Uganda loves digital TV
July 20, 2015
By Chris Forrester
Uganda has about 4 million TV households, and less than 1 million of them subscribe to pay TV. On Monday June 15, just over a month ago, the main analogue transmitter in the capital Kampala was switched off. Since then consumers have clearly joined the digital revolution.
On July 31st another batch of analogue regional transmitters will go dark, and the analogue switch off will wrap with the final towers going dark during August.
The population can enjoy a variety of digital TV channels, including NTV, NBS, WBS, Al Jazeera. Capital TV, SALT, Delta TV, East Africa TV, H-TV and others, free of charge, provided they buy a digital set-top box.
And consumers are buying! Almost 700,000 digi-boxes have been sold according to data from the Ugandan Communications Commission.
Tina Wamala, DSTV Uganda’s public relations manager, quoted by Uganda’s New Vision newspaper, described the rise in sales as “literally overwhelming” since the pay TV operator commenced a promotional campaign that coincided with the switch to digital.