Disney and Burger King in South Africa bring limited-edition The Mandalorian and Grogu figurines to meals and 2 mugs

by Thinus Ferreira

I personally love this and will be trying to collect it all - the figurines and collectable mugs which are part of certain meals, for a limited time, at Burger King in South Africa as a part of the upcoming Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu movie.

Disney is bringing Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu to movie theatres in South Africa from 22 May.

In the run-up to that, Burger King SA, part of Burger King worldwide, is running a tie-in promotion or brand licensing partnership with Disney for the film.

For adults, Burger King in South Africa has two limited-edition meals from 27 April: The Galaxy Burger Meal and the Mandalorian & Grogu Bounty Burger Meal. Each of these meals at Burger King comes with its own uniquely themed Star Wars buns.

For kids - and who are we kidding, grown-ups are going to be buying these as well! - Burger King has a limited-time Mandalorian King Jr Meal. 

Each of these comes with one of eight collectable The Mandalorian and Grogu figurines and it is these figurines which look absolutely collectable and super cute!

These Mandalorian King Jr Meals are served in specially designed packaging that enhances the storytelling element of the campaign.

There are also two limited-edition Mandalorian and Grogu mugs customers can buy are these: a black one with the Mandalorian, and a white one with Grogu:

These two mugs cost R40 each and can be added on to meals.

South Africa's Burger King is one of 70 markets worldwide where Burger King is doing Disney's exclusive The Mandalorian and Grogu collectables, and this one really feels like one that Star Wars fans want to be a part of, and spend money on collecting.

According to Burger King SA, customers can "also look forward to a limited in-app game and themed store takeovers designed to bring the world of The Mandalorian and Grogu to life beyond the screen".

Sabrina Ferretti, Burger King International vice president, in a statement about the promotion, says "This collaboration allows us to blend the bold flavours our guests love with the storytelling and excitement of one of the most iconic franchises in entertainment".

"From craveable limited-time menu items to fan collectable mugs and toys, we're giving fans of all ages a fun and flavourful way to celebrate the release of The Mandalorian and Grogu."

Lylle Breier, EVP Marketing Partnerships, Promotions and Events at The Walt Disney Studios, says "Star Wars is built on creating stories and experiences that invite fans to step into the worlds they love".

"Collaborating with Burger King across more than 70 markets globally allows us to extend that storytelling beyond the screen in a fun and unexpected way. We're excited to see fans engage with the immersive in-store experiences, custom content and innovative menu offerings as we count down to the film’s release."

Viewers might already be familiar with the TV series on Disney+, but the new film, Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu follows the next chapter in the journey of Din Djarin and his young companion, Grogu.

Directed by Jon Favreau, the film stars Pedro Pascal, Jeremy Allen White and Sigourney Weaver, and opens in theatres on 22 May 2026.

OPINION. Is DStv dying? Another D holds the clue

by Thinus Ferreira

Is DStv dying? As millions of consumers cut the cord and say they will no longer pay for "so much more", what is happening to MultiChoice isn't unique within the entertainment sphere. Another "D" - Disney - made many of the same mistakes in America that DStv could - and should - actually learn from.

South Africa doesn't have a Disney World. But we have DStv. 

Like "the Happiest Place on Earth", paying for a DStv subscription (and before that for M-Net) was - especially if you were a kid, a student, or a rugby or football fanatic - similar to a golden ticket to a Willy Wonka world of absolute wonder. 

Expensive but TV bliss. Expensive but worth it.

Now, millions of TV households are cancelling DStv - not just in South Africa but across Africa.

Like Disney, DStv offered escapism at a price - a price millions of people were willing to pay monthly to escape, for a while, daily or nightly or over weekends, to get away from your life; to live in a happy, dream-like place.

Whether that place was a rugby or football field, with The Girls Next Door inside the Playboy Mansion, with the Kardashians in Calabasas or dragons in Westeros, you watched and kept coming back, and kept paying more to watch some more, again and again. 

Until the dream had to end because it became unaffordable. 

And because a cheaper entertainment park a bit further down the road called Netflix came along, offering fewer dreams, fewer rides but was a fine trade-off in terms of price if you kept telling your brain you don't really "need" to see the next real housewives fight or Man U play, or Sibongile and the Dlaminis.

MultiChoice is bleeding DStv subscribers in a big way and its latest half-year results make DStv look like we're in America and DStv is DirecTV, Dish, Charter's Spectrum or Comcast's Xfinity where traditional pay-TV is truly in a death-spiral. 

There, the phenomena of cord-cutting - subscribers ending their decades-long relationship with traditional pay-TV companies in their millions every quarter - constantly accelerates.

It's something MultiChoice has mostly remained immune to in South Africa and in the rest of Africa. Until now.

So what happened to DStv? 

Just take a look at Disney in America - and specifically what it did to its theme parks, its theme park experience, pricing, technology, and the implicit experience promise that it broke.

Disney price hikes, coupled with inflation simply made a visit to Disney World for a family ... unaffordable. 

DStv price hikes - now up to two or even three within a year in some African countries have similarly forced even ardent, loyal subscribers to decide that they just can't afford it anymore.

Especially DStv Premium - that Castle of Content that always held so much programming promise - simply became too expensive the last few years while not offering enough value for the price. 

It's not that Disney or DStv are expensive - they've always been - but it is that the rapid rise in price was so rapid over the past few years, combined with almost-as-good alternatives like Netflix which popped up, that caused millions of consumers to stop paying for something they've used to see as a must-have luxury.

Then what you got, got cut. 

Try and talk to an actual human at DStv and see if that's possible when you have an issue or a problem. See how long that takes. 

Experience how absolutely awful DStv's chat function is to try and solve something - or again to get some human in the chat box who doesn't respond and doesn't understand and actively causes much more frustration than real assistance.

Remember when you could connect to DStv as a Family with multiple concurrent streams in your own home because you ... paid for DStv? 

Remember when new devices like the DStv Explora rolled out and were subsidised, TV channels on DStv switched to high-definition so you could see sport better, and great TV channels were constantly added.

Now there's only one channel allowed to be streamed, DStv Glass symbolic of innovation - got canned, while 4K remains a laughable pipedream despite promises. 

