Roundups #64: House Of Dragons Coming Soon To M-Net, Tiny Homes Returns For A Twenty Second Season On People's Weather And Disney Channel Africa Welcomes The Third Season Of Walk The Prank

Some details regarding M-Net's much anticipated GOT spinoff

Set two hundred years before the events of Game of Thrones, the series chronicles the beginning of the end of House Targaryen, the events leading up to the Targaryen civil war, known as the "Dance of the Dragons", and the war itself.

It is a prequel to the television series Game of Thrones and is based on Martin's 2018 novel Fire & Blood. The project is a reworking of the rejected spin-off concept from Game of Thrones writer Bryan Cogman, on which HBO officially passed.

The series will debut on August 21st in the United States and M-Net will likely air it as an Express From The U.S. title.

People's Weather primetime lineup for June 13th

18:30
Sailing Mokara
Explore the beautiful tropical islands, diving colourful reefs to get dinner, socialising with other cruising families, marvelling at the night sky and having front row seats to the most amazing sunsets.

19:00
Tiny Homes Season 22
Discover the dwellings of those who choose to live in tiny houses, vans, RVs, and boats; and people who are exploring long-term travel, minimalism, zero waste living, renewable energy and living off-grid.

19:30
Ironvan Adventures
Dirk Smit and Alti Fouché are adventure travel filmmakers with a passion for wildlife, conservation, hidden treasures and interesting people...Join them as they travel Southern Africa, capturing their journey in the Ironvan, a formidable overlanding beast proudly powered by Ironman 4x4 Africa.

Some Disney XD faves are back on Disney Channel

2 years ago, The Walt Disney Company ripped away Disney XD from African audiences with very little content available on the Disney Channel.

For several months, Disney Channel had begun to zombify their lineup mostly with past XD shows like Guardians Of The Galaxy, Big City Greens, Lab Rats and DuckTales with newcomer Walk The Prank.

Set to be on its third season from 13 June, the prank show follows Herman, Chance, Bailey, and Dusty, who set up elaborate pranks and find real people to perform the pranks on. Their pranks usually involve supernatural, scary, funny or gross elements.

Pierre Branco Appointed General Manager, France, Benelux And Africa, Warner Bros. Discovery

Warner Bros. Discovery today announced that Pierre Branco has been appointed General Manager, France, Benelux and Africa, Warner Bros. Discovery. He will continue to report to Priya Dogra, President and Managing Director, EMEA (ex Poland). In this role Pierre Branco will be responsible for Warner Bros. Discovery’s combined businesses working in close coordination with the company’s global functions across Streaming, Sport, US Programming, and the Studio and for each line of business, developing territory-specific strategies to drive growth and efficiencies. These include pay and FTA networks, leading significant efforts in marketing and monetising US content across lines of business including theatrical, licensing, consumer products, games and home entertainment and shared responsibility for the streaming services.

 

Priya Dogra, President and Managing Director, EMEA (ex Poland), said: “Pierre is an accomplished leader with a deep understanding and experience of these markets where he has already played a pivotal role in driving strategic business decisions. I am confident that his strong leadership and strategic acumen will continue to drive our businesses forward and connect our beloved brands and consumers in these important and competitive marketplaces.”

Pierre Branco said: "I am enormously proud to be part of this new chapter of Warner Bros. Discovery. I look forward to building on the legacy and values that have made both companies so successful in these regions, and to contribute to building the world’s most dynamic media company in these important markets. The opportunity to lead these fantastic teams is very exciting and I can’t wait to get started.”

 

Most recently, Branco was Country Manager for France, Benelux, Middle East and Africa and Head of Affiliates and Ad Sales for EMEA at WarnerMedia. During his 15 years at the company, he has held a number of roles across Europe, Middle East and Africa including SVP Northern Europe, MENAT, France & Africa and VP & General Manager France and Africa. In these roles, he significantly grew the company’s business and launched new brands in the region: Boing, Toonami and Warner TV.

McDonald: The Mystery Of Their Theme Song I'm Lovin' It

Also try:
- McDonald's Treasure Land Adventure

It's been playing on countless McDonald commercials around the world. But who wrote this jingle that has proven to be hard to answer as many thought it was Pharrell Williams and Justin Timberlake since the slogan was based on one of their songs titled "I'm Lovin It".

