STATEMENT BY THE DIGITAL BROADCASTERS ASSOCIATION

The Digital Migration in Kenya Has faced many challenges and misrepresentations in the past 2 years or so as an interested party, the Digital Broadcasters Association(DBA) of Kenya feels that we must come out to correct certain misrepresentations in the mainstream media.

DBA is composed of over 30 media owners who have invested in the digital platform and are already on air. Over 98% of these are indigenous Kenyans.

Our attention has been drawn to the reaction by the mainstream media over the move by the Communications Authority of Kenya (CAK) to withdraw the temporary authorization granted to the Nation Media Group, The Standard Group and Royal Media Services under the consortium identified as African Digital Network which was to facilitate  the roll out of their digital distribution platform. CAK also announced that it shall also repossess the frequency spectrum resources allocated for the said digital platform with immediate effect.

The 3 media houses now claim that the move will negatively affect them and hands a big win to foreign rivals. This is misleading the nation,
We wish to bring the attention of Kenyans the fact that the implementation of the digital migration in Kenya has been delayed by certain disruptive forces in the past 2 years through numerous court cases with those involved. They have totally ignored the fact that many Kenyans have invested millions of shillings in setting up digital TV stations by buying expensive equipment and recruiting staff, only for the process to be delayed. The delayed process has led to massive loss in advertising revenue, seriously impacting on the investment.

We also note that the three stations want to create a monopoly of the digital platform by supplying their own set-top boxes. We want to point out that all players in the market are currently using CAK approved set-top boxes and the three should not expect preferential treatment.

DBA supports calls by CAK Director General Francis Wangusi to the Competition Authority of Kenya to probe the cartel-like anti-competitive conduct of the three media houses and take appropriate remedies.

The three stations have been vocal that the Chinese have been unfair advantage over them and claim they are fighting for a level playing field, giving the example the allocation of more frequencies to a Chinese Company. What is perplexing, is the fact that the manner in which KTN,Citizen Tv and NTV are going about this issue will end up resulting in creating a monopoly in the digital platform, unfairly locking out the more than 30 local players in the sector.

Our Interpretation of Free To Air license means that your signal is available freely to everyone including Pay TV channels. If any investor feels that their signal should be encrypted, then they should apply to change their license from Free T Air to Pay TV. The analogue signals for K24 and KBC have been switched off, Why are the 3 adamant?

We appeal to CAK to stand firm and not be intimidated by the three stations and call upon Kenyans not to be misled as this saga does not in any way affect the public interests but is all about commercial interests.