A black frame television multiple screen wall. In the market today, an authentic digital TV costs over Sh100,000 depending on its size and other features.
What you need to know:
Today, an authentic digital TV costs over Sh100,000, depending on its size and features. While the convertors, technically referred to as DVBT-2, cost between Sh3,000 and Sh10,000. This cost is expected to drop as more imports come on board.
The digital signal is available in all the major towns in the country and is expected to be available in all parts, at least 80 per cent coverage, by the end of the year.
There are low-cost set-top-boxes that can only receive free-to-air channels and there are some that come pre-configured to take up pay-TV channels.
Switching to digital TV will change the way broadcasting and transmission is done. In the current analogue system, each station uses its own equipment to broadcast and transmit signal. With the digital system, signal distributors will take over the role of transmission.
Kenya intends to stop analogue transmission by end of 2012 ahead of the June 17, 2015 global deadline, set by International Telecommunication Union for Africa (ITU), Europe, Asia, and Iran.
The switch will make Kenya the second country in Africa to go digital after South Africa.
Television broadcasting is set to change forever in the next few months as Kenya switches from analogue to digital signal transmission.
This will largely affect the way you consume television but will cost you some money in the beginning. A lot has been said about the current analogue TVs becoming obsolete once the switch is done, by December.
This is partly true mainly because your analogue TV will become obsolete if you do not connect it to a set top box, which will enable digital viewing.
Analogue TVs can currently, receive the free-to-air channels, but you will need to buy the external convertor to upgrade it once the digital switch is done.
Today, an authentic digital TV costs over Sh100,000, depending on its size and features. While the convertors, technically referred to as DVBT-2, cost between Sh3,000 and Sh10,000. This cost is expected to drop as more imports come on board.
“There are proposals for the government should actually buy this for consumers just like most countries have done. The trouble will be how to identify who to buy for,” says Dr Bitange Ndemo, PS Ministry of Information.
Poor records on TV set ownership could stand in the way of supplying the free gadgets. The Ministry of Information and Communication has presented a memorandum to the Cabinet seeking to have it buy the set boxes and distribute them free of charge, said Dr Ndemo, the PS in the ministry.
In the last national budget the government also waived the import taxes on the gadgets meaning they should get cheaper with time.
The signal is now available in all the major towns in the country and is expected to be available in all parts, at least 80 per cent coverage, by the end of the year.
Experts, however, say the gadgets come at various costs depending on their capabilities.
There are low-cost set-top-boxes that can only receive free-to-air channels and there are some that come pre-configured to take up pay-TV channels.
With the pre-configured ones, it may mean you pay even to view the free-to air channels.
So as you purchase your digital converter be sure to inquire if you have to pay to the free-to-air channels which include the local stations.
With digital TV broadcasting, eventually, broadcasters will no longer transmit their own content because this role would be taken up by a signal distributor reducing the cost of maintaining transmission infrastructure for station owners.
It will see them concentrate more on generating content, creating an opportunity of content developers.
According to Dr Ndemo, switching to digital TV will change the way broadcasting and transmission is done. In the current analogue system, each station uses its own equipment to broadcast and transmit signal.
But with the digital system, signal distributors will take over the role of transmission.
Kenya intends to stop analogue transmission by end of 2012 ahead of the June 17, 2015 global deadline, set by International Telecommunication Union for Africa (ITU), Europe, Asia, and Iran.
The switch will make Kenya the second country in Africa to go digital after South Africa.
In the meantime, broadcasters are transmitting both digital and analogue signal, a situation technically referred to as simulcast (simultaneous broadcasting) period.
This period is expected to persist until the country has fully shifted or by the global June 17, 2015 deadline set by ITU.
Unscrupulous traders
Unfortunately there have been reports that unscrupulous traders who had imported the DVBT-1 gadgets sold them to unsuspecting consumers even though the government had banned them.
Be careful when buying gadgets they are the right ones and from trusted vendors who can be reached and made to account in case the gadget fails to function.
Unscrupulous traders have been out to make a kill by misleading unsuspecting consumers’ old converters. The confusion saw most end-users developing cold feet in purchasing the converters.
But it will soon become inevitable to purchase the converters if you have to remain connected to TV signals.
Many parts of Kenya are already served with the digital television signal.