In 2016, Pusha T said in an interview that he was the one wrote for the jingle. Then the German agency responsible for the campaign refuted his claim.

Let's take it back to the beginning

In 2003, for the first time in 37 years McDonald's stock was falling so they needed an ad campaign to boost stock.

After holding a campaign with 14 different agencies the German won the bid with the campaign "Ich Liebe Es" (also known as I'm Lovin' It") and were also the ones that crafted the five syllables ba-da-ba-ba-ba but then McDonald realised there was a huge issue.

Music was suppose to be part of their campaign and they had find a way to turn those syllables into music. They got Butch Stewart who made multiple McDonald jingles in the past and over.

 

Butch collaborates with his son on the jingle for McDonald together they start writing and if the McDonald executives could see the musical approach going then the campaign would get the greenlight and if not the campaign would be scrapped.

After weeks of writing the catchy jingle Butch presented the concept to McDonald of which they approved that it was used for their global campaign.

They wanted to bring their slogan into culture so they hired a filmmaker producer who could write a song around the words "I'm Lovin' It", entered Pharrell Williams.

The plan was to disguise the slogan into a catchy pop song and not to reveal the McDonald connection until much later when the song has been released to radio.

In order to make I'm Lovin It a massive success they needed a massive star to sing the manufactured hit enters Justin Timberlake.

They offered him $6 million dollars to record the track and he even used it as a setlist to one of his concerts for Justified and goes on radio as if it was an official single for the pop star.

 

For a song about hamburgers, it managed to top the 100 in the United States and hit #1 in Belgium. A month later, McDonald announced they'll use the song for the ad campaign. They take the hook and mix it with a rap song from Pusha T.

Who managed what?
1. Slogan and Signature Sound was handley by a German Ad Agency
2. Ad campaign was brought to life by Butch Stewart
3. Pharrell Williams wrote Justin Timberlake's single that went to radio.
4. The first global ad campaign was Pharrell Williams, Justin Timberlake and Pusha T.

How do they crew feel about it?
Justin has expressed regret for the deal while Pusha has no problems with the deal. McDonald's stock price was valued at $12 before 2003 and now it's over $150 and the slogan has become the longest campaign ever used by them.

The Most Perplexing Mysteries Of All Time Coming Soon To History Channel Africa - July 2022 Highlights

‘Mystery Month’ this July on the HISTORY Channel Africa delves into the most perplexing mysteries of all time. From the ultimate treasure hunting in the World’s Greatest Treasure Mysteries and Lost Gold of the Aztecs on Fridays, to weird and unexplained events in History’s Greatest Mysteries with Laurence Fishburne on Sundays.

Brand New and Exclusive HISTORY’S GREATEST
MYSTERIES WITH LAURENCE FISHBURNE S3
3 July
Sundays 20h15
History’s Greatest Mysteries is a one-hour documentary series that examines the top theories surrounding the world’s most enigmat c unsolved mysteries. This season Academy Award® nominee and Emmy Award® winner Laurence Fishburne delves into among others; the infamous Cold War case where nine hikers were found mut lated on the remote Dyatlov mountain pass and how the magnificent Amber Room, valued at half a billion dollars, was dismantled, and disappeared without a trace during World War II. Fishburne will unpack these puzzles with contribut ons from top historians, authors, scient sts, and researchers in search of possible explanat ons to some of the world’s most confounding events.

 

Brand New and Exclusive
LOST GOLD OF THE AZTECS
22 July Fridays 20h15 500 years ago, Spanish Conquistadors raided the gold-filled land of the Aztecs. But according to the legend, Emperor Montezuma had already hidden his treasure across several different locations in what is now the American Southwest and placed a deadly curse on it. Now, three different families each with a distinct connect onto the gold are closing in on what they believe is the locat on of the ‘Lost Gold of the Aztecs’. The series will intercut each family’s epic adventure as they search for the treasure on three different properties in three different states. Who will break the curse and find the Aztec Gold?

 

Brand New and Exclusive WORLD’S GREATEST TREASURE MYSTERIES S2
29 July Fridays 19h25
Rick and Marty Lagina along with their intrepid research partner, Maty Blake, are back on the hunt for treasure “Beyond Oak Island.” This exciting and act on-packed second season of the hit HISTORY Channel series will follow them across the United States and Canada as they meet and work with fellow treasure hunters to search for billions in legendary lost riches. From hidden Spanish gold mines, and outlaw hideouts, to sunken treasure galleons and river boat wrecks, the Laginas and Maty will dig, drill and dive their way into history in an eff ort to recover amazing art facts and astonishing valuables that haven’t been touched by human hands for centuries.

