Digital set top boxes gather dust in shops as Kenyans slow in uptake

The sale of digital tv set top boxes has failed to pick up as Kenyans are not in a hurry to acquire the gadgets enabling them migrate from analogue to digital TV signal.

This is despite heavy campaigns in the press by the government encouraging citizens to acquire the gadgets so that the country can smoothly transit to digital TV viewing.

Majority of citizens in areas that are already receiving digital TV signal, including the capital Nairobi, are seemingly not bothered by the migration as they continue to enjoy analogue TV signal.

A temporary reprieve by a Kenyan court to suspend the migration from December 31, 2012 deadline, which had been imposed by the government, to a later date after the March 4 elections has made many people overlook the switch.

"I am not in a hurry to switch from analogue to digital TV, not when I am still able to watch programmes on my television. It does not make sense to me," said Nairobi resident Stephen Mutaka on Tuesday.

Mutaka noted while the migration is important for Kenya as a nation, it is not urgent as the government is putting it.

"We are told that the global deadline is 2015, we are in 2013. That means we have three more years. I do not think Kenya should be in a rush to make citizens migrate from analogue to digital TV if other countries that have higher Gross Domestic Product and are developed are not in such a rush," said the administrative assistant at a public institution in Nairobi.

When the government late last year announced that all citizens in Nairobi must migrate to digital TV by December 31, 2012, Mutaka was among millions of city residents who were not moved. "I took it as a joke. I could not believe that the government was giving people 2 weeks to make the big switch yet very few Kenyans understand the technology. We have been hearing much about digital TV but we do not know how it works or how it is beneficial to us," he said.

Mutaka, who lives in a middle-income suburb in the capital, can afford a digital TV set top box anytime he wants, but he is not willing to do it. "I went for window-shopping last year and checked the prices, which are affordable for me. But there is something that is holding me back. May be it is the Kenyan in me, which likes to do things the last minute," he said.

As millions of other people in the capital, and across the East African nation, who have not acquired the gadgets, Mutaka is waiting for another deadline to be imposed.

"The first deadline was suspended. Personally, I am waiting for another deadline. We were told until after elections, which are about a month away. I will wait and see what the government or the court announces," said Mutaka.

Communication Commission of Kenya (CCK) has asked Kenyans not to wait until the switch-off deadline is imposed.

"You do not need to wait. If you are in an area that is currently covered by the digital signal (like Nairobi and its environs), all you need is to purchase a DVB-T2 set top box which you will connect to your existing analogue TV. This set top box will therefore enable you to receive digital broadcast," says CCK in a document.

A visit to electronic shops in the capital selling the gadgets confirmed that Kenyans are not heeding to the call. At one of the shops along Luthuli Avenue, Nairobi's electronics' district, trader Benson Kingori was selling everything else but set top boxes.

"I have not witnessed upsurge in demand for set top boxes. Not now and not when the government announced last year that it will switch off analogue TV signal. It seems like people are not bothered," he said.

Kingori noted that last year when the switch-off loomed, the number of people asking about the gadgets increased but they did not buy them. "Many people were just coming here to ask about the gadgets.

They would come, survey the devices, ask questions about how they work and leave after giving them all that knowledge," said the trader, who has several models of the gadgets mainly imported from into the East African nation from Asia. Prices of the devices at the shop, and others across the capital range between 57 US dollars and 91 dollars.

It has been noted that the prices are unaffordable, especially for low income earners. The government was urged to subsidise the costs, but it is yet to do so.

The lacklustre attitude towards digital TV migration in the East African nation has raised fears that Kenya may not beat the 2015 deadline. Information and Communications Permanent Secretary Bitange Ndemo said the slow pace of migration is hurting the country since broadcasters and other stakeholders have invested heavily in digital TV technology.

Ndemo noted that continued delay of the switch-over will make Kenya lag behind in migration and fail to achieve the 2015 global deadline."

Only 3 years are remaining before the deadline. They are not enough for everyone to migrate. It takes an average of five years to migrate. Countries that have fully migrated started about eight years ago.

With the delays, it is almost certain that we may not beat the global deadline," he said.

Kenya and its neighbours in the East African Community had imposed a December 31, 2012 deadline for citizens in parts of the countries to migrate to digital TV signal. Out of the five countries in the trading bloc, only Tanzania has partly achieved the feat. (Xinhua)