Insidus

Friday, December 4, 2020

Africa: Disney Channels Bring Festive Cheer These Holidays

This festive season Disney brings with it a treasure trove of festive cheer on Disney Channel, DStv channel 303 and Disney Junior, DStv channel 309 starting from 30 November.

Delight the little ones with premiere episodes of some of their favourite shows at 18:00 every day, taking off with a brand-new episode of The Rocketeer on Monday, 30 November. The episode, entitled, The Christmas Star, sees Rocketeer Kit save the town's Christmas when the annual Hughesville Christmas celebration is threatened by Sylvester Slapdash's attempt to steal the town's gifts.

Then on Tuesday, 1 December, everyone’s favourite ghoul girl Vampirina offers up two premiere episodes on consecutive days. In the episode entitled A Gargoyle Carol Vee and family embrace the human ways of Christmas but Gregoria feels differently. Then in Deliver-eek! (Wednesday, 2 December at 18:00) the Hauntleys discover a new delivery service that delivers specialty items from Transylvania.

The perennially popular P.J. Masks provide the entertainment on Thursday, 3 December for another great premiere episode where the pyjama-clad heroes save Christmas after Romeo decides to ruin Christmas for everyone after discovering he's on the naughty list, the PJ Masks partner with Santa Claus to save the day!

The festive fun continues with T.O.T.S. in the first part of a premiere double episode titled Santa Baby on Friday, 4 December, Pip and Freddy teach a magical baby reindeer the joy of Christmas giving.

The week of Christmas premieres concludes with Elena of Avalor on Friday 4th December at 18:30, where a freak snowstorm threatens to ruin Elena's plans of spending a quiet, peaceful Navidad at home.

Additional Disney Junior Christmas programming continues weekdays throughout December with episode blocks featuring three viewer favourites, as well as a daily special. Each weekday from Monday 30th November a block of back-to-back episodes of Bluey from 08:00 to 09:00 will kick things off, with specials such as Minnie’s Winter Bow Show (Monday, 21 December) running from 10:00. These specials are followed by T.O.T.S, from 11:00 to 13:00, P.J. Masks, from 13:00 to 15:00, before another bumper bundle of Bluey from 15:00 to 17:30.

On Disney Channel, The Ross kids are back at Camp Kikiwaka for a fourth year, and their adventures continue on Bunk’d on weekends from Saturday, 5 December at 19:05. In Season 4, Lou adjusts to her new job as camp director, reunites with Destiny, Finn and Matteo and also welcomes new counsellors Noah and Ava, as well as an eccentric new camper, Gwen. In the first of this month’s episodes, Cramped Champions, pool at Camp Champion floods the grounds. Barb and her campers are left camp-less. Lou invites Barb and her kids to stay at Kikiwaka for a week, but immediately regrets it.

Christmas Day holds back-to-back entertainment with Christmas morning for Gabby Duran and the Unsittables at 06:25. In this episode Olivia and Gabby are excited to see their dad for the holidays, but when a snowstorm ruins those plans, Gabby enlists Swift's shapeshifting ability to create a substitute dad.

Bunk’d follows with an episode entitled Secret Santa at 06:55 where Ravi advises Emma and Lou on their gift exchange, but it doesn't go as imagined. Skai, Xander, Jorge and Tiffany run into a man they think is Santa and help him save Christmas.
Seasonal episodes of Stuck in the Middle and K.C. Undercover take centre stage before Phineas and Ferb take the reins at 09:00 with the Phineas and Ferb Family Christmas.
Festive fun is followed by Miraculous Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir, Liv and Maddie and Big City Greens through the rest of the day.

Great new programming will continue into January with Season 3 premiere episodes of Vampirina from Monday 11 – 22 January at 07:00 on Disney Junior and a brand-new Disney Channel Original Movie (DCOM) Upside Down Magic on Friday, 29 January at 17:00. The movie revolves around 13-year-old Nory who discovers she can flux into animals, and her best friend Reina can manipulate flames, together they enter the Sage Academy for Magical Studies. Reina's expert ability to harness the power of fire lands her at the top of her class of "Flares," but Nory's wonky magic and proclivity for turning into a "Dritten" (a half-kitten, half-dragon)-lands her in a class for those with Upside-Down Magic, otherwise known as UDM. While Headmaster Knightslinger believes the UDM's unconventional powers leave them vulnerable to dangerous and evil "shadow magic," Nory and her fellow UDM classmates set out to prove that Upside-Down Magic beats right side up!

