Supreme Court stops analogue switch-off

The Supreme Court on Monday stopped the Communications Authority of Kenya from switching off the analogue frequencies of the Nation Media Group, Standard Group and Royal Media Services.

Supreme Court judges Willy Mutunga and Mohammed Ibrahim also directed that the application filed by the three media houses against the CA, the Ministry of Information and the Attorney-General be heard before a seven-judge bench.

They said that in view of the nature and terms of the orders sought in the application, they were apprehensive that any orders they may give could lead to inconsistency and even interference with the judgment the court had earlier issued on the same subject when it was a seven-judge bench.

“In the circumstances, the right bench to hear this application would be the full bench of seven judges who heard the case in the first place,” they said.

The ruling was delivered after a preliminary objection was raised by the CA through lawyer Wambua Kilonzo, who said that they were opposed to the hearing of the case by the three media houses before a two-judge bench.

MEDIA HOUSES AGGRIEVED

CA’s preliminary objection was based on the ground that the application seeks final substantive orders that would determine the proceedings before court and cannot therefore be heard and determined by a two-judge bench as presently constituted.

In the Supreme Court judgment dated September 9, 2014, the seven judges gave the CA, three major media houses, the public and other stakeholders in the industry 90 days to hold consultations and come up with a new date for the switch from analogue to digital broadcasting, pending the international analogue switch-off date of June 17, 2015.

The parties were also directed to take a further mention date before the full bench on the progress of the consultations.

The media houses are aggrieved that the dates set by the CA for migration are not sufficient to enable them to put in place adequate infrastructure and be able to fully migrate. Further, they say they have not been granted enough frequency to deploy their own digital signal.

“One frequency that was allocated to the media houses by (the) CA is not enough to appropriately cover Nairobi and its environs, which requires at least three frequencies,” said lawyer Paul Muite, representing the media houses.

TRANSMISSION INFRASTRUCTURE

Nation Media Group, Standard Group and Royal Media Services want the CA to allocate three UHF frequencies that are not being used for analogue broadcasting, one for each of the three designated digital television broadcasting sites in Nairobi.

They also want to be given two months from the date the frequencies are allocated to them to order, import and install transmitters, antennas and other equipment necessary to roll out their digital transmission infrastructure as well as order and import set-top boxes.

The media houses also asked for “a simulcast period during which our television channels will be available on both the analogue and digital platforms and continues for a period of two months prior to analogue switch-off”.

They also requested that the analogue frequencies currently in their use and which they will continue using during the simulcast period be surrendered to the CA after they have fully migrated to the digital platform, being “at the end of the simulcast period”.

The parties were given 10 days to file their court papers.