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Wangusi sets Dec 31 deadline for digital migration

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Communications Authority of Kenya director general Francis Wangusi. He says no television broadcasters will be allowed to use analogue signals within Nairobi beginning next year. PHOTO | FILE

The Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) has set a December 31 deadline for switching off analogue broadcast signals within Nairobi, 45 days before a three-month negotiation window period ordered by the Supreme Court expires.

Francis Wangusi, the director general of the communications regulator, Tuesday said no television broadcasters will be allowed to use the analogue signals within Nairobi beginning next year.

Mr Wangusi maintained that the regulator and the ICT Ministry have called for several meetings with the sector stakeholders to dialogue as directed by the Supreme Court, but broadcasters said they had not been party to any such meetings.

“We have held several stakeholder meetings as had been directed by the Supreme Court. However, there are some broadcasters who have not been attending these meetings. My message to them is that we are going to switch the analogue signals by the end of December,” said Mr Wangusi during the ongoing three-day Commonwealth telecommunication operators broadband summit in Nairobi.

The digital deadline migration for other parts of the country has been set for March next year.

This means that television viewers who will not have invested on TV set-top boxes – gadgets that convert analogue signals to digital – will be switched off, while broadcasting houses that will not have moved their content to the digital signal distributors risk being put out of business.

The Media Owners Association on Tuesday said CA is yet to hold a meeting of all stakeholders as per the directive of the Supreme Court.

On September 29, a seven-judge Bench led by Chief Justice Willy Mutunga gave the  CA  90 days to consider the merits of issuing a digital broadcasting licence to the Nation Media Group, Standard Media Group, Royal Media Services or any other local investor.

READ: Media owners win petition to bid for digital broadcast licences

CA estimates that out of the 1.2 million homes in Nairobi with analogue television sets, more than half have migrated. Other estimates put the number of TV sets in Nairobi at two million.

The figures are, however, disputed by the Media Owners Association.

Digital transmission is expected to bring viewers picture and sound clarity, more channels and signal strength, widening the reach of TV services while freeing frequencies for other services like fourth generation (4G) mobile data services.

The Communications Authority had moved to the Supreme Court after the Court of Appeal postponed digital migration to September.

Mr Wangusi added that Kenya is the only country within East Africa that is moving slowly on digital migration, cautioning that failure to meet the international deadlines set for June 2015 would mean the country would have to switch off all its analogue signals within a 100km-radius from its borders so as not to interfere with the signals of other countries.