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Trials are now underway in Nairobi ahead of Kenya's impending switch-over from analogue to digital TV that promises dozens more TV channels in the country by centralising signal distribution and content control with the Government, while rendering hundreds of thousands of existing TV sets redundant.
The changeover, due some six months ahead of the country's next elections, will move all TV and radio signals out of the hands of individual suppliers, to a single distribution network controlled by state-owned company, Signet. At the same time, in a move unique to Kenya, the Government has put in place a licensing system giving it the right to suspend any broadcaster on 12 different counts of editorial judgement.
Scheduled for June 2012, the switch will make Kenya only the second country in Africa to go digital after South Africa, some three years ahead of the 2015 global deadline.
In that it will centralise the distribution of TV signal, it has been flagged as a way for many more companies to set up and run far cheaper TV stations. However, TV sets that are not designed to receive digital signals, or that do not have a set-top-box, (a converter to decode the digital signal) will become useless when the analogue is switched off.
In 2006, the Regional Radiocommunication Confrence held in Geneva Switzerland set up a broadcasting plan that set 17th of June 2015 as the deadline for migration from analogue to digital. The main reason for the change-over was for to achieve efficient management of the (presently overloaded) frequency spectrum.
Digital transmission will free up more frequencies for broadcasters. Currently, there are 18 commercial free television stations and 17 pay TV providers in Kenya. Yet more than 60 applications for television stations and 150 radio stations have been made to Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK), which CCK cannot grant because of the limited number of frequencies in the analogue system.
Switching to digital TV will fundamentally alter the way broadcasting and transmission is done. In the current analogue system, each station uses its own equipment to broadcast and transmits its signal. But with the DTV system, the national broadcaster, Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (KBC) will provide the digital TV signal platform through its subsidiary, Signet.
According to Charles Wanjohi of KBC, de-linking content provision from signal distribution means that the emphasis will shift to providing quality programmes, since the set-up costs and transmission costs will be cut considerably.
“An investor will only be required to put up a studio, which costs between Sh10 – 20 million. As it is now, investors have to buy and set-up transmission equipment worth Sh100 – 200 million,” said Charles.
By the end of June 2012, no other broadcasting station will have a transmission network. It is expected that Kenya will see a surge of television stations as a result of savings made from not buying or maintaining transmission equipment. However, the current broadcasters will see their transmission infrastructure go out of use as they switch to the Signet platform.
“Broadcasters will now focus on providing quality content and starting a (broadcast) station will not be as expensive as it is,” said Charles.
For viewers, the advent of DTV will bring about clearer images and better audio, with very few interruptions.
Instead of having different aerials for different stations, viewers will only be required to have one aerial to receive all signals. The set-top box will allow for parental control on selected channels, pay-TV, on-demand services, and PVR recording options.
Digital TV uses less bandwidth, and this will usher in a wider scale of services provided to the viewer, such as multimedia, interactivity, electronic program guides and additional languages (spoken or subtitled).
“Apart from video & audio, viewers will get other services, like data, radio services, internet services, video on demand and many more services,” said Christopher Murigu of Signet .
There are different digital broadcast standards categorized according to regions. Kenya is using the Digital Video Broadcast – Terrestrial (DVB-T). This is the same system that the rest of Africa and Europe is using. The set-top boxes must be compatible with the broadcast standards. Set-top boxes (STB’s) or converters that work in China, Japan or the US may not work in Kenya.
The Digital TV signal in Kenya is coded in an MPEG-4 format.
“The MPEG-4 STB’s and the digital-ready TV’s are not yet in the market but its important to get the right specifications when they arrive. The cost will be determined by the market since the business community was advised to get specifications from Digital Kenya,” said Christopher.
Digital Kenya is a department within the CCK tasked with the responsibility of ensuring the converters are of the right specification, and for licensing broadcasters to provide content.
The content license, gazetted some months after proposed Government rights to control broadcast content were removed from the ICT Amendment Bill, lays out 12 conditions for content suitable for broadcast in Kenya. The CCK will be responsible for issuing and withdrawing licenses on grounds such as whether content is of 'a horrible nature' or whether it might cause 'grave offence', or be an 'unreasonable invasion of privacy' or 'induce an unacceptable sense of fear or anxiety'.
For the full license, click here.
The Government introduced a broadcast ban following the last elections, which was not observed by broadcasters, who at that time had control of their own equipment and editorial. Following the change to digital, the CCK will judge what content is fit for Kenyans in terms of viewers' acceptable anxiety levels, and will be able to switch off channelling it deems unacceptable.
In the USA, which made a complete switch to digital in June this year, the administration did not introduce any new government editorial controls, but 2 million households were left in the dark as their TV sets could not decode digital signals. The US government provided coupons to offset the cost of an external converter box.
American consumer organisations have since claimed the conversion has been a disappointment, delivering little extra value for consumers.
However, Kenya's early conversion will now place it in the front pack globally for the technical switchover. Analogue switch-off in the Japan is scheduled for July 2011, and 2012 in the UK.
While commissioning the trial phase last week, President Kibaki hinted at a tax break arrangement for the converters, which are expected to be in the market next year, at a cost of Sh5,000 to Sh10,000.
For those consumers seeking to buy a digital-read TV that does not need a converter, Mulwa of Emirates Electronics along Luthuli Avenue said: "You can identify a digital TV because it is written 'digital' at the top of the screen. A 21' digital TV costs Sh12,500, while an analogue costs 9,000, depending on the brand."
Written by Ken Macharia for African Laughter
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