Insidus: Entertainment Inside Us

Is An eBella Revival On eMedia Investments Still On The Cards And Could It Replace Something Like Star Life On Openview?

eBella was a short-lived female-focused channel which was produced by eMedia Investments offering reality, lifestyle and telenovelas.

The actual reason for it's discontinuation is still unknown but from what sources mentioned before eMedia had considered launching a seperate reality channel and telenovela channel.

Now these old rumors seem very likely as several stations on eMedia have undergone some lineup changes especially with Kuiertyd on eExtra.

The only thing safe on eExtra is the local repeats from e.tv and for some reason the Indian dramas but why the Indie though.

Could it be possible that maybe one of the current Indian channels on Openview will be booted soon, in this case Star Life?

eExtra always had Indian dramas through eBella and this was before Star Life was conceived. During that time, viewers still noticed a presence in Turkish (English), Latin American and Mexican telenovelas now that has been occupied by more Indian and Kuiertyd soaps.

Both of which retain a 28.6% share in the schedule. The only difference is there's no similar offering for Kuiertyd like there is for Indie dramas. That wasn't the case before as the offering in that area was much smaller at the time.

Even if Star Life was kicked to the curb there's chances that viewers will be redirected to eExtra as it boosts their viewership particularly for these type of series.

eMedia Investments has signed an agreement with SABC and they're still waiting on two entertainment channels they were promised more info about in June so they'll likely use those channels to cover up for the loss and possibly rollout an additional channel, in this case an eBella type channel.

You know how e.tv airs repeats of Kuiertyd dramas in the mornings well this eBella type channel repeats the Indian dramas at night and feature some other programming.

In the end, it seems possible that maybe e.tv will be distancing themselves or limiting the number of soaps from Latin America and Mexico due to their new streaming service eVOD which seemingly reveals only Turkish dramas with other programming on eExtra missing from the lineup.

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BET Gets A Makeover With More Markets To The New Look Soon

BET used Sunday’s BET Awards in the United States to launch a new logo designs as part of a rebrand at the ViacomCBS-owned network. The new look stretches across the brand's properties.

Mooski at Sunday’s BET Awards red carpet BET “The Black consumer has recently become one of the most coveted audience segments; we are thrilled for brands to begin to see what BET has known all throughout our 40 year history,” said Kim Paige, EVP Chief Brand Officer at BET. “It was time to leverage the brand equity we have built throughout the years to re-envision how we show up as the only brand that represents the fullness of the Black experience. For us, this is no standard brand evolution, it is a brand revolution, in solidarity with the cultural shifts driven by the Black community.”

The logo keeps the familiar B, E, and T and the star from previous incarnations, as research showed they were recognizable to viewers — even when rearranged, Paige said. After early feedback about the new image “breaking the logo” in stacking the elements, Paige said the idea was to “leverage the brand equity we’ve earned, not to break the logo, but as we like to say, we liberated it.”

BET out-of-home concept art Courtesy BET Paige said the concept of BET’s new visual identity was “Black Canvas,” saying it positions BET as the destination for all forms of Black creative expression – for Black creators, Black talent and the BET audience. The square logo is the visual metaphor, while the motion logo flexes and grows “to showcase all forms of Black expression.”

eMedia Investments Upcoming Streaming Service Has Been Leaked???

In the end of the 2020 financial year, eMedia Investments announced their new streaming services, eVOD which is set to be released later this month.

Then a user decided to do some research on this platform which lured them to a restricted site and also spotted a channel 114 on the Openview platform known as eVOD NOW before getting scrapped.

The site for eVOD had all the relevant details about the platform available. This could be fake but the whole concept of the platform seems very real.

Some of the details I predicted are free such as the no monthly fees policy, Catch Up section and the huge resemblance to e on Demand. There's even a section called Fast Forward where viewers get to watch a current show on this platform before airing on TV.

StarSat Without Disney? As Zuku Dumps All The Disney Channels

From 30th June, some of the Disney Channels went black including ESPN 1 & 2 on channels 220 & 221 and FOX on channel 131 with subscribers asking StarTimes (StarSat) on what's occuring with these channels.

While Zuku TV which is located in West Africa thought how cool would it be to removal ALL Disney Channels ranging from FOX, National Geographic & Wild, ESPN and Baby TV.

