ZBC TV

In the country, television was introduced on 15 November 1960, making it the second country after Nigeria to launch such services in the Sub Saharan Africa[2] and the first in Southern Africa. It was operated by a private company called Rhodesian Television (RTV) with its major shareholders being South African companies.

RTV was taken over by the government and became part of the then state broadcaster, Rhodesian Broadcasting Corporation (RBC) in 1976.

Television was mainly accessible in major cities of the country and mostly to the white population. At the time of launch on 15 November 1960, television became available in Salisbury (now Harare) and in June 1961 it became available in Bulawayo.[3] Back then, the station was broadcasting in black and white until 1982, when it upgraded to full colour using PAL B system.

After the country's independence on 18 April 1980,[4] RTV became ZBC TV and RBC became ZBC. This followed after the country changed its name from Rhodesia, Southern Rhodesia, Zimbabwe Rhodesia to Independent Zimbabwe. The station is sometimes called ZTV, abbreviation for Zimbabwe Television, a name that was officially used in the 2000s.

In the late 90s, the country's main opposition party MDC led by Morgan Tsvangirai was launched. This saw the majority of the opposition supporters, local independent media houses, non governmental organisations and international media monitors accusing the state broadcaster for only reporting biased news favouring the ruling ZANU PF.

In July 1998, Joy TV, a private TV station was launched in the capital, but was later closed down on 31 May 2002 [5] when ZBC refused to renew its licence. In December 2018, ZBC announced the return of Joy TV.[6]

In 2004, ZBC announced a new TV channel called National Television or NTV, a brainchild of the then information minister, Jonathan Moyo and was said that it will be broadcasting from Montrose Studios in Bulawayo. The launch of the station was delayed despite the fact that the transmitter was already installed. In 2005, Minister Moyo was fired and the project collapsed. In 2015 when he was reappointed as the information minister, Moyo promised to revive the NTV project but that never happened.

On 1 May 2010, ZBC reported the successful launch of another TV channel called Channel 2.[7] The TV channel transmitted on 199.5 MHz within an 80 km (50 mile) radius of Harare. The station was later closed in 2015.[8]

On 20 November 2020, The Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe (BAZ) granted free to air commercial television licences to 6 (out of the 14 applicants) private players to broadcast nationally, breaking the 60 year long ZBC TV monopoly. These include the Bulawayo-based FairTalk Communications, trading as Ke Yona TV which owns Bulawayo's Skyz Metro FM and Victoria Falls' Breeze FM. The state owned ZimPapers Limited, trading as ZTN (ZimPapers Television Network), which owns several radio stations and print media in the country was also granted. Other players include Rusununguko Media (Pvt) Ltd trading as NRTV, Jester Media trading as 3K TV, Acacia Media Group trading as Kumba TV and Channel Dzimbahwe trading as Channel D.

Unsuccessful applicants include ZiFM Stereo's parent company AB Communications trading as Flex TV, Alpha Media Holdings' Heart & Soul Broadcasting Services (Pvt) Ltd trading as HStv, Blackbury Enterprises (Pvt) Ltd trading as Blackbury TV, Conduit Investments (Pvt) Ltd trading as Conduit TV Station, Just in Time TV (Pvt) Ltd trading as JIT TV, Medianet Productions (Pvt) Ltd trading as Sunrise TV and Meditation Investments (Pvt) Ltd trading Zim news Channel.

ZBC TV broadcasts mainly from the studios in Pockets Hill, in a suburb of Highlands, in Harare. It has another studio located in Bulawayo, in a suburb of Montrose.

The broadcasting centre in Pockets Hill was commissioned in 1970, while the new building was commissioned by the former president, Robert Mugabe in 1994.