Roundups #96: Madagascar: A Little Wild Makes Its Linear Debut On e.tv, The Really Not So Loud House Makes Its Debut On Nickelodeon And First Look Into Spider-Man: Freshman Year

More animation coming to DreamWorks SA

e.tv, South Africa's free-to-air entertainment channel independently owned by eMedia Investments that is home to locally produced series is set to launch another preschool series from DreamWorks Animation on their kids block Craze titled Madagascar: A Little Wild.

Adapting to the Kamp Koral feels, the series looks into the early lives of Alex the Lion, Marty the Zebra, Melman the Giraffe and Gloria the Hippo, as they grow up in a rescue habitat at the Central Park Zoo.

The series ended its run earlier in the year with a combined total of 51 episodes divided between 8 seasons. It's currently streaming on Showmax and Netflix with e.tv set to join the pack on Wednesdays at 14:55 from 28 September.

Lincoln Loud enters the real world

Produced by Nickelodeon Studios, the series follows the success of the live-action movie, A Loud House Christmas, which became TV’s top kids’ entertainment telecast of 2021 when it premiered on Nickelodeon in November. The 10-episode series began filming in June in Albuquerque, N.M. The series was announced by Brian Robbins, President & Chief Executive Officer, Paramount Pictures & Nickelodeon, and Chief Content Officer, Movies and Kids & Family, Paramount+, at Nickelodeon’s annual upfront presentation held at New York City’s Palladium Times Square in March.

The series is also expected to be available to stream on Paramount+.

“As one of Nick’s most beloved animated franchises, The Loud House has made its way into the hearts of millions of fans across the globe,” said Shauna Phelan, Co-Head of Nickelodeon & Awesomeness Live-Action. “When we brought the animated world of Royal Woods to life with A Loud House Christmas, it instantly became a holiday favorite for both new and loyal fans alike, and I just know that they will love what our amazing creative team is preparing for this new live-action series.”

The live-action The Loud House series will follow Lincoln Loud, an 11 year-old boy with 10 sisters, as he navigates everyday life while living with such a large family. Known as the “Man with a Plan,” Lincoln enlists the help of his best friend Clyde McBride to tackle the obstacles and mayhem that they encounter during their daily adventures.

Spidey is coming to Disney+

Disney Plus animated series Spider-Man: Freshman Year will be released in 2024, Marvel revealed during its animation panel at San Diego Comic-Con on Friday. The show follows a young Peter Parker in his earliest days as the Marvel Cinematic Universe's Spider-Man, and it's set before his live-action debut in Captain America: Civil War.

It'll get a second season titled Spider-Man: Sophomore Year.

The show should answer some of our questions about the web slinger's early days, like the circumstances of the spider bite that gave him his powers and the existence of MCU Uncle Ben. It'll also see him encountering villains like Chameleon, Doctor Octopus, Scorpion, Rhino, Speed Demon and Tarantula. The show will also introduce the MCU versions of Norman and Harry Osborn.

Doc Ock, Norman and Scorpion are fascinating inclusions, since Spidey ran into an alternate universe's Ock and Norman in No Way Home, and Scorpion's comic book alter ego Mac Gargan showed up in Homecoming. Our hero will also team up with Daredevil, who'll be voiced by Charlie Cox, much earlier in the timeline than their civilian identities' encounter.

 

KOODOO.co.za Announced As Official Sponsor Of The ESPN Africa Boxing Series

The Walt Disney Company Africa and KOODOO.co.za today announced that they have entered into a multi-event sponsorship for the ESPN Africa Boxing series. The agreement officially kicks off with the ESPN Africa Boxing 21 event that will take place in Johannesburg on 22 September 2022.

Showcasing a diverse range of the continent’s best boxing talent and sanctioned by Boxing South Africa (BSA), ESPN Africa Boxing events take place on a monthly basis on Thursday evenings. With five main fights per event, and two undercard bouts on each bill, ESPN Africa Boxing features male and female boxing talent from across Africa. The September event is the 21st iteration of the series.

The fights are broadcast live on ESPN Africa (DStv 218, Starsat 248) catering to the immense popularity of the sport on the continent, as well as on several broadcast partners across the globe. ESPN delivers a high-quality boxing viewing experience with premium broadcast production, accompanied by all of the fanfare behind the scenes.

