With effect from August 5th 2019, Econet Media Limited, the parent company of Kwese TV put the final nail on its entertainment division.

This move has put an end to all of Kwese’s existing services which include its satellite cum Pay TV service, free-to-air TV — Kwese Free Sports — and its video on demand (VoD) service, Kwese iflix.

Earlier in July, Roku announced that its partnership with Econet for Kwese Play — an internet streaming device powered by Roku — was discontinued.

The Telecom giant confirmed that the decision to shut down all its services comes as a result of prevailing economic hardship in Zimbabwe.

“The third-party content providers, on whose content we rely, require payment in foreign currency. With prevailing economic conditions in Zimbabwe, and the current business operation environment, sustaining Kwese and the Kwese Satellite Service was no longer viable,” said Douglas Mboweni, CEO of Econet Group in a public notice.

This is the last of the gradual shut down of Econet’s entertainment division which began last year. In November 2018, the company shut down Kwese TV in Nigeria while switching their focus to digital services.

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Presently, the Kwese TV and Kwese iflix app, are no longer available on the Google Play Store and the Apple Store.

Also, a deep scan of free-to-air channels in Nigeria reveals that Kwese Free Sports is also off the air. With the shutdown of services, the entertainment media that began in December 2015, finally reaches the end of a slow and gradual decline.