Refusal by several Kenyan media firms to comply with the digital migration statute has denied Kenyans essential services. Migration from analogue broadcasting to a more technologically advanced digital broadcasting is being done to ensure that Kenyans receive quality services and additional choices at competitive rates.
Failure to migrate to the digital platform will see Kenyans getting poor services, and also allow some media houses to monopolize the media industry and thus starve off creative and legitimate competition. The media houses that have consistently refused to comply with the digital migration regulations are the Standard Group Limited, Royal Media Group Limited and Nation Media Group Limited. These three media houses have engaged in an elaborate misinformation intended to bias Kenyans against the airing of digital content. On January 16th, the three aforementioned media companies published misleading advertisement discouraging Kenyans from purchasing set-top boxes from independent firms such as GOtv and Startimes. The ensuing digital migration debate has been solved by the Supreme Court which has ruled than no one should broadcast analogue signal but instead switch to digital signals.
Digital broadcasting allows media companies to provide high definition audiovisuals, digital audio, mobile TV and its expanded capacity for more channels allows for wider geographical coverage. Moreover, digital broadcasting allows for better utilization of frequencies as a digital signal transmits more data than an analogue signal thus allowing for multi-channeling.
