Is Play Room On DStv Ready To Take Africa By Storm?

Play Room is a South African children’s channel operated by The Rooms Network. It offers a mix of live-action and animated shows, many of them dubbed into Zulu. The line-up includes titles such as The Jungle Book, Supa Strikas, Barbie Dreamhouse Adventures and Henry Danger, aimed at the whole family.

Unlike its sister channel Movie Room, Play Room is currently licensed only for DStv platforms in South Africa. It is not available in neighbouring countries such as Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe. Viewers outside South Africa who try to access it will find that Canal+’s MultiChoice has placed a geoblock on the channel.

When it launched, Play Room set out to become a children’s version of Mzansi Magic, with African content at the centre of its primetime schedule. It was not just Zulu dubs of Cocomelon, but actual African-produced shows such as Super Sema, Akil and Me, Jay: The Chosen One and Bino and Fino.

One of the main reasons the channel does not yet feel ready to expand its audience is the heavy reliance on DStv repeats. These include Nickelodeon titles such as The Thundermans, Tyler Perry’s Young Dylan, Paw Patrol and, more recently, SpongeBob SquarePants.

For South African viewers, Play Room has given DStv Starter customers an open window to programmes that normally sit on higher-tier packages. Across the rest of Africa, however, much of this same programming is already available on rival platforms outside of DStv.

In its current form, Play Room does not appear to have a strong chance of succeeding more widely and may even frustrate some DStv subscribers. Since its launch it has contributed to a sense of bloat on the platform by repeating content that is already available elsewhere. That does not have to be the case.

MultiChoice does not necessarily need Nicktoons if the majority of its content is already available first-hand on Nickelodeon, especially in other African markets. At the same time, Play Room does not need to compound the problem by filling large parts of its schedule with SpongeBob SquarePants and Paw Patrol.

Despite these shortcomings, a channel like Play Room is exactly what the platform needs right now. Apart from eToonz, it is the only kids’ channel made by Africa for Africa. In that sense it can connect with local children in ways that Cartoon Network and Disney Junior cannot.

This was clear in the early days of the channel, when it featured a strong slate of African animated shows. Most kids’ channels rarely prioritise such content, but Play Room opened the door to those possibilities.

When it comes to rolling the channel out across the rest of Africa, however, it does not yet feel ready — particularly in markets where Nickelodeon is already widely distributed. In the end, many kids’ channels face the same issue: Supa Strikas appears on Cartoon Network, Cocomelon on Cartoonito, and Bluey on Disney Junior.

Perhaps the bigger problem is that Play Room currently looks more like an overflow channel than a distinct brand. Stronger kids’ channels do not rely so heavily on existing programmes simply to fill the schedule. That said, Play Room is still a channel built in Africa. Despite some setbacks and the challenges of the local landscape, it offers more variety than many of its competitors.