The plan to move from analogue TV to digital broadcasting has been postponed again until 2013 by the Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK).
Francis Wangusi, Director General CCK commented that digital transmission would not be possible for now, and again not all Kenyans would be able to access set top boxes aimed at receiving the digital signals.
The regulator had set July this year as the date for phasing out of analogue TVs by banning importation of the sets.
“At first our plan was to have one signal distributor and to be funded by government but the funding unfortunately has not been forthcoming because of the various challenges we have been facing as a country.” Said Wangusi. He added that this challenge has forced CCK to seek a second signal distributor so as to support the efforts of the government signal distributor. The projected December date according to the second signal distributor, will not be enough time to cover the whole country.
Acquisition of the set box decoders is also a major challenge for most Kenyans and this has also contributed to the postponing of the exercise.
The estimated cost of migrating from analogue to digital is so high that close to 16million Kenyan households with analogue TV sets could be left out due to the cost of migration.
A set-top box costs between Sh5,000 and Sh10,000 while a TV set with in-built digital signal convertors retails between Sh250,000 and Sh300,000.