Unpopular Fact: Cartoon Network Was A Loss Making Channel

When two corporations merge a bunch of wild decisions are made that we should definitely be worrying about. A recent announcement revealed that HBO Max as you know it won't be sticking around for much longer and something else will be taking place.

During an investor call, Warner Bros. Discovery's CEO David filled us in on what's happening by the end of 2023. HBO Max and Discovery+ are combining to form a new streaming service by next year. It will have a mix of old and new content with a lot of details still being left in the dark.

While this combo is taking sometime to get going we are already feeling the consequences right now - cancellations.

You may know that the Batgirl and Scoob: Holiday Haunt's situation were both these projects were close to being finished then they were just scrapped from ever releasing. That was bad but things are about to get much worse.

During the investor call, we learnt some unfortunate news about animation. In a previous slide from WarnerMedia, it was revealed that a high budget was going into projects including kids and animation with unproven financial returns.

On the call, we also learnt that content on both streaming and linear platforms would be cut without an adequate investment case on them if that was bad it's probably gonna get worse. This means that no current or upcoming offering is safe from being cancelled.

As stated in that upfront they would be looking to cutting back on local investment so it might be bye-bye to My Cartoon Friend, Elliott From Earth and CN To The Rescue alongside upcoming attractions like Garbage Boy And Trash Can, Iyanu: Child Of Wonder, The Adventures Of Ivanhoe and Battu are all not safe.

Credits: Vailskibum94

What Really Happened To Mindset Network's Health Channel?

It was on pilot mode in 2003, The Mindset Health Channel, a partnership between Mindset Network, the National Department of Health and Sentech, provided a multimedia platform, to deliver uplifting health education and promotion on critical health issues, including tuberculosis the HIV and AIDS pandemic, on a mass scale.

The channel, which began broadcasting TV programmes in October 2003, had advanced to Internet datacasting reaching an increasing number of clinics and hospitals. From 48 sites in the pilot phase, Mindset Health had 298 established sites throughout South Africa.

The satellite uplink provided by Sentech allowed datacasting directly to users with information in video, multimedia and print available on demand.

"When patients gather in a clinic they can watch a TV programme in the waiting area, while a healthcare worker independently explores in-depth clinical management material on a PC," says Tricia Hobson, Marketing Manager, Mindset Network. This can be interrupted and returned to at a time convenient for the healthcare worker.

The public broadcast, offering 'infotainment' delivers education and promotion on HIV and AIDS (prevention, management, treatment and care), tuberculosis, other major diseases such as maternal and infant health, and the underlying issues such as gender violence, in multiple languages through, drama, public service announcements, documentaries, interviews and discussions.

"Mindset Health sources high-quality content from a number of our media content partners, including SABC, Soul City, Love Life, Khomanani, Community Health Media Trust and Kagiso Educational Trust," says Hobson. The content is available in five languages - English, SeSotho, isiZulu, isiXhosa and Afrikaans.

Healthcare workers and nurses report that the programmes provide an invaluable resource of up-to-date information which adds enormous value to their counselling and administrative efforts.

The Mindset Health Channel aimed to broadcast to 4 000 public healthcare sites, and hospitals as wall as private clinics, prisons and community centres, educating 97 000 nurses and 36 million South Africans.

To do this will require a variety of project and funding partnerships to support the roll-out as well as to sustain usage among both the patients and the healthcare workers in the public health sector.

"We believe these targets are quite within reach and the satellite technology supporting the Mindset Health Channel has the capacity to deliver quality content to South Africa and beyond," says Pranill Ramchander, Sentech's Portfolio Manager: Corporate Communications.

The afterlife of Mindset Health

In a media enquiry, Mindset Network revealed that a lack of funding led to the termination of the health channel contributing to that was the severed partnership with Department of Health as they had no means of keeping the channel sustainable.

A decade after its termination, the nonprofit organisation partnered up with pay-tv giant MultiChoice for a spinoff to the current Mindset TV which catered to Grade 4-9 and ran throughout the pandemic and went dark in the same year with further content available on the main channel.

Roundups #83: Taffy Has Been Removed From Various Boomerang Feeds, WAGS Inspired Series The Queens Of Mzansi Launches On SABC 1, County 49 Currently Streaming On Showmax

Taffy may go back to being a raccoon

Earlier in the year, Cyber Group Studios the company in charge of supplying Taffy to Boomerang announced a further third season and as seen this past week Warner Bros. Discovery will be cutting back on content for their linear operations to invest it onto their streaming service.