That platform rolled out eight new channels: FilmBox replaced FOX, Discovery Channel and Animal Planet replaced National Geographic and Wild, Planet Fun replaced Baby TV, Baba TV Uganda could have replaced FOX News and for some reason ESPN 1 & 2 were replaced with two completely different channels which are Diamond TV Zambia and Star Life.

Unlike Zuku TV, StarSat didn't remove any channel they silently changed channel numbers before reverting them back: FOX (131 to 400), ESPN 1 (220 to 418) and ESPN 2 (221 to 419).

Starsat didn't state the reason for the temporary channel number changes a viewer noticed by ESPN 1's current channel number they put an existing channel there with ESPN 2 they put an unfamiliar channel which turns out to be Discovery Channel before going blank.

Outside South Africa, a viewer noticed that under FOX, National Geographic and National Geographic Wild there was frozen clips of Discovery Channel, TLC and Animal Planet playing.

Is it possible that StarTimes in SA and the rest of Africa is following Zuku TV and canning these channels? Was these temporary channel numbers there to possibly accomodate more channels? and If so why target the Disney Channels?

Not long ago, Disney's CEO announced that they were shutting 100 international Disney Channels it would be shocking if that was the reason since they recently had an upfront and unveiled content for the rest of 2021.

Discovery Inc. removed Discovery Family and Fine Living from StarTimes sometime back so these channels could serve as good replacements and it also means that Animal Planet might return to South Africa.

(Updated) Rumor: Voëlvry Coming Soon To eExtra

Kuzgun first made its debut on Timeless Dizi Channel on DStv and left viewers in a cliffhanger as MultiChoice chose to end the pop-up channel before the series could get closure.

Now South African viewers can rejoice as the rumors about the show's presence on an e.tv channel becomes a reality as Kuzgun will return on eExtra this time it will be dubbed in Afrikaans under the name Voelvry for the popular Afrikaans block, Kuiertyd.

Voelvry, tells the story of a mother's anguish, a father's hopelessness that caused horrific chain of events that led Kuzgun to become a lean, mean, fighting machine. Baris Arduç, Burcu Biricik and Hatice Aslan take up the lead roles.

The first season which debuted in 2019 consists approximately of 71 episodes each being 1 hour. The first season will likely air on the rebooted Timeless Dizi Channel on StarTimes in English.

The first episode is said to air on Monday 12 July at 12:25 on eExtra thereafter Deur Dik En Dun takes up it's timeslot with the series nowhere in site. The interesting part here is Two And Half Men also replaces Mi Corazon Insiste En Lola Volcan is it possible that Voelvry will take up Two And A Half Men's timeslot where Ice Adonis was also airing.

Earlier in the year, Rewind aired two new telenovelas from Telemundo is it possible that this channel will now be the home of telenovelas now that eExtra has got its hands full with Kuiertyd.

Could this change have som

Voelvry will join other current dramas on the Kuiertyd block such as Elif, As Die Skoen Pas, Stiletto Vendetta and Deur Dik En Dun (also July) while as compete with SABC's only Turkish show, The Red Room.

Update: Airs Friday 9 July at 17:30 on e.tv and hours later in eExtra

SABC Is Considering Launching A Second Sports Channel As Well As Reviving The Scrapped Encore Channel

SABC Sport's general manager Gary Ruthbone held an interview with SAfm Radio on Monday to discuss about the Chief-Wydad games.

Within that interview, he also mentioned that the SABC plans to have two sports channels at some point and are looking to possibly revive SABC Encore.

SABC Sport is currently viewable on Openview, TelkomONE and SABC's DTT platform. For some reason it's not available on any pay-tv platform alongside SABC Education.

It wouldn't be surprising if two supposed sports channels used the numbering system and format like ESPN and were to be referred as SABC Sport 1 (the current SABC Sport channel) and SABC Sport 2.

SABC Encore lasted about 5 years on DStv after the platform decided it wasn't worth the value and killed it for about a year now and SABC mentioned this revival a year ago and it's interesting that they're still considering it now that they plan to launch their own streaming service.

Perhaps Encore will be one of the two long awaited entertainment channels SABC promised to launch on Openview alongside SABC Education (maybe). Then there's chances that we could see two other channels and Encore will just join the list of SABC's dream channels.

Recently, a proposal made by ICASA grants SABC the rights to negotiate carriage fees (not TV licence) with pay-tv platforms. With that in mind, it's possible that some channels (SABC 2/3) may disappear and other channels come in their place.

Update: SABC is rumoured to unveil the channels between the 10th to 15th of July.