Changing Channels

There was a time when Zimbabweans could only watch state television, but Zimbabwe’s TV landscape has changed dramatically over the past few years. In 2020 the Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe issued licences to six new independent stations. Four years later, four of these channels – NRTV, 3KTV, ZTN and KeYonaTV – are up and running, broadcasting local content to Zimbabweans across the country. While this may sound like real progress, the reality is quite different.

NRTV began broadcasting in the second half of 2023, showing a wide range of programmes on everything and anything from news and current affairs to lifestyle and entertainment – and does so 24 hours a day. Since its inception it has attracted over five million cumulative views on social media. “We are a full-spectrum programming channel,” says Brian Musuna, NRTV’s Executive Producer and Content Assessor. “We cater for kids, youth and adults.”

Bulawayo-based KeYonaTV is also aiming at a full-spectrum service: “We cater for everyone and the content is mainly family-based,” says KeYonaTV Programmes Manager Nonhlanhla Nkala. “Our viewership is at about 20,000 viewers locally and 1.4 million regionally.” Nkala points out that although based in Bulawayo, KeYonaTV is not focused predominantly on Ndebele content: “We are not positioning ourselves as a regional station,” she says. “Bulawayo is our home but KeYonaTV is a national station.”

3KTV and ZTN, the other two stations given licences in 2020, are both competing for the same general audience as NRTV and KeYonaTV, although ZTN, which is owned by Zimpapers, has a more factual offering, drawing on the group’s strengths as a news organisation.

These channels may be transmitting but they also have to reach their audiences. At present these channels can be accessed through paid subscription satellite services such as DSTV, but the monthly subscriptions – which start at $5 – and the cost of a satellite dish and decoder are out of reach for the majority of Zimbabweans. People don’t have the money for data to watch the channels online, either.

However, these TV stations are also being broadcast terrestrially from Zimbabwean transmitters on the ground so you can bypass the satellite services. The high-quality HD signal is up and running so in theory you can tune into it on your TV. So far, so good. Or so I thought.

Watching these channels on digital TV is harder than it should be. All modern HDTVs have built-in digital tuners but I wasn’t able to scan the available frequencies on my TV. Then I discovered that a TV’s built-in digital tuner only works when it’s connected to a digital antenna. Not having such an antenna I went on a search for one around Harare but to no avail. Facebook Marketplace also drew a blank. A digital antenna is a one-off $15 investment, but either no one knows about them or no one cares.

There is another way to watch: the famous DTT set-top boxes, whose mysterious absence is frequently discussed in Zimbabwe’s media. These devices incorporate a digital tuner and allow older analogue TVs to receive the digital signal, but their appearance in Zimbabwe has been held up for years (in Mozambique, someone told me). This is not proprietary technology and the DTT signal is not encrypted, so it’s frustrating that it’s so hard to buy a DTT box. As KeYonaTV’s Nkala says, “People want to watch our channel but accessibility is a challenge. The DDT decoders need to reach the people.”

Of course, if the new channels fail to attract viewers they will also struggle to attract advertising – the lifeblood of any commercial TV station. Charles Mutemera is the Managing Director of Dicomm McCann & TotalMedia UM, a key player in Zimbabwe advertising. In his view the new stations have brought healthy competition to the sector. While before his clients would shy away from TV advertising saying that no one watches ZBC this argument has now become less and less common. “We have more options for ad placement, with more TV shows and segments appropriate for different sets of target audiences,” Mutemera says. “We now produce far more TV commercials and video content than when we had only one TV station.”

But the limited reach of the new channels means that advertising still remains limited. “We have placed a few commercials on ZTN and 3KTV, but most of ours are for ZTV,” says Mutemera. “The majority of people still only have access to ZBC so it makes sense to advertise there for big campaigns – the reach is always going to be higher. I see the other stations occupying a niche area.”

Another source in the advertising sector (who did not want to be named) has a different view: “The advertising landscape hasn’t changed at all. The new TV stations haven’t made a difference because they are sitting on the DSTV bouquets. The most trusted medium right now is radio.”

Of course the new TV stations are anxious to attract advertising dollars. NRTV’s Musuna says progress has been slow: “I think this is probably because there was a need for proof-of-concept and to show how solid our content is,” he says. “Going into our third season there are now sponsorship deals on the table. This is definitely different to how we started.”
But advertising and audience are only two of the three sides of the TV broadcast triangle; the third side is content. For TV producers the new stations represent a glimmer of hope, albeit one that is currently frustrated by small budgets and limited viewership.

Beauty Nakai Tsuro is a TV producer responsible for the reality talent show I Can Act and drama series Faking It for 3KTV. Currently she has a weekly show on NRTV called Broken Lives, a drama series about the struggles of family life in Zimbabwe. “I write social drama, stories that are relevant to our society.”

Nakai’s experience is that TV channels have shifted their target audiences, moving from more middle-class content with higher ambitions and production values, to broader, lower-cost content that covers all bases. This is evident in her own programmes which have changed from reality and competition shows to drama and soaps.

Nakai has experienced the problem of audience reach first-hand. As the financial barrier to entry is still too expensive for mass audiences, Nakai found that when she uploaded an episode of one of her shows online for marketing purposes, Zimbabweans were surprised to learn about the new programmes and channels, not realising that local content was now being produced in Zimbabwe. “It’s such a pity because people are putting so much energy and effort into trying to make the channels work, but the majority of Zimbabweans don’t subscribe to DSTV.”

Because the new stations are struggling to attract eyeballs, a vicious circle has already started: no eyeballs means no advertising; no advertising means no revenue; no revenue means not enough budget for good content; poor content means no eyeballs. Budgets for later seasons of Nakai’s shows are declining and this is stalling further production. With lower budgets come lower production values and worse content.

As our unnamed source says: “If your content is poor your viewership will be poor and your advertising revenue will be poor – because content is key. The target audience is after content not adverts. TV is a poor platform in Zimbabwe because the content is poor. The bottom line is that the channels need to improve their content to make TV a powerful medium. We don’t need foreign or international content – people love stuff from their own countries. If the content is right, people will watch. The success of South Africa’s SABC and eTV is because they focus on local content rather than international movies or blockbusters.” Producer Nakai agrees: “People are really hungry for local content,” she says.

The rise of streaming services and the internet means that traditional broadcast television might already be at the end of its life. Nakai is working on her own streaming app. Still in beta-testing, Byskopo Yako is a promising service which aims to be the Zimbabwean Netflix. It offers a pay-per-view service accepting most Zimbabwean and international payment methods with no monthly subscription charges. With over 600 beta-testers, and show purchases starting at $0.50, it sounds like a really great idea. Nakai believes the app could shake up the broadcast sector and finally bridge the gap between content producers and audiences: “I’m passionate about distribution because that is what our industry here is lacking.”

Maybe the underlying problem is neither technical nor financial; perhaps it is just that after decades of poor content and ancient analogue transmitters Zimbabweans have lost faith in TV as a medium. Let’s hope that changing this mindset is much simpler than changing the channel.

CHANGING CHANNELS