The Cup Runneth Out: Burger King SA and Disney's Mandalorian and Grogu Mugs Sold Out in 2 Days in South Africa as Rabid Fans Swarm, Outlets Got Just 2 Boxes Each as Burger King Says 'Hopeful More Stock May arrive' But Without Promises

by Thinus Ferreira

It's really "May" the 4th, as in may - with Burger King South Africa that tells me it may get some more Star Wars Mandalorian mugs after what it had for a new global campaign sold out in just 2 days.

Burger King South Africa is experiencing consumer backlash just days after starting a new global Star Wars tie-in promotion for the upcoming Mandalorian and Grogu movie bafter it completely ran out of the R40 mugs sold as add-ons to Burger King meals.

After going on sale on last Monday, 27 April in South Africa and with the Burger King campaign still supposed to run for at least another month until 7 June, many potential Burger King customers are highly disappointed, angry and disillusioned after being turned away from Burger Kings across South Africa after just two days since Wednesday, 29 April, with the words "sold out".

Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu opens in theatres in South Africa on 22 May, but South African consumers going to Burger King are out of luck if they want to buy the black Mandalorian or white Grogu mugs which cost R40, in addition to buying a meal.

The result is that potential Burger King customers simply leave without buying anything since they're not willing to buy the Burger King Galaxy Burger Meal, or the Mandalorian & Grogu Bounty Burger Meal, if they can't also buy the mugs.

In other words, it appears as if Burger King SA is going to struggle to move and sell any of these Mandalorian meals when counter or drive-thru assistants tell customers they have no mugs. Customers are going specifically to Burger King SA across South Africa for the mugs.

These mugs are part of Burger King SA's "adult" meals, but adults are buying them for themselves, as well as for kids. 

Burger King SA also has King Jr. meals, which come with one of 8 collectible plastic - and very cute - figurines. These are not sold out.

Adding Star Wars mech to meals is actually Burger King's incentive to move and sell more meals - but not without the mugs.

Over the weekend, TVwithThinus phoned (not all of them have landline phone numbers) multiple Burger Kings across South Africa in various provinces using the contact details listed on googlemaps. 

Every single Burger King, asked if they have Star Wars mugs, were very apologetic and said they're out and ran out very quickly.

"We only got two boxes," said Burger King in George at the Blue Route Mall. 

It's not clear how many mugs are in a box, but it appears as if Burger King SA severely underestimated the demand among potential consumers and potential Burger King visitors and Star Wars fans in South Africa who are willing to fork out R40 for these mugs.

Another Burger King said "we have no idea if we will get more boxes". Another Burger King said it was "hopeful" that more would be delivered. "It took us by surprise. The people really wanted them". A Burger King in Port Elizabeth said "we're hoping we get another delivery on Monday".

On Facebook hundreds of angry customers are venting to Burger King SA about how they've tried to take part in the campaign and tried to get the mugs - with one woman who drove to 11 Burger Kings with nothing to show for it.

While the campaign has been extremely successful for Burger King SA and The Walt Disney Company Africa licensing Star Wars to Burger King for the promotion, it is now also true that it is causing widespread disappointment and frustration. 

By Monday afternoon Burger King was still marketing the mugs and other Star Wars Mandalorian collectibles, although creating an expectation of something it is unable to fulfil once a potential customer arrives at a Burger King SA franchise and wants to buy a mug.

It's not clear how many of the mugs Burger King SA received in total to sell as the add-on in South Africa, similar to what Burger King is doing in 70 countries with this promotion.

Some customers are also saying they don't believe that all of the Burger Kings across South Africa even got the mugs inventory. These real ceramic mugs at R40 are significantly cheaper in South Africa than most licensed Star Wars merchandise found at major retailers.

Burger King SA originally said that the mugs and plastic figures would be a "while stocks last" promotion, with no plans for a restock.

Noma Maganisa, Burger King SA spokesperson, told TVwithThinus on Monday morning in response to a media query about the lack of mugs that Burger King SA "is currently about 98% out of stock".

"We are awaiting confirmation from our supply chain team on whether we will receive an additional batch. As the campaign runs until 7 June, we are hopeful that more stock may arrive; however, we are unable to make any guarantees at this stage due to ongoing shipment delays affecting imported items."

