WarnerBros. Discovery relaunches HBO Max as just Max as the streamer announces new Harry Potter and Game of Thrones prequel series with a glimmer of hope for a South African launch date.

by Thinus Ferreira

On Wednesday night WarnerBros. Discovery made the expected announcement that it's renaming its HBO Max video streaming service to just Max, together with new TV show announcements like another Game of Thrones prequel series and a Harry Potter TV drama series which will last a decade, with Max that might finally be launching in South Africa sometime in 2024 as part of "new markets".

At a glitzy "Streaming Product Press Event" WarnerBros. Discovery held on Wednesday night inside Stage 14 on its Warner Bros. lot in Burbank, Los Angeles for journalists and investors and streamed globally for media, WBD CEO David Zaslav announced that HBO Max is being shortened to just Max from 23 May.

HBO Max - now just Max - as well as the company's discovery+ streamer from the merged WBD are not yet available in South Africa.

Max will however likely - like Paramount+ which is also not yet available in South Africa - eventually join the flurry of existing streamers like MultiChoice and NBCUniversal's Showmax, Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV+, Disney+, BritBox, eMedia's eVOD, VIU, TruthTV, WOW Presents Plus and MarqueeTV.

JB Perrette, president and CEO of global streaming and games for WarnerBros. Discovery, said that HBO Max will be changing to Max in the United States first, followed by Latin America later this year and Europe next year.

South Africa might get Max sometime in 2024, with Perrette who said that WBD will look to expand and launch Max into "new markets" around the world next year. 

"From the biggest superheroes to real-life champions; from culture-shaping dramas to taste-shaping entertainment; from fantastical realms to the realest of worlds, Max will offer an unrivalled range of choice,” said JB Perrette.

"This new brand signals an important change from two narrower products, HBO Max and discovery+, to our broader content offering and consumer proposition. While each product offered something for some people, Max will have a broad array of quality choices for everybody."

Perrette said that in the global streaming war where services chased subscribers and have a "subscriber growth at all cost mentality", consumers are overwhelmed by content and content choices.

"We suddenly find ourselves in the fog of what many people have dubbed, the era of peak confusion," Perrette said. "The result is that consumers are overloaded. So, in this era of peak confusion, we're trying to simplify and improve the experience for consumers focusing on quality not just quantity."

David Zaslav said that "Max is the one to watch because we have the largest TV library in the world, thousands of shows Including shows that are loved everywhere like Friends, ER and The Big Bang Theory. And we have a number of the biggest quality makers of content that will feed and grow Max in the years ahead. They're ours."

Similar to how Disney+ has various content verticals known as tiles, Max will house HBO originals, Warner Bros. films, Max Originals, the DC universe, the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, kids content, and Discovery content across food, home, reality, lifestyle and documentaries from HGTV, Food Network, Discovery Channel, TLC and ID. The relaunched Max will roll out roughly 40 new titles monthly. 

During the press event, WBD made announcements about new TV shows which will be made for Max. 

It's not yet clear whether these might remain exclusive to Max, or might become available through international distribution like some HBO content have been for MultiChoice's linear M-Net (DStv 101) channel and Showmax, until such time as Max launches in South Africa.

The new Max series are:

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: The Hedge Knight  

This second HBO prequel series of Game of Thrones is based on George R.R. Martin's Dun and Egg books and will be based on the series of fantasy novellas which follows the story of Ser Duncan the Tall known as Dunk and the young Aegon V Targaryen known as Egg. It is set 90 years before the events transpiring in the book A Song of Ice and Fire.

HBO released an official logline for the series, saying "A century before the events of Game of Thrones, two unlikely heroes wandered Westeros… a young, naïve but courageous knight, Ser Duncan the Tall, and his diminutive squire, Egg. Set in an age when the Targaryen line still holds the Iron Throne and the memory of the last dragon has not yet passed from living memory, great destinies, powerful foes, and dangerous exploits all await these improbable and incomparable friends."

George R.R. Martin will be the writer and executive producer along with Ira Parker who was a co-executive producer on the first season of House of the Dragon which just started filming its second season in the United Kingdom. Ryan Condal and Vince Gerardis will also be co-executive producers.

Harry Potter TV drama series

WBD announced it is turning J.K. Rowling's entire 7-book Harry Potter series, already made into a film franchise, into a TV drama series, which will be rolled out over the course of a decade, with a new cast and with each book being a season.

