German kids channel provider Your Family Entertainment has partnered with the Ethiopian streaming platform habeshaview that will see its pay-TV channel Fix&Foxi made available to habeshaview’s subscribers in English.

With the move, YFE is further expanding the international distribution of the pay-TV channel, which is already present in Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Africa.

Founded in 2014, streaming provider habeshaview offers national and international channels as well as Ethiopian productions.

Commenting on the partnership, Tigist Kebede, Operational Director at habeshaview, said: “Your Family Entertainment has proven its commitment to bringing quality programs enjoyable for younger audiences. We are pleased to be adding Fix&Foxi Channel to Ethiopian streaming platform habeshaview IPTV, as we have dedicated ourselves to only bringing our customers the best content from around the world.”

Armin Schnell, Executive Vice President of Sales at Your Family Entertainment, added: “We are very excited to start our cooperation with habeshaview and to make our channel available in even more African territories. I am convinced that habeshaview’s customers will appreciate Fix&Foxi Channel’s high-quality edutainment programme.”

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Lebanese Film The Sea Ahead, directed by Ely Dagher, will have its world premiere at the 74th Cannes Film Festival within The Directors’ Fortnight section. The event will take place from July 7-17.

The film is the feature debut of Ely Dagher, who previously won the Palm d’Or award for Best Short Film, which was the first Lebanese film to ever receive this award.

The Sea Ahead received several awards during its development, including Best Film in Post-production at the Final Cut In Venice workshop; CineGouna platform’s award for Best Project in Development Phase; Financial Award from Drosos Foundation, in addition to grants from AFAC-Arab Funds For Arts and Culture, Doha Film Institute, Red Sea Fund among others.

The film revolves around a young woman that walks out of the Beirut airport alone and makes her way back home to her parents’ house in the middle of the night. Having been abroad and out of touch for a while, Jana seems to be leaving a bad experience behind and taking refuge. Haunting pressures to fit back into the family dynamics as well as revealing details of her life abroad weigh heavy on her. Feeling cornered, her fears and anxieties resurface, leading her to reconnect and find solace in another part of her Beirut life that she had forsaken. A life that is for her as familiar and foreign now as it ever was.

Directed and written by Ely Dagher, The Sea Ahead stars Manal Issa, Yara Abou Haidar, Rabih El Zaher and Roger Azar. The film is produced by Andolfi (Arnaud Dommerc) in association with Beachside and co-produced by Abbout Productions, Wrong Men, Beaver and Beaver. The film is distributed in the Arab world by MAD Solutions.

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Two Arab films have been selected to premiere at International Critics’ Week, set to take place alongside the Cannes Film Festival from July 7-15.

Feathers, a feature film by Egyptian director Omar El Zohairy tells the story of a mother who dedicates her life to her husband and children. When a magic trick goes wrong at her four-year-old son’s birthday party, an avalanche of coincidental absurdities befall the family. The magician turns her husband, the authoritarian father, into a chicken.

The second film selected to compete at the event, is Tunisian-French filmmaker Leyla Bouzid’s Une histoire d’amour et de désir (A Tale of Love and Desire).

The story revolves around Ahmed, an 18-year-old, who is French but of Algerian origin and grew up in the suburbs of Paris. At university, he meets Farah, a young joyful Tunisian girl, who has just arrived in Paris. While discovering a collection of sensual and erotic Arab literature he never could have imagined existed, Ahmed falls in love with Farah.

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The last two years have seen more changes, transitions and innovations in broadcast technology than the last two decades put together. The industry is undergoing a dramatic re-set, with the pandemic offering rich rewards to those first-past-the-post in understanding audience preferences at a time when Big Data is king.

Now, the Virtual BroadcastPro Tech Summit takes a snapshot of the industry and assesses how factors like cloud, IP, remote production and smart new conduits for content delivery are pushing the envelope ever-further. In this expert online setting, industry professionals will share insights into the challenges they face, explaining their touchstone strategies and aspirations in a chain of masterclass discussions.

An intensely practical agenda

Day One begins with a keynote presentation from Peter Riz, CTO of OSN, and Zahra Zayat, Senior VP – OTT Digital and Telco, on ‘The relaunch of the new OSN Streaming app’. This sets the tone of extremely revealing and practical discussions that clearly portray what works, what doesn’t, and the strategies that technology innovation can best leverage.

The first day then develops this theme with a powerful, not-to-be-missed presentation from Alison Pavitt, Director of Sales and Marketing and Miroslav Jeras, CTO, Pebble, on ‘Solving the challenges of connection management in an IP world’ – and then follows with a dynamic panel debate: ‘Cloud and its many facets for an Efficient Broadcast Setup’.

Moderated by Nicolas Hans, Partner, Middle East, Broadcast Solutions, the panel considers the ways Covid-19 has accelerated the move to cloud (and in what areas?), and how can we best leverage the cloud for operational efficiency and greater elasticity – while still ensuring it remains budget-friendly?

