List Of Free To Air Decoders In Uganda
Uganda has an estimated 6-7 million TV sets. If we estimate each household owning a Television to have an estimate of 5 people living together, that’s about 30 million Television viewers.
Of the 6-7 million TV sets, only about 300,000 are hooked to Pay TV stations according to the latest Stats from Uganda Communication Commission(UCC). That’s a mere 5% Television sets currently able to receive digital TV services. That means the remaining 95% are watching TV with Free-to-air (FTA) channels as opposed to subscription-based Pay-per-view(PPV) channels.
Free to Air Channels in Uganda
NTV Uganda
NBS,
Bukedde TV 1
TV West,
UBC
UBC Star TV
KTN News
BTM
Record TV
Bukalango Tv
Spirit FM
LTV
Top Tv
Salt TV
Miracle TV
KTN
K24
KBCTV
Magic HD
U24
BBSTV
STV
HGTV
KTV
BABA TV
Moon TV
Excel TV
WTV
Nyce TV
Manifest TV
UCTV
Fresh TV
GTV
See TV
Success TV
Family TV
Life TV
Delta TV
Smart24 TV
HG TV
KSTV
KBSTV
ABS TV
ARK TV
Rest TV
Gugudde TV
Free-to-air (FTA) channels
But what are Free-to-air (FTA) channels? These are TV (and radio) channels that are broadcasted in clear unencrypted format. In other words, you don’t need special equipment requiring subscription model in order to view or listen to the broadcasted content. Just your TV and an antennae for the case of analogue TV or a Free-to-air decoder for Digital TV.
Pay-per-view (PPV) channels
Pay-per-view (PPV) channels are entirely the opposite of FTA channels. PPV channels are encrypted by Pay TV providers who supply their customers with special decoding equipment or decoders that unscramble the encrypted TV signals. This usually requires subscribers to pay a monthly subscription fee to Pay TV provider before they can view the content.
Digital Pay TV Providers in Uganda
Currently there are 5 operational Digital Pay TV providers in Uganda and they include Multichoice’s satellite TV service DSTV Uganda and its Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) cousin GoTV Uganda. DSTV requires viewers to have a satellite Dish and a decoder while Go TV only expects users to have a decoder to watch TV.
Startimes Uganda has a similar model.
They have StarSat which is their satellite service and a Startimes DTT service which only needs a decoder. The other providers are Zuku and AzamTV Uganda which are both digital satellite TV providers.
Lastly, Simba TV, a merger between Kampala Siti Cable Ltd (KSCL) and TVNXT, provides not just digital TV services but also Internet.
Pay TV providers in Uganda also offer Free-to-air channels. However, they are only active when your subscription hasn’t expired. Should your subscription expire, you won’t be able to watch them apart from UBC.
How do I get free-to-air channels in Uganda?
You’ll get the following free-to-air channels on GoTV; UBC, NTV, WBS, Bukedde TV, NBS, Urban, Relition, Faith, Islam Channel, GoTV channel according to the flyers we received. But you’ve to buy the full GoTV kit which is currently running on promotion at price of Ugx 74,000.