By Henry Mukasa

Bukedde Television and Urban Television viewers have a package wrapped and delivered to them as a national golden jubilee gift as Uganda marks 50 years of independence on October 9.

The Bukedde TV audience will watch live the Uganda Cranes versus Chipolopolo of Zambia Africa Cup of Nations finals qualifier football match at Namboole on October 13 and the independence fete at Kololo.

Similarly, Urban TV’s outreach has been extended to a radius of 100km after it was decided to upgrade transmission from UHF to the “stronger and versatile VHF transmitter.”

The Vision Group chief executive officer (CEO), Robert Kabushenga, announced this would be possible before the uhuru fete after it was resolved to open a new channel, Bukedde Two, and also invest in modern transmission for Urban TV.

The expansion, which Kabushenga said is part of the celebrations of Bukedde TV’s third anniversary, is intended to fill gaps in the programming and satisfy the overwhelming loyal clients and audience.

“Over the last three years, Bukedde has been on air it has achieved phenomenal success. There has been overwhelmingly positive response from the public and we have found ourselves without enough space to accommodate all the programming demands of our audience,” Kabushenga said.

“In order to meet these increasing demands, we have decided to launch another channel of Bukedde which will be available free starting next weekend,” he added.

The CEO observed that the new “powerful transmitter” for Urban TV, whose installation will be complete by the weekend, will “enhance the geographical reach of Urban TV” and also “sharpen its signal to guarantee better viewing.”

“The Urban viewers may experience some interference over the weekend but after that will have a much improved service. We ask them to bear with us.”

He added: “We want to give our audiences the rich variety of content so that they have a choice for their viewing pleasure. The TV market has grown, this is our response.”

Mark Walungama, the head of television at Vision Group, explained that programmes whose time or air had been reduced and those that had been cut or couldn’t find space will be savoured on Bukedde Two.

He noted that Bukedde One has little sports yet many viewers like following it. Besides, it used to play music of up-coming artistes, shortened the length of wedding programmes, children shows and a number of African, Nigerian or Ugandan movies aired, yet there are people yearning to watch them.

“Bukedde Two will still be an entertaining and informative channel but it will not carry news,” Walungamma pointed out. “Bukedde One will stay with its current programming,” he added.

The TV chief asked viewers to note that Urban TV which has been airing on channel 43 will now be on channel 11 while Bukedde One (original) remains on 13 and Bukedde Two will ne hosted on channel 43.

“Bukedde Two is our jubilee gift to Uganda especially in the central region,” Walungamma remarked. “Our Urban TV signal will be strengthened, clearer and will have a bigger-reach in terms of distance stretching a radius of 100-km from Kampala,” he explained.