Econet extends Kwesé Free Sports to Zimbabwe, partners ZBC to show English Football & the Olympics on ZTV

Nigel Gambanga Avatar
Econet Media, FTA Channels, English Football

If you are a fan of English Premier League Football and/or are following the Rio Olympics 2016, you can consider ZBC as a free option for catching all this entertainment.

Econet Media’s new Free to Air channel Kwesé Free Sports has been extended beyond Kenya through a partnership with the ZBC.

The local broadcaster received through Kwesé Free Sports, the sub-licence to exclusively broadcast on ZTV up to 6 hours of content from the Olympics including live coverage as well as some delayed footage.

This deal also includes the screening of one live English Premier League match every Saturday. This is supposed to be the first of many deals between Kwesé TV and ZBC.

Other than the fact that Econet Media, a subsidiary of the Econet Group, is partnering with a State entity, Kwesé’s deal with ZBC shouldn’t be all that surprising.

It comes after Kwesé’s play for the Kenyan market through another Direct to TV (DTT) arrangement. This pointed the need for a tie-up with a partner that would allow Econet Media to fulfil its broadcasting obligations of delivering content to markets that it has rights to.

A marriage with ZBC follows the same pattern, ensuring that as the new season for the English Premier League kicks off, Kwesé is beaming this content in our market.

Just like Kenya, this also raises some questions around the ease of launching an internet TV service. Are issues like regulatory approval as well as the challenges of delivering a large amount of content taped to the ridiculous data costs affecting Kwesé’s debut?

Locally Econet seemed ready to resolve the data issue with zero rated Kwesé TV bundles but the termination suspension of bonus and promos has affected that strategy. 

This would suggest the need to partner with the one broadcaster that still has the widest reach in Zimbabwe, something that just means that content like English Football and the Olympics has made it to Zimbabwe.

15 comments

  1. Lovemore

    Thank you so much Econet

  2. Langton

    So how would they make make of of this? Is zero rating a promotion?

  3. josca

    Very great

  4. josca

    good work

  5. Muzukuru

    ZBC. In the era of HDTV they partner with a failing garbage entity. You will be like if you can identify who has scored with all those showers. Uhurutv is rubbish but I think it’s way better than this joke. And how do they decided which match to broadcast? By casting lots or will it be just a string of Man United, Arsenal and Chelsea games.

  6. malle7

    Wow

  7. olajide Femmy Emmanuel

    Good information, please give us the dish size nd the tp, thank you

  8. Tapson

    Masiyiwa wafemerwa naMwari shuwa iwe…dai wabva watowedzera ma EPL games ese varume vedu vasaende kunoonera bhora ku bhawa……kkkkkkkkkkkk

    1. Smoked

      True man

  9. Logic Malunjwa

    Zigiga wayawaya

  10. Nyasha mushata

    Thank you vamasiyiwa rambai muchi budisa mitambo ye epl ne laliga

  11. Tonderai mukakati

    Maita basa nemaitiro enyu

  12. Yes

    Has this started or its on the pipeline??? Is it available on Free to Air like Wiztech or there are special set Boxes and Dish Size?

  13. osama

    ahh ndakaona nezuro kascreen kacho kakaitwa zoom yekupenga kunge pane ma lebel awarikuda kuti asabuditswe pabhora ma1 unenge uchiona mnhu 1 pascreen

  14. Anonymous

    Thats great

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