A past briefing on migration to digital TV: Kenyans will have to buy set-top boxes to watch TV on their analogue sets when the signal goes digital. Photo/File
While the government is upbeat that all television stations will have migrated to the new broadcasting platform by 2012, it has emerged that 40 per cent of households in the country may not be able to access these channels.
Out of the four million households with televisions sets, the industry regulator says 1.6 million own the black and white sets that they bought at Sh4,000 and may not afford or see value in investing double the amount to acquire the gadgets required to convert the analogue signals to digital.
Dealers in the gadgets, popularly referred to as digital terrestrial set-top boxes have not lowered their prices even after the government scrapped 25 per cent duty on them.
Samuel Kabui, the general secretary at Digital Decoders Association of Kenya, blamed this on the specification of the decoders the government has allowed the dealers to bring into the country.
“The dealers should be allowed to bring in decoders that either access free-to-air television stations such as NTV, KTN or K24, or those that are compatible with both Pay Tv and free- to -air channels,” Mr Kabui said.
He added that this would give consumers the choice to buy one which is compatible with pay television or one that accesses free- to- air only.
The government has only allowed the importation of set to boxes on the Digital Video Broadcast technology 2 DVB-T2 which can be used to access both pay and free-to -air televisions.
But the dealers say that this is a high end technology that has kept prices high despite the waiver on import duty.
Francis Wangusi, the acting director-general at the Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK), confirmed that the greatest barrier to the success of digital migration would be the access to affordable set top boxes.
“Free- to- air set top boxes are still too expensive at Sh8,000 which is way beyond the reach of the majority and that is why we (CCK) are asking the Treasury to look for other ways other than the waiver on duty to make them affordable,” said Mr Wangusi.
He said the current market structure is skewed towards subscription television which would affect the free -to- air market segment and slow down digital migration.
The pay television providers— StarTimes and GOtv— are selling their digital terrestrial set-top boxes at Sh2,999 and Sh3,500 respectively.
But the catch is that one must buy their monthly packages which may not be sustainable for low income earners.
“There are those who don’t need pay television so why can’t they just be allowed to buy decoders that can enable them to access free-to-air channels only?” posed Mr Kabui.
He said prices of the basic decoders for free- to- air can be imported and sold from as low as Sh2,000 compared to the multi-channel ones that the independent dealers are selling at between Sh5,000 and Sh9,000.
StarTimes packages which include sports, documentaries, music, movies, children’s shows and religious channels range between Sh499 and Sh1, 999 a month.
The providers
GOtv charges Sh720 a month for its packages which include Africa Magic World, Africa Magic Swahili, Select Sport, One Gospel, E! Entertainment, Channel O, eTV Africa, and local channels such as KBC, NTV, KTN and Citizen TV, among others.
The two providers have so far availed their services in Nairobi, Mombasa and Kisumu where the two licensed digital signal distributors —Signet which is government owned and China’s Pan African Network— have also rolled out.
The Regional Radio Communication Conference held in Geneva in 2006 set a 2015 deadline for migration to digital TV, but the five East African Community (EAC) members revised the deadline to December 2012.
Apart from larger content generation, the switch is expected to expand opportunities for investors in digital terrestrial TV, broadcast mobile TV, commercial wireless broadband services and assist in disaster relief.
Consumers are expected to benefit from clear pictures and competition among the providers for affordable and better quality of programmes.
Information Minister Samuel Poghisio said that the country will have 70 per cent penetration of digital signal by December this year.
The analogue signals migration will be done in phases, with towns that have been successfully moved to digital signals being switched off first.
This means Nairobi, Mombasa and Kisumu residents who cannot afford the set top boxes will be the first causalities. But the cut off for analogue for the entire country will be in July, 2015, in line with the global deadline.
