‘Tom And Jerry’ To Spar In Singapore; First Ever Localized Version To Premiere On Cartoon Network & HBO GO

Warner Bros Discovery has announced the first ever localized version of the Tom And Jerry series, featuring the famous cat and mouse duo as they take their rivalry to Singapore.

Produced locally in Asia, in association with Warner Bros Animation, the new 7×3-minute series will premiere on Cartoon Network in Asia Pacific and HBO Go in Southeast Asia, Taiwan and Hong Kong later this year, before being rolled out internationally. 

A pilot episode giving a flavour of what’s to come will launch in August – further details will be announced soon. 

The project is produced by Warner Bros Discovery’s Carlene Tan, with Vivek Bolar serving as lead director. India’s Aum Animation Studios handled the animation, with stories and designs from Singapore-based Robot Playground Media and Chips and Toon Studios.

Christopher Ho, Warner Bros Discovery’s Head of Kids, Southeast Asia, said: “This series brings back the iconic music and classic animation style from the Hanna-Barbera 1950s era – but with a modern Singaporean twist. 

“With distinctive landmarks, backdrops and atmosphere, the Asian city-state is the ideal location to create a humorous addition to the Tom And Jerry canon. Working with homegrown creative talent in Singapore and across Asia, this project grows the much-loved franchise in the region and beyond.”

Vishnu Athreya, Senior Vice President of Series, Warner Bros Animation and Cartoon Network Studios, said: “Tom And Jerry are two of our most universally loved characters, proving that laughs can translate to any audience. The fans in Asia have long embraced these characters and it’s great to finally give them a version to call their own.”

Tom And Jerry is one of Warner Bros Discovery’s leading franchises with a global social reach of 50 million and almost 30 billion minutes watched on the Warner Bros Kids YouTube channel. There have been more than 500 episodes, 15 movies and seven Academy Awards so far in its 83-year history. 

Warner Bros Discovery also plans to launch additional Tom And Jerry-branded consumer products to complement the series launch later this year.

Disney To Halt Distribution Of DVD And Blu-ray In Australia

The sales of physical media, including Blu-Ray and DVDs, have been in decline for years, following the increased popularity of streaming services and a shift to digital movie releases.

Recently, Disney announced it was closing down its Movie Club program in Canada following a shift in consumer patterns to watching films on digital and Disney+. And now, according to Digital Bits, multiple industry, distributor, and retailer sources, Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment will be pulling out of distributing physical discs in Australia.

Over the past few years, many retailers in Australia and other countries, have slowly been withdrawing physical media, including video games, movies and music from sale, as audiences shift to digital platforms. Disney has previously stopped releasing movies on physical media in Latin America and across most of Asia. And it is likely other countries and regions will follow, as the sales of physical discs continue to fall.

For context, in the United States, in 2006, “Pirates of the Caribbean – Dead Man’s Chest” sold 14,476,924 million discs.  In 2012, the highest-selling disc was “Hunger Games”, with 7,434,058 discs sold and in 2022, “Top Gun: Maverick” was the highest-selling DVD with 829,831 sold.  However, in 2023, currently, “Black Adam” is the highest-selling DVD of the year, with just 74,353 discs sold in the US.

Many movie fans are unhappy with this news, especially with a growing trend of streaming services like Disney+ making changes or removing content without notice. Disney has been releasing fewer of its films and shows on physical media over the past few years. Australian film collectors will still be able to import films from global retailers, but this will result in much higher costs due to international shipping etc.

“Guardians Of The Galaxy: Vol 3” is set to be the last physical release in Australia, which arrives in stores in August. Previously released titles will continue to be on sale, but as stock is reduced, these may become unavailable over time.

Ultimately, as audiences have moved to watching films on streaming services such as Disney+ and buying/renting films on digital platforms, it now looks like it’s no longer sustainable to distribute physical discs in Australia.

Warner Bros Discovery President Of International TV Distribution Robert Blair Is Leaving After 25 years With The Company

In an internal memo seen by Deadline, WBD President of International Gerhard Zeiler announced Blair’s departure and revealed his post would not be replaced after “much deliberation.”

Blair will “will transition over the summer and partner closely” with Zeiler “to further empower” WBD’s content licensing team, according to Zeiler. The move is being described as “a necessary structural change to our team design that both flattens and streamlines the Content Licensing organization.”

