Battle for third digital licence takes new twist

Information PS Bitange Ndemo. Photo/FILE

Local media houses will only get a digital signal distribution licence after the analogue broadcasting signals are switched off.

In an interview with the Nation, the Information and Communications permanent secretary Bitange Ndemo said the analogue signals have to be switched off at least in some parts of the country for there to be free spectrum for digital signals.

“No one has refused to give them a licence but it does not make economic sense. We are very much willing to do so but there has to be free spectrum which will only be available after the analogue signals have switched off,” Mr Ndemo said.

Media owners’ view

He said the only other option would be for the media houses to agree among themselves to switch off some of their broadcasting signals to create space for digital signal.

But the Media Owners’ Association, through chairman Kiprono Kittony, said the government was just giving a poor excuse, maintaining that industry players should not be left out of the process given the crucial role they play in the sector.

“This is a poor excuse. Industry players cannot be completely left out of something so crucial to our operations and our freedom,” Mr Kittony said.

In 2011, the CCK raised uproar following its decision to award Kenya’s second digital signal distribution licence to a Chinese company, Pan African Network Group.

The other licence had been awarded to Signet, a subsidiary of the state broadcaster.

Media owners opposed the move saying it is a threat to press freedom and to the business model of the broadcast industry.