Media set for digital signal permits

What you need to know:

  • Migrating to digital broadcasting will accrue a number of benefits, including freeing spectrum that can be used by mobile phone companies to roll out superior networks.
  • The Supreme Court judges, in the ruling delivered on September 29, gave the communications regulator 90 days to consider the merits of issuing a licence to Nation Media Group, Standard Group, Royal Media Services or any other local investor.
  • The row surrounding the awarding of the signal distribution licence had been going on for more than two years and has delayed the country’s migration from the analogue to digital broadcasting system.

Local broadcasters could soon be licensed to distribute their own digital television signals after the government amended the law governing communications.

Information and Communication Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i made the amendment through a gazette notice last week following a Supreme Court ruling that compelled the government to open dialogue with media houses and agree on possible award of signal distribution licences.

The amendment now creates the legal framework for the broadcasters to be awarded distribution licences.

“The licensing of signal distribution providers shall take into consideration the need to optimise the utilisation of existing broadcasting infrastructure. The Communications Authority of Kenya shall consider the merits of issuance of other broadcast signal distribution and self-provisioning licences,” Dr Matiang’i said in the new regulations.

The Supreme Court judges, in the ruling delivered on September 29, gave the communications regulator 90 days to consider the merits of issuing a licence to Nation Media Group, Standard Group, Royal Media Services or any other local investor.

In its ruling, the court also overturned an earlier ruling by the Court of Appeal that had compelled the regulator to issue digital signal broadcasting licences to three leading media houses.

The row surrounding the awarding of the signal distribution licence had been going on for more than two years and has delayed the country’s migration from the analogue to digital broadcasting system.

BENEFITS

Migrating to digital broadcasting will accrue a number of benefits, including freeing spectrum that can be used by mobile phone companies to roll out superior networks.

It will also benefit viewers by giving them a bigger variety of television channels to choose from. The decision by Dr Matiang’i to amend the law is seen as the beginning of the process that will culminate in local firms having their own digital signals, over which they will have control.

“The licensing shall be done in conformity with the national values and principles of good governance provided under Article 10 of the Constitution,” said the minister.

Currently, the distribution of the digital signal is done by state-owned broadcaster KBC, through Signet, and Chinese firm Pan African Network Group.

The migration was conventionally agreed upon at the Radio Communication Conference held in Geneva under the sponsorship of the International Telecommunications Union in May 2006 and the global cut date for the shift agreed to be June 2015.