Meanwhile, DStv decoders in capability fell far behind what those in the USA and UK are capable of, with MultiChoice nowadays - especially this year - much more likely to axe linear TV channels than add anything really good, great or worthwhile.

The DStv magazine guide got killed off - even removed from hotel rooms - and was replaced by hotels with a remote control that has a Netflix button. 

MultiChoice gave up its entire presence in hotels - where a lot of people are for vacation - to "Netflix and chill". Guess what hotel guests press and watch now.

As DStv subscribers became even more price-conscious there really is only so far you can push a customer before they quit on you entirely. Customers feel priced out on something that once looked shiny and desirable but that turned to a perception of being too costly, for too little, for too much trouble.

Through bad and thoughtless management, who made bad and wrong decisions, Disney made the park experience worse. 

Similarly, DStv - where it's 100% about what you literally see - made the what-you-see for what-you-pay experience worse, "less worthy" and reduced. 

At the same time, customers also got given more alternatives. That lead to the calculation of: "If this road, that used to be the only road, is no longer so nice, let me try one of the other roads".

Since DStv subscribers are asked for feedback - which DStv apparently ignores - and with Canal+'s hungry lion eyes on the horizon, MultiChoice bosses will have to sit and be honest with themselves and ask: What has really happened to the DStv Customer Experience?

Why was what DStv Premium once offered been so diluted that customers no longer feel it's worth it, and how long before that feeling fully filters through to all the other consumer layers? 

Why did DStv, with the advent of apps and connected TVs and remote controls with YouTube buttons, give up so much real estate in people's living rooms without a fight and through unforced errors? 

How can DStv actively work to try to get back into people's everyday sit-and-relax environment and be their view-choice partner?

DStv has a pull problem. It's one largely self-created (with a little side-quest help from Netflix). 

As ordinary South Africans continue to pull back from DStv (and on the rest of the continent) they still watch TV. They still want to be entertained. They will still pay for TV. There are just fewer of them - by the millions - choosing to now do that with DStv. 

That's a massive perception problem for MultiChoice.

Disney realised you can't keep charging people more and more, cause overcrowding, not manage long queues, force people to pay for every single thing that used to be free, take away rides and stuff they used to get, and cause and add stress to customers who actually paid for an experience where they actually want to get away from stress for a few hours.

DStv subscribers no longer want to pay more and more for "so much more", for awful customer service, be forced to pay for every single thing, get TV channels and stuff taken away that used to exist and used to be free, and end up with more stress when they've paid for the expectation of just wanting to watch some good TV to get rid of stress. 

Is it any wonder that DStv subscribers, in their millions - and like what happened with the other D - are saying, "it used to be good, but no thanks. No more"?

Ask any family that stopped going to Disney, and and family that cancelled DStv, why. 

Their answers are the same: Too expensive now. No longer worth it. No longer what it used to be. 

Those responses should serve as the guiding light to try and repair what once was, but got lost in the ride.

Disney boss Bob Iger: We've made too much content for Disney+, traditional linear TV business 'is broken'.

by Thinus Ferreira

Disney CEO Bob Iger on Thursday said that The Walt Disney Company made too many shows for its Disney+ video streaming service diluting the impact of its content and that the Mouse House would consider selling off its linear Disney TV channels which are no longer considered part of its "core" business since that part of the business is broken.

Speaking to CNBC during a sit-down interview on the sidelines of an Allen & Co. session in Sun Valley, Idaho in the United States as part of the larger Sun Valley Conference, Iger on Thursday admitted that Disney over-extended its creative forces in ramping up content for Disney+ causing the quality of its film output from its various studios to suffer.

Disney has seen several of its films flop at the box office in the past few months, from Marvel's Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and the live-action remake of The Little Mermaid, to Elemental and the disappointing opening of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.

Bob Iger noted that "there have been some disappointments. We would have liked some of our more recent releases to perform better. In our zeal to basically grow our content significantly to serve our streaming offerings, we ended up taxing our people in terms of their time and their focus way beyond where they had been".

"Marvel is a great example of that. They had not been in the TV business in any significant level. Not only did they increase their movie output but they ended up making a number of television series, and frankly it diluted focus and intention."

"There were three Pixar releases that went direct to streaming, mostly because of Covid," Iger said, referring to Soul, Luca and Turning Red. "I think it may have created an expectation under the audience that they're eventually going to be on streaming, and probably quickly, and there wasn't an urgency."

"You have to agree that there were some creative misses as well," Iger said.

Disney: Linear TV channels broken

Bob Iger also spoke about the ongoing deterioration and unravelling of linear broadcast television and the traditional pay-TV channel business which he calls "broken".

Disney owns and runs TV channels ranging from the ABC broadcast network in the United States, to pay-TV channels like The Disney Channel, National Geographic and ESPN distributed globally to and carried by pay-TV operators in South Africa like MultiChoice's DStv and StarTimes Media SA's StarSat.

"The disruption of the traditional television business is most notable," Iger said when asked about the big challenges facing Disney. "The disruption of that business has happened to a greater extent than what even I was aware".

Iger said that Disney will look at and consider potentially selling something like ABC, as well as its Disney pay-TV channels "which may no longer be core" to the overall business, but will keep ESPN and look for strategic partners when it transitions ESPN to streaming.

About ESPN he said it's "not necessarily about spinning ESPN off, but about looking for strategic partners that could either help us with distribution or content but we want to stay in the sports business."

"There is an inevitability in taking ESPN direct-to-consumer [streaming]; we haven't said when but we do know that it will happen."

About ABC, National Geographic and the other Disney channels, Bob Iger said "We're going to be expansive".

"We have to be objective and open-minded about the future of those businesses."

"They may not be core to Disney. There's clearly creativity and content that they create that is core to Disney but the distribution model, the business model that forms the underpinning of that business  - to deliver great profits over the years - is definitely broken. And we have to call it like it is - and that's part of the transformative work we're doing."

"One of the things that I discovered when I came back is that one of the disruptive forces that have been preying on that business for a while is greater than I thought. It's eye-opening. There is a reality to it that we have to come to grips with and we have to come to grips with that now."

