by Thinus Ferreira
MultiChoice shifted its bi-annual media showcase events for South Africa's press to the end of the year (and did just one this year) with the MultiChoice Showcase 2021 showcase that took place yesterday afternoon as a virtual presentation and dropping various info-blasts throughout the presentation.
Like an Easter egg hunt, the media usually scour for nuggets of information dropped by various MultiChoice executives and shown in sizzle reels, with yesterday that was no different - although MultiChoice shared less information in totality than in any previous years of the showcase.
Here are 18 things I picked up that you'd want to know:
1. Survivor season 41 on M-Net
M-Net (DStv 101) will show season 41 of America's Survivor in January 2022.
Season 41 will usher in a new era which will be marked by a lack of a theme, harkening back
to the early days of the series. The show will simply be known as Survivor
41. "Those ideas served us very well for 20 years, but now it’s time for
something new," says host and producer Jeff Probst.
M-Net will also show the 8th season of Survivor
Australia Brains v Brawn" which will start on M-Net straight after the current 7th season.
2. Survivor SA renewed for a 9th season in 2022
Insiders couldn't wait to tell me earlier this week that Survivor SA was renewed and M-Net refused to respond to media queries about it, until the logo was flashed and "S9" at the MultiChoice Showcase 2021.
The castaways are chosen from previous players who didn't make it to the final Tribal Council and all "have a score to settle". We're told it's filming in January 2022, will broadcast in July on M-Net (DStv 101) and will once again be done somewhere in South Africa because of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.
3. Award shows
DStv subscribers will be able to watch the 64th Annual Grammy Awards on 1 February on 1 Magic (DStv 103), the 94th Annual Academy Awards known as the Oscars on 28 March on M-Net (DStv 101), the Billboard Awards on 28 April on 1 Magic, and the Miss Universe pageant in 2022.
4. Paradise lost
No air date was provided for an upcoming new TLC show but from the producers of 90 Day Fiancé comes a sexy new docu-soap Love in Paradise
– The Caribbean, following people who found love in the Caribbean.
The
tropics will provide the backdrop for relationships in various phases from
holiday flings that turned serious to a rekindled love after 10 years apart and
a vacation romance that turned into a pregnancy. Will meeting in paradise work
out?
5. Pushing sport
Pushing the Line coming January 2022 to the Discovery Channel (DStv 121) will follow some of the top highliners
and the up-and-comers of sport, who live together and push one another to take
on the craziest places to set lines and break records.
6. Greedy
Mzansi Greed will debut on Moja Love (DStv 157) on 2 December, 21:30 exploring the worlds of crime and greed. What lengths will a person go to for money and power?
The series focuses on cases of South African pyramid schemes, embezzlement and other crimes,
featuring interviews with family members, police investigators business
associates, fraud victims and, in some cases, the fraudsters themselves.
7. More SuperSport sports documentaries
In 2022 SuperSport will debut more locally-produced sports documentaries like Chasing the Sun.
Two Sides is another Springbok documentary - likely a documentary film - with cameras that once again filmed inside the Springbok rugby camp. The short sizzle clip shown to media contained a litany of unbleeped "f"-words from Springbok players and staff around them as everyone struggle to cope with the stress.
8. New broom
MultiChoice's video streaming service Showmax has a new boss that the media saw for the first time on Thursday.
Barry Dubovsky who has been with MultiChoice since 2018 joined Showmax in his new role as its chief operating officer (COO) in August. Barry says that in 2022 Showmax will continue to focus on rolling out more Showmax Original productions.
9. Naija reality
The 7th season of Big Brother Naija gets a broadcasting date: June 2022.
A group of isolated housemates will once again do tasks as they compete for a cash prize. Date My Family Nigeria will start in January 2022 on DStv, sending singletons on dates with three potential partners' families in a bid to find love.
The 7th season of Idols Nigeria will start in February and Judging Matters is a new "Judge Judy"-type show that will address legal issues from a small claims court, in partnership with the Lagos state ministry of Justice, hosted by Justice Olushola Williams and Ebuka Obi-Uchendu.
10. M-Net moves into Mozambique
In Mozambique, MultiChoice and M-Net will launch the new Maningue Magic channel on DStv channel number 503 on 17 January 2022.
The channel will have a local telenovela Maida, local lifestyle show, Txunado,
local drama The Influencer, as well as Boss Station, a
Mozambiquan original music show. Viewers can also expect to see a local version
of Date My Family.
11. South Africa's Big Brother goes continental
The new season of Big Brother Mzansi revived after a decade will not just be seen in South Africa but will be shown across sub-Saharan Africa on DStv, similar to how Africa can watch Big Brother Naija.
Also new is that the prize money will be R2 million for the winner.
