Harare – Zimbabwe’s first independent television station went on air Friday to challenge the 30-year state broadcasting monopoly controlled by President Robert Mugabe.
Mugabe’s party said earlier on Friday it will take all measures to “cripple” what it calls a pirate station.The station, known as 1st TV, began broadcasting in the evening. It is a satellite feed from outside Zimbabwe using a free network received by an estimated 700 000 homes across the nation.
The state Herald newspaper reported that George Charamba, Mugabe’s spokesperson, said South Africa will be asked to stop broadcasts believed to be beamed from there because they “hurt Zimbabwean interests” ahead of elections on 31 July.
Mugabe’s state television has about 350 000 peak hour evening viewers. The new station hopes to attract 3 million viewers.
The regional free-to-air satellite platform known as Wiztech became available earlier this month after a South African court ordered that country’s state broadcaster to stop using it to transmit its programming at no cost because of infringements of copyright laws.
The latest independent Zimbabwe Advertising Products Survey said Wiztech satellite signal decoder receivers brought SABC programmes and regional gospel church broadcasts to up to five viewers in impoverished homes as Zimbabweans turned away from the ZBC programmes seen as a key propaganda tool for Mugabe’s Zanu-PF party.
Pay television satellite channels have about 40 000 subscribers in Zimbabwe. The free service has seen satellite dishes mushrooming on impoverished township roofs, hostels and shanty dwellings, some powered by car batteries, in the past five years as local terrestrial state TV deteriorated.
Ahead of the 31 July elections, state television and radio have been broadcasting Zanu-PF campaign rallies live, using new outside broadcast facilities provided by China. The television on Wednesday broadcast a Mugabe campaign rally live for nearly three hours.
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