Back in early 2018 reports started surfacing claiming that Kwese had acquired the rights to Ligue 1. Soccer24 ran with it, Telecompaper ran with it, and The Herald ran with it.
What’s happened since?
This was interesting news as it seemed Kwese would be scooping up everything else that isn’t the EPL (which is exclusive to Multichoice in Sub-Saharan Africa). We wondered whether or not the Bundesliga (German League) would be next. Or maybe the Italian Seria A (Multichoice grabbed the rights to that later on). There would be enough teams and star talent in this league for Kwese to actually be a bit more attractive to the male-led households which were primarily interested in soccer when considering which satellite TV to pay for.
Lo and behold, these were only mere dreams that would be shattered very quickly and when the season started it slowly became clear that there was no French Ligue 1. No Mbappe, Neymar or Cavanni for Kwese subscribers to turn to in their time of boredom.
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Initially, I thought “maybe the French Ligue 1 highlights would be broadcasted later after live games”, but it became obvious that this wasn’t to be.
So today, one Uncle Pastuzo (oh wait, that’s me) reached out to Kwese iflix on Twitter enquiring about this situation regarding the French league and it’s airing and the response I got laid it bare that there is no French league coming your way:
Hello Uncle Pastuzo, currently, we are not offering Ligue 1. However, we are still working on adding more content and improving the service. In the meanwhile note that Kwese we broadcast live games from Spain’s Copa Del Rey, the EFL Championship (England’s second tier).^IC
Hello Uncle Pastuzo,currently, we are not offering Ligue 1. However, we are still working on adding more content and improving the service. In the meanwhile note that Kwese we broadcast live games from Spain’s Copa Del Rey, the EFL Championship (England’s second tier).^IC
— Kwesé TV Zimbabwe (@kwesetvzw) October 12, 2018
The ghost of the EPL
We had gotten complaints from some subscribers speaking on the issue of EPL matches no longer being broadcasted and we had to actually wait until we had the facts. That tweet all but confirms the harsh reality that is; that one live EPL game you would get per week. Well, that’s gone as well…
Communication is key..
One of the problems with Kwese TV’s decline has been that of communication. They have not been upfront about any struggles they are facing. Even in this Ligue 1 story, I don’t recall whether or not Kwese actually gave a statement confirming or denying this partnership and they didn’t communicate reasons as to why the French League was never broadcasted. EPL broadcasts were discontinued and I didn’t see the public being informed of that either.
Instead, we’ve had incidents of people complaining about channels disappearing but no official press statements as to why these channels have disappeared. Full disclosure would have been great but subscribers have had to discover how cold it is out there after having paid subscriptions only to realise some of the programs that were promised are no longer airing.
It’s not all bad
It’s great that Kwese has reduced the pricing of their subscription to $18 but if Kwese TV is to actually recover and gain traction once again (in the Zim market) they’ll have to leave their Nicodemus tendencies behind and opt for full disclosure. Oh, in future Kwese should consider investing in local content when given the chance to.
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