Friday, March 29, 2024

Govt to investigate MUVI TV and other radio stations

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Government has said it will investigate reports that MUVI TV and some private radio stations are circumventing the provisions of their broadcasting licenses by illegally using digital satellite technology to broadcast countrywide.

In a press statement, Chief Government Spokesperson Lt. General Ronnie Shikapwasha said, according to broadcasting regulations, all Free-To-Air broadcasting licenses granted so far state the frequency, power and limitations, while those granted satellite based broadcasting licenses may not at the same time take on broadcasts that are limited to defined geographical areas.

Genral Shikapwash further said, so far only four terrestrial broadcasting licenses have been granted, all confined to specific areas of transmission.[quote]

The Minister named the stations as follows;

. MUVI TV, one frequency of 2 Kilowatts restricted to broadcasting within Lusaka.

. Copperbelt Broadcasting Services, one frequency of 2 Kilowatts restricted to Ndola.

. MOBI Television, 2 Kilowatts restricted to Lusaka, and

. CBC, 2 Kilowatts restricted to Lusaka.

The Minister explained that the only ones whose Satellite based television broadcasting licenses allow them to go countrywide are Multi-Choice Zambia, My Television, GTV and MOBI TV.

General Shikapwasha who is also Minister of Information and Broadcasting Services said, any station that is broadcasting outside the provisions of the provisions of the license, whether for testing technology or not, constitutes an offence and may have their licenses revoked.

He made it clear that there are three types of Free-To-Air radio broadcasting licenses being issued, which he categorized as, Commercial, Religious and Community Radio Stations.

He further said there are two more, namely Terrestrial and Satellite based transmission.

Yesterday ZANIS reported that viewers in Kasama on Tuesday 1st September, 2009 started watching MUVI TV via Free-T-Air Satellite.

A Sales representative at Strong Technologies the owners of My TV told ZANIS today no permission was required to put MUVI TV on My TV bouguet because it is Free-To-Air.

ZANIS

43 COMMENTS

  1. A frequency of 2 kilowats?????? Ine nadwabwa guyz ni High tech yapa Zambia iyo. Frequency muma watts????? Shakipwasha why hinder communication Development in the country? High tech iyo yashupa, Bandwidth mu ma watts?? Ba Minister sure!! Or ni signal strength balelandapo?

  2. This is one thing I really fail to comrehend.Who are these prohibitive laws that Zambia become so accustomed to intended to benefit ?What is the problem with the whole world watching a Zambian channel the way we watch other useless foreign channels.I think it is time that our politician started helping local initiative to break barrier rather than creating more on what they already have .C ountries like Malawi,Burundi,Rwanda already have just as many channel far beating Zambia and yet we pioneered mas communication in the region .What is this protectionism about really.

  3. So what?? In fact thats what development means. Let MV Tv continue Broadcasting out side Lusaka. I see no problem with it only people like Shikapwasha and the MMD-thieves are threatened coz it would mean villagers will be no longer cheated. Villages will have first hand info which the useless ZNBC has failed to provide.

  4. ZNBC signal using ordinary antenas in Ndola is poor.It is so poor that you can not see anything .thanks to free to air channels we could atleast watch E TV…which was removed recently.When MUVI started to transmit the past few days we breathed a sigh of relief .But now they want to remove it.This would be retrogressive beyond measure

  5. Thing is, apart from prominent political and renown figures i had started to loose trck on who is who in Zambia all because local tv s dont show in our area.AND that is what brought so much happiness because atleast we can follow local trends consistently.At one corner I certainly diffused a near punch up situation.three grade seven pupils were arguing who the presido of ZED between SATA and RUPIAH is .ABANA ba mu mayadi ka…..!

  6. Bloggers, let ‘s be considerate in our analysis, not just because it’s Gen. Shikapwasha who has said something then automatically we have to condem and get emotional. When one is given a licence there are conditions that guide its operationalisation and you have to accept this before a licence is issued. So you have to abide by that. What we should be debating is the law that governs this which should be amended.

  7. #3 Ndolic. MMD/GRZ are afraid that Zambians will know the truth about whats happening in other parts of the country and may stop listening to RUBBISH being churned by ZNBC.

  8. GRZ should start thinking. They are losing it. MUVI TV has sold its content to MY TV the way ZNCB sold content to DStv. Lets get serious about how our country will develop. Stopping MUVI TV from going ahead with this very positive move is JUST not acceptable. All positive thinking Zambians must support this young and promising TV station at this time of attack. Promising radio stations cant grow cos of backward thinking in the ministry of Information and Broadcasting services. MMD will not rule this country for ever as such they cant stop businesses that are suppose to live beyond their rule. Lets not accept this

  9. GUYS I AM BACK.. WHERE IS ABENE MATWORLD, GHOST DOG, DAISY BAYBAY.. I WAS BLOCKED FOR OVER A MONTH.. REALLY GLAD TO BE BACK. I THINK MY VIEWS WERE TOO POLITICAL AND THEY THOUGHT THAT I MIGHT CAUSE AN OVERTHROW OF THE CURRENT GOVERNMENT. I CAN SEE LOTS OF NEW PEOPLE. GOOD TO HAVE YOU GUYS.. WELCOME.

