The cost of data bundles in Uganda keeps reducing slowly year on year, but most parts of there country still have sporadic access to the internet in these horrendous economic times. During this lockdown, most Ugandan artists have found solace online and pimped up their YouTube game.
When we last did this YouTube channel comparison in 2015, we looked at the top 25 Ugandan based YouTube Channels and so far we have seen significant growth in the consumption and production of “locally-made” video content. This ranges from Artists, entertainers, comedians, and from media houses like television stations that have taken an effort to upload some programs on YouTube on their respective YouTube channels.
ALSO READ: Check out the 25 most popular Twitter profiles in Uganda- 2020
Our statistics today show a similar story, in order to have a popular YouTube channel in Uganda, you must either be an entertainer, musician, comedian, or own a news broadcasting channel. Eddy Kenzo finally dethroned Anne Kansime from the top spot– now with over 1.12 million subscribers leaving the comedy queen with 977,000 subscribers. The only other three musicians with the most subscribed channels are Weasle, Spiece Diana, and Bebe Cool with 131,000, 109,000, and 94,400 subscribers respectively.
EDITOR’S NOTE 1: This article focuses on YouTube channels registered as Ugandan channels on YouTube. For example, Jose Chameleone’s channel is registered as a USA based channel and ranks at 22,998th in the USA. Other artists like Rema who also have a huge following were created and registered on YouTube with no specific country thus making them hard to rank. In case you know any of the people managing their YouTube channels, please ask them to make the necessary changes.
NTV Uganda leads the broadcasters
With 462,000 subscribers NTV leads the news broadcasting channels with a clearly better strategy unlike its competitors hosting a 24/7 live channel and also short clips of its popular programs. This is followed by Vision Group, NTV’s Akawungenzi, Next media, and SparkTV UGANDA at 442k,000, 238,000, 192,000 and 106,000 subscribers respectively
THE 25 TOP SUBSCRIBED CHANNELS IN UGANDA
We’ve also seen the rise of another popular YouTube channel called Alex Muhangi Comedian that now has over 261,000 subscribers which shows that he is clearly doing something right.
The channels that dropped off the top list since our 2015 ranking include; BukeddeTv, SamYiga1, UbranUg, WBS TV Uganda, NileValley History, Bigeye, Funfactoryug, NBStvUganda, Pablo Kimuli, Maurice Kirya among others.
Google’s takes 45% of the earnings from each YouTube channel
YouTube takes a huge 45% chunk of every YouTuber’s earnings. That’s why earning from a YouTube channel one must post content often and have many followers. Generating recurring revenue from a YouTube channel could be much more efficient by using your own video-on-demand (VOD) website for uploading your premium (paid) content. Such a website provides full control over the monetization of your video content (by setting up access to its videos through different payment options).
It should be noted that if you build your own video streaming site and online store using video-on-demand, you can get all 100% without any middleman involved. Your VOD website is also white-labeled and fully customizable to the look and feel of every single aspect of your business and your brand.
Below you can see the Ugandan YouTube channels with the total number of video views plus our rank. We have already taken into consideration the following when coming up with the data. The current dollar exchange $1 = UGX 3,782 and the 45% YouTube fee has also been removed from each channel’s total monthly and yearly estimates. When you scan through this list you notice that video content has the potential to fetch Uganda’s top 25 content creators on Youtube between UGX 30 million to UGX 476 million per month and between 400 million to UGX 2,6 billion a year, if and when the video producers go by the book.
The range of the earnings are calculated according to YouTube analytics where estimates are placed within upper and lower limits, based on their daily views multiplied by a low cost-per-thousand impression advertising (CPM) rate of $0.60 and a high rate of $5. The range is wide to account for differences in the type of ad (including kinds of banner ads and pre-roll) and brand value. These estimates also assume that every video is monetized, which is not always the case. Even after subtracting Google’s 45% cut, these YouTube channels (celebs, media houses and music promoters) have got it made.
EDITOR’S NOTE 2: YouTube partners have terms against discussing the income that they make from YouTube and so we could not go ahead to verify the figures grossed by the different video creators to get the exact figures.
