Digital TV: 16m Kenyans risk being switched off

Millions of Kenyans might not be able to follow campaigns for the General Election on their television sets if the government goes ahead with its plan to switch off analogue signals at the end of the year.

The migration from an analogue to a digital TV broadcasting format, which is to take place on January 1, 2013, will affect a majority of the four million TV sets that the Communications Commission of Kenya estimates to be in the country.

Research by the Directorate of Public Information and Communication concluded that 16 million Kenyans risk being left in the dark after the switch-over because of the high migration cost.

The Consumer Federation of Kenya (Cofek) this week went to court to challenge the planned switch-off.

But the government has dug in its heels, insisting the date for the switch-off will not be changed. In comments posted on his Facebook page, Information and Communication Permanent Secretary Bitange Ndemo said that even though the process has been postponed twice, the country remains largely unprepared for the switch-over.

“It’s a process that will take time, and we’ve to start early rather than wait till 2015 to start implementing,” says a post by Mr Ndemo.

The global deadline for the switch-over is 2015, but East African Community member countries have set December 31 as their deadline.

Government is inconsiderate

Cofek argues that the government is inconsiderate.

“The government’s chosen dateline being New Year’s Eve will heavily inconvenience people as it will disrupt the festivities inasmuch as it will occasion additional expenditure to consumers who will be already burdened by the return-to-school costs a few days later,” said Cofek secretary-general Stephen Mutoro.

Analysts have in the past said thousands of low-income households would find it hard to access TV programmes if the government upholds its ban on importation of analogue TV sets.

Migration is a process in which the analogue TV broadcasting signal – seen as too limited and obsolete – is replaced by digital broadcasting.

The advantages are many: better picture and sound quality, reduced transmission costs, larger coverage areas by TV transmission station, the freeing up of more frequencies that would offer possibilities for local content creation.
Digital broadcasting will also allow the introduction of additional services like high definition (HD) television and pay TV on standard TV.

The government formally launched the migration process in 2008. At the end of it, the analogue broadcasting services will eventually broadcast in digital format while the analogue transmitters will be switched off.-
Most of the TV sets in Kenya are analogue; owners will have to purchase a digital set-top box for between Sh5,000 and Sh10,000 to receive a digital signal. Set-top boxes are converters that enable analogue television sets to receive digitally broadcast signals.

Cofek says the prices of the boxes are out of the reach of many Kenyans.

We could not ascertain from the CCK at the time of going to press how many of the converters have so far been purchased. Cofek has launched a campaign to collect a million signatures at Kencom bus stage to stop the switch-off.

Terry Watowa, a programmes assistant at Cofek, said they had collected more than 65,709 signatures by Saturday.

But Mr Ndemo says the migration cannot be further delayed, arguing that such a move would hurt investors as delays in unlocking frequencies would be “expensive”.

But this has elicited charges that the government is putting the interests of private investors above the public interest.

“It confirms our fears that government is unfairly protecting the profiteers’ interests at the expense of consumers in total disregard of provisions of Article 46 on consumer rights,” said Cofek.

Digital migration was initially planned to be fully funded by the government. But budgetary constraints forced the government to re-think this position, even rejecting the suggestion that it subsidise the cost of set-top boxes.

Cofek argues that the planned switch-off will affect more than 1.5 million analogue TVs in Nairobi and its environs.

The switch-off will be done in phases with viewers in Nairobi, Machakos and Kajiado the first ones to be affected. The transition to digital TV broadcasting has been marked by much uncertainty.

Smart TV, one of the early vendors of digital set-top boxes, exited the market in unclear circumstances controversy dogged its model.

Although the migration process began in December 2009, the government’s impromptu ban of DVB-T1 set-top boxes that were already on sale slowed down the uptake of the technology.

DVB-T2 technology

A switch to the new technology meant that other than consumers buying the new device, licensed digital signal distribution firms Signet and China’s Pan-African Network had to make their platforms compatible with the DVB-T2 technology.

Cofek argues that there has been insufficient effort to educate the public, a claim Mr Ndemo denies.

“Awareness has been and will always be a challenge, despite various adverts and road shows. However, ignorance is no defence,” Mr Ndemo said.

And, contrary to popular opinion, he said, owners of DStv decoders cannot use their satellite dishes to receive digital transmissions. This is because they will need a UHF aerial to receive the digital terrestrial TV transmission.

Terrestrial broadcasts use equipment situated on the ground rather than satellites.