Insidus: Entertainment Inside Us

SABC And eMedia Investments Expand Partnership, Will MultiChoice And StarTimes Follow?

eMedia Investments, owners of free-to-air satellite service Openview, and the SABC have reached a business agreement that sees Openview continue to broadcast high-definition channels SABC 1, 2 and 3, as well as 3 additional television channels from the public broadcaster, as well as all 19 radio stations owned by the SABC.

The business agreement means that the SABC is officially entering the free-to-air satellite market, with SABC Sports Channel the first of the 3 additional SABC channels bring added to the Openview service.

SABC radio brands Ukhozi FM, Metro FM, Lesedi and Umhlobo Wenene are among the radio stations now also available on Openview, transmitted via digital broadcasting on a free-to-air basis.

Commenting on the new multi-year signal distribution and channel carriage agreement, eMedia Investments COO, Antonio Lee, says, "This is an exciting development for both the SABC and ourselves. The agreement ushers in a new level of collaboration between a private free-to-air satellite platform and public free-to-air broadcast services. There is no doubt it will boost the offering of Openview and will extend the SABC’s audience reach. We can now offer our Openview audience additional quality content and access to digital broadcast radio in the widest variety of languages possible in South Africa. We hope this is the start of a stronger and more fruitful relationship between Openview and the SABC".

SABC’s COO, Ian Plaatjes, adds, “This agreement enables the SABC to grow its channel offering and reach into the digital broadcasting space with three additional HD television channels. The first channel to be launched will be an SABC Sport Channel and will be distributed simultaneously across Openview, DTT, Telkom One and other streaming platforms. This collaboration will enable the SABC to optimally exploit its rich sport content rights and leverage the Openview reach to provide an improved integrated sport value proposition for our advertising clients across platforms. The agreement also enhances the distribution of SABC radio stations to create an increased value proposition for our radio advertising inventory. The other two TV channels, to be announced within the next 3 months, will leverage extensive SABC content and archived material.”

"The other two TV channels" "leverage extensive content and archived material" - SABC Education being the first with the other possibly being SABC Encore maybe it will launch under another new name perhaps or with an updated look. It would be shocking if it was SABC News.

Openview and the SABC believe that this agreement will expedite digital migration from analogue-only households to digital broadcasting platforms with more compelling free-to-air channels and content. Together with the DTT platform, Openview provides audiences with a free HD alternative to both analogue terrestrial and pay satellite options.

According to a source, this development was in talks with pay-tv platforms as well. SABC Education has been showing signs of launching and my guess was May which is the same time the channel launched.

Not long ago, even eMedia Investments entire set of channels were rumoured to be added onto DStv so far only 4 reside on that platform.

Britbox Video Streamer To Launch In South Africa Later In The Year With Content From ITV And BBC

Another video streaming service will be launching in South Africa in the second half of 2021 with BritBox, the joint 50/50 streaming venture between BBC Studios and ITV, that announced that it will become accessible to South African consumers later this year.

BritBox, an ad-free subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) streaming service will join the quickly getting crowded video streaming market in South Africa where Netflix SA fiercely compete with the likes of MultiChoice's Showmax, VIU, Vodacom Video Play, TelkomONE, Amazon Prime Video and Apple TV+.

Meanwhile the South African public broadcaster is working on launching its own SABC streaming service, while Discovery+, Paramount+, HBO Max and Disney+ are still to launch in the territory and across the rest of Africa as well.

BritBox will serve as somewhat of a replacement for the ITV Choice channel and the BBC First channel that both shuttered on MultiChoice's DStv satellite pay-TV platform during 2020.

BritBox carries on-demand content in the form of British box sets, drama premieres and live events, as well as new and exclusive original commissions.

South Africa will be BritBox's 5th worldwide territory to launch in, following launches in the United States and Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia.

"The launch of BritBox in South Africa is yet another step in the platform’s trajectory towards international expansion. We’re delighted to bring the service to a brand new territory and continue towards establishing BritBox as a premium VOD brand across the world," says Martin Goswami, ITV group strategic partnership and distribution director, in a statement.

Paul Dempsey, president of global distribution at BBC Studios, says "We know that South African audiences have a real connection to British television and we can’t wait to bring them even more great shows, on-demand, that we know they will love".

