The Executive Director of Uganda Communication Commission (UCC) Eng. Godfrey Mutabazi has said media and telecommunication companies have registered reduced earnings in newspaper sales and voice calls respectively, due to the emergence of social media platforms like WhatsApp and Facebook.
Speaking at the release of a quarterly UCC Industrial Report at the regulatory agency headquarters in Bugolobi, Eng. Mutabazi also said sales of major newspapers have dropped due to instant access of news from different broadcasting websites via internet.
“Due to internet trends, traditional media are craving to form online websites to cop up with the current broadcasting mechanisms,” Eng. Mutabazi said, adding that online broadcasting has outplayed traditional media in terms of business.
He added: “The country has a lot of good network and telecom service providers are compelled to lower subscription costs and this has eased accessibility of internet.”
The report indicates that internet subscribers increased by 3.7% from 16,484,312 to 17,102,456 between April and June 2017 as the internet penetration increased from 43.8% to 45.4% indicating a 1.6% increase.
‘Following the growth outlook of the telecom sector that has seen every gadget being driven by data, the report indicates that Broadband Internet is increasingly being accessed, thus leading to growth of broadband in the country’, the report states in part.
