What is this now!!! ati citizen, Ntv, KTN, Qtv hawataki tuwaonange kwa GOTv, na Startimes! I’ve never understood why they are against this, si they will still make money from advertising as usual.Somebody please explain why these stations are against gotv and startimes.
Ngojea FTA gurus akina luther12 na Merimata
@Meria Mata any idea why this contention is happening?
gotv and startimes are paytv na kaa hujalipa subs wanakata hata local channels. hii ni hujuma and i support them till gotv and startimes + zuku style up.
Fta means free to air and it should be free without any conditions whatsoever
They don’t pay, gotv and the likes are charging for what should be free, if they charge people for subs then not everybody will be able to pay and thus they will be reducing the viewers of the local broadcasters, fewer viewers means low advertising income.
2 Likes
They could gang up and supply viewers with a fta decoder with only their channels for free. They can afford it
In the year 2000, the world decided to migrate from analogue to digital TV broadcasting. several meetings were held under the International Telecommunications Union (ITU).
At the Regional Radio communications Conference in Geneva (RRC-06) held on June 17, 2006, countries signed an agreement setting June 17, 2015 as the deadline for the switch from digital to analogue TV technology.
Some countries requested that their deadline be June 17, 2020 and were granted the request. Other who were absent were giving 90 days to chose between the two dates failing which, their deadline would be June 17, 2015.
Countries were free to have effected their migration any time before the deadline. Kenya was present and accepted the June 17, 2015 hence its bound by that agreement. Every player in the broadcasting industry fully accepts that date.
To activate the process the Kenya government in March 2007, set up the National Digital Migration Task-force (NDMT) to guide the country on the digital migration.
The NDMT comprised of the Ministry of Information and Communications, National Communications Secretariat, Communications Commission of Kenya, Media Owners Association (MOA), KBC, Media Council of Kenya and Association of Practitioners in Advertising (APA).
The task-force completed its work and handed in a report to the government in October 2007. It recommended that in accordance with the ICT Sector Policy Guidelines of March 2006, practical measures be taken by the government to licence signal distribution providers in Kenya. In particular, it recommended that:
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In order to reduce the cost of migration, the existing analogue transmission sites and infrastructure would be used for digital transmission.
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Based on the government decision to licence KBC as a signal distributor, KBC shall form an independent company to run the signal distribution services in order to avoid conflict of interests or cross subsidies.
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The current broadcasters will be allowed to form an independent company to run the signal distribution services in order to utilize their existing infrastructure. This company should be independent to avoid conflict of interests or cross subsidies. This company will be given the first preference to a (second) signal distribution licence.
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Existing broadcasters who own infrastructure will negotiate commercial
terms with the licenced signal distribution provider for transfer of ownership
of the infrastructure. -
A time limit be set after which broadcasters will not be allowed to operate unlicenced signal distribution services.
In February 2008 the government set up a Digital Television Committee (DTC) to implement recommendations of the task-force.
As recommended and agreed, the first Broadcast Signal Distribution (BSD) license was allocated to the State broadcaster KBC without any controversies. KBC formed the independent company called SIGNET to distribute the signal.
But both KBC and the government were too broke to embark on building the infrastructure. As will be clear later, KBC’s Signet surrendered its frequencies to MultiChoice for use by its firm GoTV. The story of GoTV is itself an interesting read.
To take care of this problem the then Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK) decided to allocate a second BSD licence to another company through competitive bidding.
One of the firms that tendered for the licence was Pan Africa Network Group (PANG-Kenya) a company owned 100% by Chinese. This is the company that owns Startimes
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I bought my Startimes Decoder @3500 if I remember correctly. I was then later told to pay an extra 2500 to make it fta with the assurance that I would watch ALL local channels.
When those stations exit Startimes, I will be left with an obselete Decoder which I bought for 6000 bob.
Who should I sue, Startimes or the government for standing by and letting Startimes con me?
What i’m pissed off about is the number of boxes i have now, 4 in total, everybody wants you to buy a set top box.
Very interesting, following!