“Last year, we unveiled a new org structure for International, which we believed best positioned us for success at that time,” said Zeiler. “But we also acknowledged that in an ever-changing industry and market, we would need to continue to evolve in a thoughtful and strategic way, along with the climate around us.

“Seven months into 2023, although we remain confident about our trajectory as a business, we are at another inflection point, and one where the global economy has not rebounded as quickly as we had hoped.

“As such, today I’m announcing that Robert Blair, President, WBD International TV Distribution, will be departing WBD.”

Blair has been with WBD and its Warner Bros predecessor companies for a quarter of a century, overseeing the International sales strategy for major titles such as Game of Thrones, The Flash and House of the Dragon.

He joined Warner Bros International Television Distribution in 1998 as General Manager, Canadian Operations. He had previously served as Director of Television, PolyGram Filmed Entertainment.

Blair was promoted to lead WarnerMedia’s international sales division in 2019 under worldwide distribution boss Jeffrey Schlesinger and kept his role in last year’s restructure, which followed the Discovery merger and creation of WBD. Schlesinger departed in 2020.

Zeiler’s note today said his departure was “no reflection of his performance” and was instead “a shift we need to make to continue to refine our efficiency and cost structure.”

“My humble thanks to Robert for his outstanding leadership, talent, and effort to help us get where we are today,” wrote Zeiler. “Robert’s contribution to the company in his 25 years has been outstanding and can be measured in several billions of dollars of sales-contracts he made possible every single year. Despite being known as tough negotiator, he is respected by all of his clients he dealt with. He is also an exceptional leader, who mentored many talents within the company and is admired and valued by his team.”

Zeiler is writing from experience — he will have sat at opposite sides of the table to Blair during his time at the helm of RTL, which was a major buyer of Warner content during his time running the European networks group.

Source: Deadline

24Kitchen To Cease Transmission In Turkey By The End Of July, More Countries Likely To Follow

24Kitchen is a lifestyle channel operated by The Walt Disney Company (Benelux) that broadcasts mainly food and cooking programs. Similar to the FOX channel in the affected region, 24Kitchen is known for a number of original productions alongside international content.

Some of the content seen on 24Kitchen include Amazing Weddingcakes, Jamie’s Family Christmas, The Taste of Life Basics and Rudolph's Bakery.

During the month, it was learnt by Bob Iger who serves as the current CEO of the blue brand that he's looking to sell several linear channels. Internationally, The Walt Disney Company is consolidating further programming from these brands to streaming services.

It's likely that the demise of 24Kitchen has to do with the company's pursuit to a streaming only module. The company had closed a further 18 channels last year in Asia and plan to close the remaining feeds by the end of the year.

Although consumers in South Africa and most parts of Africa aren't familiar with 24Kitchen, MultiChoice however distribute a Portuguese feed of the lifestyle channel in Angola and Mozambique while Turkey and some parts of the world had been receiving the Dutch feed.

Recap To Last Year: How MultiChoice Went About Phasing Out The eBranded Channels?

During the week, it was reported by my sources that eToonz alongside eExtra, eMovies and eMovies Extra would stop airing on DStv by the end of July. Since then, eExtra had been promoting several content without any mention of DStv which confirms everyone's suspicion.

These channels were reinstated in 2022 due to pending investigation - MultiChoice never intended to relaunch these channels as others had hoped. So the only way you can watch the final episodes of your favourite Kuiertyd shows would be to tuning in on e.tv or getting an Openview.

For those who still reside on DStv even after the termination need to note the following:

• DreamWorks was added as a replacement to eToonz to Compact consumers featuring various content already seen by the former brand: All Hail King Julien, Dragons: Race To The Edge, Boss Baby: Back In Business and Home: The Adventures Of Tip And Oh.

• Not having much alternatives to kiddies entertainment, MultiChoice extended the reach of PBS Kids to Easyview consumers. Access and Family consumers got a lot of kids channels e.g. Cartoon Network, Disney Junior and JimJam so they get nothing.

• Movie Room was added to all DStv consumers or better yet to the packages that offered eMovies and eMovies Extra. So basically 1 movie channel was given to Compact consumers while as KIX was added to Family and Access consumers giving them 2 channels.

• Each DStv package got 2 channels to replace the 4 TV channels while Easyview only got 1 channel.

