Uganda’s TV Screens went black for a month. What went wrong?
In broadcasting, a few seconds of black screen and silence is a disaster. In October 2025, every free-to-air television station in Uganda went dark for nearly a month. The national signal distributor, Signet Uganda, could not get its hands on its own transmitters. The equipment sat in customs at Entebbe because the Uganda Broadcasting Corporation (UBC), Signet’s parent body, could not pay the import taxes. UBC owes roughly UGX 30 billion (around $8 million). The state broadcaster underpinning the entire free-to-air (FTA) system is functionally bankrupt.
That collapse came after a year in which the Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) had been cracking down on piracy and unlicensed content. While the regulator chased copyright infringers, the infrastructure carrying every FTA signal in the country was quietly going broke.
Too many stations, too few viewers
As of December 2024, UCC listed 65 licensed television stations. That is extraordinary for a country where only a third of households have a working television. The advertising market cannot sustain them all. Television captured 51% of above-the-line ad spend in the first half of 2025, but that money flows to a handful of established stations. Uganda has no reliable audience measurement, so advertisers are largely guessing. For smaller FTA stations, the struggle is existential.
Piracy was the business model
For years, local FTA stations filled schedules with pirated Hollywood, Nollywood and Latin American content, with no licensing agreements. One commentator for The Independent Uganda described finding a Hollywood blockbuster on a local channel, fresh from its box office release. Piracy in broad daylight.
In February 2025, UCC banned pirated movies, soaps and dramas from local stations. But what would replace them? UCC mandates 70% Ugandan content in prime time, yet the local film industry produces roughly 200 films a year with minimal funding. You cannot mandate content into existence. The Uganda Federation of Movie Industry estimates the government lost UGX 12 billion in pay TV taxes by end 2023. The Uganda Registration Services Bureau puts the annual cost of piracy at $110 million.
A story from the field
One of Jukwa’s team encountered a similar situation in a neighbouring country. A local cable operator was downloading films from The Pirate Bay and airing them on its paid network. We met the national regulator. After discussing enforcement, the staff asked us for a lift to the town where the cable station operated. They did not have money for diesel. It is hard to enforce piracy laws when you cannot afford to drive to the offender.
Local politicians reportedly enjoyed the blockbusters too, making a shutdown politically awkward. Everyone knew about the piracy. No resources and no political will meant nothing happened. Piracy enforcement existed on paper but not in practice. That is not unique to one country. The same dynamic plays out across the continent, and Uganda is no exception.
The pay TV battleground
Three foreign-backed operators dominate. StarTimes (Chinese-owned) offers packages from UGX 14,000/month (roughly $4) and holds 39% of the East African pay TV market. France’s Canal+ acquired MultiChoice (DStv/GOtv) in 2025 for $3 billion. Azam TV (Tanzanian Bakhresa Group) competes via satellite, with packages starting at UGX 10,000/month (around $3).
All three are fighting over a market where 80% of viewers still rely on FTA. Content rights are the differentiator, with sport the battleground. Pirate Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) boxes unlock exactly that premium content, posing an existential threat to the pay TV model.
Then the infrastructure collapsed
The Signet blackout did not come from nowhere. The PML Daily reported that UBC’s debts stretch back to 2016: UGX 7 billion to the Uganda Revenue Authority, UGX 15 billion to the National Social Security Fund, UGX 3 billion in unpaid electricity, plus smaller amounts elsewhere.
The Monitor added that FTA stations owe UBC roughly UGX 6 billion in unpaid carriage fees. The signal distributor cannot collect from its clients, cannot pay its own bills, and cannot release equipment from customs. The government never implemented the television tax envisaged in the 2005 UBC Act. The state broadcaster has no functioning revenue model.
Jukwa’s view
Uganda’s television market is a cautionary tale. Digital migration happened. The regulator handed out licences freely. Foreign operators moved in. But nobody built a sustainable model for local content, funded the public broadcaster, or enforced copyright until the damage was done.
If Signet enforced payment of carriage fees, many weaker stations would fold. That sounds harsh, but 65 stations splitting a thin ad market means most produce low-quality content because they cannot afford anything else. Fewer, viable stations would command larger audiences, attract more revenue, and actually pay Signet. The market needs consolidation, not more licences.
The UCC’s crackdowns addressed symptoms, not causes. Banning pirated content without an alternative leaves empty schedules. We have not even touched on pirate IPTV boxes cannibalising pay TV subscription revenue. Meanwhile, the three foreign-backed operators continue extracting value, and the infrastructure nearly collapsed under its own debts.
One year on, Uganda has more licensed stations than ever and less money to fund them. That is not a functioning television market. It is a market waiting for someone to build one.