Disney boss Bob Iger: Fewer show and films but higher quality, will licence shows to broadcasters like MultiChoice, M-Net and e.tv again.

by Thinus Ferreira

Revealing what the Mouse House has learnt from the video streaming wars, recently-returned Disney boss Bob Iger says The Walt Disney Company is going to reduce the amount of content it produces when it comes to TV shows and films - including for Disney+ - but that what is being made will be of higher quality and that Disney is open to licensing premium content to broadcasters again.

Bob Iger also hinted that Disney+, in the chase to add subscribers and gain scale, has been priced too cheap, hinting that price corrections in the form of price hikes are coming down the pipeline.

He said that Disney will very likely once again start licensing certain Disney content to broadcasters.

This will be good news to South African broadcasters and pay-TV companies like e.tv as well as MultiChoice and M-Net (DStv 101) that could no longer acquire Disney content after Disney decided to keep back its own content to build out its Disney+ video streaming service which it also launched in South Africa in 2022.

On Thursday Bob Iger spoke at the 2023 Morgan Stanley Technology, Media and Telecom Conference in San Francisco and according to American media reports explained that Disney is drastically slashing costs and scaling back on the volume of TV shows and films, saying Disney is now rather refocusing on quality content instead.

"It comes in the form of reducing the expense per content, whether it’s a TV series or a film, where costs have just skyrocketed in a huge way and not a supportable way in my opinion," he told delegates.

"As we look to reduce the content that we're creating for our own platforms, there probably are opportunities to license to third parties. For a while that was verboten or something we couldn’t possibly do, because we were so favouring our own streaming platforms."

"But if we get to a point where we need less content for those platforms, and we still have the capability of producing that content, why not use it to grow revenue? And that’s what we would likely do."

Bob Iger said "I think it's already clear to us that the exclusivity that we thought would be so valuable in growing Disney+ subs, while it has some value, wasn't as valuable as we thought".

"Content can actually exist on the traditional platform and on the streaming platform quite well without doing damage to either one, because actually a very, very audience is consuming on those platforms."

More picky about projects

About films and franchises like the Marvel universe and Star Wars, Bob Iger said "What we have to look at at Marvel is not necessarily the volume of Marvel storytelling, but how many times we go back to the well on certain characters".

"Sequels typically work well for us, but do you need a third or a fourth, for instance? Or is it time to turn to other characters? There's nothing in any way inherently off in terms of the Marvel brand. I think we just have to look at what characters and stories we are mining."

"If you look at the trajectory of Marvel over the next five years, you’ll see a lot of newness. Now, we're going to turn back to the Avengers franchise, but with a whole set of different Avengers, as an example."

"With Star Wars we made three what we called saga films, which is obviously the successors to George Lucas' first six."

"They did very well at the box office - tremendously well as a matter of fact. We've made two so-called stand-alones in Rogue One and Solo.

"Rogue One did quite well, Solo was a little disappointing to us. It gave us pause just to think maybe the cadence was a little too aggressive. And so we decided to pull back a bit. We still are developing Star Wars films. We're going to make sure that when we make one, that it's the right one, so we are being very careful there."

Bob Iger says quality content is a differentiator in the video streaming wars.

"There's so much consumer choice right now, and it comes back to, 'What is differentiated?' That's one thing obviously we have talked about, is those brands: Star Wars, Marvel and Disney and Pixar, for instance. But quality is also a differentiator."

"I think HBO proved that well in their halcyon days when high-quality programming made a big difference, and not volume."

"Because the streaming platforms require so much volume, one has to question whether that's the right direction to go, or if you can be more curated, more - I used the word 'judicious' a few times - but I guess, more picky about what you're making, and to concentrate on quality and not volume."

Bob Iger said he "generally bullish on streaming as a great consumer proposition, as a really robust platform to deliver high-quality content" and that "eventually, I think everything will migrate to streaming,” including ESPN as a direct-to-consumer offering".

"Now it's about getting our content pipeline right, making sure that we're making the right decisions and making sure that we’re making the right number of decisions in terms of how much we're making."

"Then it's really being mindful of a world that is not getting any less complicated, and in fact that technology only is going to disrupt more, and making sure that we're positioning those great brands and this great content-generation business in the right way to deliver the kind of value that shareholders need long term."

Disney+ too cheap

Bob Iger said at the conference that in the chase to sign up Disney+ subscribers, the streamer has probably been priced too cheap and will be adjusting the pricing.

"In our zeal to grow global subs, I think we were off in terms of our pricing strategy, and we're now starting to learn more about it and to adjust accordingly."

TV CRITIC's NOTEBOOK. An elegy to FOX - and the unavoidable decline of linear pay-TV as you knew it.

by Thinus Ferreira

Cookie was halfway through her speech in a 4th season episode of Empire that was only halfway itself when Disney abruptly cut its FOX (DStv 125 / StarSat 131) channel after midnight this morning in Africa - quite symbolic about just how little Disney still cares for linear pay-TV viewers and underscoring the bathetic decline of the once might empire that was traditional linear pay-television.

As global corporate crusts move - slowly but inexorably - and over time reshape the visage of the world's media and video industrial complex into new ages just like tectonic plates do the Earth, FOX's fate was sealed when Disney's corporate takeover of 21st Century Fox was complete and the Mouse House turned its eyes to video streaming.

Ironically, FOX, and the FOX Africa channel with its line-up of general entertainment content mostly funnelled from America, was the closest competitor ever to what MultiChoice's M-Net (DStv 101) has been for decades.

With a mix of average to above average TV shows, a sprinkling of some really must-see shows, working on mixing in a local South African and African flavouring, and even doing some surprisingly excellent and ultra-exclusive real-world media events that was truly awe-inspiring, FOX was fully on track to start beating and equalling the best premium television entertainment offerings - M-Net and BBC Studios with its BBC Brit and BBC First channels - with like-for-like, like-very-much content.

FOX Africa quickly grew to not only acquire cool content, but scheduled original shows commissioned specifically for Europe and Africa - content even filmed in South Africa. Where were international press from as far away as Russian flown to for a set visit and junket for Deep State? Cape Town.

