Thousands of Zimbabwean television viewers are deserting that country’s ZTV and opting for foreign networks via satellite as uneconomic licence fees have crippled ZTV’s programming, Zimbabwe’s Herald Online reported on Wednesday.
A snap survey conducted by the Herald revealed that an increasing number of television viewers are opting to pay millions of Zimbabwe dollars monthly to view South Africa-headquartered MultiChoice’s DStv programmes or invest similarly huge amounts in special decoders giving free access to foreign television stations.
Some of these popular television stations include Botswana Television (Btv), South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) channels and e.tv.
Those who watch SABC and e.tv do so via special decoders such as Vivid, Pace and Fortec Star, which are being imported from South Africa and Dubai and sold for anything above Z$4-million in Zimbabwe.
A flip through the classified-advertisement pages of leading daily and weekly newspapers reveals a roaring trade in decoders and satellites and their installation.
Although DStv has about 20 000 subscribers in Zimbabwe, this figure does not reflect the total number of people who view free channels accessed on satellite dishes.
According to the survey, Zimbabweans are now opting to tune in to Btv because it is free and has a wide variety of local and foreign programmes, including popular Western soap operas.
Viewers interviewed said they were switching to foreign channels because they offered a wider and better variety, such as free religious channels for both Christians and Moslems, soap operas and better-produced programmes and broadcasting of high quality, the Herald reported. — Sapa