With effect from today, 5th August 2019, we are bidding farewell to the Kwesé TV satellite service. In what seemed like simple steps away from the usual business, in a seemingly convincing bid to “focus on the digital future”, Econet Media – the pay TV’s parent company has conceded defeat and has its lost grip of the industry.
In a Twitter post, the company announced that business was no longer viable due to the harsh Zimbabwean economy which blocks reliance on foreign exchange, yet Kwesé TV third party content providers receive their payment that way.
About the same time last month, we told you of how Kwesé was put under administration and that the company had appointed Ernst & Young to manage the process. The company CEO, Joseph Hundah, stated that they were in talks with creditors to rescue the business.
It was revealed that the Kwese TV free-to-air business was not enough to sustain the financial burden of its satellite operations. This was just days after Kwese Play subscribers received notifications that Econet would no longer offer the service to them.
In the recent past, Zimbabwe stopped recognizing foreign currencies as legal tender in a bid to curb the high inflation rates and this could have been the genesis of the Kwese TV end. Affected currencies include the dollar, South African Rand and other foreign currencies with the dollar playing a vital role in international trade.
We also cannot ignore the fact that DSTV, which has literally owned the African PayTV market for over 2 decades – with exclusive rights to major sports and other premium content on the continent, has also played a significant role in the exit.