“Both Disney Junior and Disney Channel are the destination for inspirational, authentic, optimistic, inclusive and relatable Disney storytelling with deep emotional resonance, beloved characters, parent-approved developmental values. We are delighted to be bringing such a diverse and entertaining array of family content to DStv viewers this festive period, with a promise that this is only the start for what will be an exciting 2021.” says Evert van der Veer, Vice President, Media Networks, The Walt Disney Company Africa.

Monday, November 30, 2020

Disney Latin America Renaming FOX Channels In Latin America To Star, Will FOX Follow In Africa Very Soon?

Earlier this year, Disney CEO Bob Chapek announced that the Walt Disney Company would be launching a new streaming service called “Star” internationally, rather than Hulu. With “Star” including general entertainment movies and shows from its brands such as ABC, FX, Freeform, Searchlight Pictures and 20th Century Studios. “Star” will also be fully integrated into the established Disney+ platform from both a marketing and a technology perspective, possibly similar to how Hotstar became Disney+ Hotstar in India.

Just ahead of the launch of Star, according to a statement that was provided to cable operators, Disney is going to be renaming it’s “FOX” channels to “Star” in Latin America from February 2021. With both the Fox channel and Fox Life, becoming Star Channel and Star Life.

-FOX Channel will be Star Channel.
-FOX Life will be Star Life.
-FOX Premium will be Star Premium.
-FOX App will be Star App

Fox Premium channels will also be rebranded, becoming: Star Premium Movies, Star Premium Series, Star Premium Action, Star Premium Comedy, Star Premium Fun, Star Premium Cinema and Star Premium Classics.

In Africa, Star operates Indian channels such as StarPlus, Star Vijay and Star Life. There's a chance that Star Life (currently seen on StarTimes, DStv and OpenView) will get a name change perhaps into Star India or something close to that in order to not cause confusion if they do end up rebranding FOX into Star in this region.

Now the issue here is their channels are operated under Star India and not Disney in general. So maybe this whole thing has no effect on us but there's a chance it could have some effect since Latin America is changing the channels and not India. Or perhaps the one here will be called Disney's Star or Star By Disney.

SA Government Might Enforce A Local Quota On Linear Platforms

The government is considering adding a local quota onto streaming services where 30% of the programming needs to come from South Africa. So they're likely to go after DStv, Starsat and OpenView.

While they're looking at the content for streaming platforms. On cable they might exploring more aspects such as the channels offered by these operators.

MULTICHOICE:
One things for certain is they've slowly begun investing more in local programming look at M-Net they've started prepping up dramas such as Trackers, Inconcievable and ongoing soap opera, Legacy.

Internationally, most channels offer very little local content you have Comedy Central with its CC Roast Special, MTV and Lasizwe and E! with Celebrity Game Night. No one knows if the government will inflict the quota on these type of channels or the extant of them.

This year alone they managed to get stations like the interactive wilderness channel Wild Earth, KykNet's pop-up movie channel fliekNET returned on a permanent basis alongside KykNet Lekker - a channel carrying old content from their archives.

In short, MultiChoice is more than ready for this than any other platform. The question remains on whether they have enough local content.

STARSAT:
They invest very little onto the market when it comes to programming which is justified since they're not entirely based in South Africa and a cheap version of DStv.

This might not be enough as the government will likely want them to invest more in the community like M-Net is doing with its local programming.

In the end, they have shown support for the local community with their wide range of channels such as eExtra, Soweto TV, 1KZN TV, OnseTV, Mindset and few others.

OPENVIEW:
For a free-to-air platform they have a decent amount of local channels like Starsat and since not a lot of entertainment is available on this platform. They might meet up with the government's expectations should they consider it.

Out of 15 channels, only 2 come from a foreign market and only 7 offer local programming.

Will eMedia Investments Launch A Standalone News & Sports Channel On OpenView Very Soon?

By the end of November, News & Sports which is currently available on OpenView channel 120 and the digital platform VIU will no longer broadcast news from 16:00-19:00 which led some viewers to believe that news will be getting a dedicated channel for news but perhaps their newsroom is taking some time off.

