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Updated: Utsav Next Target Could Be The Star Channels Currently On DStv, StarSat, Zuku TV And Openview + Disney Channel And Disney Junior Could Go Off Air Sooner Than Expected As Disney Shifts Its Focus Towards Streaming

Later this week, Disney and Star in India announced that they would exit from the English general entertainment industry which resulted in the termination of most of their channels with Hindi channels taking their spot.

The Walt Disney Company revealed plans to close 100 international Disney channels before the FY22 with more Disney Channels expected to close in Europe as streaming looks to be the brands top priority.

The likely reason for Star's demise is due to Disney+ since The Walt Disney Company took the Star branding for their streaming service so Star India keeping it for English viewers would only cause confusion.

Earlier this year, the UK & Europe rebranded their Star channels to Utsav with the changes applicable to viewers of those regions. Of course, there's several signs that the branding will be duplicated in more countries.

Vijay TV is the only channel internationally to use that adapt to that branding and Star India is seemingly testing out the Utsav branding through the StarPlus and Star Gold channel in Africa.

Star Life being the only English channel in Africa will have to create some distance from Star India or join the party seeing that they're exiting the audience it's catered for.

The European counterpart manages the Star channels in Africa so it seems logical for the Utsav branding to enter the region the question would have to be why delay the switch, could Star Life have some involvement perhaps?

The Disney Africa Facebook page stopped promoting content from Disney Channel and moved it to the Disney Africa Channels page (formerly Disney Junior Africa) with the main page likely to be used as a portal to promote Disney+.

The UK, Asia, Italy and Australia already lost Disney Channel and Disney Junior so it doesn't seem far fetched to think the same fate awaits the Disney Channels in Africa.

The Walt Disney Company is set out to be another Netflix. Even if that means cutting the cord of several channels in markets where cable is dominating the circuit.

In November, Disney Channel and Disney Junior have seemingly hit the reruns button with the main channel airing reruns of Gigantosaurus.

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tvN's Parent Company CJ ENM Joins The Anime Business As They Partner Up With Toei Animation

Korean entertainment powerhouse CJ ENM has entered into a strategic partnership with leading Japanese animation studio Toei Animation as it continues to expand its global footprint. Under the agreement, the two companies will collaborate across both their libraries and team to create new product including television series, films and animation. The tie-up will also allow both to tap each other’s regional markets.

CJ ENM is is Korea’s foremost film and television studio, cable operator and music producer. Best known for multiple Oscar winner Parasite, the company’s film credits also include Snowpiercer and Miss Granny. Series credits range from Crash Landing On You to Goblin: The Lonely And Great God and Hospital Playlist while it is also behind music format I Can See Your Voice; stage credits include the Tony Award winning Broadway production Kinky Boots.

CJ further has a strategic investment in David Ellison’s Skydance Media and is currently co-producing a drama series with the U.S.-based company. It is also involved in the production of the TV-adaptation of Parasite with HBO.

The company has been on a global expansion push over the past year looking to form partnerships with content creators in the U.S., Europe and Asia.

Toei has produced numerous series including the Dragon Ball Z and One Piece franchises as well as Galaxy Express 999 and Sailor Moon. Its library numbers 13,100 episodes, including 255 feature films and 288 television series.

The two partners will now work closely to co-produce premium content that appeals to a global audience, be it new projects or those based on existing IP. They have formed a task-force with creatives from both sides to accelerate production.

“Toei Animation’s IP has great potential for transmedia or cross-media storytelling, as they have an existing strong global fandom and appeals to a wide range of age groups. We are also excited to see how CJ ENM’s original content that expands over 5,000 different IPs will be able open new doors of creative possibilities for Toei Animation,” said Jongmin Yi, Senior Vice President of CJ ENM’s Content R&D Center. “Through this strategic partnership, we plan to develop never-seen-before transmedia contents in both Korea and Japan.”

Added Takashi Washio, Executive Officer and Executive Producer of Production Department at Toei Animation, “We look forward to working with CJ ENM, a company that has been recognized for its borderless content and its influence in shaping some of the new trends in the global media entertainment landscape. Combined with Toei Animation’s know-hows from a wealth of experience and accomplishments in producing global animation hits, we are confident that the two companies will be able to create synergy to create global mega-hit contents.”

