NTV, Citizen and KTN are off air.
ok
I just thought I should clarify (my own opinion) lest people equate this to media activism. The media houses are not against the digital migration. As a matter of fact, the migration is inevitable internationally. What they are seeking is for the government to address issues relating to digital signal distributions and procurement of digital set-top boxes. The process of signal distribution has been restricted to two players, PANG (Chinese) and SIGNET (KBC/Govt of Kenya). This essentially reduces the local media to content service providers who are there to simply make money for the Chinese and the Govt. The costs are noteworthy too. Content Service Providers are required to pay Kshs 125,990 per Megabit for Nairobi and Kshs 93,202.75 per MB for other sites in Kenya. And this cost is per channel. The local media owners sought to bid for the third distribution license and were poised to get it when the govt curtly ruled out the issuance of a third license, essentially locking out any competition for the chinese PANG. The media houses want the playing field level in order they can compete favourably and remain in the business of serving daily news and programming to Kenyans. They are against being bullied to provide content to foreigners and play second fiddle in their own businesses. They are against ceding control of their media outlets to third parties. They are against being made into cash cows for a few correct entities. The judge did not address the disparity in the playing field. Neither did he care to allow for constitution of a three judge bench, in utter disregard of the gravity of the matter. I wonder why. But here we are now. Let's see how this plays out in the coming days.
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