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

Disney launches its Disney+ in the United Kingdom and Western Europe during growing Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic ; hopes its video streaming service 'can bring some much-needed moments of respite during these difficult times'.

by Thinus Ferreira

The Walt Disney Company rolled out its Disney+ subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) service on Tuesday in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Spain, Italy, Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

Disney postponed the launch in France to 7 April 2020 at the request of that country's government because of the Covid-19 novel coronavirus pandemic.

Disney is silent on when Disney+ might launch in South Africa or anywhere on the African continent, and the possibility of a platform tie-up with a pay-TV operator like MultiChoice's DStv.

Disney+ will make shows like The Mandalorian available when it launches today in the United Kingdom and across Western Europe although much of the excitement already passed and a lot of the content have already been pirated viewed globally by consumers elsewhere in the world who couldn't get access and pay for a Disney+ subscription.

"Launching in 7 markets simultaneously marks a new milestone for Disney+," says Kevin Mayer, chairman of Walt Disney direct-to-consumer and international, in a statement.

"As the streaming home for Disney, Marvel, Pixar, Star Wars, and National Geographic, Disney+ delivers high-quality, optimistic storytelling that fans expect from our brands, now available broadly, conveniently, and permanently on Disney+."

"We humbly hope that this service can bring some much-needed moments of respite for families during these difficult times." 

Disney+ costs £5.99 (€6.99/ R123.48 ) per month, or £59.99 ( €69.99 /R 1236.66 )  for an annual subscription.

Disney+ in the UK and other Western Europe countries will carry 500 films from Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars and National Geographic, 26 exclusive original movies and series, and thousands of television episodes, including 300 episodes of The Simpsons.

Disney partnered with multiple mobile phone operators and pay-TV services to have Disney+ reside on their services.

These include Sky in the UK (bundled with Sky Q) and Ireland as well as O2 (available as an add-on option and a 6-month free trial) in the UK, Canal+ in France, Deutsche Telekom in Germany (3-month to 6-month free trial), Telecom Italia Mobile in Italia (bundled with broadband packages), as well as Telefónica in Spain (bundled with Movistar packages).

Disney+ will launch in mid-2020 in Belgium, the Nordics, and Portugal with no indication or communications about a possible launch frame for Africa or South Africa.

Disney releases first poster and trailer for its Star Wars drama series, The Mandalorian coming to Disney+ that South Africans won't be able to see legally.

Disney has released the first poster and official trailer for the first live-action Star Wars drama series, The Mandalorian, that will start on its upcoming new video streaming service Disney+ on 12 November.

Meanwhile Ewan McGregor who appeared at Disney's D23 Expo in Anaheim, California in the United States that kicked off on Friday, confirmed last week's news that he will be reprising his Jedi Knight Obi-Wan Kenobi role from the Star Wars films for a new Disney+ drama series that will start filming in 2020.

Disney announced in the past week that it will launch Disney+ on 12 November in the United States, Canada and the Netherlands and a week later in Australia and New Zealand.

With The Walt Disney Company that decided not to launch its new subscription video-on-demand service (SVOD) in Africa and South Africa, many South Africans in the week said that they would love to pay Disney for the Disney+ service that will cost around R100 per month in each of these countries.

Disney doesn't consider South Africa to be one of its "major regions" in the world according to its latest investors presentation with South Africa that might get Disney+ only from around 2022 or later.

South Africans indicated that they will likely resort to using illegal downloads and torrent sites to watch episodes of the Jon Favreau written and directed series that will see a new episode of The Mandalorian made available weekly, along with an avalanche of new and original Disney and Marvel content specifically produced for Disney+.

Disney+ as a new video streaming service despite any marketing or publicity in South Africa already enjoys a large awareness under South Africans viewers and consumers.

Disney+ was the number one topic of discussion and elicited the most questions from the media - with no answers about when it's coming to South Africa - at Disney's annual Disney Africa 2019/2020 content showcase that was held on Tuesday in Cape Town.

If or when Disney+ is to launch in South Africa, it will compete with MultiChoice's Showmax from its Connected Video division, as well as Netflix South Africa, Amazon Prime Video and Cell C black along with some smaller services all trying to grow their SVOD customer market share.



The Mandalorian will bring backstory and new characters to flesh out the time period and events that transpired 7 years after the Star Wars: Episode VI — Return of the Jedi film just after the fall of the Empire and the rise of the First Order and 23 years before the events of The Force Awakens, with executive producer Jon Favreau already busy writing the scripts for the second season.