2020 ESTIMATED EARNINGS OF THE TOP 25 RANKED UGANDAN YOUTUBE CHANNELS
| Rank | Channel Name | Category | No of Subscribers (000) | Estimated Video Views | Min/ Month (UGX) | Max/Month (UGX) | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Eddy Kenzo | Music | 1,120 | 287,228,828 | 9,019,910 | 144,318,563 | 108,238,922 | 1,701,869,850 |
| 2 | Masaka Kids Afrikana | Entertainment | 1.03 | 152,407,242 | 4,598,651 | 74,430,019 | 55,865,094 | 923,988,224 |
| 2 | Kansiime Anne | Comedy | 977 | 221,741,206 | 1,701,870 | 27,740,479 | 20,762,812 | 332,545,369 |
| 3 | UGXTRA COMEDY | Entertainment | 864 | 151,032,366 | 2,893,179 | 46,461,047 | 34,888,332 | 558,553,685 |
| 4 | NTVUganda | News | 462 | 157,441,013 | 2,212,431 | 34,207,584 | 25,698,235 | 409,810,260 |
| 5 | Vision Group | News | 442 | 317,024,353 | 1,872,057 | 29,612,535 | 22,124,308 | 355,010,051 |
| 6 | Alex Muhangi Commedian | Comedy | 261 | 69,253,851 | 1,225,346 | 19,571,503 | 14,636,081 | 235,198,413 |
| 7 | Akawungeezi | News | 238 | 88,082,579 | 699,469 | 11,232,341 | 8,339,162 | 134,447,718 |
| 8 | BEST SHOOTS Official | Entertainment | 214 | 18,456,347 | 544,598 | 8,679,536 | 6,467,105 | 104,494,809 |
| 9 | Next Media Uganda | News | 192 | 58,130,950 | 2,212,431 | 34,888,332 | 26,208,796 | 419,340,731 |
| 10 | Teacher Mpamire | Comedy | 192 | 31,398,679 | 641,605 | 10,211,219 | 7,658,414 | 123,215,377 |
| 11 | Powers | People | 166 | 18,770,862 | 767,543 | 12,253,463 | 9,190,097 | 147,211,742 |
| 12 | Triplets Ghetto Kids | Entertainment | 164 | 33,200,553 | 319,952 | 5,105,610 | 3,914,301 | 61,437,502 |
| 13 | PROCLAIM MKC | Music | 157 | 35,146,891 | 617,779 | 9,870,845 | 7,488,227 | 118,790,516 |
| 14 | Rokani Media | Entertainment | 142 | 5,932,378 | 304,635 | 4,935,423 | 3,573,927 | 58,374,136 |
| 15 | Galaxy Foundation | People | 137 | 23,403,592 | 205,926 | 3,233,553 | 2,382,618 | 39,483,381 |
| 16 | OGA PROMO | Entertainment | 131 | 4,968,101 | 122,535 | 1,872,057 | 1,463,608 | 23,485,804 |
| 17 | RADIÒ ànd WEASEL Goodlyfe | Music | 131 | 40,988,121 | 493,542 | 7,828,601 | 5,956,544 | 94,794,151 |
| 18 | Ugandan Lifestyle | People | 128 | 29,168,219 | 769,245 | 12,253,463 | 9,190,097 | 147,552,116 |
| 19 | Katusekemu | Entertainment | 118 | 25,075,465 | 190,609 | 3,063,366 | 2,212,431 | 36,590,202 |
| 20 | UGXTRA CELEBRITY BUZZ | Music | 113 | 19,842,403 | 95,305 | 1,526,577 | 1,140,253 | 18,380,194 |
| 21 | Spice Diana | Music | 109 | 15,365,851 | 597,356 | 9,530,471 | 7,147,853 | 114,706,028 |
| 22 | SparkTV UGANDA | People | 106 | 15,912,641 | 673,940 | 10,721,780 | 7,998,788 | 129,171,922 |
| 23 | WOLOKOSO Mu Ug Extra | Entertainment | 99.4 | 14,592,237 | 401,641 | 6,467,105 | 4,765,236 | 77,094,704 |
| 24 | BBS TEREFAYINA | News | 95.5 | 20,741,802 | 495,244 | 7,998,788 | 5,956,544 | 94,964,338 |
| 25 | Bebecool OFFICIAL | Music | 94.4 | 23,717,429 | 389,728 | 6,296,918 | 4,595,049 | 74,882,273 |
Surprised with the YouTube rankings? Please leave a comment below.
