In a surprising move by the Mouse House, Disney XD is set to fold under the Disney Junior umbrella in Netherlands from the 1st of May. This means Disney XD will only be available in only 3 markets namely United States, Canada (through Corus Entertainment) and Poland (through AMC Networks International).
It also means shows like Big City Greens, Marvel's Moon Girl And Devil Dinosaur and Kiff will be exclusively on Disney Channel.
Disney hasn't stated the reason for this reshuffle but with this brand residing in Europe it was likely due to an alignment strategy. For several years, Disney had been closing their linear platforms outside the United States with Disney Junior maintaining some presence within the regions.
Prior to Disney Junior's launch in Netherlands, the company once offered a Dutch feed to the brand so this would technically be a re-entry of the channel to the region. It's currently unknown if the brand will use the feed taken up by the channel in Africa or opt for a localised feed.
Disney Junior serves as a preschool counterpart for the Disney Channel offering shows like PJ Masks, Spidey And His Amazing Friends and Little Mermaid. Unlike Disney XD, the company continues to invest in its preschool offering although it's been in a repetitive slope.
TLC is a female skewed entertainment channel operated by Warner Bros. Discovery that offers a mixture of factual and lifestyle programming. It grew to become the leading destination for newlyweds with shows like 90 Day Fiance and Say Yes To The Dress alongside other shows like Body Parts and Monster Inside Me.
For sometime, TLC has become one of the few TV channels on DStv alongside Nickelodeon to distribute localised feeds in Africa. Since last year, MultiChoice had picked up and launched TLC Africa for its consumers in Southern Africa (excluding South Africa) on channel 125.
Currently seen in the West and Eastern parts of Africa, TLC Africa was a lightweight version to TLC South Africa often featuring older shows from the channel. Unlike TLC South Africa, the channel has had resorted to censorship by even isolating shows like I Am Jazz as the lead is transgender.
Last week, a DStv consumer in South Africa had noticed that TLC Africa is not seen on channel 125 and with Southern African consumers sharing a transponder can see the frequencies of the mentioned channels. Since then, a notice was sent to the relevant team and we had finally gotten feedback.
This DStv subscriber had asked whether TLC Africa was removed from channel 125 or merged with channel 135 and the answer was as follows:
TLC Africa and TLC South Africa have not merged. Viewers will now only see the TLC channel feed available to their region—so South African audiences should only access the localised TLC feed on channel 135, and audiences across the rest of Africa will only have access to TLC Africa on channel 125
To dive deeper into this, the sudden disappearance of TLC Africa on channel 125 in South Africa was a MultiChoice thing as they can configure with the settings of their decoders. One example would be SuperSport while South Africa groups them on channels 200-220 these regions group them by 220-240.
Another question was pertaining to Discovery TLC now being referred to as TLC South Africa:
The channel formerly listed as “Discovery TLC” on DStv channel 135 has been updated to reflect its correct brand name, TLC South Africa, aligning with how we refer to it across our PR and marketing platforms.
BBC Studios has announced that it will rebrand its premium drama channel BBC First in the Netherlands to BBC NL on May 15th. The BBC NL channel will continue to provide Dutch audiences with dramas and crime series handpicked by the local team in Amsterdam and fully localised with subtitles for Dutch audiences, in a new-look home.
Bram Husken, SVP & General Manager Benelux & Nordics at BBC Studios, commented: “We have had a fantastic response to BBC First over the past decade, consistently ranking as a top 10 channel. We believe that there is an opportunity to bring our world class storytelling to an even wider audience. Evolving to BBC NL articulates to audiences that this is a service curated specifically for the Dutch audience, with a bespoke programming line-up of some of BBC Studios’ most popular and well-nurtured brands, available with Dutch subtitles. There’s never been a better time to come to us and see the best of your British neighbours.”
