Digital switch-off leaves 1.3m homes in TV blackout

More than 1.3 million Kenyan households remained in television blackout as the global analogue switch-off deadline passed at midnight, driving home the reality of what has in recent months appeared to be merely a power fight between media owners and the government.  

Broadcasting industry regulator the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) on Wednesday announced that only 2.2 million households had acquired the set-top boxes — gadgets that convert analogue television signals to digital — out of the 3.5 million households estimated to own television sets.

“Slightly more than 1.1 million households are yet to buy the set top boxes,” the CA director-general Francis Wangusi told the Business Daily on the sidelines of on Wednesday’s global analogue switch-off media briefing.

Mr Wangusi attributed the huge number of people who remain in television oblivion to poor distribution of the set-top boxes across the country, especially in remote rural areas.

That assessment contradicted the authority’s position earlier in the year that Kenya was ready to make the digital transition.

The availability and affordability of the set-top boxes was a core part of the media owners’ request for more time to migrate — a request the CA and Information ministry vehemently opposed.

Mr Wangusi’s latest position is also contrary to the reality on the ground showing the high cost of set-top boxes as the main obstacle to many households making the transition.  

The Consumer Federation of Kenya (Cofek) on Wednesday dismissed Mr Wangusi’s explanation of the slow uptake, saying the CA chief executive’s mishandling of the migration and failure by the government to adopt globally accepted practices had left consumers, especially of the free-to-air television, in a fix.

Mr Wangusi, however, insisted Kenya has an estimated 3.2 million set-top boxes imported by 79 licensed vendors and dismissed claims that a shortage of the gadgets and high retail prices are to blame for the slow uptake.

Pay TV providers are selling multi-channel decoders for between Sh1,999 and Sh2,500 while free-to-air set-top boxes cost between Sh3,300 to Sh6,500.

Pay TV subscribers, however, have to pay monthly fees of between Sh499 and Sh8,200 which Cofek says is not sustainable for low-income earners.

Many countries around the world, including the United States and South Africa, recognised the cost of set-top boxes as a major obstacle to the migration of poor households to digital TV and offered them a subsidy to help them acquire the gadgets.

READ: South Africa to give TV viewers free set top boxes

Kenya has not offered low-income households any such subsidies. 

“As a country we can claim that we have migrated from analogue to digital, but there are still fundamental issues that need to be addressed,” said Cofek secretary-general Stephen Mutoro.

“Out of the 2.2 million households that own the set-top boxes nearly half are no longer using them simply because the majority of people rushed to buy subsidised decoders from pay television service providers but cannot sustain paying the monthly fees.”

In June 2012, the government removed import duty charged on set-top boxes in a bid to bring down prices but this has had little impact on the gadgets’ uptake.

The Regional Radio Communication Conference held in Geneva in 2006 set a June 17, 2015 deadline for migration to digital TV which passed at midnight.

Kenya, however, set its own deadline for December 2012, sparking an epic court battle with media owners who argued that the country was not ready for the migration and sought more time.

The regulator and the ICT ministry won the court cases and immediately began switching off analogue signals beginning with Nairobi in February. The final analogue switch-off was done on March 31.

In addition to larger content generation, the switch is expected to expand opportunities for investors in digital terrestrial TV, broadcast mobile TV and commercial wireless broadband services, and to support disaster relief.

Consumers who have bought the set-top boxes are benefiting from clearer pictures, while increased competition among service providers is set to lead to better quality of programmes.

The television blackout is mainly affecting those living in areas such as Kitui, Lamu, Lodwar, Lokichogio, Maralal, Marsabit, Mbui Nzau, Wajir, Kabarnet and Garsen that previously did not have television coverage and are yet to get the digital television signal coverage.

ICT minister Fred Matiang’i on Wednesday said Kenya had partnered with the government of Spain to ensure full coverage in the coming months.

“The government has put in place resources to ensure that the public signal distributor Signet expands TV coverage to areas that previously did not enjoy television reception,” Dr Matiang’i said.

Besides Signet, the government also licensed a Chinese broadcast signal distributor Pan African Group (PANG) as digital signal distributor.

Dr Matiang’i said geographical digital signal distribution coverage stands at 58 per cent but the government intends to increase this to 70 per cent.

At least 30 African countries have been allowed to extend their migration to digital broadcasting beyond the June 2015 global deadline.

A report compiled by Guy Berger, a lecturer at Rhodes University, South Africa, has cited a number of challenges facing African countries that missed the June 17 deadline as including technology, standards, licensing, investment in infrastructure and the need for viewers to replace their television sets.

North African countries such as Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco, which are more advanced technologically than East African countries, are ironically on the list of those allowed to delay migration.

Closer home, Ethiopia, Sudan, Eritrea, Somalia and the Democratic Republic of Congo also got extensions.

South Africa is reported to have missed the June 17 deadline as it had not completed nor begun the distribution of set-top boxes to 15 million households.

Africa’s second-largest economy and the most advanced had set the digital migration deadline for June 2013, and subsidised the cost of set-top boxes to make them affordable to poor segments of the population.

It has, however, faced a herculean task determining the number of people who are eligible for the price cut that targets about 450,000 households. 

The South African government allocated the Universal Service and Access Agency of South Africa (USAASA) R180 million (Sh1.8 billion) in the 2010/11 financial year to help poor households make the transition.

The US made a similar move in October 2006 when it committed nearly $1 billion (Sh86 billion) to subsidise set-top boxes for 34 million households considered in need of help to make the changeover.