Insidus

Friday, May 28, 2021

After 2 Years, MTV Music24 Is Swapped For MTV Hits On DStv

2 years after, MultiChoice and ViacomCBS decided to remove the outdated VH1 Classic in favour of a third MTV channel revolving on modern international music, MTV Music 24. The brand is once again undergoing a name change this time MTV Hits.

MTV Hits is said to be the one stop pop shop for only the biggest, hottest, newest, vids out there featuring artists such as Beyoncé, Ariana Grande, Lady Gaga, Ed Sheeran and more.

Shows set to air on the channel include Fresh Vidz, Hot Hits, Hot Vidz and Big Fat Hits.

This change in South Africa comes alongside Central Europe which is set to replace the channel with NickMusic which also has a show on Nicktoons.

MTV Hits is currently available in over 40 markets. It recently launched in Germany and Netherlands which forms part of Europe.

- tvN might have been extended on DStv

- FOX on Starsat and DStv might be rebranding to Star sooner than expected

- Moja Love is launching a new channel on DStv?
- Cartoonito is coming back in Europe and Africa as WarnerMedia searches for original preschool content
- Dizi might return to DStv
- Is Boomerang officially dead in Africa?
- Will Paramount+ cancel several linear channels like Comedy Central and MTV?
- SuperSport launches a kids brand
- Utsav branding takes affect on Star Life and StarPlus

OpenView Gains More Subscribers During Lockdown And Scraps Streaming Service In Favor Of Another One

Openview, the free-to-air satellite platform in the eMedia Holdings stable and a sister company to e.tv, has increased the number of activations of its set-top boxes by more than 18% in the past year, to almost 2.4 million units.

That’s an improvement from the just less than two million activations recorded a year ago.

The figures were disclosed in JSE-listed eMedia’s results for the year ended 31 March 2021, which were published on Thursday.

The media group is now promising to launch new channels in the current financial year to improve the breadth of the Openview content offering. it also said it will launch a streaming video offering called eVOD in July, but didn’t provide any further details about the product or what programming it will offer.

In the last financial period, they promised to launch a new streaming service known as OpenView+ last year in October that never materialized only for them to go mute.

My presumed guess would be that the platform would be a lighter version of Showmax filled with a ton of series and movies (few exclusives) that is FREE and carries the eFamily channels.

Openview, inclusive of the e.tv multi-channel business, earned advertising revenue of R269.6-million in the year to March, up from R194.1-million previously. However, it incurred content costs of R366.9-million, up from R308.7-million in 2020.

Market share
“The increase is attributable to the additional sports on the news and sports channel as well as the addition of the Afrikaans block on eExtra,” eMedia said. These content investments have increased the television viewing market share of the group, it added.

Operating expenses at Openview fell by 7% due to the group ending a consumer subsidy of set-top boxes that was designed to drive sales. “Despite this reduction in subsidy, Openview set-top box activations continue to grow at an average of 35 000/month.”

eMedia Holdings reported full-year headline earnings per share of 16.42c, or about half the 33.34c reported in 2020. Revenue from continuing operations was R2.4-billion, compared to R2.5-billion last year.

New Series Alert: Martha Speaks Season 5 Coming Soon To PBS Kids Africa

The series revolves around a talking dog named Martha, who is owned by 10-year-old Helen Lorraine (known in the books as Helen Finney). Whenever Helen feeds Martha alphabet soup , the pasta letters somehow travel to her brain instead of her stomach, giving her the ability to speak human words. The show takes place in the fictional town of Wagstaff City, likely referring to Flagstaff, Arizona or even a fictionalized version of Flagstaff, Maine.

Based on the 1992 children's book with the same name. The show focuses on mainly synonyms and vocabulary, with each episode featuring an underlying theme illustrated with (usually informal) keywords, but can occasionally focus on introducing preschoolers to different science and other learning concepts, such as the Spanish language through passing mentions, history, and astronomy.

The fifth season consists of eight episodes which debuted back in 2013 in the United States and is one of the shortest seasons for the show.

The fifth season airs Fridays at 16:00 as part of Fresh Fridays from 4 June.

New Series Alert: A Magical Love Story Coming Soon To Star Life

A new Indian supernatural fantasy drama A Magical Love Story starring Vikram Singh Chauhan and Aditi Sharma is heading to Star Life this July.

A Magical Love Story (Yehh Jadu Hai Jin Ka!) tells the story of Aman who lives under the dark shadow of a Jinn while Roshni is blessed with angelic qualities. What turn will Aman and Roshni's lives take when the two entangle in a 'magical' love story?