J.K. Rowling will be an executive producer, with David Heyman who produced all eight films, in negotiations to become co-executive producer, with the production looking for a writer and a showrunner. 

The series will be produced by Warner Bros. Television in association with Brontë Film and TV, with Neil Blair and Ruth Kenley-Letts as co-executive producers. 

In the press release, WBD says "The stories from each of Rowling's Harry Potter books will become a decade-long series produced with the same epic craft, love and care this global franchise is known for".

"The series will feature a new cast to lead a new generation of fandom, full of the fantastic detail, much loved characters and dramatic locations that Harry Potter fans have loved for over 25 years."

"Each season will be authentic to the original books and bring Harry Potter and these incredible adventures to new audiences around the world, while the original, classic and beloved films will remain at the core of the franchise and available to watch globally."

Casey Bloys, chairman and CEO, HBO & Max content, says "We are delighted to give audiences the opportunity to discover Hogwarts in a whole new way".

According to Bloys the budget for the Harry Potter series will be "on the scale or higher" than Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon and "whatever it takes to make a quality show". 

"Harry Potter is a cultural phenomenon and it is clear there is such an enduring love and thirst for the Wizarding World. In partnership with Warner Bros. Television and J.K. Rowling, this new Max Original series will dive deep into each of the iconic books that fans have continued to enjoy for all of these years."

J.K. Rowling says "Max's commitment to preserving the integrity of my books is important to me, and I'm looking forward to being part of this new adaptation which will allow for a degree of depth and detail only afforded by a long-form television series".

WBD says the "Max Original series will be available on Max in the United States and globally once produced".

Another Big Bang Theory spinoff series

Casey Bloys announced that a new Big Bang Theory spinoff series is being developed by Chuck Lorre who created The Big Bang Theory and the first spinoff Young Sheldon.

A The Conjuring TV series

Also announced at the event is that New Line Cinema's The Conjuring film franchise is being turned into a TV drama series.

According to Warner Bros. Discovery, The Conjuring TV series will continue the story and world established within the six existing films with a 7th - The Nun 2 - which will be released in September. 

The TV series is produced by Atomic Monsters Productions, Warner Bros. Television and Safran Company, with Peter Safran as executive producer. James Wan who served as producer and director on several of the films is in negotiations to be co-executive producer.

Questions loom over South Africa's Ukhozi FM flown to Nigeria by Amazon Prime Video in paid trip to suddenly promote rival video streamer's Gangs of Lagos to radio listeners.

by Thinus Ferreira

Several big questions have been raised over the bizarre relationship between South Africa's public broadcaster through its Ukhozi FM radio station, and the Amazon Prime Video streamer, after Ukhozi FM staff accepted and travelled to Nigeria in an all-expenses paid trip so that Ukhosi FM can promote a rival content service's Gangs of Lagos production to SABC radio listeners.

Over the past Easter long weekend, Amazon Prime Video in South Africa took Ukhozi FM - the SABC's Zulu radio station based in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal - to Lagos, Nigeria, for a multiday junket for Amazon Studio's Gangs of Lagos that had a red carpet premiere there.

Ukhozi FM as a Zulu radio station doesn't do dedicated TV and film coverage, doesn't have dedicated film reviewers as a specialist reporting beat on staff, didn't attend the South African public broadcaster's media launch in 2022 in Johannesburg of the organisation's own SABC+ video streaming service, and doesn't have any history of incisive, ongoing coverage of either Amazon Studios, Amazon Prime Video or Amazon Prime Video series or films.

Gangs of Lagos from filmmaker Jáde Osiberu, is Amazon Prime Video's first African Original film production, starring Tobi Bakre, Adesua Etomi and Iyabo Ojo.

Besides Wangi Mba-Uzoukwu, head of Nigerian Originals at Amazon Prime Video in London who attended the junket on Lagos' Victoria Island, Ned Mitchell also flew in from Los Angeles who is Amazon Prime Video's head of originals for Africa and the Middle East.

Amazon Prime Video also had some social media influencers, including from South Africa, at the multiday launch.

The decision of Amazon Prime Video in South Africa to pay for Ukhozi FM to travel to Lagos to promote content of Amazon to listeners of a South African public broadcaster's radio station, raised eyebrows, and has led to multiple questions around why the SABC - which has its own SABC+ video streamer - is now suddenly fine with plugging and promoting a commercial rival's video streaming service.

