Here’s the real issue behind Kenya’s digital TV migration war

It was quite shocking to suddenly have no transmission of TV signals from the three leading broadcasters, NTV, Citizen and KTN. The last time this happened was during the 2007/8 post-election violence when the then Minister for Internal Security ordered all broadcasters off air in what turned out to be a counter-productive attempt to reduce the violence.

From a consumer point of view, one really wonders what is going on between government and the broadcasters – especially when each one claims their action is in full support of the digital TV migration.

In acknowledging that the matter is still in court, we shall restrict ourselves to summarizing what is already in the public domain as a way of enriching our understanding of the issues surrounding digital TV migration.

The technical details and benefits of digital TV are well captured on the official digital migration website. Basically, the majority of Kenyan viewers are currently receiving what is known as analogue TV signals. These are inferior to what digital TV signals can offer in terms of quality of the picture, sound and interactivity.

For the consumer to enjoy this new digital signal, they must upgrade their analogue based TV set with a converter known as the set-top box (STB). This STB is very similar, but not the same as the DSTV decoder you would get for your Pay-TV services. The STB would allow you to watch your regular “Free-to-Air” channels from NTV, Citizen, KTN, KBC, K24 - without any obligation to pay monthly subscription fee.

'RUSH TO IMPLEMENT'

The government rightly points out that the migration to digital TV is not only good from a Radio spectrum management point of view, but it is also necessary given that globally, all countries are expected to have adopted the digital TV signal by the year 2015.

The media houses on the other hand claim that they are not against the digital migration but are concerned by the rush to implement it.

They submit that the lowest price of a Free-to-Air (FTA) set-top box (KSh5,000 or USD63) is beyond the reach of the average viewer who will subsequently be off-air if the migration is immediately effected. The media houses feel that losing a large majority of this viewer-ship will consequently cost them advertising revenues which are pegged on the size of their viewership.

As at now, the Court of Appeal has granted their prayers and ordered the status-quo retained for another 45 days, pending the final determination on the matter in February next year. This means analog TV transmission will prevail for some time before the digital transmission is commissioned.

But could there be a hidden card, which both the government and the media houses are not openly playing? If so, it is likely to be the Signal Distribution License.

The broadcasting market structure significantly changed with the introduction of Digital TV. Previously, each of the media houses would own BOTH their content and the transmission of the same to the user.

With digital TV transmission, the regulator envisioned a situation where the transmission of content would be outsourced to third parties – leaving the media houses to concentrate on the production of the content.

The media houses did bid for the signal distribution license but lost out to Signet Ltd (subsidiary of KBC) and Pan-African Network Group, PANG (a Chinese owned company).

Essentially therefore, once digital migration is eventually allowed to commence, the media houses will have to subscribe for transmission services through one or both of the above companies.

This is perhaps the elephant in the court-room. Everything else is a side-show and a curtain raiser that will eventually lead to the big question – is it risky business for media houses to rely on third parties to transmit or deliver their content to the viewers? What is the practice elsewhere?

Order your pop-corn, sit back and wait for the grand finale in February next year.

[email protected], @jwalu