Maybe it's true since neither OpenView or e.tv seem to care about approaching the media on any developments seen on their platform. When it comes to stability, they've always had their ups and downs with news & sports.

For starters, they had BBC World News for 3 years then after you got the French lifestyle channel, France24 which looks like a gonner. Then they tried to operate their own news channel OpenNews with the help of international news blocks such as CGTN, TRT World, DW and a few others before just downsizing to eNCA bulletins and magazine shows on top of having their name changed 3 times in the span of 3 years.

On the sports section, OpenView didn't express much interest until 2016 when they got the underperforming lifestyle channel, Trace Sports Stars. When that didn't work, they got Kwesé Free Sports as a means to give viewers the best in sporting action that was until Econet got liquidated which led to its demise. Then there was the outdated sumo and wrestling channel, Fight Sports which lasted a year.

Right now, News & Sports is the only reliable channel on OpenView and it seems e.tv will be more dependant on itself for these categories as opposed to third parties.

At the moment, they don't have enough content to make them stand seperated perhaps it will be like that in future for now it's impossible but hey OpenView is full of surprises.

Friday, November 27, 2020

Australia Is Following South African Government And Have A Much Higher Demand In Local Content For Streaming Services

AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT
Netflix and other global streaming services could be forced to spend millions of dollars on Australian programs and films under major changes to media laws proposed by the federal government that could level the regulatory playing field with free-to-air TV networks.

The government is also considering scrapping annual broadcast spectrum taxes for commercial TV networks and replacing them with a new licensing regime which could save broadcasters up to $12 million each year.

Netflix and other global streaming services could be forced to meet Australian content quotas under the proposed changes.

Federal Communications and Arts Minister Paul Fletcher, who will launch a green paper with the proposed reforms on Friday, said the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic had reinforced the need for regulatory action to help the TV industry.

"What we are proposing would rebalance Australia's media regulations so that the industry can continue to support jobs, connect communities, and keep Australian stories on our screens regardless of whether they prefer to watch free-to-air television, subscription television or video-on-demand services," Mr Fletcher said.

The green paper proposes creating a law that requires streaming services to invest a percentage of their Australian revenue on local content, either in the form of commissions, co-productions or acquisitions of content. However, it stops short of stipulating what the percentage should be.

"We're seeking feedback on all of the proposals including the percentage rate," Mr Fletcher said.

Communications Minister Paul Fletcher will release the green paper on Friday with several proposed changes to media laws.
Communications Minister Paul Fletcher will release the green paper on Friday with several proposed changes to media laws.

He said the content obligation would not apply to streaming services such as Stan, which is part of a group that has a broadcasting licence and is already subject to Australian content obligations.

A 2017 federal parliamentary inquiry into the Australian film and television industry recommended subscription streaming services invest 10 per cent of the revenues they earn in Australia in new local content. But when the government announced plans for changes to rules around content in September, it did not outline any plans for streaming services to meet a local content quota.

Under the plans announced two months ago, Mr Fletcher said commercial broadcasters would no longer be required to create a certain amount of hours of local children's content and drama. But 55 per cent of total content on a free-to-air broadcaster must be Australian.

Mr Fletcher said Netflix was an "increasingly significant acquirer of Australian content" and there was a possibility it would already meet a content obligation should one be imposed.

Other streaming services operating in Australia include Foxtel's Binge, Disney Plus, Amazon's Prime Video, and Apple TV. The streaming services are expected to oppose any move to regulate their local content.

In a joint submission to a federal government options paper earlier this year, Netflix, Stan, Prime Video and Disney Plus said "we strongly believe that there is no market failure to address" and claimed each company "already makes a significant contribution to Australia's screen production industry".

As part of the proposed reforms, free-to-air TV networks would also be given the choice to opt-in to a new broadcasting licence in exchange for transitioning to using less radiofrequency spectrum. The spectrum made available would be sold to telecommunications companies and used for their rollout of 5G, which will deliver faster mobile network speeds.

Mr Fletcher said broadcasters could move to transmission arrangements which used less spectrum but which maintain their service levels at close to current levels, with a minimal impact on viewers.

