The Computer Society of Kenya

Since 1986

wangusiDAILY NATION By DAVID HERBLING

Tuesday April 19,2016

The Communications Authority of Kenya says licensing of the third broadcast signal distributor will have to wait until a new board is appointed.

The industry regulator has also refuted claims that it irregularly awarded a broadcasting permit to the Bamba-KTN joint venture, saying the consortium is operating on a temporary licence.

Licensing of a third broadcast player was thrown in limbo after ICT Cabinet secretary Joe Mucheru in February dissolved the entire CA board, but the directors moved to court and obtained orders to remain in office until the case is heard and determined.

“The licensing process is yet to be concluded largely due to the disbandment of the board,” said CA director-general Francis Wangusi in an interview.

Standard Group in February acquired a 50 per cent stake in Lancia Digital Broadcast Ltd — the firm which owns Bamba — to co-own the platform with Radio Africa.

“The authority has not yet issued a broadcast signal distributor licence to Bamba. Lancia Digital Broadcast Ltd (Bamba) is operating on a temporary authorisation issued by the CA in early 2015 in the wake of Supreme Court ruling on digital migration,” Mr Wangusi said.

Plan to issue the third broadcast signal distributor permit have been on the cards since 2013 but has been derailed by protracted court battles and boardroom wrangles at the regulator.

The two existing broadcast distributors are State-owned Signet and Chinese firm Pan African Network Group (Pang), which operates the StarTimes pay-TV brand.

The common carrier broadcast licence — which allows the firms to distribute content from other players — costs Sh45 million, and this is the fee to be paid by the successful third signal distributor.

“Payment of the licences will be done at the time the entities are given licence offers after board approval,” the CA boss said.

The communications industry regulator said it has so far issued three applicants with self-provisioning broadcast signal distributor licences including the African Digital Network (ADN) consortium, GOtv and Lancia Digital.

The initial licence fee for self-provisioning broadcast signal distributor licence is Sh15 million, according to CA.

“The Standard Group acquired shares in Bamba,” said Mr Wangusi explaining how Lancia Digital acquired a temporary licence.

The Supreme Court in February last year ordered CA to award three local media houses under the ADN consortium - Nation Media Group, Royal Media Services and The Standard Group – with self-provisioning licences limited to areas where they had already rolled out their infrastructure.

The Regional Radio Communication Conference held in Geneva in 2006 set June 17, 2015 as the deadline for migration to digital TV broadcasting from the earlier analogue system.

Kenya began switching off analogue signals beginning with Nairobi in February 2015 and the final analogue switch-off was done on March 31 last year.

The cumulative number of digital set top boxes in Kenya stood at 416,984 (free to air) and 2.6 million pay-TV boxes as at December 2015. This brings the total number of set top boxes in homes to Sh3.09 million, according to fresh data from CA.

The existing digital signal distributors have so far covered 60 per cent of Kenyan households, CA data shows, meaning 40 per cent of homes are in TV blackout.

Kenya has 55 free to air TV channels while the number of FM stations stood at 139 as at the end of last year.

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