The now-kneecapped FOX Africa wasn't an also-ran. It was a marathon sprinter clearly in it for the long haul. FOX had momentum. It had impetus. It had energy and vitality. And then overnight (thanks Disney!) corporate tectonic shifts zapped and neutered it.

Now it's all gone. Dismantled.

Some future tele-historians will maybe one day sift through the sands of this video ozymandias and ponder how (mis)fortune and fate give both life to - and kill - TV channels.

From MTV to FOX, today's cool TV behemoth filled with so much vigour, energy and tantalising immortality as if it will be with us forever, can turn into tomorrow's remnants of empty champagne glasses and tangled streamers  that are all that's left after a Great Gatsby party.

So much wasted potential. So much wasted ... everything.

The loss of FOX is not just a loss to pay-TV viewers. It's also a canary in the pay-TV coal mine. 

In its disgusting demise, corporate Disney's unscrupulous axing of FOX as part of executive decisions made oceans away and forced through internationally, is the most potent symbolic act yet of the slow, inevitable decline of linear television and traditional pay-TV in South Africa and Africa (similar to the TV seachange happening elsewhere in the world).

When FOX Africa as the undisputed runner-up to M-Net could get taken out as it was, you can bet that the seismic shock and warning it sends through the entire system - even if you can't feel its rumblings - it is something that affects the very  fabric and future of the ecosystem of traditional direct-to-home (DTH) satellite pay-TV to its core.

FOX and FOX Africa are gone. 

It's safe to say that the entire (still outwardly stable but internally so fragile) system of traditional linear pay-TV has sped so fast into the next epoch where more agile and smaller streamer mammals are trying to replace slow-moving dinosaurs, that we will never see another linear TV channel like it.

When FOX blacked out and forever blinked out of existence this morning just after midnight, as a TV viewer you became a living witness to a time in television that is an extinction-level event - with FOX just the latest of the last remaining greats to exit.

ALSO READ: Disney ends the FOX channel in Africa after 11 years, rips away 11th and final season ending of The Walking Dead from pay-TV viewers.

From 2022 Disney will take you to space for a holiday adventure for just R86 869 for 2 days - breakfast and a planet adventure included.

by Thinus Ferreira

It's not just Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos who are tripping in space - you can now get your chance as well with Disney that will give you an out-of-this-world space adventure holiday from 2022 aboard the Halcyon starcruiser for just R87 000.

The Walt Disney Company finally released the astronomical pricing for its Star Wars: Galactic StarCruiser "holiday-adventure" that will open in 2022 as a hotel-cruise ship experience but on land with eye-popping prices that surpasses even expensive real cruise ships on water pricing.

Together with a new trailer, Walt Disney announced some of the cabins and new details around Star Wars: Galactic StarCruiser that will open in the middle of next year and in which individuals, friends or families can book for a two-day immersive experience at the "spaceship" at Walt DisneyWorld Resort in Florida in America.

Aboard the Halcyon, a starcruiser operated by the Chandrila Star Line, you will check-in and experience a jam-packed two-day adventure where you will "build" your own story and its outcome depending on the choices you make.

On day two, guests will take a shuttle down to Batuu, the planet that is the setting for Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge at Disney World, do the Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance and Millennium Falcon: Smuggler's Run rides, and return to the "ship".

Aboard, with your own Star Wars outfit (anything from Jedi garb to Coruscant refinery), characters and staff will behave around you as if you're really in the Star Wars universe playing out a developing and immersive role-playing adventure in-between learning how to play Sabacc, bridge training, droid racing competitions, eating and drinking exotic galactic foods and cocktails and having fun in the sublight lounge.

During the voyage, travellers will meet new and familiar Star Wars characters and interact with them, some of whom will ask to join them on daring missions.

As daring is the astronomical pricing. The Halcyon will have small standard cabins (sleeps 4 to 5), galaxy class suites (sleeps 4) and grand captain suites (sleeps 8) but Disney has only released pricing for the standard cabins so far.

Star Wars fans will have to cough up from (R17 556 ($1209) per individual per night for a cabin or R69 833 ($4809) for the voyage if 2 people per cabin, all the way up to R86 869 ($5999) for a cabin of 4 people. The first voyage is expected to leave 20 August 2022.

Black Widow: Disney is damaging the income movies can earn in the entire film chain with same day-and-date digital release, cinema group says.

by Thinus Ferreira

The so-called "same day-and-date" release on digital video streaming as in cinemas, like what Marvel Studios and Disney have once again done with Black Widow, is cannibalising and doing a massive disservice to the entire global film industry and causing everyone in the value chain from actors and crew to producers and studios, as well as distributors and cinemas to lose millions in revenue. 

So says America's influential National Association of Theatre Owners (NATO) in a strongly-worded statement, noting that new calculations are indicative of how Disney is once again damaging the entire cinema industry and losing out on millions in revenue with Black Widow with its latest same day-and-date cinema and subscription-video-on-demand (SVOD) release on Disney+.

While South African cinemas, shuttered because of an adjusted Lockdown 4, had to push out the premiere date of Marvel Studios Black Widow, many South Africans have already remarked that they have seen it - likely through online piracy such as using torrents and illegally downloading pristine digital copies. 

This represents money lost to Disney in South Africa, distributors and cinema chains like Ster-Kinekor and Nu Metro but it is a scenario that is also playing out in America and across the rest of the world where the exclusive cinema-window has collapsed.  

While Black Widow received good reviews and did well in its first week in cinemas, it suddenly showed a massive drop from just the second week in the United States - something unheard of for the cinema-widow run of an above-average film.

"Black Widow’s excellent reviews, positive word of mouth, strong previews and opening day total led to a surprising 41% second-day drop, a weaker than expected opening weekend, and a stunning second weekend collapse in theatrical revenues. Why did such a well-made, well-received, highly anticipated movie underperform?" asks NATO.

"Despite assertions that this pandemic-era improvised release strategy was a success for Disney and the simultaneous release model, it demonstrates that an exclusive theatrical release means more revenue for all stakeholders in every cycle of the movie's life," says NATO.

"Combined with the lost theatrical revenue and forgone traditional PVOD revenue, the answer to these questions will show that simultaneous release costs Disney money in revenue per viewer over the life of the film."

