adminPeter Tanyanyiwa Lifestyle reporter
The first live recording of a stand-up comedy show took place at Book Café last week. This initiated the series of weekly live recordings on the lines of Comedy Central shows for local and international viewing.
This should come as a relief for Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation television viewers who were forced to look beyond the country’s borders for alternative sources of better packaged programming.
Programmes such as Zim Comedy live shows are expected to attract more viewers to the local television screens once again.
The live comedy shows will be screened on ZBC, Bostv and Mzansi Magic.
The show saw comedians like Simba the Comic King, Masusela, Louizzy the Prince of Comedy and Doc Vikela performing on the night.
The presence of satellite dishes at most houses around the country even in the poorest communities should be seen as an indication of the poor quality of local programmes.
Zim Comedy Live director Joe Njagu said it was time for Zimbabweans to see local comedians on television, not the usual elite shows that only reached a limited audience.
“It has been long overdue to have a comedy show for television. We have incredible comic talent in Zimbabwe, so when Simba the comic approached me with the idea of creating a television show I immediately jumped on it. People always complain about boring content on local television so this is a step towards giving good entertaining content to broadcasters. I have come on board as a producer and director and it’s going be a first for Zimbabwe television. It is time for Zimbabweans to see comedians on television not the usual elite shows that only reach a limited audience,” he said.
Another TV show that is expected to make headlines is the recently launched “Makosi Today” on ZTV. The show is hosted by former Big Brother UK contestant Makosi Musambasi and it will be on local television for the foreseeable future.
In October last year the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting Services toured different Media houses in Harare.
The ministry pointed out that changes in management positions should also bring new approaches to content production at ZBC.
However, the country still looks set to miss the International Telecommunication Union and Sadc 2015 deadline to migrate to digital broadcasting.
Zimbabwe has not invested much into the sector in the last decade as it went through a period of economic meltdown. Other countries in the region are forging ahead with digitisation.
The ITU has urged broadcasting companies to digitalise by 2015 but Sadc had set 2013 as the deadline for its members to go digital.
While South Africa has made strides to meet the target, Zimbabwe is lagging behind due to lack of funds.
ZBC entered into a partnership with South African signal carrier, Sentech to meet the 2015 Sadc deadline.
Representatives of the South African signal carrier company were recently in the country to discuss ways they would help ZBC digitise its equipment and signals.
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