Also unclear is whether the SABC and Ukhozi FM is henceforth going to be promoting other Amazon Prime Video content to SABC radio listeners, and what this relationship now is, and why it came about.

TVwithThinus asked the SABC why one of its radio stations in South Africa is suddenly covering a made-for-TV film from the TV and film industry in another country, and giving coverage and promotion to another streaming service which happens to be in competition with the SABC.

Mmoni Seapolelo, SABC spokesperson, in response to the media query, says that "Ukhozi FM has been invited by industry stakeholders to network and explore opportunities for the biggest radio brand in Africa. The station will also cover the movie as one of Africa's biggest productions".

The SABC didn't specify what these various opportunities are that were explored. It should be noted however that Gangs of Lagos is far from "one of Africa's biggest productions" as a stand-alone feature film.

The SABC admits that "It must be noted that Ukhozi FM did not incur any cost for this trip as it is paid for by the host". 

The SABC was also asked if Ukhozi FM is now going to do ongoing coverage of Amazon Prime Video's services and content for South African radio listeners, what the SABC makes of the coverage as part of promotion from a paid trip that the public broadcaster is doing for a private video streaming service, why the SABC and Ukhozi FM decided to work with Amazon Studios and Amazon Prime Video now, and if the SABC will also be promoting Amazon's other TV projects from now on.

The public broadcaster didn't provide specific answers to these questions.

Launch of SABC's video streaming service pushed to next financial year, delayed to sometime before March 2023.

by Thinus Ferreira 

The SABC has pushed out the launch of its own video streaming service with the South African public broadcaster that will no longer make its deadline of this financial year and has now postponed the launch to somewhere before the end of March 2023.

As part of its video streamer plans, the SABC also is redeveloping the online offering of all of its TV channels.

The SABC's delay in launching its own over-the-top (OTT) service before the end of March 2022 means that it will be pipped at the post by another two streaming services that will now launch in South Africa before the SABC launches its player, while existing video streamers will further entrench their positions in a rapidly expanding market.

While the SABC has postponed its streamer launch, modelled on the BBC's successful iPlayer, The Walt Disney Company plans to launch its highly-anticipated Disney+ video streaming service in South Africa anytime from June this year.

Meanwhile, Paramount last month confirmed that it will be bringing Paramount+ to South Africa and the rest of the African continent in early-2023.

South African video consumers already have access to a range of video streamers showing growth but from a small base, ranging from Netflix SA and Amazon Prime Video, to MultiChoice's Showmax, Apple TV+, VIU, Vodacom Video Play, BritBox, Acorn TV, TelkomONE, eMedia's eVOD, Marquee TV, PrideTV, CineMagic and some other smaller players.

Also still to launch in South Africa are WarnerMedia's HBO Max that will also come to South Africa once existing HBO content contracts with MultiChoice and M-Net run out and lapse, Discovery+, and NBCUniversal's Peacock - all of which are available to overseas pay-TV consumers already on for instance Sky in the United Kingdom.

In his latest speech at a SABC CxO conference, Madoda Mxakwe, SABC CEO, revealed that the SABC's video streaming service, modelled after the BBC's successful iPlayer, will now only come to market before the end of the broadcaster's next financial year - meaning before the end of March 2023 - and no longer the end of the SABC's current financial year.

"In our next financial year we'll launch an even more full HD TV channels, we'll go live with our own over-the-top-platform, and we'll also redevelop our online offerings for all our television channels as well as our radio stations," Madoda Mxakwe said.

The SABC currently provides some of its locally-produced entertainment content on MultiChoice DStv streaming service, licenses some series to VIU, and places some of it on YouTube.

Various permutations of the SABC's linear TV and radio channels are currently carried by MultiChoice on DStv, StarTimes' StarSat and eMedia's Openview, with different collections of linear SABC TV channels streaming and SABC on-demand content available on the streaming services of TelkomONE and VIU.

In March 2021, Ian Plaatjes, SABC chief operating officer (COO), told TVwithThinus about the SABC's video streamer plans that "Our strategy is to have a multi-OTT presence and we are not going to be competing with others".

He said "We are going to be launching our own and it will be during this financial year. We will be going to market pretty soon with our own but it will be complementary to the other OTT providers as well."