To mark the launch of BBC NL, audiences can tune into the premiere of popular light crime period drama Miss Scarlet. Seasom five, which begins on May 15th, sees the Victorian detective Eliza Scarlet tasked with solving mysterious crimes alongside brand-new Detective Inspector, Alexander Blake. Audiences can also enjoy the return of the Yorkshire-based trio of vets operating against the backdrop of World War II in season 5 of All Creatures Great and Small, which airs on May 21st.
Throughout May other new premieres audiences can enjoy on BBC NL include the popular Death in Paradise spin-off Beyond Paradise season 3 which follows DI Humphrey Goodman in the sleepy town of Shipton Abbott near the Devon Coast. Further fan-favourite returners include Murdoch Mysteries season 17, Call The Midwife season 14, The Chelsea Detective season 3, Darby and Joan season 2 and the BBC’s longest running crime series, Silent Witness, returns for season 28.
Canal+ is currently in pursuit of MultiChoice after reaching the 35% threshold is looking to acquire full ownership and await regulatory approval from legislation. But MultiChoice may not be the only company the French broadcaster sinks its claws on as they currently hold a 29% stake of Viaplay.
Very much like MultiChoice, Viaplay is a Swedish pay-tv provider with roughly 6 million subscribers and has been a dominant force in Nordic market. Canal+ initially started it's bid at 12% before hiking it to 29% following a restructure which led it to exit US, UK and Baltics.
Under Swedish laws and the surrounding regions in which Viaplay operates, when a company reaches the 30% to 33% threshold they are required by law to acquire remaining shares (including minorities). Very much like South African laws where the threshold sits at 35%.
Unlike South Africa's strict foreign regulations which caps Canal+ at 20% there's no hurdles for them to obtain full ownership except for let's say PPF, a Czech Republic investment firm. They also have a 29% stake and could as well serve as an obstacle in their pursuit.
Similar to when Disney attempted to acquire Comcast's 30% stake in Hulu from time and time again. PPF may not make it easy for Canal+ they could retain their stake in the hopes for more money as Canal+ buys other shareholders or serve as a possible bidder with them also gobbling 29%.
If one had to guess when Canal+ will look to acquire Viaplay perhaps by the fall of 2025 to early 2026 as they set their sights on MultiChoice. It's likely that shareholders want Canal+ to finish it's MultiChoice acquisition before pursuing any other corporate takeovers.
As of September 2024, MultiChoice's foothold in Africa has been under siege with its consumer base that plummeted to 19 million. Initially residing in 24 million, combining it's reach with Canal+ would have the broadcaster reach its 50 million markup but a tie-up to Viaplay is the final piece they need right now.
Viaplay very much like MultiChoice has been in financial distress and have been reliant on investors (particularly Canal+) for stability. A takeover would help them minimise operation costs and bulk up against giants like Netflix who despite reaching 300 million households have its consumer base minimised in mentioned regions.
TLNovelas, a Mexican based entertainment channel home to a variety English dubbed telenovelas home to shows like Rubi, Sortilego and Wild Skin is set to allocate Three Sides Of Ana and Your Love Is My Fortune in the month of June. This comes months after bulking up on mostly reruns.
Synopsis for Three Sides Of Ana
Over a road trip, triplets Ana Laura, Ana Leticia, and Ana LucÃa, along with their parents, suffer a dramatic accident crashing by the side of a river. The consequences of this event are catastrophic: Both parents die, Ana Laura loses one leg, and Ana LucÃa, unconscious, is dragged by the river’s flow. Only Ana Leticia, who actually caused the accident, emerges unscathed.
Soledad, a woman who was seriously hurt after her daughter’s death, helps Ana LucÃa, whom she finds agonizing. Although Soledad discovers who the girl is, she takes advantage of her memory loss regarding the accident and her family and decides to keep her, making her believe she is her mother.
Despite everyone declares Ana LucÃa is death, Ernestina, the triplets' grandmother, and Ramiro, their uncle, don’t give up and do everything they can to find Ana LucÃa. But years go by, the same as their wishful thinking to find her.