CJ ENM currently has a content agreement with MultiChoice's Showmax for their K-Dramas and they are pushing to get DStv to bring back tvN.

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ViacomCBS: Could BET Africa Be On The Chopping Block?

BET has been available in Africa for nearly a decade offering a range of shows such as Real Husbands Of Hollywood, The Wendy Williams Show, Being Mary Jane and The Westbrooks.

As years passed, BET has slowly become redundant with most of their lineup consisting of repeats. Wendy which serves as the sole purpose of the brand is often M.I.A.

Earlier this year, Monde Twala, senior vice president and general manager for ViacomCBS Networks Africa and peer lead BET International, announced the end of BET as a linear pay-TV channel in the UK as they divert the brand's focus toward streaming.

It wouldn't surprise me if the same fate awaited BET in Africa perhaps it will even have more success online than it could as a linear service as ViacomCBS continues rolling out Paramount+ across Europe.

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Sony Pictures Networks India And Zee Entertainment Enterprises Are Set To Merge

Sony Pictures Networks India (SPNI) and Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd. (ZEEL) announced that they have entered into an exclusive, non-binding Term Sheet to combine both companies’ linear networks, digital assets, production operations and program libraries. The non-binding Term Sheet provides an exclusive negotiation period of 90 days during which ZEEL and SPNI will conduct mutual diligence and negotiate definitive, binding agreements. The combined company would be a publicly listed company in India and be better positioned to lead the consumer transition from traditional pay TV into the digital future.

The merger of ZEEL and SPNI would bring together two leading Indian media network businesses, benefitting consumers throughout India across content genres, from film to sports. The combined company is expected to benefit all stakeholders given strong synergies between ZEEL and SPNI.

Under the terms of the non-binding Term Sheet, Sony Pictures Entertainment, the parent company of SPNI, would invest growth capital so that SPNI has a cash balance of approximately USD $1.575 billion at closing for use to enhance the combined company’s digital platforms across technology and content, ability to bid for broadcasting rights in the fast-growing sports landscape and pursue other growth opportunities. Sony Pictures Entertainment would hold a majority stake in the combined company. Current ZEEL Managing Director & CEO Punit Goenka is to lead the combined company.

About Sony Pictures Networks India (SPNI):
Sony Pictures Networks India (SPNI), is an indirect wholly owned subsidiary of Sony Group Corporation, Japan. SPNI has several channels in Africa including Sony Entertainment Television (SET and SET HD), one of India's leading Hindi general entertainment television channels; MAX, India's premium Hindi movies and special events channel, the digital entertainment.
SPNI reaches out to over 700 million viewers in India and is available in 167 countries.

About ZEE Entertainment Enterprises Ltd.:
Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd. is a media & entertainment powerhouse offering entertainment content to diverse audiences. With a presence in over 173 countries and a reach of more than 1.3 billion people around the globe, ZEEL is among the largest global content companies across genres, languages, and platforms. The company operates brands such as Zee TV, Zee Cinema and Zee World.

SPI International Launches A Digital Version Of Their Top Performing Turkish Channel, Dizi

Global media company SPI International unveils their new digital streaming service, Dizi, which will offer a selection of critically-acclaimed Turkish series as well as the best series, telenovelas and soap operas from all over the world depending on the demands of the local markets. Dubbed the Home Of Good Stories, Dizi combines the lean-back and lean-forward viewing experiences with a linear channel offer and a large selection of on-demand content.
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“The launch of the Dizi streaming service signifies the evolution of the Dizi brand into a fully integrated service that combines linear and on-demand content propositions to bring the best series from Turkey and beyond to all available screens around the globe,” comments Berk Uziyel, CEO at SPI International. “As a part of SPI’s macro strategy, we offer good movies spanning all genres under one roof via FilmBox’s "Home of Good Movies". Now with our Dizi brand, we introduce the "Home of Good Stories", where in addition to some of the most sought-after Turkish series, viewers can expect to see top-quality series with powerful storylines from around the world in the future,” adds Uziyel.
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The service’s global debut will take place this week at a NEM Dubrovnik event. In reference to the new product, SPI's Chief Marketing Officer Haymi Behar says: “The Dizi app builds on the success of the Timeless Dizi Channel and features around 400 hours of content from an inventory of critically-acclaimed series such as Black Money Love, Kurt Seyit & Shura and Insider with new episodes added monthly. The app will feature English, Polish and Spanish localized interfaces and 13 language options and more will be added in time. The Dizi service will both enable viewers to tune into the linear channel and watch episodes on-demand through their preferred devices at their leisure.”