"Piracy no doubt further affected Black Widow’s performance, and will affect its future performance in international markets where it has yet to open," says NATO.

"Pristine digital copies became available within minutes of release on Disney+. Black Widow was the most torrented movie for the week ending July 12 according to TorrentFreak numbers. It is also available on myriad illegal streaming sites all over the internet."

"This was also the case for all simultaneous releases (Wonder Woman 1984, Godzilla vs Kong, Cruella, Mortal Kombat). This did not happen for F9 or A Quiet Place 2. How much money did everyone lose to simultaneous release and piracy?" NATO asks.

"The many questions raised by Disney's limited release of streaming data opening weekend are being rapidly answered by Black Widow’s disappointing and anomalous performance. The most important answer is that simultaneous release is a pandemic-era artifact that should be left to history with the pandemic itself."

TV NEWS ROUND-UP. Today's interesting TV reports and articles to read - 26 February 2021.

Here's the latest news about TV that I read and that you should read too:    

■ Netflix has renewed the Spanish youth series ELITE about the Lax Encinas high schoolers has been renewed for a 5th season before the start of season 4.

■ The Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) that votes for the Golden Globes and that has no black members now says that it has an "action plan" to specifically recruit black members.

■ Original shows give Netflix a big edge in the video streaming wars.

■ The Walt Disney Company's new Star streaming service add-on - the "international Hulu" - is leaving international buyers,like for instance MultiChoice and M-Net - in the lurch.

Disney is creating massive confusion and big questions for its international partners making use of its content distribution system for shows ... that are and will dry up.

■ When is a plus actually a minus when it comes to naming your video streaming services?

An idea that seemed like a real plus when video streaming was newer, has now become a cliché.

■ Why Paramount+ is proof that we've hit peak video streaming.

In an era of way, way too much TV, things get lost.

■ The showrunner of Snowpiercer on Netflix talks about keeping trains running amid Covid-19 and dealing with superfans.

■ 10 things TV should stop doing right now.

From reboots and spinoffs to streaming services - enough already!

■ Traditional pay-TV subscribers are spending as much money on video streaming services as cord-cutters who have ended their satellite-TV subscriptions.

■ New video streaming services are breathing new life into old TV classics.

■ Netflix wants to start shifting from quantity to quality content as it lays out a vision where it no longer has all the content, but the best content.

■ The growing, big struggle to try and place ratings on streaming shows.

■ 60% of traditional pay-TV subscribers would love to watch a show on a video streaming service.

■ Will political documentary survive the age of Netflix?

The struggle to speak truth to power in the age of streaming.

Disney remains silent over why Africa remains ostracised from its Disney+ streaming service, touts its 'regional commitment' to the UK and Europe whilst ignoring the A in its EMEA region.

by Thinus Ferreira

You can buy a fast fashion T-shirt for R99.99 adorned with a Baby Yoda print from The Mandalorian on Disney+ from your local Pick n Pay Clothing store - just don't ask or expect Disney to actually answer why you can't get Disney+ in South Africa, or when its video streaming service that remains non-existent might launch in Africa. 

The Walt Disney Company on Wednesday chose to continue its self-imposed silence about why Africa remains conspicuously absent from the global rollout plans of its Disney+ and Star video streaming service that is now accessible by consumers in countries across the globe except for the African continent.

Neither The Walt Disney Company, Walt Disney Company Africa, or executives for The Walt Disney Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region have said a word or have felt the need to give any information or explanation as to the absence of Disney+ since its announcement and waves of regionalised launches of its streaming service.

While South African consumers and citizens across Africa have access to the internet, have access to smartphones and apps, and while Disney is aggressively and bizarrely pushing merchandise and branded clothing in Africa for Disney+ shows like The Mandalorian that people can't actually legally watch, Mouse House execs are continuing their stony silence on why the video streamer isn't available in Africa.

On Wednesday Disney execs once again chose to ignore the elephant marked "A" on the map and in the room when Africa wasn't mentioned once in Disney's virtual press event with journalists from the United Kingdom including Europe.

Disney executives - including Jan Koeppen, president of The Walt Disney Company EMEA; Liam Keelan, Disney EMEA's vice president of original productions; and Luke Bradley-Jones, senior vice president of direct-to-consumer and general manager for Disney+ EMEA - on Wednesday held an in-studio done, virtual presentation for the media. 

They touted the expanding Disney+ rollout across Europe, the tie-in rollout of Star from 23 February in Europe and further international territories, Disney's slate of Europe Disney+ Originals, as well as plans to announce British Disney+ Originals soon.

And Africa? They just get to wear the Baby Yoda branded T-shirts, Mando.

Jan Koeppen said that Star - as the 6th branded tile within the Disney+ service and essentially the global version of America's Hulu streamer - will make Disney+ even "bigger, bolder and even more exciting" when it gets added to the existing 5 tiles of Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars and National Geographic.

This "bigger, bolder and even more exciting" claim is, of course, irrelevant to consumers in South Africa and across the wider African continent who don't even have Disney+ and can't watch The Mandalorian but got the T-shirt.  

With the addition of Star to Disney+, Disney is hiking the subscription fee in Europe, and comparable TV markets to South Africa like the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand that all already have access to Disney+.

These countries are getting Star added in from 23 February with Latin America will get Star in June.

Star as the "adult" entertainment section of Disney+ is stacked with self-produced and owned content from Disney Television Studios, Touchstone, ABC and Searchlight Pictures, as well as the rebranded banner brands and their content from 20th Century Studios, 20th Television and FX after Disney bought 21st Century Fox in 2019.

Yesterday Disney announced the slate of its first 10 Disney+ Original commissions from out of Europe. Of course with Disney+ nowhere on the map in Africa, the idea of new productions commissioned out of Africa for the streamer is an even bigger hakuna matata.

Disney is set to announce Disney+ Originals done from the United Kingdom soon.

Liam Keelan said that Disney's European commissions for Disney+ "underscores Disney's regional commitment to outstanding and diverse talent, reflecting our desire to work with the very best storytellers in the industry". 

Absent on Wednesday was any utterances from Liam Keelan about any regional commitments in relation to anything to do with Africa where pay-TV subscribers recently lost the Disney XD and FOX Life TV channels.

