Kenyan govt. may offer free or subsidised digital TV boxes

Last Updated 14 years ago by Kenya Engineer

Source; cio.co.ke

A number of Kenyans might receive free digital set top boxes, or other government help towards acquiring the same. This was announced by Communication Commission of Kenya Director General, Francis Wangusi. He was speaking after the opening of an African conference on guidelines on communication interference between neighbouring countries. The five day conference opened Monday at the Hilton Hotel in Nairobi and draws delegates from all over Africa.

Wangusi said that Kenya would also miss its December 2012 deadlines for a switchover from analog to digital broadcasting. While remarkable progress had been made in the reach of digital TV signal, which now covers seven major towns including Nairobi, Mombasa, Kisumu, Nakuru, Nyeri ,  Webuye and Meru, digital set top boxes still remain out of reach for a majority of Kenyans.

“We are working around the clock to make them available”, said Wangusi. Set top boxes that can receive free to air digital TV are currently retailing at Ksh. 6,000 to Ksh. 9,000, pricing which the DG says is “speculative”. The DG also admits that CCK had expected problems with set top affordability after adopting the newer Digital Video Broadcast – Terrestrial 2 (DVB-T2) standard which has costlier set top boxes than the older DVB-T standard.

Wangusi says that  digital pay TV operators have taken advantage of the unaffordability of DVB-T2 set top boxes to offer pay TV boxes at quite low prices, hence locking in customers early.

The DG says that CCK has temporarily licensed about 60 digital free to air television stations on both DVB-T2 carries( Signet and Pan African Networks). CCK approved free to air DVB-T2 boxes should be able to receive signals from both platforms. Pay TV providers are also obligated in their licensing to preserve about 30 percent of their capacity for free to air television. Wangusi says that further opportunities are still available for Pay per view television.

It will take about an year for set top boxes to reach an “affordable” price of Ksh. 2,000. Still, at this price point, 40 percent of television owners are expected not to be able to afford the boxes. “ We will want to make an audit when we have started the switch off. We will expect the government to make an intervention and use whichever mechanism to ensure people get set top boxes. ” says Wangusi.

The DG stopped short of saying which method the government would use to make the set top boxes available to the 40 percents. Means may include set top box vouchers, either in full or partial cost(done by the United States and funded by sale of resulting spectrum) ,  subsidising of set top boxes in the market or provision of physical set top boxes.

Kenya is estimated to have 4 million analogue televisions. The 2009 National Census recorded 2.4 million television sets.