Recap To Last Year: WWE Network Fails To Launch On Showmax, DStv Channel 128 Remains Active In The African Market

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Last year, SuperSport and the WWE extended their partnership with the world's biggest wrestling promotion which would see the WWE Network fold under Showmax as seen in Indonesia, Phillipines, Australia and India which have all terminated the brand.

SuperSport would continue to offer Raw, SmackDown, NXT and premium live PPVs across their platforms. As for the WWE Channel, that's expected to continue running on channel 128 but would it be shocking if it didn't considering it was never mentioned earlier.

Vince McMahon, the founder of WWE has been exploring a potential sale of the brand for several months and had recieved a number of potential buyers at the time including Comcast (NBCUniversal), Disney, Amazon and the Saudis apparently.

If you view this from a logical perspective, I can see why this deal was put on hold. If you take to account, the mentioned potential buyers at the time such as Disney. They probably wouldn't want to bundle WWE on Showmax especially if Disney+ already exists.

Although a buyer has yet to be announced, I can see imagine how WWE would operate under the Disney tile. They'd probably scrap SuperSport's WWE and merge it with ESPN meaning in order to view further content particularly archived you'd need ESPN+.

As mentioned, Showmax's deal with WWE does come off as suspicious if you take the following to account:

WWE® (NYSE: WWE) and MultiChoice today announced a major broadcast partnership that will see Showmax – the leading streaming service available in the region – become the new home of WWE Network in Africa.

The partnership incorporates all WWE Premium Live Events, including WrestleMania®, as well as WWE Network’s vast library of original and archived programming available to stream on-demand.

Additionally, SuperSport, the sport broadcasting subsidiary of video entertainment platform MultiChoice, will continue to broadcast live weekly episodes of Raw®, SmackDown® and NXT® as well as all of WWE’s Premium Live Events in a multi-year extension.

Although, MultiChoice mentions that the WWE Channel would remain onboard I find it hard to believe. Yes this channel brings the consumers and revenue but why not mention such a brand in early press statements when expanding this deal to Showmax.

Even more reasons to suspect the possible demise of channel 128 would be Showmax. Notice how they mention "WWE Network’s vast...archived programming" but SuperSport only references "live weekly episodes of Raw®, SmackDown®...WWE’s Premium Live Events.

Most people grew fond of this channel so maybe WWE Channel would be supplemented by another brand that could fill up the void and probably be WWE savvy but there's always chances that this could be nothing at this point.

Breaking News From Across The World In The Last 7 Days Dated 24 March

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1. Marvel Studios Present Victoria Alonso exits post after 17 years of service
2. Fall 2 is in development
3. Good Burger Sequel is in development
4. Bel-Air renewed for third season at Peacock
5. Former child star Amanda Bynes put on psychiatric hold
6. Shazam: Fury Of The Gods becomes a box office disappointment
7. Scream VI becomes a box office success yet again
8. John Wick Star Lance Riddick has died
9. Andy Kaufman will be inducted into WWE 2023 Hall Of Fame
10. Jason Derulo confirmed as coach for The Voice Australia
11. Ted Bastien, Long-Time 'PAW Patrol' Director, Passes Away
12. Kabillion Debuts New ‘Woody Woodpecker’ Animated Shorts
13. Telemundo actress Rebecca Jones dies at 65
14. The Weeknd becomes the G.O.A.T. of music
15. Demi Lovato releases a rock version of Heart Attack
16. HGTV orders Barbie Dreamhouse Challenge
17. Nickelodeon orders King Of Corn pilot
18. Disney+ adds an anime collection
19. Vanessa Hudgens working on documentary exploring Asian roots

New Series Alert: Cabo Coming Soon To ZAP Novelas

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Zap Novelas, a telenovela channel promoting the best of Turkey and Latin America will be joining a list of broadcasters in East Africa in sourcing content that has yet to be seen on the African feed of TLNovelas with Cabo.

Based on the 1985 Mexican telenovela Tú o nadie created by María Zarattini, Sofía and Alejandro get married in a dream wedding, but when Alejandro dies in a plane crash and Sofia travels to Cabo to meet his new family, she realizes that Alejandro is alive and that his real name is Eduardo.

The series stars Bárbara de Regil as Sofía Chávez, Matías Novoa as Alejandro Noriega, Eva Cedeño as Isabela Escalante, Diego Amozurrutia as Eduardo Torres, Rebecca Jones as Lucía de Noriega and Rafael Inclán as Alfonso "Poncho" Chávez.