In August 2021, Bongumusa Makhathini, SABC board chairperson, in a SABC News interview reiterated that the SABC planned to have its own video streaming service up and running in South Africa before the end of its current financial year which is 31 March 2022.

"We are going to be launching our own and it will be during this financial year. We will be going to market pretty soon with our own but it will be complementary to the other OTT providers as well," Bongumusa Makhathini said at the time.

TVwithThinus asked the SABC in a media query why the launch of its video streaming has now been pushed out by what could be as much as a year, what factors contributed to it, and how work is progressing on its streaming service.

"The SABC can confirm that in the next fiscal, the corporation will launch more TV channels, which will also be available on its own over-the-top (OTT) platform," says Gugu Ntuli, the SABC's group executive for corporate affairs and marketing.

"The SABC is cognizant of the fact that launching an OTT platform is a sizable project with many complex technical and content requirements and considerations for the public service broadcaster."

"The SABC chose to delay the implementing of the OTT platform to firm up its requirements, strategy, business case and prepare the environment for rapid deployment," she says.

Netflix turns free in Africa, offers Kenyan users a free plan to binge-watch a quarter of its content.

by Thinus Ferreira

Netflix has gone free in Africa - specifically in Kenya - where users can watch as much as a quarter of the video streaming service, without ads, in a striking move that ups the ante for rivals like MultiChoice's Showmax.

On Tuesday Netflix unlocked its service in Kenya. Asked if this free plan will be rolled out in South Africa or anywhere else on the continent, the streamer told TVwithThinus that the free plan in Africa is currently only for Kenya and that Netflix's focus is currently on Kenya with no other plans around its free plan to share at this time.

Netflix's free plan in Kenya that will start rolling out in Kenya from today over the next few weeks will undoubtedly drive sampling of its service under new users, and likely convert some of those samplers to paying users.

With the free plan, users in Kenya can watch Netflix for as long as they want on android mobile phones, without paying a subscription fee. 

The free plan in Kenya allows people to access most of Netflix's shows and films ads-free, with personalised recommendations and parental controls.

Content that Netflix isn't offering for free under the free plan are indicated with a lock icon. When a Kenyan user clicks on locked content, they will be encouraged to upgrade to a paid Netflix plan.

Kenyan users of Netflix can now watch the South African series Blood & Water, Money Heist, the Nigeria series King of Boys: Return of the King and the British series Bridgerton under the free plan.  

"At Netflix, we want everyone to be able to enjoy the suspense of Blood & Water, the romance of Bridgerton, and the adventure of Army of the Dead," says Cathy Conk, Netflix’s director of product innovation.

"Now we're giving audiences in Kenya the chance to experience these stories for themselves - completely free of charge".

"If you've never watched Netflix before this is a great way to experience our service. We hope it's a great match and that many of the people who try our free plan love Netflix so much that over time they upgrade to a full, paid subscription so you can enjoy our full catalogue on your TV or laptop as well."

To sign-up for the free plan, subscribers must enter their email address, confirm they are 18 years or over and create a password. To access Netflix's full catalogue on multiple devices, users must upgrade to one of the service's paid plans.

Kenyan users watching Netflix on the free plan will not be included in Netflix's stated number of total paid users when it does its quarterly financial reports.

South Africa's government wants to force video streaming services like Netflix into a 30% local content quota: Here's why it's a bad plan and will end up hurting consumers.

by Thinus Ferreira

South Africa's government is floating a controversial new plan to force local and international video streaming services like Netflix, Showmax, Amazon Prime Video and others in future, to carry at least 30% local content in the country - although a big problem is that the plan isn't practically feasible.

Forcing streamers to have a third of their content be local South African series and films will likely end up hurting consumers by taking away choice if these streamers, in order to comply, instead decide to downsize instead of upsize their overall ringfenced offering for South Africa to comply as they chase a percentage.

South Africa's department of communications and digital technologies not only wants to impose content quotas on streaming services. 

As part of its plan, it now also wants to change the existing legislation to force MultiChoice (DStv), StarTimes (StarSat) as well as subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) services like Netflix SA, Showmax, Apple TV+, Amazon Prime Video and others to collect SABC TV Licence fees that will be added into consumers' the bills from these private companies because the SABC isn't able to do proper licence fee collection.