"I came in and pitched Kathleen Kennedy a version of a show that took place after Return of the Jedi," Jon Favreau said on the D23 stage. "Chaos reigns because there's no central government. It's a world like the old Samurai movies and Westerns."

The Mandalorian follows the adventures of a lone gunfighter in the outer reaches of the galaxy far from the authority of the New Republic, send on a mission to collect and retrieve something of great value.

Besides Pedro Pascal as the title character the series has Nick Nolte, Werner Herzog, Gina Carano (as Cara Dune), Giancarlo Esposito (Mof Gideon), Emily Swallow, Carl Weathers (as Greef Carga), Omid Abtahi, Taika Waititi (the droid IG-11) in the cast.

The Black Panther composer and recent Oscar and Grammy winner Ludwig Göransson is responsible for the musical score of the 10-episode first season that has a reported budget of over $100 million.


Obi-Wan Kenobi series
At D23 the Lucasfilm boss Kathleen Kennedy who is producing the new Obi-Wan Kenobi Star Wars drama series as well, told the crowd that "We have all the scripts written, we're ready to start shooting next year".

The as-yet-untitled Obi-Wan Kenobi series will be the third live-action Star Wars drama series made for Disney+.

Beyond The Mandalorian with Pedro Pascal, Disney also commissioned a series based on the Cassian Andor character character with Diego Luna back to reprise the role he played in the Star Wars Rogue One film, and with the show that will be a prequel series.

The hugely popular Star Wars: The Clone Wars animation series is also returning for a new season, this time to Disney+ that will become available from February 2020.

Disney gains full control of the Hulu video streaming service that it plans to roll out internationally; will mean even more streaming competition if it launches in South Africa.

The Walt Disney company has taken over operational control of the Hulu subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) service in the United States with immediate effect and said on Tuesday that it intends to make Hulu as a video streaming service available internationally which will mean even more competition if it is launched in South Africa.

Although no time-frame was given for its roll-out in international markets or which markets it will include, the likely roll-out of Hulu in South Africa and Africa will not just mean even more, and more intense, competition between existing video streaming services like Showmax, Netflix South Africa, Amazon Prime Video, Viu and others, but also with traditional pay-TV operators like MultiChoice's DStv and StarSat from China's StarTimes.

The Walt Disney Company already plans to launch its own video streaming service Disney+ on 12 November 2019 but South Africa and Africa isn't part of it immediate international territories plan according to its recent Disney+ presentation it did in April.

The Walt Disney Company that already owned two-thirds of Hulu, has agreed to acquire the one-third stake in Hulu that was still held by Comcast's NBCUniversal. Disney is now taking over full control of the streaming service, it announced on Tuesday.

So far South African viewers have been seeing Hulu Originals content on MultiChoice on channels like M-Net (DStv 101) and its Showmax service like The Handmaid's Tale, Marvel's Runaways, The Path, Future Man, Castle Rock and others that are distributed and available locally because Hulu doesn't have its own platform.

Should Hulu however launch in South Africa that content funnelling will stop as it keeps shows for itself, in the same way that MultiChoice and M-Net was able to acquire Netflix shows like House of Cards and Orange is the New Black from Netflix, and shows like Transparent and Mozart in the Jungle from Amazon Prime Video before they launched their services in South Africa.

Bob Iger, Disney CEO, on Tuesday spoke at the MoffettNathanson Media & Communications Summit in New York and said "we have plans to roll out Hulu internationally in a variety of different markets".

Speaking about the traditional pay-TV operator bundled services and TV channels that Disney provides and sells content to, Bob Iger said that "is still an important part of our business" but that Disney is pivoting towards streaming where consumers pay for what they want to watch.

"There's much more competition in the world today for people's time and money. It's not competition that comes just from Netflix. It's competition that comes from many, many different directions."

"When you look at what people are spending their money on today, and the fact that people demand a high price-to-value relationship, when they look at a 150-plus channel package and they realise they're buying a lot of TV channels that they may never find or may not have any interest in watching - I think today's consumer doesn't look as positively at that as they once did. It's just the way of the world."

Bob Iger said Disney isn't trying to damage the existing traditional satellite pay-TV business model.

"We're not purposely trying to do anything to damage the bundle because it still has a lot of value. But there's a reality that exists that we had to come to grips with - and not just come to grips with it by basically saying that it exists, but by doing something about it. We're prepared to pivot in a new direction and we'll see what happens."

