THE licensing of the new six television stations by the Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe (BAZ) have been met with mixed reactions by creatives. BY WINSTONE ANTONIO This is the first time that the country has licensed commercial television stations since independence, but the process has been described as much ado about nothing since the some of entities were linked to the ruling Zanu PF party. Of the licensed stations, one is linked to the government while others have individuals heavily involved in Zanu PF and the military. The successful applicants granted licences are Jester Media (Pvt) trading as 3KTV, Zimbabwe Newspapers (ZTN), Rusununguko Media (NRTV), Acacia Media Group (Kumba TV), Fairtalk Communications (Ke Yona TV) and Channel Dzimbabwe (Channel D). In separate interviews with NewsDay Life & Style yesterday, some of the creatives said the new players should come in with fresh ideas than those presented on Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) TV and they have to invest heavily in content if they are to capture the market. The convenor of the Content Creators Network ZW Samm Farai Monro aka Comrade Fatso said as content creators they were hoping that the new TV licences would be awarded to new cutting-edge independent and alternative voices. “Our government is really the biggest comedian because this awarding of TV licences is a joke. They have awarded six TV licences to people who are regime enablers connected to the government and in certain cases even to the military, what TV channel are the soldiers going to run, what are they going to show us, military parades?, he queried. “This is really sad and unfortunately it is. With this scenario it means that we are not going to see content creators in the media sector in Zimbabwe growing. Unfortunately it’s just going to be continued censorship of content that goes to these new stations connected to the State and we are not going to see any new narratives or alternative voices.” Seasoned filmmaker and director Joe Njagu said the onus was on the six TV stations to prove their worth, adding that as the creatives they were ready to feed content to the stations. “Well for starters any movement in the sector is a welcome development. It was about time too because since independence the country had only one TV station. I was also excited that fellow creatives like Cont Mhlanga and Moses Matanda are at the helm of two stations that were given licences, so that is hopeful to have people from the sector involved,” he said. “I am more curious than anything to see what their next steps will be. Content is King, and to run those stations successfully they need good content. We are living in a global village where people are exposed to everything so these new stations should know that their market is already exposed to DStv, Netflix, and Showmax among others so they already know what good content is.” Talent of Steel Film and Television Company director Eddie Ndhlovu shared the same sentiments with Njagu that content is of significance to the new channels, adding that t