A division of Gamefinity, KOODOO.co.za is an e-commerce channel with the core focus of bringing the world’s leading gaming entertainment content and products to customers. The company represents brands in the gaming entertainment space such as PlayStation, Warner Bros Gaming, Bethesda, Konami, Techland, Milestone, Capcom, SEGA, andNacon.

“Exciting times for us at KOODOO.co.za partnering with The Walt Disney Company Africa and ESPN Africa Boxing Series to bring another dimension of our business to our customers.” comments Nalisha Pillay, General Manager for KOODOO.co.za

“We are delighted to welcome KOODOO.co.za as an official sponsor of the ESPN Africa Boxing series,” said Kyle De Klerk, Director: Sports Commercial and Business, The Walt Disney Company Africa. “As boxing is one of the most celebrated and followed sports, we are excited to be collaborating with this premiere technology company to further elevate our ESPN Africa Boxing series’ presence in reaching more viewers and in-person audiences across the country.

As one of the world’s leading sports broadcasters, ESPN brings an unparalleled portfolio of sporting content and documentaries to its viewers across the world. In Africa, the broadcaster extends this offering by showcasing European football and various other international franchises, such as the English Football League (EFL), Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL), Dutch Eredivisie and Major League Soccer (MLS), as well as various African sports tournaments such as the Basketball Africa League (BAL) and the ESPN Africa Boxing series.

 

Comcast Wants to Buy Warner Bros. Discovery, Merge With NBCUniversal

In a breakdown of the financial struggles Warner Bros. Discovery is currently facing by The Hollywood Reporter, an interesting piece of information emerged: Comcast has its eye on acquiring the struggling company and merging it with NBCUniversal. While the unification of Warner Bros. with Discovery seemed to be a beneficial one for all involved, things have quickly gone south. From the cancellation of Batgirl and Scoob: Holiday Haunt to the purging of numerous films and shows on HBO Max to massive layoffs, Warner Bros. Discovery's birth was quickly met with bad press and a legion of angered creatives. The highly publicized moves by new CEO David Zaslav saw WBD's stock plummet, and that's reportedly what has so enticed Comcast.

Per THR, Comcast CEO Brian Roberts is eagerly awaiting April 2024, when the legal hurdles preventing the purchase of WBD will be out of the way. Of course, the merger of two massive media companies would still face numerous antitrust concerns, but it wouldn't be impossible for the companies to join together. "Obviously, Peacock sucks," said an unnamed executive familiar with both companies about NBCUniversal's current streaming service. "There are some good synergies. I'm sure [Roberts] is licking his chops because the [WBD] stock is so low. And I think that's Zaslav's endgame. Get the place sold."

Warner Bros. Discovery Is in Financial Trouble
Zaslav has indeed proved shrewd as the head of the new company, with every indication that Batgirl was ultimately shelved as a write-off. What's more, the HBO Max purge is reportedly saving the company millions, money that's sorely needed as it faces $50 million in debt.

"People feel like it's Comcast for sure," said another source. "It's going to be so depressing to lose another major studio [after Disney bought Fox]. And Warners was the Tiffany studio."

The coalescing of Disney and Fox saw similar cancellations and concerns about creative freedom moving forward, and the merger between two more powerful film and television studios would provide creators with even fewer options. But Warner Bros. Discovery insists a sale isn't its endgame. "We are building Warner Bros. Discovery for the long term," a spokesperson said.

Either way, the next two years will present plenty of challenges for the new company and its divisive CEO as they struggle to fix a tainted reputation, win back creatives, and turn DC Films into a viable rival to Marvel Studios.

Roundups #95: Cartoon Network Africa Acquired Broadcasting Rights To Lego Monkie Kid, Desperate Housewives Now Drug Dealers Race Against Time On e.tv Nurses Returns For A Second Season On Telemundo Africa

More Lego action coming to Cartoon Network

Last month, Cartoon Network entered a new era with Redraw Your World which was greeted by two CN Movies Hotel Transylvania and The Angry Birds Movie now the channel will be welcoming its first series to the new era, Lego Monkie Kid.

The tale begins when an ordinary boy, Monkie Kid, finds Monkey King's legendary staff, and he becomes the chosen one. Together with his brave and loyal friends, Monkie Kid begins his quest to stop the Demon Bull King and his army of Bull Clones from taking over the city.