Besides Disney+, global streaming services still to possibly launch in South Africa are Discovery Inc.'s Discovery+, WarnerMedia's HBO Max, ViacomCBS' Paramount+, NBCUniversal's Peacock and the BBC and ITV's BritBox that will launch within a few months in South Africa.

Already aggressively competing in South Africa are Netflix SA, Amazon Prime Video and MultiChoice's Showmax that are all available through MultiChoice's latest DStv Explora Ultra decoder, as well as Apple TV+.

ALSO READ: Here's the 80 biggest content announcements that The Walt Disney Company just made for its Disney+ video streaming service at its 2020 Disney Investor Day.

Here's the 80 biggest content announcements that The Walt Disney Company just made for its Disney+ video streaming service at its 2020 Disney Investor Day.

by Thinus Ferreira

Grab a snack and sit back - Disney is full-on signalling that it's ready to do big battle with Netflix for global video streaming supremacy and bringing out the fully loaded content guns for its Disney+ streaming service. Here are the 80 biggest announcements Disney made.

The Walt Disney Company on Thursday night held a virtual 2020 Disney Investor Day that included a raft of content announcements that ranged from the Kardashians to the Marvel universe, from Pixar to National Geographic and even that Star Wars galaxy far, far away.

Disney's presentation was strongly focused on how the Mouse House is bolstering its catalogue of its Disney+ video streaming service, clearly showing that as the world's second-biggest streaming service it is ready to take on Netflix for first place.

Disney executives said that it's main-focus in content creation is now on growing its direct-to-consumer business, meaning Disney+, and that it is pivoting to a "DTC first business model".

Disney spoke multiple times about its Disney+ subscribers "all around the world" and new territories where it plans to launch Disney+ as well as its general entertainment video streamer STAR, yet Africa and any news or announcements regarding rollout in South Africa or sub-Saharan Africa was once again conspicuously absent from Disney's presentation.

South Africans who are pirate-viewing unavailable Disney+ content like Star Wars The Mandalorian are desperate for Disney+ to launch or for a pay-TV operator like MultiChoice to announce that it's adding Disney+ to its new DStv Explora Ultra as as streaming service option.

With its presentation Disney clearly wanted to show that it can rival or outpace a competitor like Netflix when it comes to creating new original content based on its own sought-after brands and intellectual property.

Here is the 80 most noteworthy announcements Disney made:

1. While Disney plans to rollout Disney+ in more countries and territories in 2021, the continent of Africa and South Africa as it's most developed TV market still doesn't feature anywhere. 

Disney+ is already in all of the comparable markets to South Africa like the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand and South American countries, and Disney will roll out STAR as a new general entertainment video streamer in places like South America.

2. STAR as Disney's new subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) service will be a general video entertainment service that will launch outside of the United States. 

It will be for more mature audiences like adults and older teenagers, so it will, for instance, carry a film like Deadpool and general content that - although part of Disney - Disney wants to keep separate from the kid and family-friendly Disney+ brand.

STAR is essentially the hulu video streamer that is available in America but that Disney last year said "has no name brand recognition" outside of America, which is why Disney is going with STAR internationally. 

STAR will include series from Disney Television Studios and FX, as well as films and library content from the Disney library and its 21st Century acquisition, for instance, The Simpsons. Available content titles will only show up within STAR depending on the parental control level chosen.

In South America STAR will launch as it's own stand-alone service called STAR+. Elsewhere, for instance, in Australia, Canada and elsewhere, it will launch in February 2021 as STAR as the 6th tile within the existing Disney+ streaming service. Disney+ now has 86.8 million subscribers globally and will hike prices from March 2021 because of the fold-in STAR content offering.

3. hulu's The Handmaid's Tale seen on M-Net (DStv 101) and Showmax has been renewed for a 5th season.

4. The Kardashian Jenner clan and their Keeping Up with the Kardashians that got cancelled on NBCUniversal's E! (DStv 124) a few months ago is jumping into streaming. hulu and STAR is doing a new video streaming reality series with the Kardashians that it plans to run for several years. 

hulu content, unlike Disney+ content, is for sale to M-Net so expect this series to show up on M-Net, one of the M-Net channels like VUZU, or somewhere on DStv.

5. FX's It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia seen on M-Net (DStv 101) and Showmax has been renewed for a further 4 more seasons, taking it to season 18. 

6. FX has commissioned an Alien TV series, as "the first Alien story set on Earth" and Ridley Scott is involved. "Set not too far into our future, it's the first Alien story set on Earth. By blending both the timeless horror of the first film with the action of the second, it's going to be a scary thrill-ride that will blow people back in their seats". This series will very likely be available for pick-up by M-Net (DStv 101) or FOX (DStv 125 / StarSat 131).

7. FX is working on Shogun, a new series based on the James Clavell novel, as "one of the most sweeping, sophisticated adult series that FX has ever created". It is "set within the riveting and real Game of Thrones that was feudal Japan".

8. Disney and Lucasfilm are working to bring a further 10 Star Wars series to Disney+. Star Wars The Mandalorian is getting two, live-action spin-off TV series. Star Wars Rangers of the New Republic and Star Wars Asoka will both be set within the timeline of The Mandalorian. "These interconnected shows along with future stories will excite new audiences," says Disney. These series will "culminate in a climactic story event".

9. "One of the most exciting and ambitious series we have coming to Disney+ in 2022 is Endor - a tense, nailbiting spy-thriller in the Star Wars universe," with Diego Luna back in the role as Rebel spy Cassian Endor from Rogue One. Production on Endor started in London 2 weeks ago.

10. Star Wars Obi-Wan Kenobi is a special event series and will start 10 years after the dramatic events of the Revenge of the Sith film. "Hayden Christensen will be returning in the role of Darth Vader. This will be the rematch of the century". Production will start in March 2021.

11. The animation series Star Wars The Bad Batch is a new spinoff from Star Wars The Clone Wars and "follows the specialist commandos of Clone Force 99 as they embark on new missions in a rapidly changing galaxy".

12. Star Wars Visions will be a series of animated short films celebrating the Star Wars galaxy through the lens of the world's best anime creators. This anthology collection will bring 10 stories from the leading Japanese anime studios to life and offer a fresh and culturally diverse perspective on Star Wars.