Ana Laura is the only one who never loses hope to recover her sister. She has turned into a beautiful young woman with a good heart, but also solitary due to her disability. Ana Leticia, on the other hand, is an extortionist and ambitious woman who doesn’t want her sister back at all, as this would mean splitting her inheritance as well as the love and attention of everyone around her, including her uncle Ramiro, whom she loves in a sick way.
Marcelo, Ana Leticia's husband, is a private detective who is about to find Ana LucÃa, so greedy Ana Leticia hires some one to kill him and solve the problem all at once... But although he loses his memory, Marcelo survives the attempt of murder. Then, a woman helps him and gives him a new name: Santiago.
Without knowing it, Ana Leticia’s actions put her husband’s destiny together with her lost sister’s.
Santiago has some recurring dreams in which a beautiful woman appears and even though he doesn’t know who she is, since he doesn’t recall his wife Ana Leticia, he recognizes Ana LucÃa immediately as the woman in his dreams when he meets her.
Soledad knows she might go to jail for keeping Ana LucÃa away from her family and as she knows who ‘Santiago’ is, she tries to keep him apart from ‘her daughter’, but destiny puts the pieces in place to have the triplets meet again, except that, ambitious Ana Leticia’s unexpected reaction will force Ana Laura show her character to confront her, while Ana LucÃa will be compelled to recover her place and fight for Marcelo in order to be happy.
Three Sides Of Ana (Tres Veces Ana) premieres 6 June.
Synopsis for Your Love Is My Fortune
Natalia Robles is a morally flawless woman who has been married to Adrián Cantú for the past twenty years, which she has devoted body and soul to ensuring her family's wellbeing. Our story begins at her twentieth anniversary party, where Andrea and Regina, her daughters, Adrián's lover Verónica, who is also Natalia's best friend and the girlfriend of Adrián's partner, Mario, are present, alongside their closest group of friends.
Adrian and Veronica have hatched a plan to flee on the same day of the celebration and once they have swindled the clients of the real estate agency of which Adrian, Veronica and Mario are partners.
Natalia collapses when she discovers that she has been betrayed, but she must also immediately solve her financial situation since Adrián has left her broke; she is devastated and resolves to rise again from the debris to help her daughters get ahead.
In a poor Mexico City neighborhood, Vicente RamÃrez grieves the terrible loss of LucÃa, his wife and mother of his only son BenjamÃn. The couple had achieved their dream of owning their own home, which they are still paying for. Little BenjamÃn becomes mute as a result of the impact of his mother's death. Vicente is a kind and sensitive man who has taken care of his family's financial stability: Doña Magos, his grandmother; Juan Gabriel and Pepe Pepe, his younger brothers.
The lives of Natalia and Vicente come together when he and the other creditors come to the real estate company to claim the money that was swindled from them. Natalia representing her husband, together with Mario, plead for time for them to be able to compensate the financial damage.
Natalia is left with only one house in a popular neighborhood where she must move in with her daughters. When she arrives, she finds out that Vicente is the supposed owner of the house, since he signed an invalid sales contract, which makes Natalia the real owner. Vicente refuses to receive them and Natalia, without hesitating, moves into the house that both will now share with their respective families, causing conflicts between the characters due to social and cultural differences.
Living together brings Natalia and Vicente closer. Without realizing it, he has fallen in love with the righteousness, tenacity, strength, decision, tenderness and kindness that she has displayed, especially with her son BenjamÃn; little by little Natalia will discover that after all the pain and sadness she has gone through, she is ready to give herself a second chance, and this time it will be with Vicente. Olga, who only wants to fulfill her whim of marrying him, hates Natalia and stirs up strong intrigues that separate them.
After overcoming adversity, our protagonists will confirm that real fortune is to be found in love.
Your Love Is My Fortune (MÃ Fortuna Es Amarte) premieres 30 June.
