Supreme Court suspends Kenya's analogue TV switch-off

The migration to digital television, expected to start rolling out on Wednesday, has been temporarily suspended.

The Supreme Court put on hold the switchover which was to start in Nairobi and its environ following an application by the three media houses on Tuesday afternoon.

Deputy Chief Justice Kalpana Rawal granted the orders sought by The Standard Group (SG), Royal Media Services (RMS) and Nation Media Group (NMG) who filed the application arguing some issues were yet to be ironed out even as the deadline approached.

Although the analogue switch-off will still go on, it will not affect KTN, NTV and Citizen TV.

Lawyer Paul Muite for three media houses told the court the deadline set by the Communications Authority of Kenya (CAK) did not comply with the three-month period given by the Supreme Court for negotiations.

In September, a seven-judge Supreme Court bench reversed orders issued by the Court of Appeal compelling the CAK to issue digital broadcasting licences to the media houses.

It instead directed that the industry regulator to open dialogue with media owners on granting of digital broadcasting licences on grounds of public interest.

violates rights

In its ruling, the Supreme Court asked the media owners and the CAK to enter into negotiations that would see the regulator grant the licences to either a consortium of SG, RMS and NMG or any other broadcaster. This is in addition to the one issued to KBC, and Chinese broadcaster, Signet.

“The appellants (CAK) are given 90 days to consider the merits of issuing a licence to Nation Media Group, Standard Group, Royal Media Services or any other local investor,” the Supreme Court ruled.

The implementation had been segmented into three phases with the first switch planned for Nairobi.

Phase two was expected on February 2 next year, covering Mombasa, Malindi, Nyeri, Meru, Kisumu, Webuye, Kakamega, Kisii, Nakuru, Eldoret, Nyahururu, Machakos, Narok and Londiani.

Phase three, scheduled for March 30, would cover Garissa, Kitui, Lodwar, Lokichoggio, Kapenguria, Kabarnet, Migori, Voi, Mbwinzau/Kibwezi, Namanga and other parts of the country.

The negotiations ordered by the court would be on applications by the three media houses for consideration to get digital signal broadcasting licences.

The media houses have been contesting a requirement that their content be carried by other entities granted licences as it violates their intellectual property rights. They said they had made major investments in the broadcasting sector, particularly on infrastructure and should be allowed to broadcast their own content.

They argued that allowing their material to be transmitted by other entities would expose it to the likelihood of interference.

The media houses further argued that having just got the temporary licence on November 25 it would not be fair to expect them to have completed setting up digital broadcast platform in just a month.

The other reason they sought more time, four months to be exact, was because they argued that they be allowed to hold onto the analogue licences for the duration of simultaneous broadcast.

This is because of the requirement they surrender analogue frequencies immediately they are granted digital ones. The media houses argued the process before full migration to digital broadcast too would require more time and hence the plea for the four months.

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On November 25, the media houses were given self provisional licences. And before the migration deadline they were allowed to broadcast on analogue and digital platform.

The media houses argued that more time is required to allow Kenyans to purchase set top boxes. They are asking for an extension by a further four months.

The global deadline for the digital switch is June 27, next year.

Yesterday, Justice Rawal ordered the parties to serve CAK with the court papers and appear before the Supreme Court on Monday next week when a bench of two judges would issue more directions on the matter.

The Media Council of Kenya had also requested the Government for a five-month extension of the migration date.