Kenya: Decisive Action Needed On Digital Broadcast Dilemma

Business Daily (Nairobi)

Kui Kinyanjui

24 March 2011

Digital broadcasts — the technology of the future — promise to change the viewing experience for an estimated three million television owning Kenyans by 2012.

A global commitment by countries around the world will see Kenya meet its own set deadline to shift from the current technology in use — analog TV — to digital TV by 2012.

This will mean that the country’s terrestrial channels — the likes of NTV, KBC and others — will have to change the way they broadcast, shifting from the current analog standard they use to the more flexible digital platform. For consumers, the change promises to bring about improved services, better quality of broadcasts, and a wider variety of channels.

For broadcasters, it is likely to herald a business shift, changing focus from reach in the form of proprietary masts to content provision. In general, the shift is expected to herald the biggest transition for the industry since the advent of colour broadcasting.

But after a high profile launch attended by no less a personage than President Kibaki in December 2009, the country’s digital broadcasting efforts seem to have fizzled out. According to various experiences from international markets, this should be cause for worry.

In other countries, the full migration process takes an average three years, meaning Kenya is already well on the way to missing its 2012 deadline.

Analysts within the broadcast industry have already expressed their concerns about the country meeting its self-imposed deadline of 2012, saying that the government needs to act fast to create more awareness of the change.

Cause for worry

But in the months since the high profile launch of digital broadcasting, the government has shifted the goal-posts by introducing new guidelines for the shift.

The government recently said that set-top boxes, the medium that many analysts expect the majority of Kenyans are likely to embrace in favour of the more pricey (and, as yet, locally unavailable) digital television sets, will shift from the earlier advertised DVB-T standard to the more expensive DVB-T2 platform.

This move is likely to hike the entry level cost for set-tops boxes, and has already created room for confusion in the market as several players had already committed to importing and selling DVB-T set-top boxes.

For consumers, this single issue could prove pivotal as the country tries to make its 2012 deadline.

Analysts point to set-top box pricing as the biggest challenge for the change, saying the state must move to lower associated costs for the new equipment in order to wean more Kenyans to the standard.

When he launched the initiative over a year ago, the President asked that taxes on set-top boxes should be reduced or waived in order to lower the cost of acquisition of the gadgets.

Action is yet to be taken on that front. In addition, over the next 10 years, most television owners are expected to purchase a digitally tuned television set, which currently retails for between Sh30,000 and Sh100,000 and above.

Early adopters

However, for early adopters, this option remains a mirage as many manufacturers confess there are currently no digitally enabled television sets for sale in the country.

Nonetheless, the clock ticks on, and from the queries being raised by players themselves on this issue, it is apparent that clear and decisive action is needed to save the situation.

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