Things are not looking pretty in the media industry.
Television viewers will be in for a very long blackout if the affected media houses do not reach a deal with the Communication Authority of Kenya. The feuding between the two parties reached an anticlimax today when CA switched off the analogue signals for Citizen, KTN and NTV.
The three, which have been battling CA for a share of the signal distribution pie, have assured viewers that they are in the process of importing their own decoders. Digital set-top boxes, which convert analogue signal to digital, must be type approved by CA before they are imported into the market.
But insiders say African Digital Network (AND), the holding company for the disgruntled media houses, may not have an approved decoder type yet. According to people familiar with the issues, by mid last week, CAK had not received an application from ADN for decoder.
This means it may take longer for the TV stations to come back on air if resumption of transmission is to solely rely on importation of the decoders. Getting approval and then importing is quite a process.
Media houses, though, have some relief as in the self-provisioning licence which was re-instated, meaning they can broadcast their own content on digital platform, at least until June 17, the global deadline for digital migration.
The regulator last evening asked the media houses to switch off their analogue signals but the three defied. The Authority went ahead to switch off the analogue signals, leaving millions of viewers with blank screens.
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