Medianova

Grupo Medianova is a diversified Angolan media group operating television, radio, newspaper, and digital assets. Originally launched as a private commercial media group in 2008–2009, Medianova was brought into the state sphere in July 2020 through an asset-recovery action by Angola’s Procuradoria-Geral da República, and has since been treated as an asset pending reprivatisation under the Angolan privatisation programme. The group is headquartered in Luanda.

Media assets

Television: TV Zimbo: Angola’s first private television channel. Experimental broadcasts began on 14 December 2008, with regular programming starting on 15 May 2009 (see the Lusa/RTP launch report and the Jornal de Notícias report on the launch partnership with the Portuguese broadcaster TVI and technical support from the BBC). TV Zimbo migrated to HD broadcasting in 2014. The channel is distributed in Angola through terrestrial/free-to-air and pay-TV platforms, and launched an international feed in Portugal on the operator NOS on 5 September 2024

Radio: Rádio Mais: commercial radio station launched by Grupo Medianova in the 2008–2009 period

Print and digital: O País : newspaper launched by Grupo Medianova in November 2008, initially directed by Luís Fernando, formerly an editor of Jornal de Angola; O País began as a weekly and has since operated through print and online editions

Ownership and governance

Grupo Medianova was established between November 2008 and May 2009 as a private commercial media group, originally described as being held by undisclosed Angolan capital. The group’s first project was the launch of the weekly newspaper O País in November 2008, followed in late 2008 by the radio station Rádio Mais and the television channel TV Zimbo on 14 December 2008. As contemporary reporting recorded, TV Zimbo was launched in partnership with the Portuguese broadcaster TVI and with technical support from the BBC, with Medianova investing approximately US$26 million in the TV Zimbo project. The channel hired about 310 staff at launch, including an editorial team of 22 Portuguese journalists initially trained by TVI professionals. Following a financial reorganisation in November 2010, the Portuguese expatriate workforce was largely replaced by Angolan technicians and journalists, and in mid-2011 the Brazilian executive William Corrêa undertook a wider operational restructuring covering equipment, newsroom procedures, programming, and the introduction of marketing and animation departments. TV Zimbo migrated to HD broadcasting in 2014.

In July 2020, Angola’s Procuradoria-Geral da República (PGR) placed Grupo Medianova, including TV Zimbo, Rádio Mais, and O País, under state guardianship as part of an asset-recovery action. The action was publicly justified on the basis that the assets had allegedly been created or supported with state resources despite being registered as private companies. The action targeted assets associated with General Manuel Hélder Vieira Dias Jr. (“Kopelipa”) and General Leopoldino Fragoso do Nascimento (“Dino”), both former senior figures in the Angolan presidential apparatus under former President José Eduardo dos Santos. Operational oversight was transferred to the Ministry of Telecommunications, Information Technologies and Social Communication (MINTTICS), headed at the time by Minister Manuel Homem. A state-appointed Management Commission was installed shortly after the 2020 handover; contemporary reporting identified Paulo Julião, former President of the Board of Administration of Televisão Pública de Angola, as the coordinator of the Commission.

Operational control over the group has since been exercised through state-appointed transitional management within the state asset-management and privatisation framework. MINTTICS has played a sectoral oversight role over the broader Angolan state-aligned media space, while the Institute for the Management of State Assets and Holdings (IGAPE) is the body responsible for the disposal process under the Angolan privatisation programme, Propriv. As of June 2025, IGAPE President Álvaro Fernão confirmed publicly that TV Zimbo and Grupo Medianova remained under discussion regarding the optimal timing and disposal model for their alienation. TV Zimbo and Grupo Medianova have appeared in successive Propriv privatisation plans since the initial 2021 announcement, with the privatisation timeline having been pushed forward through successive presidential decrees and IGAPE updates.

Source of funding and budget

Grupo Medianova generates revenue commercially through television and radio advertising, weekly newspaper sales and advertising, commercial printing services through Gráfica Damer, and a range of additional services. The group’s pre-2020 cost base was substantial: Medianova invested approximately US$26 million in the launch of TV Zimbo alone, supported by a then-undisclosed mix of capital sources subsequently identified through the 2020 PGR asset-recovery action as having drawn on Angolan state resources and bank financing channelled through entities associated with senior figures of the previous administration.

Since the 2020 transfer to state guardianship, Medianova has operated under IGAPE management within the Propriv framework, with operating arrangements oriented towards maintaining the group’s commercial viability ahead of privatisation. Public reporting on Angola’s wider public communications sector, including the September 2025 IGAPE sectoral report carried by Expansão and Diário dos Negócios, has documented severe structural dependence on direct state subsidies among the country’s state-owned public-enterprise media companies, including TPA, RNA, Edições Novembro, and ANGOP. For Medianova specifically, the key documented fact is state control and guardianship status under the asset-recovery and privatisation processes, rather than direct receipt of operating subsidies on the model of the public-enterprise outlets.

Editorial independence

Grupo Medianova’s editorial output has been the subject of repeated criticism from press-freedom organisations and journalist representative bodies. During the August 2017 presidential elections, the Sindicato dos Jornalistas Angolanos (SJA) was reported as recording that, during one monitored campaign week, TV Zimbo had given 227 minutes of airtime to representatives of the ruling MPLA against approximately 30 minutes for most other parties.

In October 2020, the SJA raised public censorship concerns following the cancellation of an edition of TV Zimbo’s Directo ao Ponto programme that had been scheduled to cover the so-called “Edeltrudes Costa case” with the commentator Carlos Rosado de Carvalho, with the Management Commission telling Rosado de Carvalho that the topic was “not opportune”. The SJA called on the Regulatory Entity for Social Communication (ERCA) to address the matter.

In September 2021, TV Zimbo joined Televisão Pública de Angola in publicly announcing a policy of non-coverage of UNITA party activities following an incident at a UNITA-organised rally in which journalists from both broadcasters reported physical and verbal harassment. The SJA condemned the decision as “an obstruction to the exercise of press freedom”, and UNITA President Adalberto da Costa Júnior emphasised that any threats against journalists had not come from UNITA’s leadership. The episode was subsequently resolved through dialogue, with UNITA, TPA, and TV Zimbo reaching an agreement to normalise media coverage.

The broader Angolan media-regulatory environment is shaped by the 2016 Social Communication Legislative Package, including the Press Law, the Television Law, the Radio Law, the Journalist Statute Law, and the ERCA statute. The Regulatory Entity for Social Communication (ERCA) is Angola’s formal media regulator, but no evidence was identified that it functions as an effective independent safeguard over Grupo Medianova’s editorial autonomy or internal editorial policy during the period of state guardianship.

AI and digital policy

Grupo Medianova operates a digital footprint anchored by the TV Zimbo website at tvzimbo.co.ao, the O País online portal, the Rádio Mais streaming service, and social-media accounts across Facebook, X/Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. The TV Zimbo international feed launched on Portuguese pay-TV operator NOS on 5 September 2024 expanded the channel’s reach to the Lusophone diaspora in Portugal. No publicly available evidence of a formal Grupo Medianova policy on AI-generated content, synthetic-media disclosure, or content provenance frameworks such as C2PA was identified. At national level, Angola’s 2016 Social Communication Legislative Package, including the Press Law, Television Law, Radio Law, and ERCA statute, shapes the regulatory environment for editorial content and broadcasting.

May 2026