By Cloud Fusire
SENIOR SPORTS WRITER
fusirec@dailynews.co.zw
NEWBOYS, Scottland FC, penned a historic partnership deal with the country’s most watched television on satellite, 3Ktv – which will see the popular station hosting the club’s weekly magazine show.
Under the terms of the deal that was signed in the capital yesterday, 3Ktv shall broadcast on its Digital Terrestrial Television, DStv and Facebook platforms, the 30minute soccer magazine programmes on Friday from 1900hrs to 1930hours for the 2025 football season.
In addition, 3Ktv shall place promotional content for the soccer magazine programmes on 3Ktv’s Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for the episodes.
Speaking at the signing of the memorandum of agreement, an ecstatic chief executive of Scottland, Ronald Moyo, said the partnership with 3Ktv was a welcome development for the ambitious club.
“This is another milestone achievement for us as Scottland Football Club in the sense that the media is a key stakeholder in marketing and promoting the brand.
“So, we are happy with the space that we are being offered by 3Ktv to air our magazine and we want to take this opportunity and maximise it so that we can change the landscape of Zimbabwean football.
“It is a platform we believe will give even our sponsors mileage that they deserve,” Moyo said.
“Our stakeholders, especially the fans will also have the chance to watch our exclusive content and they will be able to see what we will be doing as a club,” Moyo added.
The Mabvuku-based side, who earned the ticket to premiership from Northern Region Soccer League last season, recently announced a US$1, 5 million sponsorship from Sakunda Holdings as well as a US$1 million package from IMC, a company owned by businessman,Wicknell Chivhayo.
The team has been busy in the transfer market as it prepares for its maiden year in the premiership.
Mabviravira, as the ambitious club is called, has signed over 25 top players who include the country’s biggest football stars such as Khama Billiat and soccer star of the year – Walter Musona.
Speaking at the same signing ceremony, Jester Media Services (JMS) Group Editor In Chief and Business Development Director – Guthrie Munyuki – said the partnership with Scottland was “ a no brainer”.
“This partnership is a testament of the potential that Scottland has. We have seen what they did when they were in Division One.
“We have seen what they have been doing as they prepared for their maiden year in the PSL. We believe that this is a highly upwardly mobile club with huge ambitions.
“So, for us partnering with Scottland FC or Mabviravira is a good thing, because we strongly believe that the ambitions of Scottland fit perfectly well into our philosophy of having partners who are fiercely driven by the desire to succeed,” Munyuki said.
“And we believe that here is a team that has gone to show its statement of intent through the way it has been set up in a very short period of time, the way it has managed to scour the market to put up a very decent team.
“And we believe that by partnering with us we are able also to look at the key stakeholders – the football fans out there – to have moments that they don’t forget,” Munyuki added.
3Ktv is the country’s first and biggest private television channel. Anyone with the right equipment such as a digital TV set or suitable set-top box can receive its programming for free wherever the signal is available — as it’s a free-to-air (FTA) television station.
3Ktv’s feed is also available through other platforms, which explains the commercial station’s pivotal partnership with MultiChoice, which has seen it also being hosted on DStv channel 293. 3Ktv is the most watched Zimbabwean channel on DStv.
Licensed in November 2020 after emerging tops in a competitive bidding process, the station went live amid palpable excitement in the country on 28 February 2022.
In the process, the most watched local channel on satellite made history and became the first private station to operate legally in Zimbabwe since television was first introduced in the then Southern Rhodesia in November 1960.