ZBC To Encrypt Signal… Which Means…

Zimbabwe’s information, media and broadcasting services minister Professor Jonathan Moyo has released the sort of news that can make you do cartwheels.

They will soon be replacing those pesky viewers and listeners’ licensing regime they have in place at the moment with a tech-based system which will see people subscribe for services in order to access them.

On the face of it all it is a good thing because it gets a bit annoying to have to pay for licenses for a station you barely view. What with some of the horrid programing they have now it is just not on to have people pay for that sort of content.

But that is just the thing. You put a paywall on a product that is in high demand not something that people don’t really want to watch. So unless there is a drastic overhaul of what the stations are offering they are still stuck because people will simply not pay to watch local content which will ultimately hit creatives hard because they do not have viewers.

The key question that must be asked is whether it will still have a national broadcaster, that is a station that available for all without a paywall. This is a station that gives public service information such as say, the news, when elections will be an whatever else there may be.