It debuted last year on Las Estrellas pulling 3 million viewers at launch with its final episode drawing another million. The series currently has 85 episodes each consisting of 42-45 minutes.

Cabo will debut on Zap Novelas across Angola and Mozambique in April. There's no confirmation as to whether the series will be viewable in English but for now it's likely to only be viewable in Portuguese as seen with most of the content on the channel.

RUMOUR: Warner Bros. Discovery Latin America Dives Into The World Of Soap Operas With TNT Novelas

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Turner Network Television, Inc., a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery, registered a new trademark derived from TNT in Latin America, for the moment only in Argentina and Chile, as verified by INPI and INAPI, industrial property institutes for both countries, respectively.

The new trademark registered in recent days bears the name of "TNT Novelas", and it is unknown exactly what it is, although the company has already presented a logo.

One of the most logical theories indicates that TNT Novelas could become a successor or a relaunch of the current cable channel TNT Series, launched in 2015, which in recent years has incorporated multiple soap operas into its daily programming. The creation of a new channel is not ruled out either, although there is no basis to support this hypothesis.

There is no official information regarding TNT Novelas at the moment.

In other developments, Warner Bros. Discovery has been phasing out the TNT brand name across Europe in the general entertainment category. Not sure where that leaves the current TNT Africa but for now we assume the channel will remain intact in the market.

Warner Bros. Discovery kicked off its global centennial campaign in January, under the banner Celebrating Every Story, in advance of Warner Bros. Studios 100th Anniversary on April 4, 2023. Several of their channels have been joining the festivity with a lineup of content.

How The Pinwheel TV Series Created Nickelodeon?

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In 1970s, Cable TV was in its tenancies that in Tennessee Ohio there was an idea by Warner Cable for an experimental two way multiplatform cable television system that played a significant role in American interactive television. This experiment was called Qube Network.

Qube introduced viewers to several concepts that became central to the development of modern television. Pay-per-view programs, special interest cable television networks and interactive services.

On December 1st, 1977, a breakthrough show began airing a new show called Pinwheel show was similar to Sesame Street with live-action skits, mixed in with shorts from an abandoned animatior. The show was met with immense popularity that it's cable provider Channel 3 at the time would go as far as renaming the network to Pinwheel.

The show starred Kim played by Arline Miyazaki, Sal played by Betty Rozek, Smitty played by Dale Engle. Sal And Smitty were an elderly couple who ran a local newspaper company called The Daily Noodle. One of Smitty's obsessions was getting a photo of the elusive Emerald Bird with the intention of placing it on the front page of The Daily Noodle.

This was a long running gag that saw Smitty constantly missing off on the opportunity to capture the bird. Another character was Jake played by George James who enjoyed music and his hobby was collecting unusual sounds in small boxes.

Franci was another of the human characters and she was an artist in the show as well as a storyteller who was eventually phased out. The last of the human characters was Coco and she was a French mime who was played by C.C. Loveheart.

As for the puppet characters, there was Aurelia who was an Bohemian style character who owned by the Pinwheel house. She had red coloured hair, olive green eyes, purple lips frequently colourful headscarves and large hoop earrings as well. Her personality was friendly and bubbly but firm when needed.

Her nephews were Plus and Minus, they were twin boys who lived in the attic room. The colour scheme of the twins were very wild and the exact opposite of Aurelia. Plus had black hair and orange skin while Minus had white hair and purple skin. As for their personalities, Plus was very upbeat and enthusiastic while Minus was more thoughtful and easily discouraged.

A recurring sketch was Minus's attempt to board a spaceship Plus distracting caused him to miss take off. The twins favourite thing was Goncha Lash which was a combination of tag and, hide and seek and this game went on eternally.

Another character included Silas the Snail who was always on his way to the annual Snail gathering which he would never be able to visit because he was so slow. He barely made it out of the garden. He would also give a message to the viewers to slow down and enjoy life and saying getting there is half the fun.

There were also many others Ebenezer T. Squint was a grumpy green-skinned resident who lived in the basement storage. He would always pretend to be grouchy and mean but in reality he enjoyed being part of the house activities.

Luigi O'Brien was a produce salesman who had a small vegetable stan at the back of the Pinwheel house. All the produce he sold could talk and sing and had their own personalities. They were usually referred to as their vegetable or fruit names.

