By Spy Uganda
Kampala: As the 2025/2026 Ugandan presidential election season intensifies, media coverage has become a critical point of focus for voters. In a notable editorial move, NBS TV has restructured its flagship “Live At 9” evening bulletin, dedicating the entire first segment exclusively to the presidential campaign trail.
This strategy, implemented since the campaigns officially kicked off in early September, aims to provide a comprehensive and detailed nightly recap of the day’s political events. Rather than offering brief soundbites, the broadcast commits significant airtime to in-depth analysis of the different presidential rallies, dissecting the promises made by candidates and contextualizing them with the specific needs of the regions they visit.
This approach is designed to navigate the challenge of covering a crowded field. On any given day, numerous candidates are campaigning in different corners of the country. A graphic from November 3rd, for example, showed eight different candidates—from the NRM’s Yoweri Museveni in Soroti to NUP’s Robert Kyagulanyi in Butambala and FDC’s Nandala Mafabi in Luuka—all holding simultaneous events.
By “ring-fencing” this first segment, NBS TV attempts to provide a balanced platform for all active candidates. A look at the bulletin’s rundown from that same evening validates this strategy: the broadcast featured detailed packages on President Museveni’s activities in Soroti and Serere, followed immediately by coverage of Robert Kyagulanyi’s rally in Gomba, and then a report on Mubarak Munyagwa’s campaign in Bushenyi. This structure allows viewers to see and compare the key messages from the major camps back-to-back.
This editorial decision has not been without public discourse. Last week, discussions on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter) saw some users accusing the station of unbalanced coverage.
However, NBS senior reporter and news anchor Canary Mugume addressed these concerns, explaining the station’s deliberate policy. “Our entire first segment is dedicated to campaigns and elections,” Mugume stated. “We try as much as we can, to show what has taken place in all camps… The perception being created out there that NBS covers certain candidates in certain ways, is not true, and is misleading. We really try to be balanced.”
He concluded, “And we are the most balanced, professional current affairs channel you’ll ever find.”
By committing a substantial, uninterrupted block of its most-watched news program to the election, NBS TV is positioning itself as a central nightly hub for campaign analysis. This decision provides a consistent, dedicated space for voters to track the daily developments, weigh the diverse political agendas, and assess the candidates’ platforms in one place.
