Media owners oppose move to revoke digital frequencies

A consortium of Kenya’s three main media houses has come out to strongly oppose Wednesday’s move by the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) to revoke their digital frequencies and block the importation of their own brand of set-top boxes.

Nation Media Group (NMG), Royal Media Services (RMS) and Standard Group (SG) on Wednesday had their 21 frequencies cancelled following what the regulator claimed were misleading adverts by the three firms about their rivals.

The three media houses had protested continued airing of their free-to-air programmes by the pay-TV channels.

“Subsequently the Authority shall repossess the frequency spectrum resources allocated with immediate effect,” Francis Wangusi, CA’s director- general, noted in a statement sent to media houses Wednesday afternoon.

The three media firms, operating under the Africa Digital Network (ADN) banner, have been running campaigns cautioning Kenyans from being duped into buying Star Times and GOtv decoders that are being marketed as free-to-air devices, but are in fact pay-TV providers.

CA said the adverts had prompted it to cancel the temporary authorisation it had awarded the consortium on December 19th, a provisional licence which was awarded through an ongoing court case.

The consortium is now poking holes into the regulator’s arguments, saying that it was not only “abdicating its duty of being an independent body but also slowly turning the country into a pay-TV nation.”

Mr Wilfred Kiboro, speaking on behalf of the consortium, said that the three media houses fully stood by their decision to air the advertisements, saying they were truthful.

“We stand by the accuracy of the advertisements as Star Times and GOtv were and still are carrying our programmes without our consent,” Mr Kiboro told the Business Daily.

READ: Top media firms to stir market with free to air digital boxes

The CA had in a November 12, 2014 letter to Star Times and GOtv asked them to request the permission of the three media houses before airing their programmes.

Mr Kiboro revealed that GOtv had at no point attempted to seek ADN’s consent to broadcast their channels.

Star Times, however, did put in a request but the three media houses failed to give them the green light since the bid was being made in “bad faith as the company was already airing our content anyway.”

Another letter sent out by CA in the first week of December instructed that only Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (KBC) was regarded as a must-carry station since it was a public station funded by taxpayers.

“Therefore, not-withstanding the Supreme Court’s ruling about the must-carry principle, it is clear that only KBC that falls in this category and anybody wishing to carry other free-to-air channels must get their consent,” explained Mr Kiboro.

ADN got the temporary authorisation on December 19th, giving them inadequate time to requisition and import transmitters and set-top boxes in time for the end of year migration deadline for Nairobi and its environs.

This provisional licence gave the three media houses the go-ahead to prepare to begin transmitting their own content in earnest even as the CA processed the actual licence.

The three firms, which control 87 per cent market share in TV, 80 per cent in radio and 98 per cent in print, relied on this temporary licence to announce plans to import 150,000 set-top boxes meant to air its own content.

ADN’s cheap set-top boxes – which will be retailing for as low as Sh2,000 each -- will allow consumers to watch NTV, KTN, Citizen TV and QTV for free and also access add-ons such as the internet services – both 3G and Wi-Fi.

The regulator has vowed to bar the importation of these boxes. ADN is questioning the pronouncement.

“While it seems that the regulator has given us a decline in advance, we shall still go ahead and present our set-top boxes once they arrive. We expect the boxes will be inspected and accepted,” said Mr Kiboro.

“Signet and PANG are the only two firms with a BSD licence and they have somehow been allowed to also distribute channels,” said Mr Kiboro.

PANG is a pay-tv company but was given the frequencies normally reserved for free to air channels. Also, the publicly funded KBC has given some of its frequencies to pay- TV channels, potentially turning the broadcasting landscape into a pay-TV territory.