The series is set to air in the coming month on Cartoon Network.

Housewives making its linear debut on e.tv

e.tv has released a new locally-produced drama series, HouseWives, on its eVOD service last year with the story that revolves around desperate housewives starting a drug cartel that unspooled on its video streaming offering first.

HouseWives - produced by The Milton Empire (TME) with Siphosethu Tshapu as executive producer, Siphosethu Tshapu as head writer and Sevetian Su Ong Maslamoney as director of photography - consists of 26 episodes and filmed two seasons over 3 months.

In HouseWives , the lives of three housewives are changed forever when their husbands are killed by a drug cartel boss. Akhona Khumalo (Sive Mabuya), Summer Pietersen (Angela Lieveaux), and Lawrencia "Lolo" Ntsimane (Gabisile Tshabalala) are left with the heavy debt left by their spouses' criminal activities and are forced to work for the Colombian drug cartel leader to pay off the debt - however, they end up deciding to outsmart the cartel boss and open a syndicate of their own.

The series replaces Is'phindiselo on 2 October at 20:00.

Nurses is back for a season 2

Initially, Telemundo an international channel owned by NBCUniversal home to Spanish telenovelas dubbed in English for viewers in Africa had planned to air the first season of Nurses when Meet The Family comes to a close next month.

Nurses follows a story of women in which María Clara whose responsible for driving the main plot: a love story full of ups and downs. A failed marriage, a divorce, raising her two children, and falling in love again--with a younger man. Not to mention her vital work.

Don't miss the final episode of Meet The Family on 11 October at 21:00 CAT with Nurses S2 airing 16 October in the same timeslot.

 

From Lifetime To fliekNET: A Look At Various Channel Changes On MultiChoice's DStv + Possible Future Channel Closures

2022 has proven to be a dramatic year on cable as MultiChoice has seen a shed of various channels from Russia Today's blackout to the carriage feud with eMedia Investments over their 4 TV channels we look at the list of channels that went off air during the year.

Terminations

Tellytrack - February 2022

Supplemented with Racing240

Russia Today - March 2022

eAfrica - March 2022

Lifetime - May 2022

ITV Networks - June 2022

Supplemented with Hilaal TV

fliekNET - July 2022

Supplemented with kykNET

Zhejiang TV - July 2022

Supplemented with CCTV-4 and KIX

CMC TV - July 2022

Supplemented with CCTV-4 and KIX

New channels

Racing240 - January 2022

Replacement for Tellytrack

DreamWorks - March 2022

Replacement for eToonz supposedly

Hilaal TV - June 2022

Replacement for ITV Networks

NHK World-Japan - July 2022

INX Prime - August 2022

Movie Room - August 2022

Replacement for eMovies and eMovies Extra supposedly

Possible/rumoured terminations with estimations

CBS Reality - Fall 2022

CBS Justice - Fall 2022

JimJam - Fall 2022

Nicktoons - Fall 2022

eMovies - Early 2023

eMovies Extra - Early 2023

eExtra - Early 2023

eToonz - Early 2023

Discovery Family - TBC

Travel Channel - TBC

Possible new channels including scrapped batches

SABC Education

Two SABC channels

Untitled Via duplicate channel

The Racing Partnership (TRP)

TNets Strategy Comes Into Focus With Lower-Cost, Mass-Appeal Shows As New Chief Kathleen Finch Meets With Creative Community

There probably has been no other division of WarnerMedia more impacted by the Discovery merger than the TNets, which consist of TNT, TBS and TruTV. In the span of a couple of months after the transaction was completed, they got new leadership, with Discovery’s Kathleen Finch adding them to her portfolio, while the previous toppers exited: General Manager Brett Weitz, SVP Original Programming Adrienne O’Riain, and unscripted chief Corie Henson.

The new owners quickly scrapped or ended scripted series such as Chad, Snowpiercer and Kill the Orange Bear, cut a number of unscripted series such as the already completed The Big D, and let go a number of big-ticket development.

As the dust has started to settle, Finch, Chairman and Chief Content Officer, US Networks Group, Warner Bros. Discovery, recently made an outreach to talent agencies and producers, laying out her plans for what original programming on the TNets will look like going forward.

In response to a request for comment on that outreach and her message to the creative community, Finch issued a statement to Deadline.