Brand New and Exclusive
INSIDE THE TOWER OF LONDON
19 July Tuesdays 20h15
The Tower of London was at the heart of state life in the UK for almost 1,000 years and now is one of the most famous buildings in the world. Constructed soon af er the Norman conquest of Britain in 1066, it has served as a Royal Palace, fortress, prison, place of execut on for queens, and edifi ce to scare the population, royal zoo, mint and keeper of the Crown Jewels. Yet few know its full story. Aided by historian Stephen Porter of King’s College, University of London who is the author of ‘The Biography of the Tower of London’, and some beautiful re-enactments, we uncover startling stories and terrifying tales.

Digital First: What's Next For BBC Brit, BBC Lifestyle And BBC Earth?

Last month, BBC Studios Director General Tim Dave unveiled plans to become a digital first service (as seen in Asia) with terminations of BBC World News and BBC Kids on the cards. Questions rise regarding the fate of the remaining stations BBC Lifestyle, BBC Earth and already discussed CBeebies.

BBC Lifestyle (alongside BBC World News to some extent) happen to be one of the longest running channels from BBC Studios. BBC Lifestyle served up food, home & design, fashion, health and personal development.

The channel became one of the top brands in South Africa for shows like Come Dine With Me, MasterChef, First Dates, Blackpool and Great British Bake Off.

 

Even after trading places with BBC Knowledge, Earth continues its road to stardom with natural history and wildlife with award winning documentaries like Planet Earth, Blue Planet, Horizon, Uprising and Life.

Unfortunately, not all channels from BBC Studios have something to look back on or feel accomplished by.

BBC Brit has been active in Africa for as long as BBC Earth when it launched as a replacement to BBC Entertainment's reality offering as BBC First handled scripted programming. Shows made available included Top Gear, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire and The Graham Norton Show.

 

Over the years, BBC Brit had struggled to surpass its successor BBC Entertainment that even BBC Studios opted to scrap production of original content for the channel and put most of its efforts in sourcing mostly already seen content from other BBC stations.

Compared to the three, there's actually more reasons to boot BBC Brit but from what we've seen with BBC First. There's more reasons to believe BBC Lifestyle or Earth to go overboard.

Digital First: The End Of BBC Kids And Likely CBeebies

BBC Kids served as children's channel from BBC Studios and unlike CBeebies caters for older children with already viewed Da Vinci Kids content shows like Horrible Histories and Operation Ouch and Matilda And The Ramsay Bunch alongside other shows like The Sarah Jane Adventures, M.I. High and Jamie Johnson.

The channel launched in Canada from 2001 making it the only international market at the time to recieve CBBC. Reason for the name change likely had to do with the huge resemblance with CBeebies and they didn't want to cause confusion so BBC Kids.

Unlike CBBC, BBC Kids also catered preschoolers with its selection of content from CBeebies such as Clangers, The Hive, Charlie And Lola, Hey Duggee, Rastamouse and Mister Maker.

 

During its run, BBC Kids gained popularity although no other market opted to adapt to this market or operate a BBC Kids channel. Knowledge Network which had majority stake in the time garnered enough revenue to launch an HD version of their service.

Despite the acclaim, it was announced in 2018 that the brand would be phased out the following year due to regulatory challenges facing independent channels.

 

 

Two years later, it was revived in Australia but this time it was only catering to older children aged 7-14 as seen in the UK with CBBC and also BBC Studios had full ownership of the brand and it wasn't long till it was carried out to the United States.

Last month, BBC Studios unveiled plans to halt operations of two channels one of them being CBBC with more likely to follow in the near future as the company shifts focus to their direct to consumer business.

 

Compared to CBeebies, you can clearly see where BBC Studios was getting at with scrapping the channel. Although, BBC Kids managed to perform outstandingly in the relevant markets was overshadowed by CBeebies in terms of programming and international acclaim.

BBC Studios could be going after smaller brands and working their way to the top. Is anyone surprised that BBC Kids is getting discontinued or that BBC Studios pulled a Disney on consumers after all they are based in the UK which has been the hotspot for streamlining.