Towards the close of last year, Econet Media – the parent company to Kwesé TV – announced that it was changing its business strategy with a focus on a digital future. The company was to shift its pay TV broadcast network from mainly delivering content via decoders to Kwesé Free Sports (KFS), Kwesé iflix and Kwesé Play.
Of the three remaining core services, Kwesé Play seemed to be the most appealing and one worth spending one’s money on. The Roku-powered streaming box easily connects to the internet via an ethernet port or Wifi and to the TV through a HDMI port for any form of entertainment one can wish for.
However, eight months down the road, things seem to be clearly not fine with it. The start of July 2019 has been a nightmare to the box’s subscribers after receiving notifications that Econet would no longer offer the service to them.
The message read “Econet no longer offers Kwese Play. For more information contact Econet.“
Econet addressed the issue by assuring customers that they are “working to resolve it” through a statement issued on Twitter.
Econet Media, has noted that today customers received a notification on their Kwesé Play devices that they have been deactivated. We apologise for this inconvenience and are working on resolving it. We thank you for your understanding and patience
However, Roku issued a completely different statement claiming that Econet is shutting down Kwesé Play because their licensed partnership had come to an end.
Econet licensed our platform to deliver the Kwesé Play streaming service to its customers. Econet is shutting down the Kwesé Play service and is no longer working with Roku. For more information contact Kwesé/Econet.
Econet is yet to issue any other statement refuting the shutting down of Kwesé Play but the company has of late appeared in the news over financial woes. The latest reports indicate that Econet Media has put its struggling satellite broadcasting business under administration as “it begin talks with creditors to rescue the business.”
After shutting down their pay TV broadcast network off decoders, it was only time to reveal that Kwese’s free-to-air business was not enough to sustain the financial burden of its satellite operations. This has been the primary reason for the decision to negotiate with creditors.
