Samsung Electronics East Africa has unveiled a new range of TV sets that include the firm’s LED and SMART technology. This comes in the wake of the company’s earlier announcement that it will be introducing digital TV signal compliant sets to the market. According to Samsung Electronics East Africa General Manager Allan Oyier, the firm is currently rolling out a series of SMART TVs to meet the lifestyle needs of discerning local consumers.
“TVs have ceased to be just a medium of communication and are now a life style product to deliver interactive Infotainment necessitating Samsung’s product push,” Oyier explained.
Communications Commission of Kenya has rolled out a campaign for digital migration with the aim of having the whole country convert from analogue TV signals to digital by 2015. Conversion to the digital signal requires digital converters or in-built digital TV sets. A DVB-T2 set-top box which is recommended by CCK costs between Sh 5,000 and Sh10,000 while a TV set with in-built digital signal convertors retails between Sh250,000 and Sh300,000.
The estimated cost of migrating from analogue to digital signals is high that it is feared close to 16million Kenyan households with analogue TV sets could be left without TV signal. There was hope for cheaper migration when Finance Minister Njeru Githae proposed to remove duty on importation of the set top box converters during his budget speech.