Azam Media Ltd

Azam Media Limited (AML) is the content-production unit of the Bakhresa Group’s Broadcast & Media Division and the operator of the AzamTV brand, one of Tanzania’s most prominent privately controlled pay-television services. The Bakhresa Group’s Broadcast & Media Division was formed in early 2013, and AzamTV was officially launched on 4 December 2013.

The Group itself originated when founder Said Salim Awadh Bakhresa opened the Azam Restaurant in 1975, and consolidated into its current corporate form with the establishment of Said Salim Bakhresa & Company Limited (SSB) as the flagship company in 1983. The Bakhresa Group today comprises more than 30 subsidiaries spanning 28 fields of operation, with annual turnover of over US$800 million and more than 8,000 direct employees, with a corporate footprint across Tanzania (including Zanzibar), Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, and South Africa. Within the Broadcast & Media Division, three Bakhresa entities operate in coordinated roles: Azam Media Limited (content production), Azam TV Limited (commercial distribution and subscriber management), and Azam Digital Broadcast Limited (ADBL) (DTH and DTT infrastructure).

Media assets

Television channels (Azam-branded): Azam One, Azam Two, Sinema Zetu, Azam Xtra, UTV, Azam Sports 1–4 HD network

Radio: Azam FM

Ownership and governance

Azam Media and the related AzamTV entities are privately controlled by the Bakhresa family and form part of the Bakhresa Group’s Broadcast & Media Division. TCRA’s 2021 television-licence listings indicate a Bakhresa-family shareholding pattern for the Azam One, Azam Two, and Sinema Zetu channel licences along an 80% / 5% / 5% / 5% / 5% split between Said Salim Bakhresa & Co. Ltd. and the four Bakhresa sons (Yusuf, Abubakar, Omar, and Mohammed), while TCRA’s separate 2021 listing for Azam TV Limited as a subscription-channel aggregator records a different structure (Abubakar Said Salim Bakhresa 50.98%, Omar 24.50%, Yusuf 24.50%, and Azam Media Limited 0.02%). Exact current company-level shareholding across the Broadcast & Media Division entities is best verified against current BRELA company extracts and current TCRA licence files. Azam Media Limited is registered with Tanzania’s Business Registrations and Licensing Agency (BRELA) under No. 95870.

Official Bakhresa Group material identifies Yusuf Said Salim Bakhresa as Executive Director of Azam Media Limited, and Abubakar Said Salim Bakhresa as Managing Director of Said Salim Bakhresa & Co. Ltd. and the Group’s media businesses. A 2025 satellite-industry report quoted Jacob Joseph as Chief Executive Officer of AzamTV. The Bakhresa sons hold executive roles across Group entities and sit on the Bakhresa Group board, with founder Said Salim Awadh Bakhresa serving as Chairman of the Group. The Bakhresa Group employs more than 8,000 people across its African operations. A 12 June 2013 mortgage in favour of Standard Chartered Bank Tanzania Limited, securing US$8 million, is recorded in the AML company file.

Source of funding and budget

Azam Media operates on a commercial revenue model, with income generated through pay-TV subscription bouquets (Azam Lite, Pure, Plus, and Play), advertising, sports-rights monetisation, content sales and licensing, and event partnerships. The most significant single sports-rights agreement is the Tanzania Mainland Premier League deal, secured in 2021, which gave Azam TV exclusive 10-year broadcasting rights to Tanzania’s top-tier football league in a transaction valued at TZS 225.6 billion alongside a sponsorship renewal with the Tanzania Football Federation; the league has been commercially branded as the NBC Premier League during this period.

The Bakhresa Group has invested extensively in AML’s infrastructure, including studios, Outside Broadcasting (OB) vans, Digital Satellite News Gathering (DSNG) units, a Data Video Unit (DVU), and a Professional Commentary Production Control Room (PCR). The May 2023 launch of AML’s DTT tower project by President Samia Suluhu Hassan, covering more than 21 regions at a reported cost of approximately TZS 50 billion, marks the largest single broadcast-infrastructure investment in the company’s history. Distribution partnerships include Eutelsat’s 7° East neighbourhood for DTH delivery. As a privately held subsidiary of the Bakhresa Group, Azam Media does not publish detailed standalone financial statements; its revenues, costs, and profit margins are reported within Group-level aggregate disclosures.

Editorial independence

Azam Media’s editorial output is commercial in orientation: sport, entertainment, Swahili drama, films, and family programming dominate the schedule, with news bulletins forming a secondary part of the offering. AzamTV is widely viewed in Tanzania as a sports- and entertainment-led platform rather than as a primary news broadcaster. AML does not publish an internal editorial charter guaranteeing independence, and no independent oversight mechanism reviews or assesses its editorial performance. The political-economy environment in which AML operates includes documented state-business proximity around major infrastructure projects, most prominently the May 2023 launch of AML’s DTT tower project by President Samia Suluhu Hassan. Bakhresa Group’s own reporting of that event noted the government’s stated commitment to continue creating a conducive environment for the media and broadcasting-technology sector.

AI and digital policy

Azam Media maintains a digital presence including the bakhresa.com corporate site, the AzamTV MAX mobile application on iOS and Android, an official YouTube channel, and social-media accounts across X, Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. The company’s Direct-to-Home and Digital Terrestrial Television distribution relies on the latest DVB-S2 and DVB-T2 broadcast standards. AML has not adopted any public-facing policy on AI-generated content, synthetic-media disclosure, or content provenance frameworks such as C2PA. At the national-policy level, the Cybercrimes Act, the Electronic and Postal Communications Act, and the Online Content Regulations under the Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority (TCRA) continue to shape the regulatory environment for digital content.

May 2026