HBO Max To Rollout In 60 More Countries By The End Of 2021

Some consumers are no longer waiting for these streaming services to rollout in Africa as they've found several torrent sites to stream content like WandaVision, The Mandalorian and High School Musical: The Musical: The Series.

Apparently, HBO Max will launch in 60 countries and territories by the end of 2021, 21 of those countries/territories will be Europe (the countries where content is available direct through HBO and not through a third-party local partner, the 21 countries are located in Nordics, Central Eastern Europe as well as Spain and Portugal).

Africa is likely not listed in those 60 countries for the same reason as Disney+, they want to put their focus on the major parts of Europe before anywhere else while Disney+ is estimated to be in Africa by 2022/3 with HBO Max it's likely to be 2025-7.

Reasons being they have existing contracts with other providers in those regions so they're likely to cancel some of those agreements and wait on others if possible launch when they have enough content despite those contracts.

New Series Alert!: The Red Room Coming Soon To SABC 3

It seems like eExtra won't be the only free-to-air station for Turkish telenovelas after all. Apparently, SABC 3 will reserve a space in their lineup for The Red Room (Kirmizi Oda).

Adapted from the book with the same name, the events of the series revolve around a psychological clinic, and the stories and attitudes of a group of psychiatric patients who frequent it, and who lived different events between pain and joy, narrated by one of the psychiatrists who own the clinic, supervising their follow-up and trying to treat them.

Besides local, SABC will also be competing on an international scale with telenovelas meaning they join the likes of e.tv (and eExtra), Telemundo, TLNovelas, tvN, Zee World and Star Life.

The Red Room airs Thursdays and Fridays at 18:30 from 8 April while the Brazilian telenovela, Orphan Of The Nation occupies Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 5 April.

A new local drama, The Estate will also air on the channel likely from 19:30 which comes right after these two. This move will keep viewers occupied as SABC can source out more shows for their channels.

New Series Alert!: Stiletto Vendetta Coming Soon To eExtra

eExtra decided to pull the Turkish romcom Kamer 309 from its release schedule and a new air date is yet to be finalized. For now viewers can indulge in the crime mystery drama, Stiletto Vendetta (Ufak Tefek Cinayetler).

Four beautiful, successful women - childhood friends that are brought back together as adults - have old scores to settled, and new rivalries set to develop.

As teenagers, Arzu, Merve and Pelin played a cruel prank on their over-achieving best friend Oya, leaving her shamed, devastated and suicidal. Over the years the three remained close but didn’t hear again from Oya, never daring to make contact, fearing the worst - that they had driven her to take her own life. When fate brings the foursome back together, Oya is determined to get close to the women who threatened to ruin her life, and seek her final revenge.

The series have many star names; Gökçe Bahadır, Aslı Gürbüz, Bade İşçil, Tülin Özen, Mert Fırat and many others.

The series replaces Begeertes from Monday 6 April at 20:30 on eExtra with repeats at 10:30 on e.tv

WarnerMedia Kids Brands Remain Ahead Of The Curve In Africa

Cartoon Network and Boomerang have kicked off 2021 with new original shows and local productions.

WarnerMedia kids’ brands, Cartoon Network and Boomerang, continue to be firm favourites for African youth. Between 2019 and 2020, Cartoon Network’s reach increased by 10%, with more than 6m households tuning in. On the other hand, Boomerang also increased its reach by 31% – bringing the channel to over 5.5m households. With a combined share of 47% of the kids’ pay-TV channels viewing, the two brands account for almost half of the kids’ market.

Cartoon Network Africa’s and Boomerang Africa’s audience ratings have improved over the past year, with the channels now ranking first and second amongst all kids’ pay-TV channels. Boomerang’s performance has grown by 50% in its year-on-year performance between 2019 and 2020. South Africa’s Cartoon Network confirm its number one spot of all pay-TV kids’ channels with a gap of more than 143% over its next competitor.

With the increased consumption of content on digital platforms, Cartoon Network and Boomerang rank within the Top 10 YouTube channels in the Kids & Entertainment Category in South Africa at #2 and #5, respectively. Boomerang Africa’s YouTube channel came out as a strong contender with a more than 100% increase, boasting 1.8m subscribers. In comparison, Cartoon Network Africa upped its numbers by 55%, reaching 1.5m subscribers. Traffic to both webpages also showed impressive results, with visits on Cartoon Network Africa’s local website increasing by 180% and Boomerang Africa’s website climbing 171%.