• New channels added to the platform during the year include CineMagic, Magic Showcase, BBC UKTV, NHK World Japan, Moonbug and Hilaal TV so in a way you could say MultiChoice found a way to distract consumers from their absence particularly with Easyview consumers.

Pending Development: Trinayani + Between You And Me + Second Chances + More Coming Soon To Zee World

Zee World, a Bollywood entertainment channel owned by Zee Entertainment Enterprises which is currently in talks with Culver Max Entertainment on a potential merger are set to rollout the following programs in the coming future.

This is a list of shows that have already been seen on Zee One but haven't aired on Zee World:

- Trinayani: Trinayani's ability to foresee the future and the past often lands her in trouble. Despite the setbacks, she strives to use her gift to protect the people around her from harm. The series stars Ashika Padukone, Chandu B Gowda and Pavitra Jayaram in lead roles.

- Second Chances (Mazhi Tuzhi Reshimgath): Yash, a wealthy and esteemed business tycoon, yearns for true love. But, when he falls in love with Neha, he finds the journey ahead is a challenging one. Will he be able to stand the test of time and fight for the love he has craved for, or will he throw in the towel?

- Untangled (Rishton Ka Manjha): Based on the Zee Bangla drama Deep Jwele Jai, the series follows Diya, a gully badminton player, meets Arjun, a former badminton champ from an affluent family, who resents his own kin. It stars Aanchal Goswami and Krushal Ahuja in the lead-roles.

- Carmen: An Egyptian drama which follows the titular character whose in search for fame and relocates to Cairo where she finds no alternative but to lie. Then she falls in love with Tawfik which puts her in comedic situations. The series stars Reham Haggag, Mohamed Al Kilan, Walaa Elshrif, Mohammad Mahran, Omar El Shenawy and Mohamed Marzaban.

- Between You And Me (Meri Hanikarak Biwi): This show revolves around the life of two completely different individuals, Akilesh Pandey and Iravati aka Ira Desai. Aksilesh is a village simpleton and an ardent follower of Bajrang Bali while Ira is an aspiring medical student. Destiny had meant these two individuals to meet and unite. Karan Suchak and Jiya Shankar take on the lead roles.

Returning shows include Meet In Love, It's Not Easy To Love, Guddan, Twist Of Fate and This Is Fate.

Boomerang Turkey To Become Cartoonito

Warner Bros Discovery-owned children’s channel Boomerang is rebranding as Cartoonito in Turkey later in the year with South-east Asia, Taiwan and Hong Kong from July 28.

The rebranded channel is focused on being more inclusive to preschool viewers, according to the recently merged US studio, and comes after a Cartoonito-branded block launched on Boomerang and sister channel Cartoon Network in the region in 2022.

Preschool shows that will air on the Cartoonito channel will include Batwheels and Bugs Bunny Builders, while Boomerang favourites like Tom & Jerry, Baby Looney Tunes, Masha And The Bear, Pat the Dog and Grizzy & the Lemmings will remain on the network. 

All Cartoonito shows follow a curriculum, designed by an early childhood education expert, to form the four pillars of creativity, caring, curiosity and courage, according to the company. The brand aims to inspire kids aged two to six to use their imagination, to learn from their mistakes and to treat others with empathy and respect.

Cartoonito already exists as a standalone channel in various countries across Europe, the Middle East and Africa, where it also rebranded from Boomerang. It also runs as a programme block on Cartoon Network in the UK, Middle East, US and some Asia Pacific countries, and as a block on Boomerang in the Nordics countries.

New Series Alert: The Heartless And Chrysalis Coming Soon To TLNovelas Africa And eExtra Respectively

Jose Ron makes a comeback on TLNovelas

During the year, TLNovelas rolled out their first telenovela of the year The Heartless (La Desalmada). Of course, it only lasted a few weeks as further episodes were available between 2am to 4am timeslot before getting cancelled to its entirety.

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Now the series is scheduled to launch on August 7.

Based on the Colombian telenovela La Dama De Troya, the series follows Fernanda out for revenge after her husband is murdered and she is violated on her wedding night. With a poor memory of that traumatic night, Fernanda mistakes her true love Rafael for the man who ruined her life - Rafael's father.

Livia Brito stars as titular character, alongside José Ron, Eduardo Santamarina, Marjorie de Sousa and Marlene Favela.

