Satellite Service Provider Intelsat has given the national broadcaster Uganda Broadcasting Corporation (UBC) until September 30 to pay $988,225 (UGX 3.7b) arrears or have them switched off. Wondering how this will affect you if you don’t watch UBC TV? In 2015, we had the digital migration that saw the government promise that owners of set-top-boxes (STB) decoders would not be required to pay a monthly subscription to watch free-to-air TV channels.
So here is the issue, once switched off, it will affect more than 30 television channels and the free-to-air decoders that use UBC’s infrastructure to transmit services.
According to the satellite service provider, Intelsat, UBC’s arrears have accumulated for more than a year now, reports the Daily Monitor.
“We certainly would like to avoid such measures and would regret having to take actions that may result in termination of your services. We would also like you to consider opening a dialogue with us to consider governmental needs regarding connectivity requirements in Uganda,” the September 6 letter reads in part.
The Intelsat director of finance, Mr. Hervy Mrjuna, wrote the letter to State Minister of ICT Godfrey Kabbyanga.
Earlier, on August 23, Mr. Kabbyanga had written to Intelsat asking them not to suspend the services citing the popularising of mass vaccination against COVID-19 and the parish development model as the key reasons. He wrote,
“The Ministry commits that satellite service provision to UBC be maintained, especially during this critical time that the government is popularising the mass vaccination campaign against Covid-19 and the parish development model,” Mr Kabbyanga said, adding that the termination of service would deprive the national broadcaster from communicating government programmes and the National Resistance Movement (the ruling party) manifesto.
The Daily Monitor has confirmed with the UBC Managing Director, Mr. Winston Agaba, that they have not cleared the debt, adding that they were working out a plan with the Ministry of Finance to sort out the problem.
The MD also said that the government had this year made budget cuts for all government agencies due to financial constraints. Mr. Agaba said if Satellite Service Provider suspends the transmission, it will cause them litigation challenges since they have contractual obligations with more than 30 television stations since switching off the satellite means that free-to-air services will go off air.
