Advanced Television

Zimbabwe pay-TV expands into South Africa

September 20, 2017

By Chris Forrester

Zimbabwe may be in a perilous state financially, but local telecoms tycoon Strive Masiyiwa’s new pay television service, Kwese TV, has now debuted in South Africa on Netflix.

Kwese TV “launched in South Africa with an OTT service anchored on Netflix” offering a service known as Kwese Play. This allows viewers to stream Netflix and 100 other streaming channels starting from about R129 (€8.11).

South African viewers will be able to “select only the channels they want to watch, and pay only” for these. The company has been offering its pay television services in other African countries through satellite access. However, in South Africa, access will be through streaming as the Econet Group – also owned by Masiyiwa through Liquid Telecom – already has a presence in the broadband internet market in the country.

“Kwese chose to launch in South Africa with a fibre optic based service rather than its normal satellite service, because it is the largest independent provider of fibre in South Africa. “Kwese Play will use any fibre optic provider, and will not be exclusive to Liquid,” it said.

Categories: Articles, Pay TV