Digital TV to switch off millions

More than 80 per cent of Nairobi residents will be without television signal come December 31, when the government implements a self-imposed deadline for digital television switch.

The government has said it will stop all analogue television transmission within Nairobi at the end of the year as part of the ongoing migration to digital TV.

“It has become expensive to manage and we need to free up the resources it takes up so that we can expand access to high-speed internet,” Information and Communication Permanent Secretary Bitange Ndemo said.

According to the Ministry of Information, 150,000 Nairobi TV owners have bought set-top boxes — gadgets that decode digital signal enabling images to be displayed on analogue television sets.

A further 100,000 subscribe to satellite pay television and therefore do not need set-top boxes. This leaves about one million television owners in dire straits.

In comparison to digital transmission, analogue transmission takes up more frequency space. At least eight digital channels can be provided in the same frequency used by one analogue channel. Migration would free up frequency for additional services such as high-speed internet.

At the same time, digital television audiences will have the luxury of viewing more channels with better picture quality.

Currently, about 20 free channels are broadcasting in Kenya. Dr Ndemo said 40 more have already been licensed and will go on air soon.

“Some of the television channels will broadcast in vernacular. Others are specialist channels that would never have found space if we stuck to analogue,” he said.

The global deadline for digital migration is set for June 2015, but locally, the government had backdated the deadline to June this year.

After missing this deadline, it was decided that the switch over would be done in phases beginning with Nairobi.

The government’s move to switch off analogue users in Nairobi has attracted criticism from various fronts with stakeholders pointing out that the needed set-top boxes are not within the financial reach of most Kenyans.

“Kenyans are not ready because less than one per cent have decoders. Some have old black and white television sets. What happens to them?” queried Nation Media Group Chief Executive Linus Gitahi.

The Communications Commission of Kenya has licensed 20 vendors to sell the set-top boxes in Nairobi.

Currently, the gadgets are retailing for Sh2,000 to Sh5,000. In his 2012/2013 budget, Finance Minister Njeru Githae scrapped import duty on the equipment. This has still not been sufficient in slashing prices and the Ministry of Information had proposed subsidies from Treasury — a proposal that was rejected.

The broadcasting fraternity has also questioned the timing of the Nairobi deadline saying that blacking out more than one million television owners three months before the election is not appropriate.