By Our Reporters
Effective July 2018, there will be many changes in the UBC programming and presenter profile. And a total 10 new programs have been approved in close consultation with President Yoweri Museveni.
The public broadcaster is set to have new faces both in terms of presenters/moderators and guests or panelists. Reliable inside sources say that, led by ICT Ministry PS the workaholic Vincent Bagiire, the UBC Revamp Team has regularly been meeting President Museveni to get him buy into the planned change of programming and presenter layout that is going to be implemented effective July 2018. In the last meeting the team got Museveni to buy into their proposed new programming. Consequently, a total of 10 new English programs are going to be introduced on UBC TV including weekly political talk shows to which Museveni has agreed the likes of Norbert Mao, Nicolas Opio and other opposition-leaning panelists to be hosted. To make its news segment competitive, UBC will also be airing stories from all political actors including Col Kizza Besigye whose stories have already been airing on UBC on specific insistence of the revamp team member Bart Kakooza.
SALEH’S GAL;
Gen Saleh’s daughter Esteri Konkundeka, another influential member of the revamp team, has also reportedly been very liberal- minded during the revamp team meetings and those involving the President. She has reportedly been passionately arguing that there is no way UBC can compete and survive in today’s modern Uganda by exclusively running only news based on government propaganda. It has been her view that to do that and still remain afloat means UBC will 100% depend on government funding without a single corporate advert because advertisers follow audiences and only put their money and messages on TV channels where visibility is assured. Sources say her very prudent arguments are what convinced big spenders like Airtel Uganda to recently sign a very juicy advertising contract with UBC and agreeing to return despite previous disappointments. They had left protesting poor programming that had resulted in loss of audiences.
RING FENCING GOVT ADVERTISING 4 UBC;
To expedite the UBC recovery process, the revamp committee has proposed and the President has agreed to have all GoU MDAs reserve or ring fence up to 5% of their advertising spent in favor of UBC. Capable of yielding billions of shillings, this ring-fencing is calculated to assure UBC of advertising revenue amidst the ever escalating competition. To make this ring-fencing effective, the President will have to write a letter (executive order of sorts) directing the MDAs on the 5% being reserved for UBC just like he did for UTL regarding internet purchases by all government MDAs. “Yes its agreed UBC can’t exactly run stuff that NTV and NBS run in exactly the same way about government but it can still compete without necessarily becoming very anti-government. It just has to cover everybody fairly and that’s the point Mzee made recently referring to Vision Group which is government owned and sometimes not totally immune to political interference but their Gataliko nfufu is the most popular news program and New Vision is the market leader. This is the difference prudent management makes and its what Mzee expects to see at UBC,” said a source close to the UBC revamp project.
NBS/NTV LOSE PRESENTERS;
We are reliably informed that in one of the recent meetings, Museveni bought into the Bagiire team proposal to have the UBC staffers’ salaries enhanced and integrated into the government civil service payroll so that Ugandans working for UBC are paid like any other civil servants with a very good retirement package. To ensure this is achieved, Museveni has since prompted the PSST Keith Muhakanizi to find Shs12bn to cater for the UBC staffers salaries for the initial piloting period of 3 years each year costing government Shs4bn. According to calculations Museveni went through with the UBC revamp team at the recent meeting, the lowest paid news reporter at UBC will be earning Shs1.5m per month and the others like senior reporters will be earning a net pay of Shs4.5m. This is an improvement from the current status quo whereby the luckiest reporters earn as little as Shs300,000 which they don’t even get regularly. Its also true many of the private media TV stations considered to be better managed don’t pay such generous salary offers to their reporters, a thing that has made the new UNC salary structure (recently published by Daily Monitor) very attractive. The UBC monthly remuneration is to be integrated into the ICT Ministry payroll which is part of the larger government payroll controlled by the public service ministry. Indeed when he appeared in Parliament last week along with the ICT Ministry team, PSST Keith Muhakanizi (as ordered by Museveni) committed himself to doing as much regarding funding UBC to ensure the progress made during the Bagiire-led revamp period is consolidated to turn the Corporation into the market leader in the long term. By the way besides the Shs12bn to be availed for UBC salaries for the first three years, Muhakanizi has been directed to avail UBC another Shs9.2bn which is the money remaining on the Shs20bn Museveni had offered to fund the UBC revamp process. The PSST has so far only availed about Shs11bn leaving a balance of slightly over Shs9bn which Museveni too wants to be availed in the next FY2018/19 to incentivize working at UBC.
This new salary structure has already caused Vision Group’s Robert Kabushenga, NBS’ Kin Kariisa and the NTV top management nervous as some of their best reporters and presenters have already been approach by UBC agents with bigger offers. “It’s a big dilemma because entities like NBS are already paying too much in order to suffocate NTV and deny it access to the best talent. So expecting Kin to hastily increase anybody’s salary just to tame a resurgent UBC will be asking for too much. This is why the UBC Scouts have returned with very good news indicating a long list of dissatisfied staffers at Vision Group, NBS and NTV who are willing to cross. Don’t be surprised when newcomers begin to outnumber old timers at UBC effective July because many of the big names you know in the industry have been signed on,” said a source adding that the retirement package UBC offers and other benefits beyond salary is something many guys have found irresistible.
