Zuku TV acquires Ugandan programs, boosts regional content

Thursday, August 25, 2011 — updated on December 16, 2020 - 3 min read

KRU chairman Mwangi Muthee and Richard Bell, Chief Executive Officer of Wananchi Group after signing a sponsorship deal for a rugby match.The firm has sealed a fresh deal to air Hostel, a very popular locally produced soap opera in Uganda. File

Zuku TV, the premier home entertainment provider announced on Thursday it was ramping up its roll out in Uganda with the acquisition of broadcast rights for a hugely popular local program.

In addition to sealing a fresh deal to air Hostel, a very popular locally produced soap opera, Richard Bell, Chief Executive Officer of Wananchi Group which is the holding company for Zuku TV confirmed that the platform has also secured broadcast rights for airing the national football match between Uganda Cranes and the Iraqi national team.

Both teams are using the match as preparations for their respective upcoming FIFA World Cup qualifiers.

Zuku TV announced that it had clinched the deal with the organisers to exclusively air the match live under the Zuku Sports menu on Friday August 26th at 9.30 pm East African time.

The match is a milestone in the history of the Arab country because it will be their first home fixture in nearly a decade.

The match is due to be staged in the northern city of Arbil at the 28,000 capacity Franso Hariri Stadium.

“This is the first of a series of exciting live viewing and event coverage that we are going to be showing on our platform as we seek to be the preferred home entertainment provider,” he said noting that it demonstrated the Zuku TV commitment towards delivering valuable content.

Bell noted that Zuku TV had now reached a holistic national rollout phase in Uganda after a highly successful pilot and soft launch phases.

He noted that Zuku TV would also air UBC, NTV Uganda and Bukudde TV initially as the free to air channels that will be available as Ugandan content but pointed out that the potential for growth of a locally produced content industry remained large.

“Uganda’s pay TV market penetration is still under one per cent which presents a huge growth sector for Zuku TV. We believe that Pay TV today is what mobile phone telephony was nearly a decade ago and as we witness a growing middle class, there is definitely hunger for valuable, affordable home entertainment,” he said adding that the population of households with television sets was expected to hit the 9.6 million mark in 2015.

In addition to pricing the Zuku TV offering in local currency, Bell explained that the decoders were designed to be used in places without electricity.

Zuku TV decoders are designed to use DC electrical supply from a used car battery.