Zimbabwe has blocked a pay television service launched by mobile phone operator Econet, saying it had not been granted a licence.

Econet started rolling out Kwese TV this week, but on Thursday the Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe (BAZ) warned people against subscribing to the service.

“The Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe wishes to advise the public that the authority has not issued any licence for the provision of Kwese TV in Zimbabwe,” BAZ said in a statement.

“The Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe, therefore, wishes to advise the public not to invest in a service that cannot be provided without a licence and warns anyone who may contemplate providing an unlicensed service to acquaint themselves with the course of action that the authority is bound to take in terms of the law.”

Content distribution licence

BAZ said it had also cancelled a content distribution licence for the My TV Africa service, after the project failed to take off.

Econet launched its Kwese TV service in 2015 and it focuses on sports and entertainment programming to African markets.

The service is already running in many countries.

Zimbabwe has only one pay TV service, South Africa’s Multi Choice, which runs DSTV. The southern African country also has one television station owned by the government.

President Robert Mugabe’s government has resisted calls to open up the broadcasting sector to more players.

Commercial radio station licences were only issued out to State companies and businesspeople with links to the ruling Zanu-PF party.