Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) threatened to revoke non-compliant Pay TV service providers licenses in a public notice where the commission revealed the new license guidelines. This made all Pay TV service providers to lash back at the commission’s move to increase licence fees by 2,400%.
Redpepper –of course, was quick to write an article arguing the masses to “Switch of the TV”. The head of consumer protection at UCC, Ibrahim Bbosa was quick to term the above article as fake news. He took to his Twitter account and said, “The article in the Redpepper today “SWITCH OFF THE TV” is disappointing and illustrates the need for regulators to be on top of the game when enforcing compliance. Its a classic example of operators holding the country at ransom by spreading fake news.”
In the article, Redpepper claims that UCC is increasing the price from the current UGX 20,000,000 to about UGX 550,000,000. Bbosa clarified on that saying, “The purported license fee hike of 2400% is wrong and a fabrication. The UGX 20M referred to is the fee per station in the previous license regime. So if a national provider has 20 station that means they would have previously paid UGX 400M. This they don’t say.”
This is not the first time Redpepper lands into problems with regulatory authorities for publishing “fake” and “misleading” information. The Namanve Industrial area based tabloid newspaper had just been re-opened after a long time of closure because of the said fake and misleading information it feeds the nation.
The article in Redpepper claimed that Pay TV service providers have waged a war against the commission because of the new licensing framework. But Mr. Bbosa brushed this off by saying, “Waging a war on the regulator amount to waging a war on the country. The legal & regulatory framework in Uganda dictates that rates and charges for Communications services are regulated and thus a statutory requirement. Investors are not above the law”
Mr. Bbosa didn’t have any nice words for the Pay TV operators and he termed their conduct on the change of licence as sheer bad manners.
To further water down the Pay TV operators’ statement, Ibrahim Bbosa listed down four issues that have been disguised by Pay TV operators.
1. Pay TV operators don’t want to carry Free To Air channels and have them remain free.
2. Broadcasters operating from outside Uganda don’t want to pay license.
3. Pay Tv operators don’t want to pay 2% on Gross Annual Revenue in addition to the fixed license rates.
4. Pay Tv operators don’t want @UCC_Official to approve Tariff when there are changes. These are statutory requirement having the force of law.
Finally, he teemed the projections in the article as an intention to alarm the public, baseless, unfounded and an intention to discredit the legal and regulatory environment in Uganda which many of the same Pay Tv operators have enjoyed and made a fortune at the expense of Ugandans.
