Kwese TV launches in Botswana with no hiccups
At the end of June 2017, Kwese TV and three other TV providers were licensed in Botswana. This was after they applied for licenses when the public notice for bidding was released early this year. The four companies join Star Times and Mediacore Botswana to make it six TV providers licensed in just two years. It does not end there too, more applicants are being assessed and are yet to be licensed.
Kwese TV, however, had been somewhat available in Botswana since March as Kwese Free Sport, like what we have in Zimbabwe right now. This launch, however, brings the full Kwese TV service to consumers to the country. As we now know, Kwese is available on multiple platforms, linear TV, mobile and digital broadcasting, free-to-air TV, web streaming and satellite TV being the major access-ways.
In Botswana, Kwese TV is now available on all platforms. If the rest of Africa where Kwese TV has been available for a while is to go by, the satellite TV option will be the most popular. The monthly subscription price is the equivalent of about US$29 and about US$50 for the decoder, dish kit and installation.
Back home in Zimbabwe, Kwese TV is still not yet available and Dr. Dish, the would be distributors of the service took the Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe (BAZ) to court in an attempt to reverse their license cancellation. It will probably be a while before we see Kwese TV on our screens. BAZ, unlike their Batswana counterparts, are not quick to dish out licenses. In any case, Econet Media never applied for a license in Zimbabwe. Why is that?
Yet again, another African country gets Kwese whilst Zimbabweans, who have a sense of ownership of the TV service are still in the cold. What do you think about all this? Do we even need Kwese TV here? Should Econet Media just apply for their own license? Let us know what you think.
