Media owners granted digital TV signal distribution licence

Media owners have been given the go-ahead to distribute TV signals.

The Media Owners Association will be given the third licence after the second one was awarded to a Chinese-owned company in June.

The Nation Media Group and Royal Media Services had contested the licence award to the Chinese firm, Pang, owned by the Star Times of China.

The media firms had bid for the licence but were disqualified because the bond was valid for only 60 days, instead of 120 days.

The Communications Commission of Kenya, the industry regulator, said the two firms would be required to form a company to hold the licence.

The new company will be exempted from tendering.

“All the other aspects of the commission’s licensing remains the same; it is only the procurement bid we have skipped in this case,” said acting director-general Francis Wangusi.

Kenya Broadcasting Corporation had been granted the first licence.

The licences would help the country transition to digital television from the current analogue-broadcasting by June next year.

Broadcasters will have their programmes sent to viewers’ TVs by the signal distributors for a fee from June 2012.

Speaking on the sidelines of a broadcaster forum in Nairobi, Mr Wangusi added that the decision will be gazetted soon .

“We are waiting for official communication from the ministry,” he said.

Mr Ian Fernendez, managing director Nation Media Group digital division said: “It is a welcome move. This is what we wanted and we will now wait for the decision to be gazetted before we can make our next move.”

Information and communication PS Bitange Ndemo said the government was keen to meet the deadline on migration to digital.

“It’s not a wish but a fact that we will migrate successfully since we intend to achieve an 80 per cent coverage by 2012,” said Dr Ndemo.