ZBC Plans To Have Four More TV Channels

The state broadcaster the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) seems to have risen from the dead. 

The Sunday Mail  reports that the ongoing cleansing ceremony, instigated by the Ministry of Information, Media and Broadcasting Services, which has seen top management falling by the wayside and fresh minds coming in, seems to be paying off.

Last week, the institution started paying off its debts, which went as far back as more than a year ago.

More targeted at artistes and the suppliers of content for the broadcaster, the payments are meant to patch up relations that had all but crumbled between ZBC and the creative sector.

The national broadcaster is racing against time as the deadline for digital migration is fast approaching.

Zimbabwe is required to migrate from the current analogue broadcasting technology to the digital broadcasting technology by June 17, 2015, in accordance with the migration deadline set by the International Telecommunications Union.

Upon successful implementation of digital migration — ZBC will become a multi-channel entity, with more than the two channels it currently has.

Acting chief executive officer Mr Patrick Mavhura, who has captained the ZBC ship for close to two months now, hinted that the organisation could start with at least six stations.

Should this come to fruition, the stations will need a considerable amount of local content.

“At the moment we have not yet agreed, so this is not formal yet, but we were planning to have at least six channels. So getting as much content as we can is very important right now as we need to stock up as much as possible,” said Mavhura.

He said that the company will be meeting several other stakeholders this week, including independent film producers and members of the Zimbabwe Film Industry.

The Sunday Mail