Taffy which follows a grey raccoon, Scraggs, who gets adopted by Mrs. Muchmore after thinking he is a cat named Taffy. Her main pet, a blue dobermann named Bentley, is determined to reveal Taffy's secret to Mrs. Muchmore has been part of the Boomerang family since 2018.

Viewers across several markets had spotted that various content like The Fungies and Infinity Train had been removed from not only Cartoon Network but the streamer HBO Max and these two were canned by the network with Taffy likely joining despite the renewal.

S3 Jozi Divas has been revived on another network

SABC1 has a brand-new reality show, The Queens of Mzansi, which will premiere on Monday, 15 August at 21:00.

"Like most South African women, The Queens of Mzansi face hardships from gender-based violence, divorce, financial difficulties, and being widowed. That is what makes them Queens…they all had a rebirth and have found their voices and crowns again," reads a press release from the channel.

According to the statement, viewers will get a front-row seat into their lives and what it 'means to be a modern-day South African woman' while balancing friendship, romantic relationships, being single moms and managing their businesses.

County 49 now on Showmax

This Kenyan political thriller follows the political intrigues of the fictional Bwatele County, Kenya’s 49th county and the nation’s breadbasket. Despite the county’s wealth, its citizens are suffering from the high cost of living and scarce resources.

Now against the backdrop of great civilian discontent, a disgraced security officer is compelled to save the governor and her chief of staff – his estranged wife – from a local terrorist group, which has kidnapped them for money and revenge.

County 49 stars Wakio Mzenge (Selina), Nyokabi Macharia (Chaguo), Ainea Ojiambo (Igiza), Maqbul Mohammed (Crime and Justice), Martin Githinji (Sue na Jonnie), Peter Kawa (Uradi), Benson Ojuwa (Njoro wa Uba), Nick Kwach (Chaguo) and more.

Roundups #82: More eToonz Coming Soon To Da Vinci Kids, More Wrestling Action Coming Soon To TNT Africa And Keanu Reeves to Lead ‘Devil in the White City’ Hulu Series From Martin Scorsese And Leonardo DiCaprio

More repeats for pay-tv consumers

As reported weeks days ago, eToonz alongside the 3 other e.tv channels returned to the DStv platform following pending investigations which could take up to 6 months. Since then, MultiChoice has been doing quiet a job filling up for eToonz.

Aside from DreamWorks Channel which is basically eToonz Extra and PBS Kids, Da Vinci Kids has been stacking their lineup with several content which seen been viewed on the red brand like Doki, The Deep and Bajillionaires and now another series fills that list, Yoko.

Yoko follows three children who unexpectedly meet the spirit of the game, Yoko. Together they revive the game and opens incredible world of childhood. Yoko adds magic to children's games and turns fantasy into reality.

The third instalment to Battle Of The Belts arrives on TNT Africa

This weekend’s Battle of the Belts III card, which took place in Van Andel Arena, West Michigan, on 6 August, features Claudio Castagnoli defending the ROH (Ring of Honor) world title against Konosuke Takeshita. That’s one of three belt battles coming your way. Saturday’s special will also see Jamie Hayter get her shot at Thunder Rosa and the AEW women’s championship, while the mighty Wardlow puts the TNT title on the line against Jay Lethal.

Fans can tune in to this AEW special, Battle of the Belts III, on Saturday, 13 August at 10:50 CAT on TNT Africa!

Other AEW fast-paced, high-impact competitions coming to TNT Africa this weekend include:

AEW Rampage, Saturday, 13 August @10:00 CAT:

· AEW Interim World Title Eliminator Jon Moxley vs Mance Warner

· Friday Night Street Fight Keith Lee & Swerve Strickland vs TonyNese & Josh Woods

· The Debut of Madison Rayne

AEW Dynamite, Sunday, 14 August @10:00 CAT:

· AEW Interim World Championship Jon Moxley vs Chris Jericho

· Coffin Match Brody King vs Darby Allin

· Jade Cargill Open Challenge for the TBS Championship

· Tornado Tag, Lucha Brothers vs Andrade El Idolo & Rush

Keanu Reeves starring in a Hulu series

It’s official: Hulu is moving forward with a TV adaptation of Erik Larson’s best-seller Devil in the White City with Keanu Reeves set to star in what will be his largest TV role to date.

The drama, which has been developed as a film and TV series since Leonardo DiCaprio optioned the property in 2010, has scored a formal series order at the Disney-backed streamer. The news was announced Thursday as part of Hulu’s virtual time before press at the Television Critics Association’s summer tour.