Media companies such as Nine, Seven West Media and Network Ten were put under financial pressure this year due to sharp falls in advertising spend caused by the crisis. Regional broadcasters such as Prime Media, WIN Corp and Southern Cross Austereo were also badly affected and were forced to slash jobs or put staff on JobKeeper to adapt to the market conditions. The government provide some interim relief to cope with the financial pressure such as the removal of spectrum licence fees.

Spectrum fees were introduced after the abolishment of broadcast licence fees back in 2017. The fee is dependent on a range of factors, including how much spectrum a network has and its strength, but broadcasters have advocated for these to be removed altogether.

Should sufficient numbers of industry players opt for the new licence, the government is further proposing to allocate some of the proceeds from the auction of the extra spectrum to establish trust funds to support the Australian media and production sectors.
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SA GOVERNMENT
The Department of Communications and Digital Technologies said that it plans to enforce local content quotas on streaming services such as Netflix.

The proposal is contained in the department’s white paper on Audio and Audio-visual Content Services policy framework which is currently open for public comment. The department presented the framework to parliament on Wednesday (25 November).

In his presentation, the department’s chief director of broadcasting policy Collin Mashile said that local content should be ‘enabled’ by further policy interventions within the audiovisual broadcasting space.

“Where video-on-demand subscription services come and operate in South Africa, everything that they show to South Africans in terms of their catalogue – 30% of that catalogue must be South African content,” Mashile said.

“What this means is that we are trying to create opportunities for the production and creative industry sector.”

While US-based streaming services like Netflix have increased local content output in recent years, making just under a third of all content on the platform local may prove particularly onerous for the streaming giant.

Mashile addressed this by pointing to the popularity of local shows in South Africa. “We were asked where we got the idea that South Africans are interested in this 30%,” he said. “The most popular shows in every country remain the local shows.”

The White Paper also broadens definition of a “broadcasting service” to include online broadcasting services.

By implication, that would require the payment of a license fee for the viewing any “broadcasting services” which would include a streaming services, regardless of the device on which it is viewed.

In an op-ed published at the start of November, the SABC’s head of TV licences Sylvia Tladi said that changes need to be made to South Africa’s broadcasting regulations – including an expanded definition of a ‘TV set’ or now, a broadcasting device.

Some of the devices which are being considered under this expanded definition include: Laptops; Tablets; IPTV; Internet; Decoders; Set-top boxes; Smartphones.

Tladi said that these devices, which have resulted in new media platforms and content dissemination channels, have a direct impact on TV licence legislation.

She said that the SABC’s submission also calls for an overhauled TV licence fee system and changes to the legislation regarding public funding strategies envisaged by TV licences.

“To ensure maximum compliance with legislative requirements concerning the payment of TV licence fees, the SABC proposes that the act should place stricter obligations on all relevant stakeholders or role players because the ‘traditional’ television set is no longer the only means of receiving a television broadcast.

“Therefore, to administer compliance on the payment of licence fees, the SABC is of the view that other entities must be compelled to report on the sale, lease or usage of these ‘television sets’ or ‘viewing devices’.

WildEarth Extends Its Reach To More DStv Customers

MultiChoice launched WildEarth as an experimental channel back in August offering live wildlife content from across the world.

The people who manage this brand also supply SafariLIVE which is currently on SABC 3.

The channel was set go off on November 25 but went past it's trial date as MultiChoice kept it onboard full-time now. Not only that WildEarth which was exclusive to DStv Premium and Compact+ is now available to DStv Compact and Family customers.

It seems like DStv Compact is starting to lose its edge now that most new channels are being leached between that package and Family. It's evident that DStv is losing a lot of Premium customers and they even went as far as merging the stats of Premium with Compact+ to easen the blow.

DStv Family is slowly replacing DStv Compact kind of like how that package including Plus replaced Premium.

WildEarth wasn't the only pop-up channel on DStv. There's currently 3 experimental channels running on DStv with the fourth one set for an early 2021 release.

December 2020 On Zoomoo Africa | WMD Specials | Urmel | Holiday Specials | ZS: WS

World Monkey Day Specials
December 14, Monday 12pm
World Monkey Day was created to spread awareness for the animals, and to show love and care for them. Find out more about this cheeky primate on ZooMoo this December!

