Zimbabwe TV Station

Zimbabwe TV officially known as ZTV as of January 2010 was fully in the grip of the government. ZTV is owned and operated by Zimbabwe Broadcasting Holdings (ZBH) a government parastatal directly reporting to the Minister of Information belonging to Zanu Pf party under the inclusive government or GPA. Essentially Zimbabwe has one TV station that broadcasts to less that 60% of the Zimbabwe people. In the 90s coverage of the TV station was over 80% but the crisis that struck the Zimbabwe econony for 10 years from 2000 to about 2009 saw much of the equipment becoming absolete with no hope for repair.

Zimbabwe TV has been used heavily by Zanupf party lead by Robert Mugabe the President of Zimbabwe especially during national elections to quash the opposition MDC party led by Morgan Tsvangirai. Today the TV station which has repeatedly been headed by pro-Zanu PF managers operates 24 hours per day. It's programming has a local content bias which became the norm under the former fierce Minister of Information Jonathan Moyo. The TV station broadcasts in all 3 languages of Zimbabwe namely English , Shona and Ndebele especially during news bulletins.

ZTV broadcasts from Pockets Hills in Harare which is also the same place from which radio stations also controlled by government broadcasts from. Other Zimbabwe cities such as Gweru and Bulawayo also have broadcasting studios owned and controlled by the state. The ongoing political discussions amongst other things is working to release the grip of government on electronic broadcasting such as Zimbabwe TV to allow private players to come in.

Zimbabwe TV used to broadcast over the internet but this has since stopped largely due to a lack of funds and outright poor management and a lack of a strategic vision and goals. As the only source of local over the air electronic news ZTV it commands a reasonable following.

Zimbabwe TV today faces stiff competition from satelite TV decoders with free to air channels. These carry news channels and christian channels from South Africa and all over the African continent and overseas. In terms of political and economic news as well as entertainment, Zimbabweans appear to tune in more frequently to South African channels such as SABC.

In 2009, ZBH promised the introduction of yet another TV channel TV2. This is yet to happen. There was also talk of opening a 24 hour news channel to counter "western propaganda". All this appears to be empty talk which repeatedly comes to nothing. The company itself lacks the resources, skills, money and manpower to sustain a respectable 24 hour news channel than can compete with what today's viewers see on free to air satelite TV.

Zimbabwe TV is obviously in desparate and urgent need of a total revamp.

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