By Nigel Nyamutumbu
The licensing of six television stations, four decades post the birth of Zimbabwe was a landmark development.
What made the development even more significant is how it arrived at the backdrop of a lengthy period at which the country’s state-owned, Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) enjoyed a monopoly in providing television services.
Well, nevermind that in the African region, Zimbabwe was only second to Nigeria in having television services.
Most countries who enjoyed television services after Zimbabwe, long advanced and had their citizens spoiled for choice.
The process leading to the licensing of new television stations thus gripped the nation’s attention and by the time the winners were announced on the 24th of November 2020, Zimbabwe’s television broadcasting sector was set for a new era.
If anything, the criticism at that point – particularly from media civic society had been that the licensed players did not reflect the diversity of the country’s societies and that the scoring could have been done transparently.
Outside this criticism, there was general consensus that breaking the monopoly of ZBC was a positive development.
It represented significant steps in fulfilling the constitutional imperative of a plural and diverse media.
The media ecosystem was earmarked for a transformative phase from being a sector to an industry, with hopes of creating jobs and enhancing economic opportunities within the cultural industries.
Sadly, the hope of the dawn of an era was clouded in a sea of errors.
Some of the errors were of omission yet some of commission. Classical case of poor management.
But this is not the focus of this submission.
In this submission, the focus is on discussing the implications of the decision by the Board of Zimpapers, a public listed company and holder of one of the television licences Zimpapers Television Network (ZTN).
Effectively, the Board announced that ZTN was abandoning the linear television module to adopting an Over the Top television service (OTT).
In the same announcement, the apex operational body of the country’s largest diverse media organization announced a planned retrenchment exercise in fulfilling this digital transformation process.
Naturally, this development has been received and appreciated in diverse ways.
In some quarters, the move was long time coming given how ZTN has been operating at a loss since the station’s inception. Something had to give.
The labor unions, including the largest journalistic union, the Zimbabwe Union of Journalists (ZUJ) have expressed concern at the prospects of their members being taken out of jobs.
In this process however, little attention has been spared for the ordinary citizen, the person who was supposed to benefit from the opening up of the broadcasting sector.
To simplify what Zimpapers has done in transitioning from linear to over the top broadcasting services we need to draw quick parallels between the two systems of broadcasting.
Linear broadcasting can be discussed as the free to air, fixed time scheduled type of broadcasting where one can connect via an antenna, cable or satellite.
OTT television services on the other hand stream digital content on demand directly via the internet.
Put differently, one needs access to the internet and in some instances an additional subscription to pay for an OTT service while one simply needs access to satellite or cable to access linear television services.
To put things practically, let’s take the case of a Highfield based television consumer who recently made a once off payment of US$25 for a set top box.
The payment was on the assumption that there will be free viewing of ZTN, 3KTV, NRTV and ZBC. And possibly other such television stations that are operating on the basis of the license issued by the Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe (BAZ).
The changes announced by Zimpapers of this transformation effectively introduces a fresh daily charge in accessing what that consumer had settled in purchasing the STB box.
The company has announced it is abandoning linear television and migrating its channel, Zimpapers Television Network (ZTN), to an internet-only Over-The-Top (OTT) platform.
While it is not clear what this transformation means beyond the job cuts, which insiders have reportedly said at least 154 jobs are on the line – what is evident is that there are going to be costs attached to accessing ZTN services.
For example, one hour of news or other such public interest information on OTT is about one gigabyte of data. That is anything between US$1 to $2 per hour at current tariffs. That is a premium for a station licensed on a competitive basis of a limited national resource.
The beneficiaries of the plural media are becoming the pot at which a public service media is feeding from.
This is why the Media Alliance of Zimbabwe (MAZ) has maintained momentum for the policy reviews in how the media is funded in Zimbabwe and broadly leading media sustainability dialogues.
Advocacy for media reform is not elitist. It is not about Harare boardrooms. It is about whether ordinary Zimbabweans can afford to watch news that belongs to them.
What makes the Zimpapers (1980) Ltd case a critical policy reform imperative is how the company was established through a donation by the Nigerian government to the people of Zimbabwe at independence.
To this extent it is held in public trust.
Its television licence therefore carries a public interest obligation heavier than other private players.
That licence is a free-to-air licence. The license is a product of a public process and drastic changes in the mould of those announced by Zimpapers certainly deserve an engagement with the very same public.
The Broadcasting Services Act [Chapter 12:06] defines it clearly: “free-to-air broadcasting service means any broadcasting service transmitted otherwise than by means of an encoded signal.”
Free-to-air means you do not need to pay a subscription to receive it. That is why policy makers introduced a US$25 once-off set-top box with no monthly fee.
OTT, by definition, is encoded and conditional on buying data. It cannot, in my humble submission satisfy a free-to-air licence. Section 11(7) of the Act requires licensees to go on air within 18 months or lose the licence. The 2025 Amendment makes it even stricter: failure to broadcast, licence deemed invalid.
In the worst circumstances, should Zimpapers no longer want to be free-to-air, then there should be considerations for reallocation to a service provider that could freely provide information to the public.
BAZ must enforce its own conditions under Section 16(e). It cannot allow the warehousing of the spectrum while the public loses a channel.
Access to the internet remains elitist and leaves a significant number of the population outside.
The Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (POTRAZ) reports internet penetration at 87.39% in Q1 2026. That figure counts active subscriptions, not people.
Mobile penetration is 108.53% because citizens carry two or three SIMs.
The reality on the ground is different. ZIMSTAT’s household survey puts household internet access at 75.5% and smartphone penetration at just 52.2%. NetOne, a state operator, admits its 3G covers only 50% of geography and 4G only 32%.
That reality of what is obtaining within the digital space effectively re-establishes the ZBC as the only free national television. That is a regression. That is a reversal of media reform.
Beyond discussing the impact on citizens, it is prudent to equally assess the cost to the workers. Zimpapers reportedly employs over 900 people.
The publicly declared retrenchment plan comes after reports of a 25% salary cut under short-time work earlier this year.
Zimbabwe has fewer than a dozen experienced television producers and broadcast engineers. When ZTN fires camera operators, editors and producers, we do not just lose 154 jobs. We lose scarce national skills needed to tell Zimbabwean stories. Retrenchment is not transformation.
My final point discusses investment priorities at this company held in public trust.
Public questions have been raised, including by the Information Minister, about how US$13 million was sunk into ZTN while ZBC’s Montrose Studios refurbishment cost less than US$1 million.
Globally, OTT success — as examples from Netflix to Showmax — is content-led, not mast-led. You win audiences with stories, not studios.
Zimpapers prioritized investment in infrastructure before investing in human resources and content, the ultimate unique value proposition.
Now the citizenry and the workers are now paying for that misjudgment.
The challenge though is beyond ZTN and Zimpapers. It is a sectoral issue that is going to require policy thought-leadership.
Among the interventions, BAZ must provide policy clarity on the import of such transformations and broadly on the state of internet broadcasting regulation.
Second, Zimpapers, as a publicly-trusted institution, must publish its full retrenchment criteria, guarantee fair severance, psychosocial support and reskilling.
Third, we need to sustain national dialogues on media viability to build on the aspirations obtained in the national media policy and to build upon the work that MAZ and other stakeholders have initiated in support of public financing for the media.
Surely, if a grandmother in Mbare must buy data to watch local news, then media reform has failed the very people it was meant to serve. Free TV should stay free.
*Nigel Nyamutumbu is a media development practitioner serving as the Coordinator of a network of journalistic professional associations and media support organizations the Media Alliance of Zimbabwe (MAZ). He can be contacted on nj****@***il.com or +263 772 501 557