  10. Even if MUVI TV uploaded there content with out selling to another broadcaster they would have still been in the right. Its unacceptable that our country can continue being run in this manner. ZNBC sold their content to DStv the government didn’t stop they cos it suited them. Private electronic media must all support MUVI TV this time around as this is the baby. Lets watch.

  11. Where is that i d i o t called Mr Capitalist and his fellow plonker MMD Chief Boot Licker? These are topics they should be yapping about. But as expected , they have their tails between their legs when you get articles like this. F o o l s!

  12. Why is Govt so intent on muzzling the media? This is not healthy. let’s face it: ZNBC sucks big time and aubjecting people to it is torture of the worst kind. It beats waterboarding. Instead of the Govt saying they want to block this, why not just issue a new license to these stations. This is a positive step. We should not restrict dissermination of information. We were pioneers in masscoms in the region but look were we are. We were the 1st country in Africa with internet connectivity for chrissake!

  13. This is the MMD policy – keep them ignorant and keep them hungry, then you will control them.
    Really sad things happening back home and it really hurts that our families are subjected to this ruthlesness.

    what can we do to get these punks out? The villages are the ones that vote for MMD because they are kept away from the truth so that they could be easily be manipulated.
    what can we do to break this cycle? media regulation will take us back to UNIP days where people would be prosecuted for saying RB you are a sh.it.ho.le, you son of a b!tch!

  14. If it is true, it is lawlessness. Anarchy. But this happens everywhere in the world. In UK there are many pirate radio stations which broadcast today but gone tomorrow and no government can keep track of such. Having said that, those who sign up to the rules should abide by the rules. It is not muzzling the media if the govt just follows the law. If these stations want to broadcast nationwide or through the internet, then they should sign up for that licence or go underground and operate as pirates.

  15. You were not concerned when they went after Mmembe but now it is Muvi TV. Will Nyirenda seek the help of other media house seeing that he stopped his workers from participating in a solidarity march for Chansa?

  16. A gorvernment that is even afraid of its own shadow ;; if you are doing right nothing can threaten you, .but if your works fall short to please the electorate; then you have every thing to fear no matter how much you explain nothing will work..

  17. There is no crime that MUVI TV has made movie tv has not sent signal country wide all movie TV has done is to send the signal to Strong Technologies (MY TV) and MYTV is the one that has sent the signal country wide. So Movie Tv has used tha right signal and MYTV has also done the right thing., it distributed according to its capcity that it has been given by Law. There is no problem here. There would have been a problem if MUVITV distributed the signal country wide using terrestial. They have acted within the law, all they have done is to think outside the box.

  18. if u look at the previous election results you will understand where shikapwasha and his team are coming from . They got much of the their votes from the rular areas coz they they are ill informed about our govt activities. so media black outs / or censored state media will help propagate their agenda. Private media will not be easly given access to the whole zambian general populas cos the truth shall set zambia free. SO THE PRIVATE MEDIA SHOULD ENSURE THAT THEY FIGHT FOR THE WHOLE NATION COVERAGE, SO AS EVERY ONE TO BE ENLIGHTENED.

  19. #19 Trigo and Ken #9

    Trigo, if that is what MUVI has done it can be likened to whet Ken is saying that “MUVI TV has sold its content to MY TV the way ZNCB sold content to DStv”

    But I have observed that even on Multichoice when you go to Namibia’s NBC or Zimbabwe’s ZBC channels you cannot access it and there is usually a message saying content on this channel is restricted to that country. So, the question is can ZNBC broadcast its content in Malawi or Zim through Multichoice? If they cannot, why is it so? Then we scale down to intra Zed on Muvi.

    Perhaps, the only thing which MUVI TV should do (using the UKUPESHA LUNSHI PRINCIPLE) is to upgrade their license, and if GRZ does not grant them then only can we make conclusions that indeed GRZ is out to shut the media out.

  20. Goverment wants to hinder Zambians of the right to freedom of information, MMD only wants the country to be bombarded with its propaganda on ZNBC, MUVI TV is a major threat. You should be scared ha ha ha … !

