Zimbabwe to have 24 TV channels in the next 3 months

Information and Publicity Permanent Secretary Nick Mangwana has revealed that the State-owned broadcaster, Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) is set to increase its television empire to six stations within the next three months.

According to NewZimbabwe, Mangwana said the new development was in line with government's rollout of its long-delayed digitisation programme set to make room for a total of 24 television channels for the country.

Of these, ZBC shall control six with the rest up for grabs among private players.

"ZBC has capacity and has got enough content to run a total of six channels," Mangwana said.

"Now we have just finished studio six, ZBC is almost ready.

"Because we got capacity for 24 channels in Zimbabwe and we are going to have 24 channels in Zimbabwe, going forward and of the 24, ZBC will have six."

Mangwana did not state when exactly authorities shall call for applications from private players although he said the Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe was soon going to be reconstituted to handle the task.
It is not clear whether the government would have distributed the decoders which will enable citizens to access broadcast channels.
Sometime last year, the then Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Media, Information and Broadcasting Services, George Charamba told ZiFM Stereo that, "The tender for decoders is just about to be floated. It'll mean that overnight, we'll have licences to give out to 12 television licence operators. I hope Zimbabweans are ready for that because it'll come pretty soon."
No tender has been issued as yet though.