Canal+ To Acquire A 26% Stake In Hong Kong Based Streaming Platform VIU

PCCW and Canal+ have announced a strategic partnership through which the French media giant will become a significant minority shareholder in PCCW’s Asian streaming service Viu.

Canal+ will make a staggered investment of $300M in Viu, including an initial investment of $200M, resulting in a 26.1% stake. It also has an option to make a further investment and turn that stake into a controlling 51%.

In a statement, Canal+ talked expansion opportunities and plans to collaborate with Viu on premium production:

During the year, the French company expanded their stake in MultiChoice beyond 30%. This move similar to VIU raises speculation of a possible takeover and should that be the case one has to wonder what would become of Showmax and VIU in South Africa if it's operated by Canal+.

"This new strategic partnership will enable the further growth of Viu, leveraging the global strength and expertise of Canal+ through various initiatives including collaboration on premium productions and content creation, expansion of global market reach for Viu, and continual user experience improvement. The partnership will allow Canal+ to take a major step in developing Asia as its next growth engine.”

Viu is one of Asia’s leading streamers with more than 66 million monthly active users (MAU) and 12 million paid subscribers across Asia, the Middle East and South Africa. The service, which operates a combined AVOD and SVOD model, consistently ranks as the top streamer in terms of MAUs across Southeast Asia and second in terms of subscribers.

It produces a wide range of local-language drama series and lifestyle programming, with a focus on Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia, and was a first mover in the acquisition of Korean content. In 2022, Viu reported $250M in revenue, representing growth of 36% year over year.

Maxime Saada, Canal+ Group CEO, said: “Canal+ already has leading market positions in Europe and Africa. We are now looking forward to developing Asia as an additional growth engine for the group. Our investment in Viu is a major step towards achieving this goal. Viu is already a business with scale, with its hybrid AVOD and SVOD business model and focus on local content, it has all the ingredients to deliver superior growth and continue to be a leading service in the region and beyond.

Janice Lee, Viu CEO and PCCW Media Managing Director, said: “When we launched Viu, we had set our sights on creating and transforming our media business into an international play by tapping into larger addressable markets in Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and South Africa. Having created a robust streaming business, we are excited to have the addition of Canal+ as a strategic investor to further accelerate growth by drawing on Canal+’s global strength in premium productions, content creation and distribution expertise.”

BETA: Lost Youth Channel For The DStv Platform Has Surfaced The Net

K-TV is a defunct kids brand operated by M-Net which was the pay-tv channel's first attempt in the kids market followed by Koowee which too were erased from existence. But during the timeline of these channels, there were reports that MultiChoice was planning to launch a rival brand to Disney Channel and Nickelodeon.

In a press statement about the channel:

DStv will be launching a new channel in July aimed at teenagers. According to channel head, Helen Smit, no one has really focussed on this audience. "National research tells us that this market has an estimated R6 billion in disposable income. And our internal research has revealed that that's the tip of the iceberg - these kids get spending money on top of their monthly allowances."

Not much was known about the channel at the time only that Helen Smit served as the channel head. She worked as a television producer for over a decade and is well known figure on Paramount, SABC and M-Net.

Just as you thought further details about the channel was lost you come across various graphic designs which was shared through Behance account.

Through this we know that the channel was called BETA as the logo appears on the proposed graphic designs. We also got to see some of the content that would have been seen on the channel including Gossip Girl, Rad Girls, Robot Chicken and Celebrity Rehab.

Although we may never know why this channel never launched as intended. We assume it may have to do with VUZU. Back when the channel was still on air, it was seen with some of this content and when you kind of look like at the channels do share a resemblance.

Honestly, if BETA had launched as intended it would have probably wind up like K-TV, Koowee and M-Net City brands which were popular amongst consumers but had their content build the lineup of another channel or in this scenario M-Net and Nickelodeon.

Recap To The Year: Da Vinci's Family Entertainment Has Been Undergoing Several Changes

Da Vinci is a educational children's channel featuring a mix of live-action shows such as Operation Ouch, Animal Embassy and Treehouse Stories alongside animated shows such as Superhero Galore, Wild Kratts (currently seen on PBS Kids) and Doki.

It also offered a family oriented block featuring a lot of factual content and documentaries from Knowledge Kids, Discovery Science and National Geographic namely Genius and Future Human Al.

For several months, the company behind Da Vinci has been building its original portfolio with the recent rollout of Bear Grylls' celebrity tailored Becoming Xtraordinary with the slapstick comedy Fantastic Antics to rollout on the channel by the end of the year.

Aside from that, Da Vinci got rebranded during the year eliminating "Kids" from the name. It also led to a number of changes for its linear offering particularly the family offering catered to audiences aged 18 to 49 which has become a reruns graveyard for kids shows.

It doesn't come as a shocker considering not much investment was going onto that area of the channel for new content. Another was the hours in which the content was allocated as not a lot of households are tuning into those channels much less Da Vinci.