MAO/NICOLAS OPIO WOOED;
Even talk show studio guests that will agree to permanent arrangements to be weekly panelists on UBC, like sources say Norbert Mao and Opio have agreed, will be earning some basic remuneration for their quality time. The plan is to bind many such popular analysts to be exclusively appearing only on UBC TV to deny competitor stations like NBS and NTV chance to host them. Currently Radio Simba is one of the few stations that are known to have such arrangements of occasionally gratifying their panelists. In place is also a programming council whose work will be to review the UBC programming from time to time in order to make it more responsive to the ever changing market/audience tastes and preferences. The 9 member Programming Council will have members from mostly the private sector who have the necessary know how and experience in media programming. This too has been agreed upon by the President who, like any other African strongman, would pride himself in having a vibrant National Broadcaster. Sources say that in one of the recent meetings to discuss the revamp, Museveni wondered why he would have to physically traverse the whole country marketing his views on land if UBC’s capabilities to broadcast countrywide had been well harnessed. He would just appear on UBC in Kampala and simultaneously speak to the whole country. This is why the days of UBC MD Agaba are clearly numbered. We are told even when his contract has two more years to go, Museveni is determined to get him out at the earliest opportunity.
OLD COUP FEARS;
“There are security concerns that wrong elements can sneak into UBC and announce a coup. It’s much easier today when the much hyped Simon Kaheru is in charge as BOD chair than ever before because the studios don’t even have locks and State House is wondering what Agaba is MD for if even such basic things can’t be fixed. It equally reflects badly on BOD Chairman Simon Kaheru,” said a Presidency source adding that a disgusted Museveni is relieved by the fact that the Kaheru inept BOD (with members like Ian Kyeyune) is ending its UBC tour of duty in two months’ time. This means that by July there will be a new BOD. It’s also true that some of the popular presenters and panelists the revamp team is trying to attract have also demanded new corporate values and leadership team at UBC. We are told the greed some BOD members manifested on hearing of the Museveni windfall of Shs20bn for UBC revamp made the president more disgusted with the Kaheru team. “They even forgot their limits as BOD. They rushed and contacted service providers which is the mandate of management. They became hostile and tried to fight the revamp team but only gave up after realizing the President was 100% very supportive of the team,” said a source close to Museveni. Whereas the revamp team ignored them and soldiered on, Kaheru has out of courtesy been given an opportunity to lead his BOD team to meet the revamp team to be formally updated on what the Bagiire team (of Dr. Kaggwa, Ekeyi, Wetasa, Esteri Kokundeka, Nader Anderson, Bart Kakooza, Sheila Karungi) has been up to.
UBC 43BN ARREARS;
Whereas the Kaheru team accumulated over Shs42.3bn arrears (in unpaid NSSF fees, URA’s PAYEE, UMEME, NWSC, suppliers) in just 4 years, the revamp team in just months has been able to accomplish so many things with just less than Shs12bn PSST Keith Muhakanizi has been advancing them on quarterly basis. They bought brand new vehicles for the UBC news teams, paid some of the arrears, bought new cameras, recorders and new transmission equipment for UBC to replace old ones for which even spare parts couldn’t be found anymore.
NTV/NBS STAFF EXODUS;
On their own initiative, many of the seasoned reporters from the two TV stations have been reaching out to the revamp team showing willingness to be part of the new UBC so that they can partake of the new salaries accompanied with juicy retirement benefits packages. The overwhelmed members of the revamp team decided to assign some of the members to be the ones to personally negotiate with each of these big name presenters and news reporters who are dying to cash in on the impending UBC cash bonanza. Each will be signed up to a contract of 4-5 years. Reliable sources say that even at Vision Group, that is famous for paying well, top management is nervous that some of the best editorial and advertising employees might defect to the newly revamped UBC because of the juicy salaries Daily Monitor published last week. Its feared that with 5% of the government MDAs’ advertising spent being clearly ring-fenced for the Corporation by way of Presidential directive (similar to the one of UTL), UBC will be the easiest thing to market amongst large spending government MDAs. The revamp team has also planned to offer a bigger advertising commission than the competition offers anywhere in town in order to make the new job offers more attractive. “NBS & NTV are going to suffer most because they are being specifically targeted,” said source. The roadmap is that after having in place those targeted big name employees and key managers like Director Finance, Audit, HR and others, the revamp team will ease out most likely at the start of July. This will be immediately after the ICT minister Frank Tumwebaze names a new BOD whose first assignment will be to urgently recruit a new MD after overcoming the incumbent Agaba who has clearly become the most unwanted species at UBC because of the incompetence and ineptness that has been associated with his tenure as MD. Sources say that Nader Anderson, who recently had a verbal exchange with intrigued old UBC staffers after finding them eating and dumping maize cobs in the UBC TV studios, might stay on longer as TV manager until things have sufficiently been streamlined. For comments, call/text/Whatsapp us on 0703164755!
