By The Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe (BAZ) has blocked TelOne’s bid to launch its highly anticipated Digital Entertainment On Demand (DEOD) service #MondayBlues can reveal.
While TechnoMag broke the news that TelOne was set to launch a Video On Demand (VOD) service which basically entails providing entertainment over their infrastructure, the event was canceled 24hrs earlier without any logical clear explanation.
Investigations by TechnoMag proved that the broadcasting regulator demanded TelOne to have a licence before launching their service,setting a precedence for all other players.
Matters only came to the surface when TelOne recently published their intent to broadcast and seeking license,a move which is a pre-requisite before one gets a public broadcasting licence.
It was however not clear how a seemingly broadband service needed clearance from the airwaves regulator, unless TelOne broadcasting will indeed involve broadcasting over airwaves to reach out to millions.
If that’s the case,TelOne will likely be delivering cable like TV to masses which will be another first from the state owned entity. However sources at TelOne had maintained that they are offering IP based content to cached on their local servers before delivery to the TelOne based clients.
In a statement, the BAZ confirmed to have recieved TelOne application, and chances are very high they will get it as they are a state owned entity. Kwese Tv has suffered the same regulatory fate forcing the Econet Media company to live to fight another day in court.
The over regulation in the broadcasting sector sets a wrong tone for Zimbabwe and against the ease of doing business which scares away investors, driving away the much sought after foreign currency.
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