The series debuted back in 2019 with 2 seasons in the making and lasted a year on StarPlus with a combined total of 218 episodes. If you've watched The Evil Eye then this story follows similar relations.

The first season airs 3 July at 22:00 once the second season of The Evil Eye concludes.

- June on E! Entertainment

- June on Universal
- Upcoming developments for FOX, Disney, National Geographic and ESPN
- June on Comedy Central
- June on TLC and Real Time
- June on Discovery Channel and Discovery Family
- June on Investigation Discovery
- June on The Home Channel
- June on CBS Reality

Wednesday, May 26, 2021

MultiChoice Africa Announce Fresh New Kids Shows For 2021

MultiChoice have announced new shows for the young and young at heart. With a new show of programs set to premier each month for the kids.

The announcement was made during their 2021 Content Showcase where the company announced a line-up of upcoming content for its customers throughout the year.

The kids’ segment is an important one for us as they are part of our most loyal and demanding customers. With over 15 kids’ channels on our platforms, we strive to ensure that we keep the line-up fresh and exciting. The variety of educational and informative content available on DStv 24 hours a day is bound to handpicked to keep the young ones glued to their screens.

In May, Ghost Force on The Disney Channel (DStv Channel 303) targeted to children aged six years old, follows a group of junior high school friends who “team to form a secret superhero team dedicated to protecting their City.” Goldie’s Oldies on Nickelodeon (DStv Channel 305, GOtv Channel 62) is a live-action sitcom that focuses on the life of teenager Goldie, whose life is turned upside down when her family moves in with their Grandpa Maury and his three ‘70 something’ roommates.

In June, Looney Tunes Cartoons on Boomerang (DStv Channel 302) brings Bugs Bunny! Daffy Duck! and all the looney toons from the classic Warner Bros. These animation characters return in Looney Tunes Cartoons as a series of new short-form cartoons.

July sees Beat Bugs on Nick Junior (DStv Channel 307) premier the Emmy-winning music-centric animated series featuring reimagined versions of famous Beatles songs performed by popular recording artists including Jennifer Hudson, Eddie Vedder, The Shins, Robbie Williams and Pink!.

August brings Unfiltered on Nicktoons (DStv Channel 308), a new game show, where celebrities hide behind hilarious 3D animated characters and it’s up to the panel to ask questions, gather clues, and play games to correctly guess the mystery guest.

DStv still has the best educational programing for all ages on ZooMoo (DStv 314), JimJam (DStv 310), CBeebies (DStv 306), Nick Jr (DStv 307), PBS Kids (DStv 313) and Da Vinci (DStv 318).

After 4 Years, Nickelodeon Returns To e.tv Kids Lineup

e.tv quietly scrubbed Nickelodeon's content from their channel 4 years ago alongside it's kids channel, eToonz. Now they're bringing two sitcoms to the channel as mentioned below.

The dates of when these series will air are currently unavailable at the moment and the return of Nickelodeon could mean the return of shows that were unexpectedly pulled from their lineup.

Game Shakers
Wednesdays, 3:55 PM
Game Shakers
A live-action sitcom about two 12-year-old girls who start a multi-million-dollar gaming company and take on rap superstar Double G as a business partner.

School of Rock
Thursdays, 3.55 PM
School of Rock
After being kicked out of his rock band, Dewey Finn becomes a substitute teacher of an uptight elementary private school, only to try and turn his class into a rock band.

Disney Mickey Mouse Clubhouse
Tuesday 3:00PM
Mick Mouse
Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Goofy, Daisy, Donald and many other clubhouse friends go on educational adventures and impart important lessons in a fun way.

Fill your weekday afternoons with fun animation and adventures you can’t miss! Only on Craze from 2:30 PM

Read Also:
- June on Nicktoons and Nick Jr

- e.tv to become another SABC

- George of the Jungle airs today on eToonz

- Till The End Of Time coming soon to eExtra

-
- Analogue TV is going off air soon, be sure to get a decoder when purchasing a TV set
- Linear channels switch to 7 day viewing, Will SABC and e.tv viewers be able to cope
- SABC and e.tv ratings for April
- Judge Judy seen on e.tv ending after 25 seasons
- Is an SABC 4 and SABC 5 channel on the way?
- Details on SABC's kids brand (not SABC Education)
- Other shows coming soon to eToonz?
- Boomerang might be discontinued
- June on Cartoon Network and Boomerang
- June on Disney Channel and Disney Junior

- June on Da Vinci Kids

DStv Without Disney? Bob Chapek Confirms That Disney To Close 100 International TV Channels In 2021

With the international rollout of Disney+ in full swing, Disney has been making big changes to its traditional television networks, as it moves its content over to Disney+.

