TV Pirates Hit Kampala
THERE is a new television service in town. It uses orange-coloured cables to deliver over 30 television channels to paid up subscribers, 24 hours a day. It is cheap and reliable. Unfortunately, it is also illegal. And, according to information available, the companies doing it are operating illegal
By Kalungi Kabuye
and Alfred Wasike
THERE is a new television service in town. It uses orange-coloured cables to deliver over 30 television channels to paid up subscribers, 24 hours a day. It is cheap and reliable. Unfortunately, it is also illegal. And, according to information available, the companies doing it are operating illegally.
For sh50,000, Metropo Cable (U) Ltd, operating cable television services on behalf of Kampala Siti Cable Ltd., has been connecting subscribers in Kampala to their services. One then pays sh45,000 a month as subscription for a promised total of 51 channels.
These include programmes such as BBC, CNN, Star Sports, MTV and Fashion TV. Others are Cartoon Network, Star News, Channel V (24-hour music channel) and HBO (24-hour movies). They also offer over 20 channels of Indian and Arab programmes.
But apparently, neither Kampala Siti Cable nor Metropo Cable (U) Ltd. have any rights to broadcast these or other channels.
According to documents The New Vision has seen, many corporations, including Fashion TV, MTV and Star TV have written what are known as 'cease and desist' letters to both companies, and also to Uganda Cable (U) Ltd., based on Bombo Road, Kampala. Uganda Cable is said to be a breakaway company from Kampala Siti Cable, whose offices are on First Street, Industrial Area, next to Club Silk. Its operation centre is on Plot 82, Tufnell Drive, Kamwokya.
Multichoice Africa, which broadcasts both M-Net and DSTV channels, has also communicated to the three companies several times, asking them to stop their services.
According to Charles Hamya, the general manager of Multichoice Uganda, the piracy has been going on for about five years.
“In the beginning, they were using Multichoice channels for re-broadcasting. They would just come and buy a smart card, get the signal, and then rebroadcast to their customers, simple as that,†Hamya said.
“All our channels, Super sport, M-Net, Movie Magic, they would re-broadcast them for almost half the cost. But we soon put a stop to that.â€
But the fight was still on. The cable operators would put their own logo to override the Multichoice one. When Multichoice changed the position of their logo, the cable operators also changed theirs.
Then the cable operators got smart. They knew where they could get the same programmes without using the Multichoice channels. Since Star TV had the same rights as Multichoice, but for Asia and the Mid-East, they would tap the Star satellites, pick up the signals and re-broadcast the same programmes.
Ends
and Alfred Wasike
THERE is a new television service in town. It uses orange-coloured cables to deliver over 30 television channels to paid up subscribers, 24 hours a day. It is cheap and reliable. Unfortunately, it is also illegal. And, according to information available, the companies doing it are operating illegally.
For sh50,000, Metropo Cable (U) Ltd, operating cable television services on behalf of Kampala Siti Cable Ltd., has been connecting subscribers in Kampala to their services. One then pays sh45,000 a month as subscription for a promised total of 51 channels.
These include programmes such as BBC, CNN, Star Sports, MTV and Fashion TV. Others are Cartoon Network, Star News, Channel V (24-hour music channel) and HBO (24-hour movies). They also offer over 20 channels of Indian and Arab programmes.
But apparently, neither Kampala Siti Cable nor Metropo Cable (U) Ltd. have any rights to broadcast these or other channels.
According to documents The New Vision has seen, many corporations, including Fashion TV, MTV and Star TV have written what are known as 'cease and desist' letters to both companies, and also to Uganda Cable (U) Ltd., based on Bombo Road, Kampala. Uganda Cable is said to be a breakaway company from Kampala Siti Cable, whose offices are on First Street, Industrial Area, next to Club Silk. Its operation centre is on Plot 82, Tufnell Drive, Kamwokya.
Multichoice Africa, which broadcasts both M-Net and DSTV channels, has also communicated to the three companies several times, asking them to stop their services.
According to Charles Hamya, the general manager of Multichoice Uganda, the piracy has been going on for about five years.
“In the beginning, they were using Multichoice channels for re-broadcasting. They would just come and buy a smart card, get the signal, and then rebroadcast to their customers, simple as that,†Hamya said.
“All our channels, Super sport, M-Net, Movie Magic, they would re-broadcast them for almost half the cost. But we soon put a stop to that.â€
But the fight was still on. The cable operators would put their own logo to override the Multichoice one. When Multichoice changed the position of their logo, the cable operators also changed theirs.
Then the cable operators got smart. They knew where they could get the same programmes without using the Multichoice channels. Since Star TV had the same rights as Multichoice, but for Asia and the Mid-East, they would tap the Star satellites, pick up the signals and re-broadcast the same programmes.
Ends