Other characters included Molly the Mole, Herbert and Lulu as well who would get occasional visits from the bird like aliens Tirka, Gorkle and Woofle from the Planet Zintar.

Most of the live-action scenes took place in or around the boarding style house called the Pinwheel house. It actually featured a Pinwheel in one of the pieces. Live actors would frequently interact with the puppet characters. They would discuss topics, learn lessons, explore numbers and all the characters lived and worked within the Pinwheel house.

Warner's Pinwheel channel was hugely popular and clearly saw a demand for this type of children's entertainment with an educational aspect so when they purchase the Warner Communications Satellite it was only natural to rebrand the channel to Nickelodeon.

With the Nickelodeon rebrand came the reformat of the Pinwheel show now into hour long episodes typically shown in 3 to 5 hour blocks. This format would eventually become Nick Jr.

Pinwheel had a total of 7 seasons and 260 episodes many of which are poorly documented and the program never saw a VHS or DVD release. The show was produced from 1987-1994 and reruns would continue until 1994.

It was still the longest running show by hours aired and episodes released combined in the history of the network. It was Nickelodeon's first show and became the rise of the brand. It's not what brought the network to its true potential.

Children's program that revolved around education were becoming saturated and Nickelodeon moved to more scripted teen focused content for a new generation of kids and Nickelodeon was not afraid to ride the wave.

Recap To The Past Decade: Ben 10 Has Been Missing In Action For Almost Two Years

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Ben 10 has been missing on Cartoon Network for nearly two years and on April 11th of this year will mark the two year conclusion of Ben 10 (2016). It's kind of surprising that the network has yet to announce the next instalment to the franchise.

Duncan one of the creators of Ben 10 apart of Man Of Action had mentioned on Twitter throughout 2021 that they were working on something for the future of Ben 10 and it was going to be announced by the end of that year.

Here we are in March 2023 and we still got no confirmation about Ben 10 and honestly this has been the longest period of time since we got any word on the franchise. For those who weren't aware the previous iterations took a few weeks with Omniverse 6 months.

After Omniverse ended, there was a lot of uncertainty about the franchise some areas were proposing that the franchise would continue on with an original series Ben 10,000 or a possible reboot which is what we ended up getting few months after Omniverse.

We've never been in a scenario where we're creeping in on a 2 year mark of not knowing what's going on with Ben 10. Considering Warner Bros. Discovery had made cutbacks with content some were unannounced it's possible the next instalment was cancelled.

Warner Bros. Discovery appointed Tom and at the time he had a different vision for Cartoon Network as seen last year we got preschool content onto the channel through Cartoonito which has experienced immense success if you're talking HBO Max and global.

Now that you have this merger and new people tagging along now you have Michael being the president of the network and they probably revisited this project and thought we need to pivot for something better hence Velma and We Baby Bears.

Considering how popular Ben 10 is I mean just like The Powerpuff Girls it is one of Cartoon Network's biggest franchises. It's possible they're probably working on another project probably not from not what was proposed at the time Tom was around.

Ben 10 Alien Force was one of the top 10 animated series on HBO Max last year which goes to show how huge it is globally and that people are still hungry for more Ben 10 probably not Omniverse hungry but it was good in its own way and that's what counts.

From what this entails, people want a more darker version which was basically Alien Force and Ultimate Alien and not that cheesy reboot. I mean if the reboot did get much hype then we wouldn't be waiting almost two years for a follow-up to be announced.

Some people wanted a continuation for the original while others wanted a follow up to Omniverse but honestly they might do something different probably set it within another paradox. But chances are we'll be seeing 10 year old Ben for a while longer.

They've been acknowledging their older shows for sometime now that Craig McCracken is working on a reboot to Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends and a second reboot to The Powerpuff Girls. We even got a revival to Total Drama launching in the future.

Honestly, it feels like Cartoon Network is being nostalgic by bringing back these old shows and putting new spins on them. I'm sure people would want the same for Ben 10 as 2+ years is a bit too much for one of your longest running shows so hopefully we get something.