Subscribers can access the service at www.dizi.com via web, download the mobile app that’s compatible with iOS and Android operating systems or stream their favorite content through the Smart TV app that’s available for Apple TV and soon-to-come for Android TV, Samsung and LG Smart TV devices. Dizi service also aims to integrate with many platforms and partner operators worldwide to provide their subscribers a seamless entertainment experience and the option to discover new series on demand.

For those who were upset with MultiChoice for terminating the channel and those who want to view the content in English. Good news the above fits your tastes.

Disney+ Is FINALLY Coming To South Africa, No Clue On Whether The Rest Of Africa Will Get It At The Same Time

In a statement, the Walt Disney Company Africa said: "As confirmed in The Walt Disney Company's Q3 earnings call, Disney+ will launch in South Africa in winter 2022."

More details will be shared closer to launch.

Disney's subscription video streaming service Disney+ will finally launch in South Africa around June 2022. Viewers will be able to watch new series like Star Wars: The Mandalorian, Loki and a vast collection of content from National Geographic, Marvel Studios, Pixar and Disney.

The Walt Disney Company released its third-quarter 2021 financial results on Thursday night, where CEO Bob Chapek told investors on the company's financial results conference call that the launch of Disney+ in Eastern Europe is being pushed back from this year to 2022.

The Mouse House is doing this to enable a broader launch in "summer 2022" that will definitely include parts of the Middle East and South Africa, but that might exclude the rest of the African continent.

America's "summer 2022" means winter 2022 in Africa, starting from June.

Bob Chapek said that the "expanded Disney+ footprint will include parts of the Middle East and South Africa".

The Walt Disney Company Africa late on Thursday night told Channel24 in a statement: "As confirmed in The Walt Disney Company's Q3 earnings call, Disney+ will launch in South Africa in winter 2022. We will share more details as we approach the launch next year."

South Africa, Africa's most sophisticated TV market on the continent, will likely be the only African country where Disney+ will be launched initially. Chapek reiterated in the conference call that "our direct-to-consumer business is the company's top priority".

A year and a half after its launch, Disney+ has now reached 116 million subscribers worldwide by 3 July, bundling a collection of library and brand-new original content from across multiple of its studios and brands under one stream-viewing umbrella, including Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars and National Geographic.

The streaming race in SA
The first date fixture for a launch date of Disney+ for South Africa comes a week after a further two subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) services launched in the country: ITV Studios and the BBC's BritBox SA, as well as eVOD from eMedia Holdings' e.tv.

BritBox SA and eVOD joined the existing Showmax from MultiChoice, Netflix SA, Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV+, PCCW Media's VIU, Vodacom Video Play and TelkomONE.

Meanwhile the SABC, far behind in the video streaming race, plans to launch its video streamer, modelled after the BBC's iPlayer, before the end of its current financial year.

South African consumers are still waiting for other global streamers like WarnerMedia's HBO Max, along with Paramount+, NBCUniversal's Peacock and Discovery+ to launch locally.

While Disney has started to shut down hundreds of its linear TV channels globally, the expectation is that its existing group of pay-TV channels under its media networks division distributed into Africa and South Africa will remain on the air after Disney+ launches in winter 2022 for two major reasons.

The first will be to use these linear powerhouse TV channels as marketing and promotion avenues to raise awareness of Disney+ and to drive consumers to sample and subscribe. Secondly, with low and expensive broadband penetration and cost in South Africa, while the traditional pay-TV market still grows, Disney has millions of traditional pay-TV viewers from kids to adults who won't immediately move to Disney+ and who can't be cut off.

The third most in-demand streaming platform
The latest market research from Parrot Analytics has found that Disney+ has become the third most in-demand video streaming platform for original content in the United States and around the world, trailing just behind the more established Netflix and Amazon Prime Video.

Disney+ has dominated the video streaming original content game, accounting for the top two shows by demand globally on streamers, and with four of the top five in America during the second quarter this year.

All three Marvel series released this year on Disney+ became the most in-demand shows in the world within two weeks of launching, and Disney+'s original flagship series The Mandalorian continues to draw exceptional worldwide and American demand under viewers despite not launching a new episode since December 2020.