The ‘elephant in the room’

Day Two promises a highly animated discussion: ‘OTT – The Technical Journey to Enhancing the User experience’. The session, moderated by Suhail Ahmed, CEO, One Diversified, assesses the touchstone issues around data and tech – an important union as each will help the other enhance the user experience. It then reviews the quest for personalisation, and looks at current developments in content search, recommendation and discoverability.

The event closes with another debate titled: ‘Covid-19 – Accelerating the move to IP, remote production, and cloud solutions for MENA broadcasters’. It tackles a raft of keynote themes, including whether remote can be the new normal for broadcast, production and post; and, when we move to cloud services, what can actually be moved, and where are the real challenges of migration?

Rich in content, the Virtual BroadcastPro Tech Summit means that all industry professionals – from the comfort of their own home or office – can turn on, tune in and get the guidance they need to take well-informed action.

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Cartoon Network has announced that Garbage Boy and Trash Can will be made into a series of 10 animated-short episodes.

Two-dimensional Nigerian animator, Ridwan Moshood, is the creator of Garbage Boy and Trash Can – which has won Cartoon Network’s Africa Creative Lab Competition in 2018. The story follows Garbage Boy, a self-proclaimed superhero who believes he has real superpowers, and his sidekick, Trash Can, on their mission to fight for justice.

Speaking about the project, Ridwan Moshood said: “When I was a kid growing up in Nigeria, I used to be bullied by the other kids, so I created a superhero cartoon to help other kids deal with this problem. I then taught myself to animate watching Cartoon Network classics on TV and doing tutorials on YouTube. I never imagined in my wildest dreams that my show would eventually be produced. Take that bullies!”

Garbage Boy and Trash Can is the first Cartoon Network superhero animated comedy series to be produced in Africa. It will be made in collaboration with the newly-formed animation production company, Pure Garbage, a South African company specially created to produce the new series. The studio is a partnership between Moshood, Mike de Seve, and Nick Wilson, a for-profit social enterprise that’s instigating and coordinating the development of animation capacity across the continent. This global collaboration marks the first innovative model in animation between talents from Nigeria, South Africa, Europe, and the US under the umbrella of Cartoon Network’s creative production process.

John Fountain will be the Supervising Director for the show.

Mike de Seve, Baboon Animation’s President and Executive Producer at Pure Garbage, added: “Garbage Boy really popped for us as a character. He comes from the heart of a brilliant young African – the amazingly talented Ridwan Moshood. But any kid, anywhere in the world, will connect with this hilarious, endearing character and laugh at his antics.”

Nick Wilson, founder and head of projects and content for AAN, played a key role from the conception of the Cartoon Network Africa Creative Lab venture, to co-creating the production company, Pure Garbage. Garbage Boy and Trash Can is also the first local series to be used as a training programme for new African cartoon writers and animators. “This international collaboration aims to contribute to skills sharing and production upliftment in the animation industry across Africa,” commented Wilson.

Ariane Suveg, Kids Content Director for WarnerMedia Africa, France and Israel, stated: “Ridwan has so much talent, and his series is a perfect fit for Cartoon Network’s diverse and original content. We are proud to build an innovative collaboration process empowering local animators and we are excited to produce and bring on air a pure African story featuring a fantastic Nigerian comedy hero in Garbage Boy and Trash Can! This global partnership is a response to our audience expectations wanting local, and inclusive, content.”

The series will premiere on Cartoon Network Africa in 2022.

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NBC Olympics, a division of the NBC Sports Group, has selected Amagi to provide UHD playout with cloud automation for its production of the Games of the XXXII Olympiad, which take place in Tokyo from July 23 – August 8, specifically on Olympic Channel.

As part of the agreement, Amagi will deploy its cloud playout platform, Amagi CLOUDPORT, and live sports/news automation solution, Amagi LIVE, to create Olympic Channel’s live coverage in UHD. With HEVC playout and mezzanine quality UHD encoding, Amagi CLOUDPORT architecture creates a new benchmark for video transmission over IP, especially for a global and premium live sporting event such as the Olympic Games.

Amagi provided deep integration with NBCUniversal’s existing workflows to ensure seamless operational capability to the network’s various teams.

Speaking about the deal, Srinivasan KA, Co-founder of Amagi, said: “NBC Olympics, along with NBC Sports Group, are together setting a shining example of how sports broadcasters can put the power of cloud technologies to create unparalleled experience for the viewers as well as those involved in managing broadcast operations. Amagi is delighted to be their cloud technology partner and create new milestones in live sports broadcast on a global scale through innovation, superior quality and reliability.”

Anil Abraham, Director, Systems Architecture, NBC Olympics, added: “Amagi’s support for JPEG-XS, SMPTE 2110, and AMWA NMOS along with a cloud-native software architecture combines to give NBC Olympics a powerful solution for UHD playout. It is a game-changing combination that allows for the flexibility of cloud-based remote control with the low video latencies expected for sports.”

