Avalanche of animation for the holidays as M-Net Movies Family goes with animation movies; DStv adds Turner's Hoolee as continent's first kids pop-up channel.

An avalanche of animation fun is coming to DStv subscribers with pay-TV broadcaster M-Net turning its M-Net Movies Family channel on DStv into an animation family movie channel from 4 December while the Hoolee channel kids channel starts on 1 December.

M-Net is turning the M-Net Movies Family (DStv 105) channel into an Animania channel from Friday, 4 December in a special animation movie festival that will continue until Friday 15 January 2016.

M-Net Movies Family will show animation movies all day long from Friday, including box office hits like Frozen, The Incredibles, Finding Nemo, the Ice Age movies and Disney hits like Cars.

Although the M-Net Movies Family channel is only available to DStv Premium subscribers, some of the movies will be made available on MultiChoice's DStv Catch Up video-on-demand service which means that lower-tiered subscribers of the pay-TV service will also get access to it.

The Toy Story and Shrek films together with Despicable Me and James and the Giant Peach as well as many others will compete with Turner Broadcasting System's Hoolee channel starting on 1 December and running on DStv across Africa until the end of January 2016.

Hoolee (DStv 197) will be for DStv Premium, DStv Extra and DStv Compact subscribers and MultiChoice Africa and Turner Broadcasting call it "the continent's very first pop-up children's channel".

MultiChoice and Turner Africa didn't release any programming schedule or programming line-up to the press ahead of the channel's launch on Tuesday but Turner Africa said Hoolee's programming will be "truly amazing".

Hoolee will show animation movies and animation shows, ranging from shows like Sonic the Hedgehog, Zig & Sharko and The Adventures of Puss in Boots, to the third season of Dragons set before the events of the How to Train your Dragon movies.

Films include Beethoven's Christmas Adventure, Lego: The Adventures of Clutch Power, Babe: Pig in the City, The Borrowers and Balto II: Wolf Quest!

Hoolee content will include shows from Turner and Warner Brothers productions as well as exclusive acquisitions.

BREAKING. MultiChoice adding a 3rd pop-up channel for December, The Good Life Network from Ochre Media, focusing on health and fitness.

Besides kykNET Films and kids channel HOOLEE, MultiChoice will run a third pop-up channel from December called The Good Life Network, a health channel produced by Ochre Media and the department of health.

The Good Life Network will run on MultiChoice's DStv satellite pay-TV platform from 1 December until 31 March 2016. The channel will be a precursor to a permanent South African fitness and health channel from another media house that will be added in 2016 to DStv, according to insiders.

The Good Life Network will bring viewers programming related to nutrition, health and fitness, human rights, youth sexuality, diseases like HIV and TB, as well as gender and consumer rights.

The channel is "a call to action for all South Africans to make small changes in their lives to live a healthier live," says Lebo Ramafoko, the CEO of the Soul City brand, which is running the pop-up channel over the holiday period in conjunction with Ochre Media.

The Good Life Network programming will include shows like Health Busters (breaking down myths), Food Police (helping you design healthier meals), SuperDoc (critical women's health issues), Village Shrink (mental health), Cook for Life (African meals), Get Up Stand Up (celebrating

those making a difference), Fit Life (inspired fitness outside the gym), Health Bulletins (citizen

journalism), Straight Up (youth sexuality) and Icheke (check your health).

"In keeping with the successful edutainment model, The Good Life Network will service a

consumer appetite for entertaining health related content and services," says Krisen Pather, the head of edutainment programming for Ochre Media.

The Good Life Network will be available on DStv Premium, DStv Extra, DStv Compact, DStv Family and DStv Access on channel 199.

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Editor: While MultiChoice calls it The Good Life Network, Ochre Media's the logo clearly has the channel's name as The GoodLife Network. There is no indication of which is right, the channel and platform operator didn't bother to check this detail.

Pop-up kids channel, Hoolee, from Turner Broadcasting coming in December to DStv Premium subscribers for two months with movies, animated shows.

MultiChoice's next pop-up channel will be the kids channel HOOLEE from Turner Broadcasting System International that will run from the beginning of December 2015 to the end of January 2016 on DStv.

HOOLEE follows after M-Net and Disney's current Star Wars channel on channel 109 on DStv.

Turner already provides kids channels like Cartoon Network (DStv 301) and Boomerang (DStv 302) to DStv.

Turner Africa announced that HOOLEE will become Africa's first pop-up channel on DStv at the MultiChoice Content Showcase held this past week at the Outrigger Mauritius Resort & Spa in Mauritius.

MultiChoice announced that it will be doing 4 pop-up channels in 2016 for DStv subscribers and that the Star Wars pop-up channel from M-Net Movies is an experiment.

South African press and TV critics were not invited, nor told beforehand of the MultiChoice Content Showcase. Turner Africa didn't share the announcement and news of HOOLEE with South African press after it was made in Mauritius.

Turner Broadcasting says it and DStv will be making "African television history" when families all over the African continent, including South Africa, will be able to watch HOOLEE as "a first of its kind Africa pop-up children's channel".

HOOLEE will be for DStv Premium subscribers and the schedule will include "carefully chosen movies and animated shows" created from a selection of programming from Turner Broadcasting and Warner Brothers productions, as well as exclusive acquisitions.

HOOLEE will run on DStv for 8 weeks, from the beginning of December until  the end of January 2016.

"Imagine laughing, sharing surprising adventures and celebrating the summer holidays with your children every day, is the promise of the channel," says Tim Jacobs, MultiChoice Africa CEO.

