ZIMBABWE’s leading independent national television station, 3Ktv, continues to impress and excite the country.
This saw key stakeholders once again extolling the station’s rich programming, impact in the market and impressive set up yesterday.
Speaking during the station’s third birthday celebrations in Harare, the minister of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services, Jenfan Muswere, was among the notable guests expressed delight with the immense strides that 3Ktv has made since its launch on February 28, 2022.
“As we seek to ensure that we inform, educate and entertain the nation, what distinguishes 3Ktv from other broadcasters in our country and from the other international broadcasters is the content. “I want to appreciate what 3Ktv has done in terms of diversity and developing a robust arts and media industry in the country.
“3Ktv is one of the major achievements, in terms of the 8 000 projects that we always talk about … that have been achieved under the Second Republic,” Muswere said.
“I have had the opportunity to familiarise myself a lot with 3Ktv’s history. “This is where technology meets human capital development in terms of the modernisation of studios as we journey towards a middle-income society, with a knowledgeable and informed society.
“I also want to appreciate once again the role that 3Ktv continues to play in promoting government projects and the voices of many other people in our country,” Muswere said further. This comes as 3Ktv has made tremendous commercial progress over the past year, despite the country’s challenging operating environment.
Pilate Machadu, the Group CEO of Jester Media Services (JMS) — the owners of 3Ktv — told the Daily News earlier this week that the station had performed well all round over the past 12 months, at a time that industry peers were taking significant strain.
“It is most pleasing to see that 3Ktv is continuing to perform well ahead of all our projections — including with regards to its commercial sustainability. “This is all thanks to the incredible support of our viewers and valued business partners, as well as our content providers and the dedication of our staff across our group.
“With this winning combination, it is little wonder that all credible research confirms that 3Ktv is the market leader by some distance on satellite television. It has also rapidly become an indispensable part of the wider local broadcasting industry,” Machadu said.
“To say, therefore, that we are excited about what the future holds for 3Ktv and our entire group is an understatement. “We are confident that things will only get better for the station and the rest of our well-known media assets that include the iconic Daily News, the Daily News On Sunday and The Financial Gazette, the country’s number one business publication.
“Of course, we are not sitting on our laurels. Indeed, we are ramping up our strategies and continuing to make significant new investments in all our areas of operation that encompass print, broadcasting and digital,” Machadu added.
He also lauded JMS’s enduring “win-win partnership” with MultiChoice Africa, which has meant that 3Ktv is available to a wider audience and important market on DStv. 3Ktv is a free-to-air (FTA), digital terrestrial television (DTT) station.
This means that contrary to social media babble, anyone with the right equipment — such as a suitable set-top box — can receive its programming for free wherever the signal is available. Licensed in November 2020 after coming up tops in a competitive, open bidding process, the country’s fastest growing station went live amid palpable excitement nationally three years ago.
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. The station has won scores of awards for its unique and riveting programming over the past three years.
