon meeting and marry without letting Rogelio's family know, especially the matriarch of the family, Martina Rangel. When Paula arrives from Mexico City to the Iturbide's home, her lifestyle ideas clash with those of Martina, a manipulative woman accustomed to controlling her surroundings. Martina has sacrificed her happiness to follow the customs of Morelia society and, feeling threatened, declares a war on Paula.

Based on the Turkish drama İstanbullu Gelin, the series stars Diana Bracho, Marcus Ornellas and Alejandra Robles Gil in leading roles. Those residing in South Africa would be familiar with its premise as eMedia Investments acquired and dubbed its Turkish counterpart as Deur Dik En Dun.

Happily Ever After premiered on Las Estrellas from 27 February to 11 August 2023 with 120 half hour episodes having being filmed.

In other developments, Fernanda Colungo will be starring in Telemundo's newest addition in February, The Count: Love And Honor. This will be the channel's second adaptation from The Count Of Monte Cristo following the successful debut of The Boss in the 2010s which starred Aracley Arambula.

SABC Looking To Launch Openview Competitor

With the government set to turnoff (and delay) the analogue signals by 31 March 2025, SABC, e.tv and several provincial stations are set to lose under 5 million consumers. In the past year, SABC and eMedia's top shows experienced a ratings dip and with these turnoffs it will be hard for these stations to generate enough ad revenue.

So the public broadcaster is looking for an investor who will help kickstart their this DTT venture as seen with eMedia Investments whose Openview services have amassed 3 million households. They are hoping to fill up those households who are set to lose their signals and also attract potential Openview and DStv consumers.

They are looking to perform a trial run with about 10,000/100,000 and depending on the demand could seek to increase the supply.

This DTT venture that will come with a once-off fee will comprise of SABC 1-3 alongside additional channels SABC Sport, SABC Education, SABC Variety and SABC Lehae and their 19 radio stations. The public broadcaster was also said to be rolling out a service tailored for SABC+ on this platform.

If anything, there's a lot of mystery with the distribution of funds from what is known this investor will fork out cash for a million decoders. With the public broadcaster technically insolvent they could be more to this deal maybe even a partnership of some sorts.

MultiChoice has several shareholders in various African markets including Zambia's ZBC that holds a 49% stake in the company. Although, there's not much details over the roles and so forth usually whoever is managing the finances is in charge so they could as well commission more content perhaps through the SABC.

This is platform which puts SABC in the top position so there's no reason why it wouldn't be an unlikely scenario. If anything, with the analogue termination set to commence at some point I don't think this new venture can grow their audience if anything perhaps create some division.

When DStv launched, there were consumers saying "I don't use the SABC" as M-Net and SuperSport existed although SABC remained dominant, there was a dip in viewers. If anything, I'm kind of curious to see if this new venture of theirs will succeed in a market where DStv, Openview and streaming take a large chunk of their potential clients.

The Tom And Jerry Show Might Be Eyeing A Potential Rollout On Cartoon Network In Some Countries

The Cartoonito channel was launched in most parts of the world by 2023 after debuting on Boomerang years prior offering shows like Cocomelon, Thomas And Friends and Dino Ranch. At the time, Warner Bros. Discovery EMEA had stated that remaining shows from Boomerang would form part of Cartoonito 

But that was never the case as Mr. Magoo was picked by Cartoon Network in Africa with the network possibly eyeing The Tom And Jerry Show. It had already been confirmed that the show will be airing in parts of Europe and if I had to guess this may not a complete integration of the franchise.

Prior to this, Cartoon Network (Italy and MENA) had been uploading several content to The Tom And Jerry Show on YouTube and it's too soon to tell when or if the same fate will await Africa. So far Cartoon Network Africa has only uploaded the classic Tom And Jerry (alongside Looney Tunes) so maybe they'll be eyeing those shows.

If I'm being honest, I don't think Cartoon Network Africa will license those shows for the foreseeable future if they hadn't prioritised their older collection of shows for a decade, why start now. Most people that watched the classic iterations aren't watching the channel especially in the era of streaming so again pointless.

Unless this was a reference to The Tom And Jerry Show and Looney Tunes Cartoons then that would make a lot more sense. As for Europe, Warner Bros. Discovery is probably cross promoting/marketing shows we've got plenty of that with Discovery's boutique of channels.

And now even the Warner part is looking to integrate as Harry Potter: Wizards Of Baking is eyeing a debut on Cartoon Network in Africa. This cross promotion is probably Warner's way of giving these shows more exposure some people are like Cartoonito is for toddlers but there's Tom And Jerry so slotting that on Cartoon Network will make them reconsider.

SuperSport Schools Teasing Something Regarding The SABC

SuperSport Schools is a youth based sports brand operated by SuperSport, a division of MultiChoice following the acquisition of School Sports Live. Since it's inception, the brand had garnered a lot of traction offering a variety of sporting content ranging from football, netball, swimming and rugby.

Not long ago, the broadcaster had teased "Something Big Is Coming" and we can only guess by the font and letters incased in the picture that it relates to SABC. I mean a partnership with the SABC shouldn't come as a surprise as the broadcaster had been having on/off relationship regarding sporting rights.

With MultiChoice and SABC that have settled their disputes regarding sporting rights although remain silent on the conditions one has to wonder if SuperSport Schools was likely attached to this deal.

KykNet recently launched a news segment known as SuperSkole Sport and we can only assume that SABC forged a similar deal. SuperSport Schools could as well be launching a news segment under the SABC or better yet a block of some sort similar to BBC Primetime either on SABC 1-3 and Sport.

If there's one thing I find depressing about this deal is that Easyview consumers have to depend on public stations for weekly football matches and now SuperSport Schools. A similar thing with WildEarth as People's Weather (now People's Planet) distributed SafariLIVE only for that to get yanked and WildEarth offered as consolation.

Update: The announcement had been delayed until further notice