“I’ve had some great meetings with agents and production partners to let them know that yes, we’re definitely open for business at TNT, TBS, and at all the brands that make up the WBD US Networks portfolio,” she said. “We’ve spent the past few months evaluating content, our audience make up, which audience groups we want to grow and what kinds of series we need to do that. The content teams are looking at both scripted and unscripted, and have already put some exciting projects into development. Once the deals are signed we’ll be able to share more, but for now the message we want to send to the production community is that we’re bullish on delivering great slates to the fans of these Top 10 networks.”

Finch would not comment further. But according to sources, on the scripted side the focus is on TNT, whose sole current series, Snowpiercer, recently wrapped production on its fourth and final season. On the unscripted side, TBS is believed to be more of the focus, with sibling network truTV leaning in to its Impractical Jokers franchise and spinoffs.***

Scripted Strategy

Snowpiercer, TNT’s post-apocalyptic drama starring Jennifer Connelly and Daveed Diggs, may be the last of the kind of high-end, prestige dramas with big stars and budgets (in the $7 million-$8 million an episode range) that the network has been doing since The Alienist in 2018. TNT is now looking for more cost-effective series that don’t go after A-list movie talent and would complement the tentpole sports/unscripted programming on TNT — as well as the rest of Warner Bros. Discovery’s suite of linear networks under Finch. That could include wrestling-themed shows, as AEW is a major draw on TNT, and scripted series that have the feel of some of the signature Discovery docu reality series like The Deadliest Catch. IP-based/genre series also are being explored, we hear.

Before taking the turn to big-budget, premium dramas under previous programming chief Kevin Reilly, TNT had success with original crime procedurals that complemented its roster of off-network crime dramas, most notably The Closer and its spinoff Major Crimes.

To keep costs low, we hear producers are being asked to find a studio that would handle international distribution, somewhat emulating the traditional indie financing model where international pre-sales bring in the funding needed to make a movie feasible and lower financial risk for its backers. TNets’ sister studio, Warner Bros. Television, which most recently produced TNT’s recently departed drama Animal Kingdom, is expected to continue to be a supplier with the right projects that fit the new business paradigm. As Finch noted, there are a handful of projects currently under consideration.

We hear that TNT was presented to the creative community as the sole scripted brand among the TNets, though Warner Bros. Discovery sources dispute that. TBS, which relies heavily on off-network sitcoms, mainly The Big Bang Theory, currently has two ongoing scripted series in hits Miracle Workers and the animated American Dad!

Unscripted Strategy

As for the unscripted side, TBS has a history of attracting big talent to unscripted such as John Cena co-hosting its reboot of Wipeout and NBA All-Star Dwyane Wade fronting its adaptation of British format The Cube.

In a stronger way than the scripted side, we hear agents and producers have been encouraged to remember that Warner Bros Discovery owns a movie studio, and to figure out if there can be any crossover, be it on talent or IP. For instance, Harry Potter: Hogwarts Tournament of Houses, the Warner Bros-produced, Helen Mirren-fronted competition series, performed well for TBS and Cartoon Network.

It was also pointed out that Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson acted as master of ceremonies for this summer’s Shark Week on the Discovery side.

However, one of the challenges remains budgets. The TNets have long had higher budgets for its slate of unscripted shows than the Discovery networks, partly down to bringing in higher carriage fees.

Similar to how the scripted side is looking at deficit financing via international distribution, their reality counterparts are looking for “Discovery-style dealmaking” on the unscripted side. In the past, this has meant selling full global and format rights to projects, with producers essentially operating on a work-for-hire basis.

There remains some confusion among unscripted agents and producers as to TNets’ messaging, with one source saying Finch’s comments have been “inconsistent” with remarks from some of its other network executives.

Industry insiders argue that the TNets will need to keep offering desirable originals rather than a slate of repeats of Discovery shows such as 90 Day Fiancé, for Warner Bros. Discovery to justify the significantly higher affiliate fees cable and satellite operators pay for them compared with the Discovery cable networks.

However, the TNets’ main attraction is sports. TNT and TBS boast NBA and Major League Baseball coverage, wrestling, and last year they closed a big, seven-year NHL deal. Additionally, TNT, TBS and TruTV share NCAA men’s basketball games. In today’s environment and proliferation of streaming, live sports is what drives premiums for linear networks, with entertainment considered an additive.