Ashley Moyo
SENIOR STAFF WRITER
LEADING independent national television station, 3Ktv — which turned four at the weekend — will launch its new and exciting Season 17 today.
In this regard, viewers of the country’s most watched local TV station on satellite can look forward to a more absorbing and diverse programme lineup than ever before.
“This is an immensely exciting new season for the station as we continue to bring fresh content to our audiences.
“We have new dramas like Fidelis Reloaded, Standwa Sami, The Return of Gringo and Ndaizivei, in addition to the long-running Bundu.
“We also have fresh content for our younger viewers,” 3Ktv’s head of programming, Lucia Kanyongo, told the Daily News yesterday.
“Our many valued partners around the world have also brought us international content that our viewers can look forward to,” she added.
3Ktv, which was licensed in November 2020 after coming tops in a competitive and public bidding process, went on air amid palpable excitement at the end of February 2022 — in the process becoming the first licensed private commercial station to operate in the country since television was first introduced in the then Southern Rhodesia in November 1960.
Apart from the television station, its owners Jester Media Services (JMS) also operates some of Zimbabwe’s biggest media brands that include the Daily News — the country’s most influential newspaper— as well as its printing division Printco, Jester Events, online business newsletter Business Live, and The Financial Gazette — the nation’s number one business publication.
In November last year, JMS also launched an online radio station, Radio 3000, as the country’s most dynamic and sustainable media group continued to set the pace in the sector.
Radio 3000, which streams its content over the Internet, offers global access, wide-ranging programming, interactivity and device flexibility — thus contrasting itself significantly with many traditional local FM radio stations’ geographic limitations and static broadcasting models.
In launching the new station, JMS consolidated its multimedia operations, with its media brands now spanning television, radio, newspapers, websites, social media, mobile apps and strategic communications.
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.
However, 3Ktv’s feed is also available through other platforms for which subscription fees may be payable. This explains the commercial station’s critical partnership with MultiChoice which sees it also hosted on DStv’s channel 293.