Key features of Amagi’s playout and automation solution include compute-efficient architecture with entire UHD playout on CPUs and no GPUs and containerised and componentised architecture leveraging Kubernetes. It also offers micro-services for scaling video processing on demand; browser-based UI for real-time controls with end-to-end low latency operations; rich graphics with DVE effects including HTML graphics, live closed captioning support, and live-to-VOD recording capability; and end-to-end software solution including multi-view monitoring, hitless switching and 24/7 tech support.

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Netflix has announced a new hardship fund in collaboration with the Arab Fund for Arts & Culture (AFAC) to support those operating in the region’s film and TV community, most impacted by the pandemic.

The fund, valued at USD 500,000, will provide financial support in the form of individual grants (USD 2000 per grant) to below-the-line crew, craftspeople and freelancers who are active in the television and/or film industry in the Arab region, and who have faced economic hardship resulting from the disruption of normal life, halts in productions, and reduced opportunities due to the pandemic.

Starting 9 June, members of the region’s film community will be able to apply for the fund by filling out an online application form and providing supporting documentation including a list of the most recent projects they have worked on, references, an overview of any other emergency support that they might have received last year and a brief description of challenges such as cancelled or delayed projects.

Speaking about the partnership, Netflix spokesperson said: “We have expanded the emergency fund to support more people from the Arab creative community. Forging the right partnerships allows us to create jobs, build talent pipelines and support the industry. We are so grateful to be working with the Arab Fund for Arts & Culture and hope this fund supports the creative community during this difficult period.”

Workers such as assistants, coordinators, technicians and operators from different production departments like camera, sound, art, make-up, costume design, locations and transportation, among others, many of whom are paid hourly wages and work on a project-to-project basis, will be eligible to apply for the one-time benefit.

Rima Mismar, AFAC’s Executive Director, added: “We are glad to maintain the balance between our emergency support and our longer-term offering of general grants. This partnership with Netflix has allowed us to be swifter in our emergency response and to reach out to individuals who are not normally a part of our direct grants’ recipients. We hope this Fund will contribute to alleviating some of the pressures suffered by the film and TV workers across the region who form the backbone of the industry.”

An evaluation committee composed of five independent members from the industry will evaluate applicants and determine the Fund’s recipients. The evaluation and selection process will be stringent in transparency and fairness, in line with AFAC’s grant-making way of working.

The Fund is open to all Arab nationalities anywhere in the region including Algeria, Bahrain, Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen. Lebanese and Arab film and TV workers who are based in Lebanon are not eligible to benefit from the fund.

In December 2020, AFAC and Netflix announced that 246 grants had been awarded to Lebanon’s film & TV community following a similar partnership. The relief is part of Netflix’s USD 150m hardship fund to support creative communities across the world who have been impacted by the pandemic.

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MENA kids’ channel Spacetoon has accumulated over 450m impressions of its original animation show, The Moshaya Family Animation, in less than 13 weeks since its launch on Spacetoon media network and The Moshaya Family YouTube channel.

The Moshaya Family Animation, which was released in January this year, is considered to be the first Arabic animation show inspired by the biggest family content creator in MENA, Mohammed Moshaya and his four children.

This series comes as a result of a partnership deal, which was signed last year between Spacetoon and Moshaya, for turning Moshaya and his family into an original animated work, consisted of 13 episodes (10-12 minutes each), with the daily life adventures and value-based family content.

It has changed the trajectory of views on Spacetoon’s different media platforms besides Moshaya’s social media channels, recording over 450m impressions and receiving a high engagement rate on all the creative promotional content and more than 80m views on the YouTube episodes.

Due to the success and high viewership, Spacetoon has given the green light for a second season, which will be released next year.

The family-focused media company, through its creative team, has been able to mix new technologies with social media trends in order to increase engagement with the characters and keep the audience attracted.

An AR Filter, inspired by the Moshaya family, has been specially developed for the show. Lately, it was made available to all audiences on Spacetoon’s Instagram account. Over 400,000 impressions have been received on the filter in the first two days of its launching, in addition to audience participation on many social media activities like games and quizzes.

Commenting on this new adventure, Ahmad Weiss, Commercial Director of Spacetoon, said: “Providing the audience with value-based content is our goal from producing shows like The Moshaya Family Animation. This type of shows is now an international trend, and we’re so proud to be the first to bring it to MENA. It was challenging yet exciting to introduce a brand-new concept of animation shows to the audience and make it a perfect fit to the culture of the region along with Spacetoon’s core values, but the numbers came to prove we were doing it right. Our focus now is on leveraging the success of The Moshaya Family brand by delivering astonishing experiences through consumer products, and toys are the beginning.”

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Al Yah Satellite Communications Company (Yahsat), the global satellite operator wholly-owned by Mubadala, and Airbus have announced the successful completion of its Preliminary Design Review (PDR) for the Thuraya 4-NGS next-generation mobile telecommunications system.