When Disney purchased 20th Century Fox, they obtained a large number of TV networks around the world including Fox, Star, National Geographic and more, in addition to their own Disney Channels.

Last year multiple Disney Channels were closed down around the world, including in Australia and in the United Kingdom. With Disney also set to close down the Fox channel in the UK next month and another 18 channels in South East Asia later this year.

During a recent interview with Walt Disney CEO Bob Chapek at the J.P. Morgan Global Technology, Media And Communications Conference. He was asked if more international cable networks are going to be closing, and he replied:

Well, we closed 30 channels in FY2020 or in 2020. We plan to close 100 in 2021. So yes, we will continue and continue at a robust rate. And then the content to your question, we’ll continue to migrate to Disney+, the great majority of that content will migrate to Disney+. And again, the decisions that we make in individual channels and individual markets, and the timing of such are sort of framed up by existing deals that we’ve gotten some of the constraints we’ve got there, but as you can see, that continues to be a core strategy for us as we pivot towards direct-to-consumer.

There are still many countries within Eastern Europe, Africa, The Middle East and in Asia, that don’t yet have Disney+ available. So we should expect a lot more channels in those regions to be closed later this year, once Disney+ launches in those regions.

Updated (18/06): tvN Might Have Gotten An Extended Vacation On DStv

tvN launched in March on DStv channel 134 after failing to launch November of last year as promised in DStv's upfront and is expected to continue operating until June 20th at least that's what MultiChoice stated earlier.

tvN Africa posted a photo online asking fans which shows they like to see "this year". Now read the inverted part didn't they say it would close later in June.

It's possible MultiChoice and the owners of the brand CJ ENM reached a new agreement giving the channel either a permanent or extended vacation.

Why else would the channel ask such questions and put these 8 shows in particular if there's no reason to it really.

If tvN does happen to be a permanent addition it will be the first out of the four pop-up channels advertised in DStv's upfront.

After all Timeless Dizi Channel was the first to be axed despite the massive followers and ZooMoo which was scheduled to close in March got extended until the end of June leaving TLNovelas as the only undecided channel.

July on tvN:

These shows are set to air during the extended period:

Mr. Queen, based on the original Chinese web drama Go Princess Go, the series is about a man named Bong-hwan from the modern age, being trapped in the body of Queen Cheorin in the Joseon era.

Sixth Sense, in each episode, the cast members, together with a male guest (known as the Sixth Man), visit three different places (or people) of hot issue.

Memorist, with the power to read people's memories, Dong Baek solves crimes as a detective in the police force. When a string of serial murders happen, Dong Baek teams up with talented criminal profiler Han Sun-mi to stop the killer and prevent further deaths.

Tomorrow With You, the story revolves around Yoo So-joon, a CEO of a real estate company, who has the ability to travel through time via a subway; and his wife, Song Ma-rin, who works as an amateur photographer.

tvN has been extended until the end of July.

Could FOX Africa Be Disney's Next Target For Star Following It's Launch In Latin America?

In 2019, Disney took ownership of 21st Century Studios. Since then they've been removing trying to rid themselves of the FOX name by turning 20th Century FOX Television into 20th Television and even going as far as replacing the international FOX Sports channels with ESPN.

FOX might be rebranding sooner than anticipated I mean there was no actual timeframe on when Star would replace more FOX channels since the last the trail went silent in Latin America back in February but the UK might have answered that.

The channel is scheduled to shutdown by the end of June in the UK and Africa could follow around that time if not the exact date the only thing difference here we'll follow Latin America and have a linear version of Star.

FOX turns 11 later in July or maybe it will be replaced before then as the channel started uploading new content but in this case it's coming from Disney+ Star. The second Star original Marvel's Helstorm is rolling out in the same month with the first being Solar Opposites that rolled out in May.

This theory seems very possible last year the UK lost their Disney Channels which came at the exact time Africa lost Disney XD.

Following on XD's demise, the channel began to phase out in groups in other territories within a span of 3 months. So chances are Star could roll out in groups on FOX like it did on Disney+.

It's possible that FOX in Africa won't wait for Disney+ to arrive in the market or even Utsav to take a toll on Star India's channels. For starters, Star's content on Disney+ is distributable and second with India none of their channels are called Star in general so as much as the logos cause confusion it wouldn't be too difficult to tare them apart.

In the end, I could see FOX remain only in the United States and Turkey by the end of the year.

If the rebrand does occur between June or July then Disney just missed the opportunity to inform the media about FOX's demise which wouldn't come as a surprise as they failed to last year to inform the media over the removal of FOX Life and Disney XD.

- DStv and Starsat might be losing more Disney Channels