  21. I`ve read and learnt at least one thing from the bloggers` comments. Please ba GOVT this is what is known as DEVELOPMENT. Let you be proud even when you come out of that office and say “WE FACILTATED THE COUNTRYWIDE BROADCASTING OF MUVI TV AND OTHERS WHEN WE WERE IN OFFICE.” Just take the necessary steps and let it happen. This will give me a chance to watch Muvi Tv `pakuti nshingaitambapo nemo kuno ku CB. `

  22. one frequnecy of 2Kilowats coverage is correct statement..You would only assumehe means Kilowats of BW if yourself is dull. A tchnocal guy wud easily intrepret it as one channel with a sepcific frequecy, and the transmission/broadcas power is restricted to 2 kilowats EIRP..this would rpugly cover 20-50Km of radius

  23. In any given country a government that restrict media operations is deemed to be dictatorship kind of governamnce. What is it that MMD is afraid of? ZNBC have failed to broadcast through out the country, so why not to let the private owned media rich out to the rural areas?, Shikapwasha as a minister u should just encourage this stations to upgrade their lisences so that pipo in areas can have freedom of choice and information regarding TV stations they like. mind u freedom of choice is a constitutional right”””

  24. MY TV can broadcast MUVI TV single any where they feel like. Its their product when it reaches the TELEPORT. (Look it up) If a Malawian station gets interested cos of banja they will sale there. Free to air is only for test purposes. You and me will have to subscribe like DStv soon. Am told the cost will be K10,000.00 per month. (Confirmed) DStv buys from outside, MY TV is buying local content. Yabaaaa!!! Good business strategy. GRZ can win this case in court. VIVA private media.

  25. Suntwe…are you a night School drop out? You english is absymal to say the least young(old)man.Back to the point,MMD is trying to censor their electorates ie rural people from accessing upto date information.

    The only way for the opposition to win elections is by running Bascopos in rural areas once a week so that people have relevant information rather than data from ZNBC..

  26. Ba Suntwe ba Mudala Mwali nimwe ba classmate waba Hon. Shikapwasha? Naimwe mwayambo ubufi bwakunya (ahahahahha) ati a freq of 2 KWatts – meaning ERP?( hahahahaahha) Zo ona ni High tech iyo ndelandapo Muli ba kwi? Muli ba Telecoms, nangu nimwe ba signal man Mu army ngaba shikapwasha? Ba suntwe ba Mudala wandi mwifulwa ndesekakofye. Mr Shikapwasha should learn to hold back his emotions. If you have some scores to settle with the guys in the media, settle them amicably – rather than empeding technological advancements being brought up by the same entities. I know that there are protocols governing information transmission and that, they are meant to help control the tax issues, interference, control of infor being propagated and so on. But are not meant to hinder technological development.

  27. Our country will never develop, it is refreshing for us to view Muvi Tv. The TV station has much to loose if content is compromised hence the good work. ZNBC are relaxed becoz they get free money. Muvi Tv has created jobs, people in Diaspora like myself will have a chance to watch local (Zambian content by paying). ZNBC is threatened, its not Shakapwasha.
    Big ups Muvi.

  28. Ku ipa monga RB. Just shut up you know nothing. Zambia will never develop with these urgly people and these shallow minds. Let Muvi carry on

  29. Muvi TV has broad joy to all. Let us allow them to carry on. It is retrogressive to stop good things. Licenses are documents that can be ammended. ZCBC (I mean ZNBC) are threatened together with MMD. They will not lie to people any more. Country wide broadcast will intel more jobs as no one will have interest in Lusaka news but theirs as well. Therefore people will be employed to gather news even in Shang’ombo. Bi ups MUVI. TO hell ZCBC

  30. Here we go Zambians. This is a ploy by this so-called govt to control the media. How can Zambians rely on govt mouth pieces such as ZNBC, Daily Mail and Times of Zambia? This is sham and a shame. Leave Muvi

  31. By the way, who in his right mind made Shikapwasha a general? This guy is a disgrace to our nation in his capacity as Minister of Information, sorry Minister of Propaganda.

  32. The goverment is scared that the opposition can easily use MUVI TV to easily reach all parts of the country. We shall not allow them to revoke the licence of MUVI TV.

  33. shika should just understand the current technology rather than victimising innocent people who are trying to take development in other areas. it is a pit that the nation has people in leadership like shika who are indirectly campaigning aganist the ruling party for Maureen

  34. The media should not be truant and give the Govt. latitude to punish them. Let them operate within the provisos of the license. It would be against national security to unilaterally liberalize our airwaves. However, if Muvi TV – meeting all the set guidelines, were to apply for nationwide coverage and denied the license for unconvincing reasons – then we gut a problem. As it is now most of the blogs posted here are highly polarized – a clear indication of an absence of rational thinking.

  35. I have had just about enough of this rubbish our leadership has gone to the dogs.
    Natubwelela kuli by air kind of arrangement fellow country men what are we to do about these issues.

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