INTERVIEW. Alan Musa talks about the Turner-run TV channels in South Africa like Cartoon Network, Boomerang, and TCM.

Last week I asked Alan Musa, the vice president and general manager for the Pan Middle East and Africa (MEA) region of Turner Broadcasting Systems International, a few questions about the Cartoon Network, Boomerang and the new Cartoonito pre-school block and TCM's movie rejuventation.

Alan Musa was visiting South Africa and I touched base regarding the various Turner-run channels seen in South Africa and the latest on certain issues regarding these channels. Here is what he answered.

The childrens market in South Africa has grown very much over the past year with new channel additions, new shows, new programming blocks. How does Turner Broadcasting regard South Africa and Africa and the presence of its own kid's channels here - and compete effectively?
Alan Musa: Cartoon Network and Boomerang have been broadcast in South Africa, and Africa, for nearly 10 years, so our brands and content are well established and incredibly popular with kids of all ages. The longevity of our brands in these markets is a clear indication of how strategically important these counties are for the visibility and distribution of our channels and key content franchises.

How has Cartoon Network grown over the past year, in any level?
Cartoon Network has always hovered around the top spot in terms of popularity and viewing amongst kids. This remains so even though the kids market is getting a little busy. The launched of new series of established franchises such as Ben 10 and the launch of brand new shows like The Amazing World of Gumball has played a major part in this success.

Cartoonito has just launched as a block on Boomerang. Why is the preschool market market important to Turner, and especially in Africa now?
Turner has had a strategic ambition to expand our portfolio of brands and content into the pre-school area for quite a while.
The first part of this strategy was to identify the chief content officer who had the experience within the pre-school genre, and could lead our development into this content area – that person was Michael Carrington.

Over the last 2 years, Turner has been identifying shows within our existing portfolio, and content that we could acquire, produce, or own, that would deliver on our brand promise within the pre-school genre. Boomerang was the obvious place to launch the Cartoonito branded block as it has historically appealed to both parents and younger children.

The Cartoon Network had some live action shows in US market but that has not been scheduled for here on Cartoon Network, although we're seeing those shows like Tower Prep and Unnatural History on other channels here in South Africa. Can you explain a bit regarding the Cartoon Network programming strategy for the Africa territory? Also, will there ever be live shows on Cartoon Network, or will it remain strictly animation?

Cartoon Network in America has a more bespoke and localised approach to programming - hence the movement towards live action. There have been live action shows in the Europe, Midde East and Africa (EMEA) region and we will continue to identify great content in this area, but they will be the exception rather than the rule – however all have been highly successful.

In South Africa we produced our first live action/animation mix in 2010, and produced series 2 in 2011 – all filmed in Johannesburg, and theme around music and dance. Our programming strategy for Cartoon Network is to continually deliver on our brand promise – to make sure our content is funny, energetic, adventurous and clever – all qualities reflected and delivered upon by our great content.

ALSO READ: Tower Prep coming to Vuzu from 24 October at 20:30.
ALSO READ: Unnatural History to start on M-Net Series on 21 December at 19:30.

For 2012 are there any developments programming or otherwise that you can talk about for Boomerang and Cartoon Network for South Africa?
We have great returning series in 2012, including a couple of specials around Ben 10 for Cartoon Network, and the focus of Boomerang is making sure that Cartoonito will continue to be a success.

Is TCM rebranding or somewhat changing the type of movies the channel will be showing in future?
The look and style of TCM has always been about celebrating classic movies, but it is equally important to have an identity that reflects the brand promise of TCM – hence the graphically consistent look of the channel that emphasizes that classic movies can be drawn form either the golden age of cinema, or the more contemporary classics that we are now showing.

ALSO READ: Great Scott! The Back to the Future trilogy coming to TCM in December with a triple play on 24 December as well.

BREAKING. The headline you thought you'd never see: TCM is going ... back to the future!

You're reading it here first.

Great Scott! Whether it's a once-off stunt or the shape of things to come - I can exclusively reveal that the mostly stodgy-odgy classics channel TCM (DStv 109) is getting a massive, quality dose of the future for Christmas, majorly revamping it's schedule by adding recent quality classics like ... gasp! ... the Back to the Future trilogy!

DStv decoders and flux capacitors everywhere won't know quite what hit them when all three of the Back to the Future films will unspool on consecutive nights for the first time on TCM - movies made in the late 80s!

TCM tells me Back to the Future I hits on Friday 9 December at 21:00; Back to the Future II is on on Saturday 10 December at 21:00; and Back to the Future III shows on Sunday 11 December at 21:00. Besides several repeats later during the month, the Back to the Future trilogy is also perfectly scheduled on 24 December when all 3 movies will be shown back-to-back.

Back to the Future I will start at 15:15 on TCM on 24 December, followed by Back to the Future II at 18:20, and Back to the Future III at 20:05.

Last week I asked Alan Musa, the vice president and general manager for the Pan Middle East and Africa (MEA) region of Turner Broadcasting Systems International that runs TCM, about the addition of the Back to the Future movies and films like Jaws to the December schedule. I wanted to know whether this is a December holiday stunt or part of a bigger programming drive adaptation to the TCM schedule.

''It has always been our strategy to introduce more contemporary classics to TCM,'' says Alan Musa. "'This is a vision that I introduced a few years back – the idea being that classic movies are not dictated by the age of the movie, but more by the age of the viewer. A classic movie to today's 40 year old viewer would be Back to the Future, when the said same viewer would have been 15. A great contemporary classic like Jaws will speak volumes to a 53 year viewer today, who would have been a terrified 18 year old in a 1975 movie theatre,'' he says.

BREAKING. The Cartoon Network not planning on showing the high buzz, live action shows Unnatural History and Tower Prep in Africa soon.

You're reading it here first.

I can exclusively reveal that South African viewers of The Cartoon Network (DStv 301) are going to have to wait longer for the possibility of seeing the great live action shows that The Cartoon Network is already broadcasting in America and planning to expand on.

The fantastic hour long live action show Unnatural History (about a kind of young Indiana Jones-type, high school pupil going on awesome adventures and seeking artefacts while enrolled at a preppy school set inside a museum) is already deep into its first season on The Cartoon Network in America. Soon viewers there will also see the second live action series - a highly anticipated hour long live action show called Tower Prep with Drew van Acker that already has huge buzz and will debut in October in America. A rebellious teen wakes up one morning to find himself trapped at a mysterious prep school that offers no escape. He forms a secret group to discover what they're being trained for and how to escape.

I asked The Cartoon Network whether there is a possibility of the channel's feed for South Africa adding these live action shows like Unnatural History and Tower Prep to the schedule. ''At the moment the focus on The Cartoon Network in Africa is on original cartoons,'' says Alan Musa, vice president and general manager for the Middle East, Africa and Pan region for Turner Broadcasting Systems. The Cartoon Network will in 2011 be looking at possibly broadcasting the live actions shows from America on The Cartoon Network in Africa, ''but not in the next six months'' I'm told.