The Walt Disney Company restructures to create a worldwide division for its international operations and its upcoming streaming service launching in 2019.

The Walt Disney Company has restructured to create a worldwide division that will encompass its international operations and its upcoming stream service that is likely to launch in 2019 as Disney looks to grow more internationally.

It's not yet clear how the Walt Disney restructuring will affect the FOX Networks Group and the FOX Networks Group Africa (FNG Africa) in the light of Disney buying 21st Century Fox's entertainment assets. That transaction still needs to clear the approval of American regulators.

Under the restructuring, the Walt Disney International regional managers, including Rebecca Campbell, president for Disney for the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region, as well as those in Latin America and Asia, will now report to Kevin Mayer who has been appointed as the chairperson of the new unit that will be known as Disney Direct-to-Consumer and International.

"Delivering our great stories and characters directly to consumers on all high-quality devices around the world will provide the company with meaningful new revenue streams and opportunities for growth," says Kevin Mayer in a Disney statement.

Disney Direct-to-Consumer and International will be responsible for Disney's upcoming subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) service that when it launches in 2019 may or may not be available in Africa and South Africa (and will have implications for for instance the new Star Wars live action series).

Disney Direct-to-Consumer and International will also be responsible for Disney's ESPN+ direct-to-consumer offer, Disney’s shareholding in Hulu, worldwide distribution of content from Disney's Burbank studio and the domestic American TV channels, international networks businesses, global advertising sales and the technology unit BAMTech.

Disney has channel carriage agreements with for instance MultiChoice in South Africa and Africa for its pay-TV channels and sells a raft of content - TV and film - to broadcasters ranging from free-to-air broadcasters like e.tv and the SABC, to pay-TV broadcasters like M-Net.

Also moving over in the Disney restructuring is Janice Marinelli, currently president of Disney-ABC Home Entertainment and Domestic Television. She will now lead global distribution of film and television, plus the Movies Anywhere digital locker operation, and will report to reports to Kevin Mayer.

Disney senior vice president Agnes Chu, who is currently overseeing original programming for the Disney SVOD service, is moving to the new unit and will continue in her role.

The as-yet-unnamed Disney streaming service will launch witth content from Disney, Pixar, Marvel Entertainment and Lucasfilm content, as well as original programming.

"With our unparalleled studio and media networks serving as content engines for the company, we are combining the management of our direct-to-consumer distribution platforms, technology and international operations to deliver the entertainment and sports content consumers around the world want most, with more choice, personalisation and convenience than ever before," says Bob Iger, Disney CEO.

The Walt Disney reorganisation is effective immediately.

Lucasfilm adds Jon Favreau as writer and executive producer of Disney's first live-action Star Wars drama series.

Lucasfilm announced that it has added Jon Favreau as writer and executive producer of Disney's first live-action Star Wars drama series.

The as yet untitled Star Wars drama series that also has no broadcasting date, will be produced for Disney's to-be-launched streaming service in America, but will likely be available through foreign distribution from The Walt Disney Company for international broadcasters.

It means that the Star Wars series might become available to broadcaster's like M-Net for possible pick-up in countries where Disney's streaming service won't have a presence, in the way that Netflix picked up Star Trek: Discovery from CBS All Access for outside the United States, and how M-Net acquired the rights to both Netflix and Amazon series before those streamers made their debut in South Africa and Africa.

Walt Disney first revealed plans for a live-action Star Wars series in November 2017 and its streaming services is expected to launch in 2019 in the United States.

"I couldn’t be more excited about Jon coming on board to produce and write for the new direct-to-consumer platform," says Kathleen Kennedy, Lucasfilm president, in a statement.

"Jon brings the perfect mix of producing and writing talent, combined with a fluency in the Star Wars universe. This series will allow Jon the chance to work with a diverse group of writers and directors and give Lucasfilm the opportunity to build a robust talent base."

Jon Favreau says "If you told me at 11 years old that I would be getting to tell stories in the Star Wars universe, I wouldn't have believed you. I can't wait to embark upon this exciting adventure".

The actor-director played roles in both the Star Wars: The Clone Wars animated series on the Cartoon Network and Disney XD in which he voiced the character of Pre Vizsla, and will appear in the upcoming Solo: A Star Wars Story film.

He is also an executive producer of the Iron Man and Avengers films for Marvel Studios.