Pay television platform – DStv – is losing at least UGX2.7 billion due to illegal reproduction of its exclusive content by third parties through internet live streaming.
An investigation by Uganda Communications Commission (UCC), which followed a formal complaint by MultiChoice Uganda found that residential and commercial piracy had led to enormous financial bleeding with DStv, as one of the its affected platforms losing at least UGX 2.74 billion per year.
DStv, a direct broadcast satellite television service, is owned by MultiChoice. The company also owns GOtv.
Thus, UCC has instituted a multi-agency probe that is seeking to find ways through which piracy can be curbed.
The multi-agency probe includes regulatory and security stakeholders, among which include Uganda National Bureau of Standards and Uganda Registration Services Bureau among others.
These will discuss and draw strategies that will seek to examine and stop importation, sale and connection of illegal streaming devices.
Mr Rinaldi Jamugisa, the MultiChoice Uganda, PR & Communications Manager, on Thursday told CEO East Africa Magazine that they had seen a growth of content piracy in Uganda and Africa as a whole arising from the illegal use of piracy devices, illegal streaming platforms and torrents that offer unsecured ‘look-alike’ content.
Therefore, he noted it was important to find ways of curbing piracy because, apart from causing financial loss to MultiChoice, it kills creativity and is a threat to cyber security.
“Many of these sites request for un-ending access to viewers’ devices. What most people do not know is that it is this very information you give access to that leads to a compromise of your security and safety. Issues like unknown withdrawals from mobile money, bank accounts, debit or credit cards, hacking of accounts like email, WhatsApp, Facebook are resultant of piracy activities,” he said.
The UCC investigation found that samples of illegal internet streaming devices including DX Combos broadcast through terrestrial means, while others are satellite powered.
The increase in content piracy comes at a time when UCC data has previously recorded a sharp drop in active pay television subscribers in the period between January 2023 and September 2024.
During the period subscriber numbers fell by almost half, according to data contained in UCC’s quarterly performance reports.
For instance, in the 21 months to September 2024, pay TV service providers lost about 1.3 million subscribers, representing a percentage decline of 45.8 percent, which was more than the 1.1m active subscribers as of September 2024.
The declines are captured in at least seven market performance reports, all of which, save for the quarter ended September 2023, reported a drop in customer numbers of an average of 32,000 subscribers in each quarter.
In the 21 months, subscribers dropped from 2.4 million in March 2023 to 1.1 million, signaling a difficult period for an industry that has previously expanded at an average compound annual growth rate of 1.6 percent since the migration from analog to digital broadcasting.
Data also indicated that the worst declines were recorded in the quarter to April 2023, with pay TV service providers losing about 800,000 subscribers to 1.6 million.
However, the sector recovered, to 1.9 million subscribers in the quarter to September 2023, but again dropped by 400,000 subscribers in December 2023 to 1.5 million.
Subscriber numbers dropped further to 1.47 million in March 2024 and to 1.4 million in June, before falling further to 1.1 million in the three months to September.