Digital Migration in Kenya hasn’t been without it’s fair share of abrasiveness. What with the three media houses using whatever means was available to them to delay the process. This was perceived to be that the three were afraid of what the migration meant to them in terms of reach the three had compared to rivals once a platform that equalized them presented itself. They wanted to have special treatment.
Like that big baby in nursery school.
But things didn’t go as they wanted, as much as they had their way for quite some time by delaying the timelines that Communications Authority had over and over, this had to come to an end. The mechanisms that they used to delay the process went against them, the courts made a ruling that they had to adhere to if they wanted to be in business in any future.
There was even talk of the three transmitting in some areas illegally, a move that Communications authority responded to swiftly by legally stopping the transmission in some places like Mombasa and Menengai.
And that is over now.
Remember sometime back when they would advertise that Startimes and Gotv were transmitting illegally on their networks? All these were half-truths bent on confusing the consumers and delaying their choice-making about what to go with for the digital migration. Well things have changed and they are now taking in adverts from all these rivals on the digital platform, including advertising where they are available on the platforms, including SIGNET and PANG. Their platform is not ready yet and the bus has left.
ITU agreement requires that the countries involved set a time of migration from Analogue (UHF) to Digital transmission and free up the frequencies for other things like 4G networks, you know, digital transmission uses less frequencies, so it’s basically better. Plus digital transmission enables better reach and management of TV. The management part doesn’t look good on the three big houses as they stood a chance of being monitored for their actual reach, and this data is not with them but with third parties, PANG and SIGNET. They still do.
What remains now is all the players, big and small to leverage the new opportunities availed to them by digital migration and get their groove on, make the money, improve on content and get their viewer numbers up. It isn’t about who is on what platform anymore, they are all equal in terms of reach, but getting watched is the new animal here. Your content speaks for you. The hardliners have towed the line, they lost loads of money in the process to the smaller stations while they had their noses up in the air.