Based on Larson’s novel, Devil revolves around Daniel H. Burnham (Reeves), a demanding but visionary architect who races to make his mark on history with the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, and Dr. H. H. Holmes, America’s first modern serial killer and the man behind the notorious “Murder Castle” built in the fair’s shadow. (DiCaprio is not expected to have an on-screen role as of press time.)

Roundups #82: Paramount Provides Outdated EPG For Nicktoons Africa, Dressed For Mourning Coming Soon To Citi TV And StarSat To Double Down On Dubs With Second Zulu Drama Series

Could Nicktoons be on the chopping block?

Although, there's no official confirmation about the channel's demise within the region. Nicktoons has been less toonie as the lineup is jam-packed with mainly current shows from Nickelodeon with a few discrepancies here and there.

Apparently, MultiChoice provides two alternate schedules of the channel same with Nick Jr. but as mentioned the discrepancies are more transparent with Nicktoons as the channel lists Program To Be Confirmed online while DStv's EPG mentions Alvin although it's Horrid Henry.

It's believed at this point that the only reason Nicktoons is just offering a duplicate selection to Nickelodeon is Paramount's way of phasing out the channel and cancelling out potential liabilities like Horrid Henry with NickMusic's fate in question.

Women In Black coming soon to Ghana

Citi TV a Ghanaian channel that features a unique blend of credible, authentic and timely news, current affairs as well as compelling non-news programming will soon introduce the rumoured TLNovelas series titled Mujeres De Negro (Dressed For Mourning).

Mujeres De Negro follows the rich coastal town of Encino Blanco, three married couples spend the weekend at Coral Beach while their husbands go on their already traditional fishing trip on a yacht. Not far from the pier, the yacht suddenly explodes. Only chips remain on the surface. In seconds they lost their husbands, and they have to go on with their lives without them...just as they planned.

The series stars Mayrín Villanueva, Alejandra Barros, Ximena Herrera and Arturo Peniche.

More local dubs are heading your way

eMedia has seen success with eExtra's Kuiertyd that it's consolidated this content onto more platforms only for MultiChoice to ramp up a similar offering on kykNET & Kie with StarTimes doing something similar which is no way competition.

Earlier in the year, StarSat launched its first Zulu dubbed show with Phillipine revenge drama Blood Sisters on St Novelas now they'll be launching a second Zulu dubbed show but this time for the channel St Rise worst part they pick Waaris (The Heir).

Waaris follows Amba, who belongs to a Punjabi family, gives birth to a girl child. However, circumstances force her to hide the gender of her baby and raise her like a boy. The series aired on Zee World, Zee One and eExtra and now it's also launching on St Rise from August 22nd.

CNN+ And HBO Max To Be Reduced To A Tile On Warner Bros. Discovery's Revamped Streaming Service In 2023

These past months, Warner Bros. Discovery has been scaling back on content investment so to save themselves some extra cash. They've scrapped several HBO Max productions like Gordita Chronicles, Little Ellen, Batgirl and Scoob: Holiday Haunt while some of the linear channels scale back on original programming.

As mentioned in Warner Bros. Discovery's earning call, HBO Max and Discovery+ will merge into one single streaming service and with these cutbacks from Warner's side as opposed to Discovery. The streaming service is said to hold more HBO than Discovery as HBO will be managing most if not all the content under a single tile.

Of course, these won't have as much affect on Cartoon Network as it will likely get its own tile on the merged streaming service same with Adult Swim if anything I'm expecting Cartoonito under CN's tile with Boomerang doing just Boomerang.

Warner Bros. Discovery attempted to spun off CNN as an independent brand with the launch of the short-lived streaming service CNN+ which has apparently been revived on Discovery+ and not HBO Max since the content is unscripted which the streamer lacks.

When Discovery+ and HBO Max eventually merge by 2023, CNN will form a tile on the streamer despite housing unscripted entertainment the platform very much unifies their offering from the rest of Warner Bros. Discovery's portfolio as ID has a lawnmower while CNN has a tractor with TLC living in a palace with CNN owning a resort with 5 star resort.

South Africa hasn't got access to any of these streamers seen with Netflix, The Walt Disney Company's Disney+, MultiChoice's Showmax and eMedia's eVOD but Europe will get it by early 2024 with Asia Pacific occupying the middle with Africa likely to get it close to the end of that year or early 2025.