Television Malawi (TVM), founded in 1999, is a public broadcaster run by the Malawi Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) in Blantyre, Malawi. The station transmits its signal throughout the country via satellite.^[1][2]

History

The Malawi Congress Party government was against the introduction of television in Malawi. In 1996, the idea was first mooted following a change of political power to the United Democratic Front. The government appointed the Malawi Post and Telecommunications Corporation with assistance from Malaysian private channel TV3 and later the Malawi Development Corporation.^[3][4][5] Up until then, the only television services available in Malawi were delivered by satellite. It was initially suggested that the service was going to be on air by March 1997.^[6] Later, the prospective launch date was pushed ahead to November 1996. Equipment was provided by Sony and NEC.^[7] The station was set to broadcast on VHF band III.^[8]

Following a series of delays, Television Malawi opened on 1 April 1999, in time for that year's elections. Extensive coverage of the campaign was carried.^[3] Initially the station had limited reach in Lilongwe and Blantyre, for a mere few thousand viewers, with the long-term aim at extending its reach nationwide and attaining as much as 40,000 viewers.^[3]

In 2000, 80% of the programming consisted of relays from BET International, Worldnet and TVAfrica. The government was planning the introduction of a television license fee effective January 2001. At the time, the country had little more than 50,000 television sets, for 300,000 viewers.^[9]

On July 1, 2011, TVM and MBC merged.^[2] On February 19, 2013, Television Malawi started broadcasting on DStv channel 295.

References