Uganda’s TV industry is thriving, and the introduction of several new television stations over the past decade has increased competition for viewers.
Though NBS chose to go LIVE, recent figures by Ipsos & GeoPoll affirm that NTV is leading in parameters of audience quality, viewership and reach.
In the Survey, three main parameters were considered that is audience quality, Share of viewership and reach.
On the Audience quality the survey looked at model determinants like age, social-economic class and gender.
For share of viewership the survey focused more at the percentage of time a specific audience spends watching a particular TV station.
The reach was arrived at by looking at the number of people reached by a TV station in a specific time period, usually 7 days.
The survey finally showed that NTV had the highest national reach of 52%. (Ipsos, Day-After Recall (DAR) survey)
The survey also revealed that NTV is the most preferred youth station with 57% of the 20-34 age group.
Regionally, NTV had a reach of 45%, 69%, 47 and 56% in the central, north, eastern and Western Uganda respectively. In all the regions, save for the Central NTV is the preferred choice.
Methodology
Independent research by Ipsos shows 28% of Uganda’s 7.35 million households have access to TV.
Assuming that each household has one TV set and excluding those in public places, we can conservatively say, there are 2.053 million TVs.
This increased access, has been occasioned by increased household incomes, increased rural electrification coupled with increased investments by industry players such as ourselves into increasing coverage- to reach more than 85% of the country and effectively becoming the largest TV network in the country.
General economic growth has also attracted new players in the industry who have obviously contributed to especially unlocking new audiences- an effort that is being supported by increased focus on local content.
Summary of the Survey
- NTV went up one point from 32% to 33% and remained the most watched TV in the country.
- Bukedde moved from 21% in September to 24% in November
- NBSTV- lost one percentage point from 11% to 10% in the same period
- Urban TV increased one point from 7% to 8%
- WBS TV remained virtually stagnant at 7%
Regional performance
- Bukedde TV however remained the most dominant TV in Central Uganda with a share of 33% -the second being NTV at 23%. NBS TV, UBC TV & Urban TV tied at 9% and WBS TV came last at 7%
- In Northern Uganda NTV is the most watched TV- commanding a huge 58% lead (bigger than all other TVs combined). Urban TV comes in at number with 16% and NBS TV comes in at a distant third position with 10% while Bukedde TV has a miserable 6%.
- In eastern Uganda, Again NTV has the biggest lead with 47% share of viewership followed by Bukedde TV at 25% while WBS (8%) and NBS TV (6%) come in the 3rd and 4th position respectively.
- In western Uganda, NTV is still the leading TV with 63% followed by Bukedde TV in a distant 2nd position at 11% while NBS TV and WBS TV tie in the 3rd position with just 9%