13. In Star Wars Lando, Lando Calrissian will return in a brand-new limited, event series.

14. Star Wars The Acolyte is a mystery-thriller that will take viewers into "a galaxy of shadowy secrets and emerging dark side powers in the final days of the High Republic Era". 

15. Lucasfilm Animation is teaming up with Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) to develop A Droid Story. "This epic journey will introduce us to a new hero guided by our most iconic duo, R2-D2 and C-3PO on a special mission, known only to them".

16. The new Willow series will be set decades after Ron Howard's 1988 movie "continuing the spirit of adventure, heroics and humour of the original film". Filming starts in March 2021 in Wales and will debut on Disney+ in 2022.

17. The next and final film of Indiana Jones is in pre-production. Harrison Ford will be back to "conclude this iconic character's journey". Indiana Jones will start shooting in late 2021 and will be released in July 2022.

18. Tomi Adeyemi's book Children of Blood and Bone is getting the feature film treatment and the story will revolve "around a young African girl's heart-racing quest to restore magic to her forsaken people, the magi".

19. Taika Waititi is busy writing the next Star Wars film.

20. Patty Jenkins will be directing the next Star Wars film, Star Wars Rogue Squadron that will "introduce a new generation of starfighter pilots as they earn their wings and risk their lives in a boundary-pushing, high-speed thrill-ride". Rogue Squadron will be released in cinemas Christmas 2023.

21. Courteney Monroe, president of National Geographic content, says the new documentary film Cousteau "features never-before-seen archival footage as a deep-dive into the fascinating life of the man who first showed us the beauty and wonder under the sea".

22. The National Geographic anthology series Genius is moving exclusively to Disney+ from the 4th season that will dramatise and profile the life of the American civil rights leader, Martin Luther King Jr.

23. James Cameron is doing the new National Geographic natural history series, Secrets of the Whales, narrated by Sigourney Weaver, showcasing never-before-seen behaviour from 5 different whale species.

24. A Real Bug's Life will be using the latest miniaturised camera technology to capture and show the world of insects from the African savannah to New York's urban life.

25. America The Beautiful is a natural history portrait series showing the wildlife and places of the United States.

26. In Welcome to Earth, Will Smith takes viewers on a journey around the world, exploring the strangeness of our planet and some of the most extreme and exciting places, for instance, the side of a volcano and going inside a glacier in Iceland.

27. Big Shot from David E. Kelly is a new dramedy series set in the world of high school basketball with John Stamos who becomes the coach of a girls team at a private California high school.

28. Beauty and the Beast The Prequel Series will be a live-action drama series set before the events of the film with Luke Evans and Josh Gad who will return to reprise their roles.

29. Swiss Family Robinson will be a live-action drama series and reimagine the classic story as a live-action drama series. 

30. The Mysterious Benedict Society is a live-action dramedy, based on the young adult book.

31. Disney is working on Hocus Pocus 2 as a "spooky sequel" to the original bewitching film.

32. Disney is "deep in development" with "a hilarious take on the 80s comedy" Three Men and a Baby. Aiming for a 2022 release, Three Men and a Baby has Zac Efron attached in a starring role.

33. Greek Freak, heading into production in 2021, is a biopic based on the life of the life story of NBA star Giannis Antetokounmpo and his family as they lifted themselves out of poverty as undocumented immigrants living in Greece. Disney+ is developing another similar biopic about another NBC star, Chris Paul.

34. The live-action film Flora & Ulysses is based on the book about the girl Flora and her squirrel Ulysses and will be released in February 2021 on Disney+.

35. In 2022, Disney is reimagining the comedy Cheaper by the Dozen, centred around a multi-racial, blended family of 12, navigating a hectic home-life, while managing their family business. Gabrielle Union will star in this reboot.

36. Disney is revisiting the beloved Diary of a Wimpy Kid but this time as an animation film. 

37. After 5 films, 20th Century Studios is now in production on a spinoff film, exclusively for Disney+ entitled The Ice Age Adventures of Buck Wild and will revolve around the possum brothers and weasel Buck.

38. Night at the Museum is returning as a new animated film.

39. In July 2021 Disney will release Jungle Cruise with Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt.

40. Disney is developing "a Lion King prequel of sorts that revisits these iconic characters" and production is underway on the already-announced live-action version of The Little Mermaid that will have the classic songs as well as new music.

41. Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers is becoming a Disney+ hybrid live-action and animation film. In this film, like Who Framed Roger Rabbit, "cartoon are living among us, in all their forms, and let us just say they may have gone a little overboard to keep up with current popularity of CGI". The film will be release in late-2022.

42. The live-action remake of Pinnochio was already announced but the Tom Hanks film with state-of-the-art special effects is now moving to Disney+.

43. Peter Pan & Wendy is a new film specifically for Disney+ with Jude Law as Captain Hook.

44. Disney confirms that Amy Adams will be back as Giselle in a sequel to Enchanted exclusively for Disney+. The live-action film, Disenchanted will once again follow the hapless Disney princess who accidentally found herself in New York.

45. Disney is developing Sister Act 3 - and Whoopi Goldberg will be back in the starring role and producing. Tyler Perry is also a producer on the project.

46. The already-announced live-action film Cruella will dive into the early life of "one of the most notorious, and most notoriously fashionable villains, the legendary Cruella de Ville played by Emma Stone. Set in the 1970's punk-rock London, Cruella (then Estella) is noticed as a burgeoning fashion designer.

47. Walt Disney Animation Studios is doing its first-ever original animation series based on the Big Hero 6 film, entitled Baymax!. It will be on Disney+ in early-2022.

48. Zootopia+ is a short-form series that will take a hilarious look at some of the animal that moviegoers only briefly met in the film. Viewers will get to know more about Zootopia's hottest shows like The Real Housewives of Little Rodentia, So You Think You Can Prance about the back-up tiger dancers, and a show that follows the fast lane of sloth speed. Zootopia+ will release on Disney+ in late-2022.

49. Tiana is a new long-form animation series coming to Disney+ in 2023 and revolves around the Disney princess and her friends in a musical comedy series with Tiana stepping into her role as a princess of a land yet to be seen, as well as with a lot of New Orleans to be discovered.