12. A foodie date
The 4th season of MasterChef South Africa coming to M-Net (DStv 101) got a date: It will start on 28 February.
Instead of on a wine farm like previous seasons, the new season is currently being filmed at the foot of Table Mountain in Cape Town "in a dynamic new location that celebrates both the heritage
and the innovation of South Africa's diverse culinary offering".
13. kykNET returns
In 2022 kykNET (DStv 144) will have the 4th season of the Afrikaans procedural drama series Die Byl with Projek Dina returning for a second
season.
A new season of the anthology series Spoorloos is currently in development with a
story set behind the backdrop of a small coastal town.
14. Fighting housewives
The third season of Real Housewives of Johannesburg will be shown in April 2022 that will consist out of 14 episodes.
The Real Housewives of Lagos will be on Showmax in the first half of 2022.
The second season of The Real Housewives of Durban will also be on Showmax but is still listed as "coming on 2022" only with no indication whether it's the first or second half of the year.
15. Local tabloid
While I Blew It will be back for a 4th season in 2022 and Ubizo for a third season on Mzansi Wethu (DStv 163) there will be new series as well doing what Moja Love has found success with Bangoxoshile,
Not The One For You, Siza Mina and Fafi.
Bangoxoshile
is a series that assists homeless people who were forcefully removed from their
homes by family, relatives or a spouse.
In Not The One For You friends and
family write in to ask for assistance in confronting a friend or family member
about a potent relationship that they should not be in.
Siza Mina is a tabloid daily talk show featuring controversial
topics and guests who are seeking intervention in resolving issues relating to
family, marriage, parenting, divorce, broken friendships, cohabitation.
In Fafi the 28-year-old Thandi Ndlovu is in love and getting married in 3 months
- however it’s not her husband-to-be, Sgoloza Ndlovu, she’s in love with,
rather her beloved late husband, Menzi Ndlovu. The Ndlovu family custom has
dictated that upon Menzi's demise, his brother must marry his widow.
16. Sporties
On SuperSport in 2022 (see the full summary in its own article Here) the 2022 FIFA Football World Cup coverage will include all 64 matches, live
and in prime time, as well as the UEFA Champions League and Europa League (until May 2022) and the FA
Cup (until May 2022).
In cricket, there's The Ashes and India's tour of South Africa
until January 2022, the IPL in March and the Proteas' tour of England from
July to September. In tennis and golf all of the Majors will be on SuperSport from January to July 2022.
In WWE wrestling there will be headline
events like the Royal Rumble in January and WrestleMania in April 2022.
On two and four wheels SuperSport will cover the longest-ever F1 season,
MotoGP, SuperBikes, and cycling events from May's Giro d'Italia to
October's Absa Cape Epic, the Amstel Gold Race to Challenge
by la Vuelta and the UCI Cyclo-Cross World Cup and Paris-Roubaix to the UCI
Mountain Bike World Cup.
In athletics SuperSport will have the American Indoor Track League, Diamond League, IAAF World Indoor Tour
and World Athletics Continental Tour and in July and August 2022 the Commonwealth Games from
Birmingham.
17. Absence of Aletta
This was notably the first MultiChoice Showcase - previously known as the DStv Content Showcase but for some reason rebranded - without Aletta Alberts, Africa's TV content queen.
The extremely experienced and well-versed executive who was MultiChoice's head of content and third-party channels passed away in July from Covid-19 complications.
MultiChoice apparently didn't replace her position and her absence was definitely felt - the MultiChoice Showcase 2021 didn't have the all-knowing, all-telling tether of Aletta Alberts as anchor who in the past would help the media to integrate and build a bigger picture to put all of the various content streams into perspective.
18. Notably nothing on this - so far
Unlike previous years media sadly were not given the opportunity to ask questions at the showcase. MultiChoice that usually make announcements about DStv decoders didn't say anything about its decoders this time with no updates on the DStv Streama decoder that was announced over a year ago but never launched.
Does MultiChoice plan to add Disney+ as a streaming service next to Netflix and Amazon Prime Video when it launches in South Africa from around June 2022? Or what about eMedia's new eVOD? Is Paramount+, discovery+, HBO Max, Apple TV+ and Peacock going to be added to the DStv Explora Ultra in 2022 like Sky and Comcast overseas did? We don't know yet.
It's also not yet clear where MultiChoice is with letting DStv subscribers build their own subscription with DStv Flex by choosing various packages with selections of channels instead of picking a bouquet.
MultiChoice has been investigating this and asking consumers their thoughts about such an offering earlier this year.
It's also unclear for how long M-Net Movies will have premium first-run films to premiere given the impact of the ongoing global Covid-19 pandemic on the world's film industry.
