UMSC acquires television to overcome Covid-19 barriers

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | As several sectors continue to come up with several innovations and investments to get around the barriers created by covid-19, Uganda Muslim Supreme Council- UMSC has acquired a television channel to supplement its already existing radio station in bridging the widened gap between the mosques and the faithful.

Haj Ramadhan Mugalu, the UMSC secretary general and acting secretary for information broke the news to Muslims at the Old Kampala mosque saying that although it has been their plan for the past few years to establish a national muslim television channel, covid-19 fueled the idea of speeding up its realization.

The Uganda Muslim community currently has several Muslim FM radio channels such as Bilal FM owned by UMSC, Voice of Africa founded by the late Libyan President Muammal Gaddafi’s World Islamic call society and a privately owned Pearl of Africa FM Uganda among others.

Mugalu said that when the mosques were shut down in March by government to curb the spread of the pandemic, UMSC tried to enhance usage of Bilal FM and other internet platforms like facebook.

He however explains that the efficiency of all those avenues was lacking and hence the need to establish a fully-fledged television channel on both free to air and other platforms where viewers subscribe.

Currently the channel is called Global Television, having acquired it from a company that was already operating the frequency and according to Mugalu, they are planning to change the channel’s name to Bilal Television a few months from now.

He added that in a months’ time, they are also planning to unveil the full programming structure and editorial policy as per the UCC license, but all nitty-gritties are being worked out by a team led by himself.

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URN