A new report by the Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) indicated that PayTV Television subscribers have increased from 1.4 million to 2.1 million.
The report, which covered the period between July and September 2018, reveales that there was a 47 %t growth in pay TV subscribers during the period.
The report reads in part that “The number of Pay TV subscribers grew from 1,469,129 to 2,165,293 reflecting a 47 per cent growth subscription.”
This can be attributed to the recent World Cup events, which were propelled by broadcast rights attained by a number of Ugandan service providers including StarTimes and DStv.
There has been a steady growth over the years in the PayTV industry
jumping from 1.3 million subscribers in December 2017 to the current 2.1
million in 2018.
However, the Pay TV segment continues to face
unexplained drops, according to the report, with subscriber numbers
falling at certain intervals.
For instance, in March 2018, numbers dropped to 1.1 million subscribers from 1.3 million in December 2017.
This, some analysts say, could have resulted from an impasse between UCC and Pay TV service providers regarding a rise in Pay TV license fees from Shs22m to Shs550m annually.
The new licensing regime caused uproar from Pay TV service providers, who said the increase was not only unfair but would impact the price of end user packages.
The
deadlock, which forced UCC to meet with service providers, was later
harmonized with the license fees put at an agreeable $25,000 (Shs95m).
Uganda has eight Pay Tv service provider including DStv, Zuku, Azam, Star Times, Kwese and GOtv among others.
