About 1.3 million households were last night left in darkness as digital television migration concluded. June 17, 2015, was the global deadline for switching off analogue broadcast.
Only 2.2 million out of the 3.5 million television sets in the country had gone digital, ICT Cabinet Secretary Fred Mantiang’i said yesterday, leaving the rest without signal from last midnight.
According to the International Communications Union (ITU) Geneva 2006 Agreement all broadcasts went digital by 23:59 hours yesterday. The government says more than 2.2 million households have bought set top boxes, but the number of those who are receiving digital signal could be higher as some are purchasing digital TVs.
Total migration presents a new challenge for broadcasters in reaching the unconverted segment of the population to justify adspend from advertisers who are likely to push for huge discounts due to the reduced reach of TV in the country.
A media buying expert told BUSINESS TODAY that fresh surveys on digital TV penetrations will be carried out whose results will guide pricing of television advertising. Some of the TV adspend is likely to get into digital advertising which have a higher reach.
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With high poverty levels and competing expenses among households, closing the 1.3 million gap won’t be easy. It will need more awareness by CAK and huge price reductions on set top boxes to get more Kenyans to cross over. Decoders with subscription banquets are retailing at an average price of Ksh3,000, while free-to-air set top boxes cost between Ksh5,000 and Ksh10,000 depending on the vendor. This is a steep price for the 46% poor Kenyans.
Media companies including KTN, NTV and Citizen TV have been licensed under African Digital Network to distribute signal through their own decoders but none of them has started selling.
The Communication Authority of Kenya says more than 3.2 million set top boxes have been imported into the country. It has licensed more than 79 set top box vendors, more than 70 broadcasters, 50 of whom are on air. Reports indicate that digital migration has created more than 2500 jobs and the number is rising by the day.
From a constricted space of a few analogue broadcasters with limited content offerings, digital platform has pushed the number of broadcasters to over 50 broadcasters with increased variety of content.
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