The highly anticipated eVOD series finally has a release date on eExtra

Last year, eMedia Investments scooped up rights to the psychological Turkish drama, Chrysalis (Camdaki Kiz) for their eVOD streaming service. It's currently on the third season in Turkey with eExtra slatted to rollout the entire season from August 23.

Chrysalis follows Nalan a beautiful young woman who earns everyone's love at first sight with her warmth. As the only child of the family enlarged hand baby, baby roses, lived in the existence of life and Nalan graduated with honors the best schools, Turkey finds's largest hotel chain, which Koroglu company as an architect at running than himself Sedat Koroglu' with marriage Eve.

The series stars Burcu Biricik, Selma Ergeç, Feyyaz Serifoglu, Nur Sürer, Hande Ataizi, Tugrul Tulek, Nihal Menzil, Hamza Yazici and Feri Baycu Güler.

Development Alert: Ramo Coming Soon To eExtra + Release Date, Die Put Season 4 Currently Streaming On eVOD

During the year, eMedia Investments scooped up the action series Ramo for their eVOD streaming service. As seen with most of the offering on the streamer, this content is allocated to their linear platforms with eExtra slated to air the action drama by the end of August after the third season of Die Put.

The series tells the extraordinary story of Ramo, inspired by a real person, a man who goes against his superiors…It’s a story that encompasses the deep conflicts of family, justice, revenge, friendship and love. The series stars Murat Yıldırım, Esra Bilgiç, İlker Aksum and Yiğit Özşener.

The series broadcasts daily at 21:30 on eExtra by August 31st. Although Die Put wraps up its third season on the channel eMedia Investments added the final season to eVOD while consumers have to wait likely by January 2024 to view it on eExtra.

Die Put isn't the only program to have gotten cancelled by Kuiertyd. Even Doodsondes which is also slated for a new season in the coming month will be ending by next year with the longest running soap Elif's final season being carried through 2025.

Disney+ Developing New Animated Series ‘Duckie’

Disney+ is gearing up for an exciting new animated pilot called Duckie. The project is in the casting phase, managed by Disney TVA Casting, to find the perfect voice talent. The production is scheduled to begin on August 1, 2023, and will be based in Burbank, CA.

The project, which falls under the umbrella of Disney+, is a 22-minute animated pilot that aims to captivate audiences with its unique storyline and relatable characters. The show will explore themes of personal growth, mentorship, and the power of overcoming challenges.

The storyline of Duckie revolves around the eponymous character’s journey of self-discovery. Having recently survived a feral creature’s attack, Duckie finds herself scarred and plagued by self-doubt. While she grapples with the aftermath of this traumatic experience, Duckie enters a pivotal phase in her life. However, her path crosses with a mentor whose unwavering belief in himself is both awe-inspiring and foolish. Initially, they clash, but as their journey progresses, they form a unique bond that holds the potential to save the universe.

The central character, Duckie, is a spirited and headstrong 15-year-old duck who grapples with the desire to be seen as a fully-formed adult within her extensive family. Despite her youth, Duckie possesses a curious nature, an adventurous spirit, sharp wit, and impressive technological skills. However, she is currently recovering from a traumatic attack, causing her to doubt herself in stressful situations. Nevertheless, her world changes when she encounters a mentor who might just help her navigate through her challenges and, together, they might have the power to save the universe.

Duckie is poised to be an exciting addition to Disney+’s animated lineup, promising a heartwarming and adventurous story that will resonate with audiences of all ages. Stay tuned for further updates on the casting process and production timeline as Disney+ continues to bring captivating content to its streaming platform.

Development Hell: Merger Between Sony And Zee Delayed Once Again

India’s National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) is reserving its order on the controversial merger plan between Sony’s India division and Zee Enterprises.

Sony’s local business is Culver Max Entertainment and has been planning a merger with Subhash Chandra-backed Zee Entertainment Enterprises (ZEEL). NCLT is pausing so that the two parties can make further submissions to the Tribunal.

Senior counsel Janak Dwarkadas representing ZEEL stated that non-creditor objectors in the matter, who are not even the company’s creditors, are holding the merger to ransom.

“Currently, 70 per cent of the equity is held by the public institutions, who are lenders, while about 25.88 per cent is held by public non-institutions, and merely 3.99 per cent is held by promoters,” argued Dwarkadas.

Dwarkadas’ reference to ‘the promotors’ is a reference to the Chandra family.