Teen Titans Go!, DC Super Hero Girls, The Regular Show, South Africa’s very own pan-African association football-themed series, Supa Strikas, rank among Cartoon Network Africa’s top-performing shows.

Boomerang Africa’s top shows include Mr Bean: The Animated Series, Zig and Sharko, and Masha and the Bear. The channel’s films, including the Scooby-Doo Movies and Tom and Jerry Movies, continue to contribute to the audience numbers.

Both the channels have kicked off 2021 with brand new channel original shows and local productions. In March, Cartoon Network Africa has launched Elliott From Earth, with Africa being one of the first two countries to premiere the show as part of the global launch and Boomerang has launched Kikoumba, in the same month. WarnerMedia will continue to show its commitment to unravelling and working with local African talent to develop content that resonates with the audience by launching brand-new local productions throughout the coming year.

Guillaume Coffin, Head of Affiliates & Advertising France, Benelux, Middle East, Turkey, Africa & General Manager for Turkey, said: “WarnerMedia has been present in Africa for more than 20 years, operating six channels across the continent in 56 English, French and Portuguese speaking countries. It is encouraging to see that our kids’ multiplex brands are continuing to grow in popularity across the continent and that our fans rate our kids’ channels highly in the kid’s entertainment market. This once again confirms that our localisation strategy, as well as our dedicated line-up of original, local content, is meeting the growing demand of our fans across the region.”

StarTimes' Timeless Dizi Channel Is Getting An Upgrade, Will This Affect DStv?

Timeless Dizi Channel (TDC/Dizi) made its way to Africa in mid 2020 to StarTimes just like tvN on DStv which offers the content in their original language with English subtitles the same thing has been lurking with the one on this platform.

Eventually, a seperate version of the channel was made available on DStv with all the content dubbed in English. The odd thing here is the fact SPI International acknowledges the one on DStv even though the one on StarTimes is ahead with the programming.

Dizi Africa has a website and a social media handle dedicated to the one on DStv perhaps they're looking at the bigger investor which is what led to the decision in the first place.

Now StarTimes TDC will be adding an English audio to the channel very soon which is what DStv had from the very beginning. If the one on DStv included the original language with English subtitles is there a reason for these two cable providers to still provide alternate versions of the same channel.

There is a slight possibility that the feed on StarTimes will be discontinued or aligned/submerged with DStv depending on whether all the content there is available in English and the fact that DStv version is acknowledged as mentioned earlier. For some channels which have this feature only selected content will be excluded so we basically have to see what transpires from this point forward.

[Breaking News| RSA] Analogue Tv Hits Its Last Days In South Africa!

The Ministry of Communications and Digital Technologies has announced that together with broadcasters, it has started with the phased switch-off of analogue television transmitters in the Free State.

This follows President Cyril Ramaphosa’s announcement during the State of the Nation Address last month that the phased switch-off of analogue TV transmitters would begin this month.

The department said it is anticipated that this process, which will be done on a province-by-province basis, will be completed by the end of March 2022.

On Monday the analogue signal was switched off in Boesmanskop and surrounding towns in the Xhariep District Municipality, the department said. This will be followed by Ladybrand and surrounding towns on Tuesday.

“The switch-off in each province will be systematic and in phases, moving from one analogue transmitter coverage area to the other, until all district municipalities within the province are completed,” the department said.

The department is working with provincial governments and district municipalities to recruit local installers of government-subsided digital decoders to accelerate the implementation of the broadcasting digital migration.

This will, in turn, free up previous high-demand spectrum for use by mobile operators, resulting in better networks and cheaper mobile data for South Africans.

Analogue TV switch-off dates
The analogue TV switch-off dates for each province is shown below.

Free State – March 2021
Northern Cape – April 2021
North West – May 2021
Mpumalanga – May 2021
Eastern Cape – May 2021
Kwa-Zulu Natal – July 2021
Western Cape – November 2021
Limpopo – December 2021
Gauteng – January 2022

Note that this timeline is an estimate and the department will provide further detail in future.

Installing and subsiding decoders
This switch-off of analogue television transmitters follows a reviewed implementation process initiated.

You can visit your local post office to apply for a STB or go to your other branches and purchase either a OpenView, Starsat, DStv and soon PremiumFree decoder.