50. Disney is developing a long-form musical comedy series, Moana, to explore new stories with this character. "In this series, Moana's boundless sense of adventure takes her far beyond the reef". Moana the series will be on Disney+ in 2023.

51. Walt Disney Animation Studios is teaming up with the pan-African comic book company Kugali to create the original animation series Iwájú for Disney+. Walt Disney Africa was asked how viewers in Africa will be able to see Iwájú - that roughly means "the future" but the company didn't respond. Iwájú will debut on Disney+ in 2022. The long-form series, steeped in science fiction, is set in Lagos, Nigeria.

52. Walt Disney Animation Studios' 60th feature film will be an animation musical set in Colombia, where a magical family lives in a magical home in Encanto. Songwriter Lin-Manuel Miranda is attached with songs in Spanish and English.

53. Pixar has a new upcoming animation spinoff series from the UP film entitled Dug Days, following the talking dog's adventures and that will release around March 2021. 

54. The Cars franchise is making a comeback around late-2022 with a new animation series following Lightning McQueen and his best friend Mater as they head on a roadtrip across America. Episodes will be filled with imaginative new destinations as well as old friends.

55. Win Or Lose is Pixar's first long-form original animation series and follows a primary school sports team in the week leading up to a game. Each 20-minute episode follows the same week but from the perspective of a different character. The Pixar series will debut on Disney+ in late-2023.

56. Luca is a new Pixar animated feature film set in a beautiful seaside town on the Italian riviera following the adventures of the boy Luca and his friend Alberto experiencing an unforgettable summer. It will debut in cinemas worldwide in June 2021.

57. Around March 2022 Pixar will release the feature film Turning Red revolving around May, a confident 13-year old who uncontrollably turns into a giant red panda whenever she gets excited.

58. In mid-2022 Pixar plans to release Lightyear in cinemas. Remember in Toy Story how the Buzz Lightyear doll action figure was based on a never-seen film? Lightyear is now that film as the "definitive origin-story of the original Buzz Lightyear and reveals how this young test pilot became the space ranger we all know him to be today". Captain America's Chris Evans will be voicing Buzz.

59. Marvel Studios' already-announced WandaVision series coming 15 January 2021 released a new trailer and it looks a bit like the Pleasantville film, with the characters of Wanda and Vision who will discover that they're trapped in some reality/universe not of their making.

60. Marvel Studios' Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness will be released in cinemas 25 March 2022 and will connect directly to the events of Wandavision and will also connect to the new Spider-Man film coming to theatres in December 2021.

61. Marvel Studios also unveiled a new trailer for the already-announced Disney+ series The Falcon and the Winter Soldier coming from March 2021 and will be "a cinematic experience playing out over 6 episodes".

62. The already-announced Black Widow will return to the big screen on 7 May 2021 with Scarlett Johansson.

63. Loki with Tom Hiddleston will debut as a Disney+ series in May 2021 and is joined by Owen Wilson, Richard E. Grant and others. "We've put Loki in the centre of his own crime-thriller. If that sounds a little confusing, don't worry, Loki is just as confused."

64. What If...? is the first animated series from Marvel Studios and will release on Disney+ in mid-2021. The series "flips the script on the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), taking famous events from the films and reimagining them in unexpected ways". Many MCU actors will reprise their roles for their animation versions.

65. Production has just wrapped in Australia on the film Chang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings and will release in cinemas on 9 July 2021.

66. The already-announced American-Pakistani superhero series Ms Marvel will release next year on Disney+ with Iman Vellani in the title role.

67. The already-announced Captain Marvel 2 is currently in the works and will also be connected to the Wandavision series.

68. The already-announced Eternals will release in cinemas ofrom 5 November 2021 and Marvel Studios describes it as "introducing a brand-new emsembleof superheroes" that "is an epic story spanning thousands of years and is one of our most ambitious films yet".

69. The original Avenger Jeremy Renner returns to star in Hawkeye launching on Disney+ in late 2021. In this new series Hawkeye will team up with another well-known archer Kate Bishop who will be played by Hailee Seinfeld.

70. She Hulk is coming to Disney+ as a new series and is described as "a very funny series" with Tatiana Maslany in the title role. Tim Roth is returning as the Abomination first introduced in 2008's The Incredible Hulk. Mark Ruffalo as The Hulk will be appearing in the series as well.

71. Moon Knight is an action-adventure, Indiand Jones type story from Marvel Studios as a Disney+ series. Moon Knight is a vigilante suffering from disassociative identity disorder and these multiple identities are very distinct characters. The backdrop to the series is Egyptian iconography.

72.  Secret Invasion was a Marvel Comics cross-over story and now with Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury is a new series coming to Disney+. 

73. Ironheart is a new Disney+ series about inventor Riri Williams, played by Dominique Thorne, who makes her own most advanced suit of armor since Iron Man. Ironheart and Secret Invasion will both tie-in to MCU feature films.

74. Production is also underway on a new series, Armor Wars. Tony Stark's worse feat comes true - it's what happens when his tech falls into the wrong hands. Don Cheadle will appear as War Machine.

75. Marvel Studios will be doing a live-action The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special for Disney+ with James Gunn as writer and director and will release in December 2023.

76. Baby Groot, everybody's favourite little tree, will appear in the series I Am Groot on Disney+, featuring several new characters.

77. Thor Love and Thunder will start filming in January 2021 with director Taika Waititi and Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, and Tessa Thompson returning and Christian Bale as Gorr, the God Butcher. It will release in cinemas on 22 May 2022.

78. Development and storylines are coming together for Blade with Mahershala Ali in the title role.

79. The third Ant-Man film from Marvel Studios will officially be called Ant-Man and the Wasp Quantumania. Paul Rudd as Ant-Man will be back together with Evangeline Lilly, Michael Douglas and Michelle Pfeiffer, and Kathryn Newton is joining the cast as Cassie Lang.

80. Black Panther II won't recast the role of Chadwick Boseman and will release in cinemas 8 July 2022.Writer and director Ryan Coogler is working on the story. Marvel Studios is working on a new The Fantastic 4 feature film.