Strive Masiyiwa Announces Kwese Pay TV

Zimbabwe’s Strive Masiyiwa has announced the soon-to-be launched Kwese Pay TV which will provide sports and entertainment in the sub-Saharan African region.

He made the announcement on his Facebook page which will run on three different platforms.

Our satellite communications business, Liquid Sat, has already built a platform which allows us to deliver what is known as Direct TV to the home (DTH), in all the countries of Sub-Saharan Africa.
Our fibre optic company, Liquid Fibre, is the largest builder of terrestrial fibre in Africa. And, of course, Econet is one of the most experienced mobile network operators on the continent. These are just a few of the assets we’ll deploy in a unique way, never done before in Africa…
What I can share with you right now is that our new business called Kwesé TV will be what we call “multi-screen.” This means you can watch TV with a traditional TV, a smartphone, a tablet, and/or a computer.

Masiyiwa stressed that the infrastructure was not enough

Having infrastructure is one thing, but Kwesé TV’s success will depend on our ability both to acquire and also to develop new, high-quality and unique programming at an affordable price.

No date was revealed for the actual launch of the product which Masiyiwa has said has been three years in the game.

Zimbabwe’s Higher and Tertiary education minister Professor Jonathan Moyo wished Masiyiwa all the best for Masiyiwa but indicated that the cut-throat business of content licensing was far more complicated than the telecoms sector.

Other players have tried to take on the behemoth that is South Africa’s DStv and it remains to be seen whether this new challenge will be able to put a dent on its dominance.