Credits: DC Network

Breaking News From Across The World In The Last 7 Days Dated 17 March

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1. Recess Revival/Reboot rumoured to be in development for Disney+
2. Lindsay Lohan is pregnant with first child
3. Shakti Arora to quit Zee TV's Kundali Bhagya
4. Cartoon Network's upcoming series Garbage Boy And Trash Can enters post-production (more info on the show)
5. The Creed to get anime series as well as spinoffs
6. Rey Mysterio announced as the first inductee to WWE Hall Of Fame for 2023
7. The Bella Twins dump the Bella trademark for Garcia
8. Vanessa Hudgens to make a comeback in the forth instalment of Bad Boys
9. Jason Derulo unveils new single It's My Thing (lyrics)
10. Disney+ Original Willow Has Been Cancelled
11. Tiana: The Series has been delayed to 2024 on Disney+
12. Diddy also looking to acquire stake in BET
13. Kellogg is changing their name
14. Ruhi Chaturvedi aka Sherlyn quits Kundali Bhagya

CITV Channel To Close As ITV Makes Most Children’s Shows Online-Only, Could eMedia Investments Follow With The eToonz Channel On The Openview Platform?

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ITV is shutting down its CITV channel for consumers in the UK and shifting most of its children’s programmes to streaming-only, arguing that young people have largely given up on watching scheduled television.

CITV will disappear as a standalone channel in the autumn, with all children’s content shifting to the streaming platform ITVX. The broadcaster said the channel was unprofitable and children’s TV audiences had collapsed in recent years because of a shift to YouTube and other streaming services.

eToonz is the South African version to the soon to be defunct CITV owned by eMedia Investments and currently viewed on the Openview platform is home to shows such as Peppa Pig, Pokémon, Barbie Dream Adventures, Thomas And Friends and Voltron.

Since it's debut in 2013, eToonz has struggled to gain a vast majority of Openview consumers much less DStv while as it's other sister channels eMovies and eMovies Extra rank as the top movie channels with eExtra top entertainment brand on the mentioned platform.

Compared to the e.tv channels currently sitting abroad the DStv platform as well the additional currently viewed on the Openview platform. eToonz carries the most rebroadcasts from the main channel and any channel that was performing well would do otherwise.

When eExtra was added in 2017, it was more of a catch-up or leftovers channel for e.tv same goes with eReality now both brands have managed to build their unique slate of programming with the likes of Elif, Doodsondes, Forensic Files and Ex On The Beach.

eToonz serving as one of the longest running brands amongst had been subdued to rebroadcasts. I get why the rebroadcasts as adults watch more linear television compared to children who'd have a high preference for YouTube and social media.

All the more reason to justify eToonz lack of new content but honestly whose to say this channel won't fold under e.tv and eVOD. eMedia Investments doesn't leave consumers much alternatives at this point on Openview giving it more purpose.

As for DStv, I can see why they'd opt not to renew their agreement with eMedia Investments for the channel. It's just a duplicate of the existing offering on their stable and brands like Cartoon Network and Disney Junior are luring consumers away from the channel.

As for Craze, I can see that being the future of eToonz on the Openview platform as it is with DStv consumers. It does look like something eMedia wants to retire but can't due to the laws in this country they have to put up with this content for the years to come.

News Shorts: CBeebies Set To Debut Brand New On-Air Look, M-Net Movies Action HQ To Rollout On DStv And Zee World Undergoes Various Schedule Changes

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CBeebies is set to align themselves with the rest of the BBC channels

In the UK, BBC Studios has begun phasing out the playful and enthusiastic CBeebies logo for a more bold and plan design. The new logo looks identical to the current BBC Kids and most of their linear channels the change is likely part of another alignment or streamlining strategy from the BBC.

BBC Studios is looking to boost their streamlining endeavours similar to the The Walt Disney Company with more details set to be unveiled later in the year.

M-Net Movies Action is being revived for a limited time

In September 2020, M-Net Movies restructured their movie offering by reducing their 6 movie channels at the time to just 4 each of them numbered with the second being a fusion of Action and Action+ channel. After 2 years, the M-Net Movies Action concept is being revived as a pop-up channel.

The Big Bosses Of Action will air on channel 111 from March 17 to April 2 with catch-up till May 1. Feature films include Die Hard, Unchartered, Tom Gun Maverick, John Wick: Chapter 2 and Taken.

Zee World is bringing more extraordinary to the tele

As seen this past week, Zee World in Southern African markets had their schedules adjusted with Twist Of Fate at 2pm-4pm (double bill), Can You See Me at 4pm, It's Not Easy To Love at 8pm, Broken Bonds at 8.50pm, Razia Sultan at 9.40pm and Age Is Just A Number at 10.30pm. All times are allocated in CAT.

The channel has several upcoming attractions such as Radha Mohan alongside 3 other shows and judging by these changes it's safe to put them in the coming soon tile.