Corporate News
An empty NTV studio on February 14, 2015 after the Communications
Authority of Kenya shut down the analogue transmitters of NTV, QTV, KTN
and Citizen TV. PHOTO | JEFF ANGOTE
By OKUTTAH MARK
In Summary
TV viewers will have their favourite programmes back
on air on Thursday after the media owners struck a deal with the
government to resume operations.
The deal allows the four leading TV stations to broadcast
their content through the self-provisioning digital platform to owners
of free-to–air set top boxes in Nairobi and its environs, ending a
three-week switch-off.
The four stations, NTV, QTV (both owned by Nation Media Group), KTN (Standard Media Group)
and Royal Media’s Citizen, have meanwhile written to industry
regulator, the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) asking that pay-
TV service providers such as GoTv, StarTimes and Zuku seek
authorisation from them to carry their content.
This means pay- TV subscribers whose carriers will
sign agreements with the three media houses will also access local
content through the channels.
The four stations want the pay- TV operators to
commit to paying for the content or commit not to switch off subscribers
who default on the monthly payments.
The stations will be offering their digital signals
through their consortium, Africa Digital Networks – the owner of the
self-provisioning license.
The settlement is a win for television viewers with free-to-air set top boxes who will have a variety of content to choose from.
The TV stations switched off their digital signals
in protest against the CA’s decision to turn off their analogue signals.
They were also opposed to pay- TV service providers carrying their
content without consent.
With pay TV subscriptions, viewers are subjected to a monthly charge of between Sh449 to Sh8,200.
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