Program Line-Up:
Animal Alphabet, Animal Noises, Download This and Feeding Time

Urmel
New Series | 13x25'
Premieres December 21, Monday 11.30am
Urmel is neither a dragon, a dinosaur nor a mammal. Urmel is one of a kind! As the single example of his species, his prehistoric foundling lands on an ideal Island of Happening somewhere in the middle of the ocean. Freshly hatched, Urmel finds himself among a colorful group of funny, talking animals as well as a brilliant but sometimes scatterbrained scientist Professor Tiddlyporn. Based on Max Kruse's most successful book, Urmel inspires all kids inspiration.

Holiday Specials
December 21 - January, 1
Mondays to Fridays 9am - 12pm

Program Line-Up:
Bob's Beach, Gloria's House, Albert Says: Nature Knows Best, Jelly Jamm and Urmel

Zoomoo Special: Winter Special
December 25, Friday 11am
Hooray for winter! Join the Zoomoo team and celebrate the winter and the animals you just love the ice and the snow!

Zoomoo is available on Zuku TV and DStv

Plans For Mindset Pop, People's Weather And Supa TV

Admist the pandemic, MultiChoice partnered up with Mindset to launch a second educational channel to help learners from Grade 4-9 catch-up to their schoolwork while Supabets launched its first linear channel exclusively on OpenView.

People's Weather went from being a 24 hour weather channel to an environmental and lifestyle channel.

Mindset POP has shown remarkable success introduction on DStv and Supa TV has helped viewers win some extra cash and also managed to grow the owner's brand.

According to both suppliers, they're looking into expanding the reach of these channels to more platforms meaning that more learners will get access to the educational material on Mindset POP and more viewers can engage with Supa TV since most of them don't have an OpenView.

People's Weather which was only on DStv has been added onto OpenView recently. If you want nature, documentaries and wildlife then this is your channel. There's even a chance it will pop-up on Starsat and StarTimes.

Mindset POP joins other current educational kids channels in the market such as Mindset, Baby TV, CBeebies, Nick Jr, Disney Junior, JimJam, Da Vinci Kids, PBS Kids, SABC Education, DBE TV, Zoomoo, CBeebies.

Supa TV joins Tellytrack as the only few betting channels within the market.

People's Weather is the only accessible channel within the market other channels like Curiosity Channel, National Geographic, National Geographic Wild, Da Vinci Kids, Wild Earth and Discovery Channel require you to pay monthly.

January 2021 On EVA | Repeats & More Repeats | Bold And The Beautiful

Throughout the year, Eva has been filled with repeats of past programs already seen on the channel to make it even worse the rest of Africa operate Eva+ which is full-blown reruns channel. They also offer a Portuguese version of the channel.

The only current program on the channel is the ongoing drama from CBS' Bold And The Beautiful.

To start of 2021, Eva will be airing a rerun of La Seleccion (Football Dreams) from January 20. The channel is up for renewal between February and March so I'd look at those months if it doesn't go off by then it could go off at some point.

Sony Channel and Sony Max were lurking around that corner for 2 years with the only relevant program being the popular game show The Amazing Race now that's on M-Net since Sony Pictures International no longer distribute these channels anywhere in Africa.

Even FOX Life joined these set of channels from 2016 up until April 2020 where they introduced 4 new telenovelas which took Africa by storm while rehashing old reality shows and that Cathy Kruger show. In the end, the channel never got to see the light of day due to realignment strategies at Disney.

There is a chance that the channel will look for new suppliers perhaps in other regions but due to the climax of the pandemic that seems very unlikely.

When SABC 3 stopped airing Bold And The Beautiful. M-Net was looking into snatching the show for their channel but already had a packed schedule. The fact they considered the show just makes Eva redundant at this point.

M-Net could pick the show up now that The Kelly Clarkson Show moved to VUZU and the controversial talk show The Ellen DeGeneres Show is on production break.

Since the pandemic which has been jeopardizing the release of new content especially movies. What if The Ellen DeGeneres Show ends at some point leaving The Kelly Clarkson Show to takeover on VUZU. This could be their chance to acquire the show like they originally intended.

Even though, M-Net can only be seen on the Premium package there's chances that either VUZU or one of the Mzansi channels would have supplied reruns to Bold and perhaps even takeover the show.

Even if DStv were to do away with Eva there is a chance that AMC International will look into continuing the brand through another platform like Starsat and StarTimes for starters regardless the fate of this channel looks vague I could be wrong but you never know as 2021 is shaping up to be an interesting year for TV.