News / National
Star FM, ZiFM, risk losing their licences
15 Feb 2015 at 08:33hrs | Views
THE country's two private radio stations, Star FM and ZiFM, risk losing their licences if they fail to adhere to the requirement for them to transmit nationally, a Cabinet Minister has said.
Speaking at the Bulawayo Press Club on Friday, Information, Media and Broadcasting Services Minister Professor Jonathan Moyo said these radio stations were not national since they did not transmit across the full spectrum of the country's transmission network.
"Radio Zimbabwe and Power FM have a better presence than Spot FM and National FM although we would like them to have equal presence at all transmission sites but all of them, as in ZBC, are far better than the two so-called private radio stations.
"Star FM, I think, is only on nine transmission sites and yet they call themselves national, ZiFM is on 11 sites, so they are not really national. In fact, we will begin to vigorously, and even ruthlessly, enforce the law against them and they will risk losing their licences if they don't become national by putting transmitters across the full spectrum of our transmission network," said Prof Moyo.
Star FM is owned by Zimpapers while ZiFM is owned by AB Communications.
The minister said the country was embarking on a countrywide revamp of the entire radio transmission network so that the national broadcaster and the private radio stations have a true national coverage.
"Because we will be working on the television transmission sites across the country which are in the same location with the radio transmitters, we are going to revamp the entire radio transmission network in our republic so that the nation's radio broadcasters or stations will truly have a national coverage, which is not the case right now.
"The case right now is we have 24 transmission sites across the country and at those 24 sites not all stations have a presence or a transmitter so we don't have national presence," he said.
Prof Moyo said Government had secured at least $140 million for the digitalisation programme of the infrastructure on the transmission network, studios, signal distribution, head end and regulatory monitoring.
"Radio in our country is going to benefit immensely from the digital migration programme which also is going to be a major feature of our broadcasting calendar this year. As you know the digital migration programme is primarily about television broadcasting. On the radio side, we are not going to have digital transmitters but we are going to have digital radio studios and digital devices," said Prof Moyo.
He said Government anticipated that it would not only revamp the 24 transmission sites to make sure that there is a transmitter for each of the national radio stations but also add more sites for television to ensure as close to universal coverage as possible.
Meanwhile, the Minister said they were working on a system where they will get rid of the current television licences but come up with a new ICT based system that will ensure that people will not watch TV for free.
"On television and to some extent radio, the licensing issue has been particularly problematic. We are looking forward to the possibility of eliminating the current licence for television but we will find a technological equivalent that properly satisfies the original very sound objectives of the licence.
"So we are going to revamp that and you will see an ICT driven response or solution which we will ensure that no one watches television without paying, more details of this will be coming soon," said Prof Moyo.
The minister also revealed that the ZBC board was three weeks away from completing some personnel matters that were identified by the audit carried out at the institution after which the ministry would share the outcome of the audit with Parliament.
"The ZBC board is seized with the implementation of the implementable aspects of the audit and I can assure you that they are doing that. It will be wrong for ZBC to do that with the public because there are issues related to human resources affecting individuals and these individuals are entitled to have these issues in accordance to the laws of the land, we can't just be trigger happy to publicise it.
"But when the personnel matters are done, which the board advises me they are just three weeks away from resolving these matters, we will certainly share the audit findings with Parliament," said Prof Moyo.
Speaking at the Bulawayo Press Club on Friday, Information, Media and Broadcasting Services Minister Professor Jonathan Moyo said these radio stations were not national since they did not transmit across the full spectrum of the country's transmission network.
"Radio Zimbabwe and Power FM have a better presence than Spot FM and National FM although we would like them to have equal presence at all transmission sites but all of them, as in ZBC, are far better than the two so-called private radio stations.
"Star FM, I think, is only on nine transmission sites and yet they call themselves national, ZiFM is on 11 sites, so they are not really national. In fact, we will begin to vigorously, and even ruthlessly, enforce the law against them and they will risk losing their licences if they don't become national by putting transmitters across the full spectrum of our transmission network," said Prof Moyo.
Star FM is owned by Zimpapers while ZiFM is owned by AB Communications.
The minister said the country was embarking on a countrywide revamp of the entire radio transmission network so that the national broadcaster and the private radio stations have a true national coverage.
"Because we will be working on the television transmission sites across the country which are in the same location with the radio transmitters, we are going to revamp the entire radio transmission network in our republic so that the nation's radio broadcasters or stations will truly have a national coverage, which is not the case right now.
"The case right now is we have 24 transmission sites across the country and at those 24 sites not all stations have a presence or a transmitter so we don't have national presence," he said.
Prof Moyo said Government had secured at least $140 million for the digitalisation programme of the infrastructure on the transmission network, studios, signal distribution, head end and regulatory monitoring.
"Radio in our country is going to benefit immensely from the digital migration programme which also is going to be a major feature of our broadcasting calendar this year. As you know the digital migration programme is primarily about television broadcasting. On the radio side, we are not going to have digital transmitters but we are going to have digital radio studios and digital devices," said Prof Moyo.
He said Government anticipated that it would not only revamp the 24 transmission sites to make sure that there is a transmitter for each of the national radio stations but also add more sites for television to ensure as close to universal coverage as possible.
Meanwhile, the Minister said they were working on a system where they will get rid of the current television licences but come up with a new ICT based system that will ensure that people will not watch TV for free.
"On television and to some extent radio, the licensing issue has been particularly problematic. We are looking forward to the possibility of eliminating the current licence for television but we will find a technological equivalent that properly satisfies the original very sound objectives of the licence.
"So we are going to revamp that and you will see an ICT driven response or solution which we will ensure that no one watches television without paying, more details of this will be coming soon," said Prof Moyo.
The minister also revealed that the ZBC board was three weeks away from completing some personnel matters that were identified by the audit carried out at the institution after which the ministry would share the outcome of the audit with Parliament.
"The ZBC board is seized with the implementation of the implementable aspects of the audit and I can assure you that they are doing that. It will be wrong for ZBC to do that with the public because there are issues related to human resources affecting individuals and these individuals are entitled to have these issues in accordance to the laws of the land, we can't just be trigger happy to publicise it.
"But when the personnel matters are done, which the board advises me they are just three weeks away from resolving these matters, we will certainly share the audit findings with Parliament," said Prof Moyo.
Source - sundaynews