About the plan to force a 30% local content catalogue quota on streamers, Collin Mashile, chief director of broadcasting policy at the department of communications and digital technologies, said "These video-on-demand subscription services, when they come and operate in South Africa, everything that they show to South Africans in terms of their catalogue, 30% of that catalogue must include South African content".

The draft legislation also proposes the creation of a government "team" that would be able to blacklist and block subscribers' payments from South African banks to international streaming services like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video if streamers don't comply with regulations. 

Forcing video streaming services to make their offering 30% local will however have unintended consequences for the South African consumer that only becomes clear when you know how these streamers operate and how they make money.

The problems with local content quotas for video streaming services are threefold:

1. Catalogue downsizing instead of upsizing bad for consumers

Firstly, it's extremely likely that video streamers won't "upsize" their content catalogues to add local South African content to make a 30% local target - they will downsize to manage margins.

South Africa doesn't produce enough and doesn't have enough local content for a streaming service like Netflix to add even if it wanted to. For every two new shows Netflix adds, it will have to find one local series from South Africa to add. 

That is beside the large back-catalogue of local South African content that a streamer like Netflix would have to suddenly find and acquire even if this volume of content were to be available. 

A streamer like Netflix alone adds more new (international) content per month in terms of scripted series than what a local South African broadcaster like the SABC produces in the same time and often at a lower quality.

If Netflix, Showmax or Amazon Prime Video is forced to carry 30% local South African content, they will maybe add some more local content to a degree, but what they will definitely do to make the formula work is not add local content in as much as rather downsize the size of their overall content.

The overall Netflix South Africa content catalogue is already smaller than other countries, like the United States for instance, because of licensing rights and existing licensing restrictions for the territory. 

If Netflix SA for example had 1000 titles and must carry 30% local content, it's not going to switch out and add or make 333 titles be local. It will much more likely reduce the overall 1000 availability to 300 so that it now only needs 100 local shows to make the percentage. 

That means less choice for the consumer.

International streamers like Netflix don't buy or commission content for a specific territory but makes content in a specific country meant for its entire global service. It would be weird to force a Netflix to buy content just for South Africa - and the truth is that Netflix won't. It will just restrict what it offers in South Africa further and that is not good for consumers.

2. Paying to carry dead video content weight around

Secondly, private companies like Netflix, Showmax and Amazon Prime Video are in the video content business with the aim of being profitable and making money.

Commissioning expensive-to-produce local South African content costs money, as does acquiring the content licensing rights of local library content. 

Video streaming services all use consumer data and constantly analyse algorithm data to see what content resonates and what shows and films are being watched. Content that doesn't attract and keep viewers are culled and removed, or cancelled. 

Similar to how YouTube algorithms carefully watch you while you watch a video and promotes videos depending on how much of a video was watched, neither MultiChoice, Netflix nor Amazon are interested in, or would ever spend hundreds of millions of rand to just acquire hours of boring and unappealing local content that are not watched just because it's "local".

Private video companies that are not in the charity business want to gain, keep and make money from users through monetising their time and attention.  

In this entertainment monetisation, the consumer engagement experience is key.  

These companies are not going to dilute their catalogue or experience with local South African content that their users are not interested in, or that makes the content discovery process for the consumer more difficult as users are forced to wade through more local content that they don't want to see in the first place but that costs a lot of money to carry. 

3. Not enough local content to share

Thirdly, it isn't as simple as just adding local content. Library content actually has to be acquired, or more specifically the licensing rights to carry and show it for a period of time must be obtained.

This can be non-exclusive, or exclusive, and services usually pay a bit more for exclusivity. Why would you pay to offer Game of Thrones and take that hit of acquiring a title in your operating expenses budget if your potential customer could just as well decide to access your competitor because Game of Thrones is there as well?

Netflix SA just acquired and added the South African drama series Hard Copy from Quizzical Pictures. It makes no sense for Netflix to pay to get Hard Copy for a period of time only to have Hard Copy also available on Showmax at the same time. It's a waste of money.

Now imagine each of these streaming services, trying to find enough shows for each of them to get to a 30% quota. 

There are not enough available. And Showmax or Amazon Prime Video isn't going to add Hard Copy just after the licence expired on Netflix because the potential return on the expense is going to be even lower after that window's exposure for a specific title.

ALSO READ: Time running out for South African video consumers to say if they want DStv and Netflix to add and collect SABC TV Licence fees with their payments.