"HOOLEE will offer to the whole family programmes that they have always enjoyed, as well as new and refreshing, exclusive shows and movies. The range of programming is truly amazing," says Pierre Branco, vice president and managing director of Turner Africa.

MultiChoice's DStv Content Showcase in Mauritius 2015: A summary of the programming upfront and news so far: Day 4

MultiChoice's 5 day MultiChoice Content Showcase is currently taking  place at the Outrigger Mauritius Resort & Spa in Mauritius (one journalist from Uganda calls it a "hedonistic content bash").

MultiChoice didn't tell South African press and TV critics about it or that it's happening. And surprise, surprise, South African press are not there although the bulk of the channel seen are the same, and the news and announcements shared there relevant and applicable to South Africa as well.

For day 1 and day 2 news and stories check here with links to further articles.

For day 3 news and stories check here with links to further articles.


Friday 4 September
Morning
The morning kicked off with The Walt Disney Company doing the day's first presentation. Deirdre King, head of marketing at The Walt Disney Company Africa spoke.

I asked both Disney on Thursday and Disney's South African PR company Taryn Fritz PR, to please help me and send me whatever information is announced, presented or issued to press on Friday. By Friday (after I asked again twice) ... nothing.

Deirdre King tells the press that more content from Africa will be coming to Disney soon (besides of course the I Love Violetta companion show).

A whole season of the popular pre-school animation series Doc McStuffins on Disney Junior (DStv 309) has been translated into Swahili although Disney has no date for when it will be broadcast on DStv.

A new Facebook page for Disney Junior will be launching on 1 October for viewers, parents and kids in South Africa and the rest of Africa.

Viacom International Media Networks Africa (VIMN Africa) in the photo above, presented next.

VIMN Africa issued information at the same time as it was released during the panel discussion which included TV executives like Evert van der Veer (head of comedy for Africa), Tasania Parsadh (the senior channel manager of Nickelodeon in Africa) and Tim Horwood (VIMN Africa creative director and channel director for MTV Base).

Read more about VIMN Africa's presentation at the MultiChoice Content Showcase here. It's for channels like MTV, Comedy Central, MTV Base, BET,  Nickelodeon, NickToons, Nick Jr. and includes a comprehensive summary of programming updates, announcements and renewals.

VIMN Africa says Viacom isn't about just the business of creating television but about creating experiences. Nice.

Afternoon
SuperSport was next with Alvin Naicker (head of production), SuperSport presenter Carol Tshabalala, Graeme Murray (SuperSport general manager for Southern Africa) and Anthony Baffoe (FIFA and CAF general co-ordinator) appearing.

SuperSport announced it will have at least 6 SuperSport channels covering the 2016 Olympic Games on DStv. SuperSport will cover "every event where an African stands a chance of winning a medal".

SuperSport says it has helped to lay the foundation across Africa in football club licensing, the upskilling of administrators and for setting basic standards at Africa's stadiums.

SuperSport will be starting a dedicated new Zambian football magazine show soon, to profile the Zambian football league.

Alvin Naicker said SuperSport created a Broadcast Manual for football leagues to educate them about how sport broadcasting works, and its impact on fixtures, and the timing of when games should best be played.

"We don’t just pay money for rights and walk away, sending in a couple of cameras to film a sporting event."

SuperSport said it's the biggest contributor in Africa when it comes to investment in continental sport.
[Here is one article about SuperSport's presentation  and here is another one.]



The holiday kids channel that MultiChoice is adding for the December holidays is apparently HOOLEE, from Turner Broadcasting Systems Africa (TBS Africa) which will be running from December 2015 and in January 2016.

Sweet nothing from Turner's PR people at Burson-Marsteller in South Africa about any of the Turner news and presentations or HOOLEE, or about Pierre Branco, Turner Broadcasting System's new general manager, talking about CNN International (DStv 401) and Turner's TV news brand in Africa.



The afternoon belonged to BBC Worldwide doing a baking exercise with the press in lieu of The Great South African Bake Off starting soon on BBC Lifestyle. Keep in mind that South African journalists are not actually there. (Although its not BBC Worldwide's "fault".)

BBC Worldwide helped tremendously and issued information regarding BBC Lifestyle at the same time as The Great Bake Off activation on the island happened.

The Great South African Bake Off will start on 6 October at 20:00 for 12 hour long episodes on BBC Lifestyle.

The 5th series of The Great British Bake Off will start in December on BBC Lifestyle for 10 episodes.

Mary Berry Cooks will start on BBC Lifestyle on 15 September at 20:00 for 6 half hour episodes, and Jamie's Comfort Food will start on 11 November at 20:00 for 6 hour long episodes.

Lorraine Pascale: How to be a Better Cook will start on BBC Lifestyle on 6 November at 20:00 for 6 hour long episodes.


Evening
Satirical news show Zambezi News performs. Another story about Zambezi News and M-Net's Zambezi magic channel here.

M-Net has the American cast of the TV drama series From Dusk Til Dawn on M-Net Edge (DStv 102) (a channel of course seen in South Africa on DStv) in Mauritius for a press conference and panel discussion on Saturday morning. The second season just started on M-Net Edge.

Actors Zane Holtz and D.J. Cotrona showed up on Friday night already at M-Net's evening of dance and comedy as part of the presentation by M-Net's Zambezi Magic and Maisha Magic East channels.


Like Pawn Stars South Africa, on History getting a second season, A+E Networks openings its first African office this week in Johannesburg, Top Actor SA on BET getting a second season, and several other programming involved in actual announcements at the MultiChoice Content Showcase, the huge irony is that its often South African content driving the announcements even in Mauritius when MultiChoice and channels want to show they're going "local" and investing in Africa.