The phasing out of family from Da Vinci is similar in a way to the introduction of the 24 hour service for Cartoonito from Warner Bros Discovery as both channels are now tailed for preschoolers and taking on brands like Disney Junior, CBeebies and Nick Jr.

Unlike Da Vinci, Cartoonito doesn't create division amongst consumers as they have shows like Mr. Bean and Tom And Jerry shows which can pull a vast majority of Boomerang viewers while they adjust to shows such as Thomas And Friends and Batwheels.

SpongeBob SquarePants: Here Lies Squidward's Hopes And Dreams

When I was younger I always thought that Squidward was a grumpy and mean character because of the way he always talks to his "friends". But as I got older I realise that Squidward wasn't that mean after all - it was SpongeBob.

You see countless scenes where he arrives or works at The Krusty Krab. He is annoyed at all of it when you get older working at jobs you don't like to pay the bills. You can almost relate to him in a way.

It's kind of absurd that us humans have to work our entire lives for money only to then just die. Us humans chase money almost like we're gonna bring it into the next life with us.

I order the food, you cook the food, then the customer gets the food. We do that for 40 years and then we die, sounds like pretty good deal to me. What do you say?, Squidward.

You start to sympathize with him, his character shows that he's tired of it all and the only time you ever see Squidward happy is when he's on vacation or away from people.

The reason Squidward is so mean to SpongeBob and Patrick is because they never leave him alone. Sure these two are very kind and caring individuals in a way but I understand Squidward's frustration with them. You gave to admit these two are very intolerable.

I understand Squidward as I too was an annoying individual as a child so I know what it takes to be an annoying person. It doesn't mean someone is a bad person because they are annoying.

They just treat SpongeBob like a brother to Squidward. He doesn't take no as an answer or know when to stop. He's basically can get on your nerves after a long day.

There's also a scene where Squidward arrives to a tombstone where it's filled with broken dreams.

It goes to show you that a lot of people have dreams that they haven't been able to achieve. This goes to show you that you should be able to chase your dreams don't end up like Squidward and work for a job you hate, grind for your dreams, it will take them but keep grinding and you'll get there.

Regular Nick Shorts: Cartoon Network And Max Acquired Rights To Lana Longbeard With Tara Duncan Loading Up On Disney Channel And Gamebox To Rollout A 60 Minute Ghostbusters Game

Zephyr Animation

2D-animated comedy Lana Longbeard has landed its first presales, with Warner Bros. Discovery (EMEA), Super RTL (Germany), Gulli (France) and CBC (Canada) claiming it for their regions. Co-produced by Zephyr Animation (APC Kids’ production arm) and Canadian studio Copernicus, the 52 x 11-minute series for six to nines tells the story of a courageous teen girl who sets sail on her father’s viking ship on a quest to become a famous adventurer. APC Kids has the global distribution rights.

Superights

Animated adventure series Tara Duncan will be distributed worldwide (excluding China) by Paris-based Superights. Produced by Princess Sam Pictures and based on a 15-book series by Sophie Andouin-Mamikonian, this CG-animated show stars a girl who travels to a magical planet to learn how to control her powers and defeat evil villains. Princess Sam has already sold the first season (52 x 13 minutes) to buyers including Disney (France, Belgium, Japan, Africa and the Netherlands), Rai (Italy) and RTE (Ireland), and a second 52-ep season is currently in production.

Columbia Pictures Location Based Entertainment

Who you gonna call? A Ghostbusters VR game is in the works at Columbia Pictures Location Based Entertainment and Immersive Gamebox. Based in London, Immersive Gamebox operates experiential game rooms where content from popular entertainment brands is projected onto the walls for kids to interact with through touch-screens and motion-tracking. The techco is gearing up to launch a 60-minute Ghostbusters: The Cursed Collection game at its 20 locations in the UK, EMEA and US later this year. In the experience, kids will explore haunted streets and battle ghosts from the ’80s movie franchise.

Genius Brands International Becomes Kartoon Studios

US-based children’s entertainment company Genius Brands International has changed its name to Kartoon Studios and will transfer its listing from the Nasdaq Capital Market to the NYSE American exchange.

The LA-headquartered studio, which owns the rights to certain IP created by comic book writer and Spider-Man co-creator Stan Lee, said the move heralds the label’s “next phase of growth” in the production, distribution and licensing of kids’ content.

The rebrand comes after the company has made several acquisitions over the past year, including taking a majority stake in Germany’s Your Family Entertainment, plus acquiring Canada’s Wow! Unlimited Media and its subsidiaries Frederator Studios, Frederator Network and Mainframe Entertainment.

“We now have capabilities to do everything in-house, from content creation to production, distribution and global merchandising,” said Andy Heyward, Kartoon Studios chairman and CEO.

Kartoon Studios produces content such as Shaq’s Garage for Pluto TV and Stan Lee’s Superhero Kindergarten for its own Kartoon Channel.

The company caused controversy earlier this year for using artificial intelligence (AI) technology to make shows like Kidaverse Fast Facts. As reported by C21, some children’s TV producers blasted the development as “horrifying” and “downright scary,” but the company defended the use of AI as a “digital assistant.”