Advanced Television

Kenya DSO “not constitutional”

December 11, 2012

By Chris Forrester

Kenya is to switch off its analogue TV signals in and around the capital of Nairobi on December 31st, and has done its best to alert viewers of the change-over to digital.

However, the country’s Consumers Federation of Kenya’s (Cofek) says that the planned switch-off will deny TV signals to an estimated viewership of 1.5 million analogue TVs within Nairobi and its suburbs. “We have various reasons for our position. We find the government’s move not only unreasonable but expensive to consumers, most of whom do not have surplus funds to purchase the required set-boxes to shift to digital television frequency signals,” says Cofek.

Cofek says the analogue switch-off decision has come too quickly, and may even contravene Kenya’s Constitution given that the decision “locks out” millions of viewers and discriminates against those who cannot afford new set-top boxes.

Categories: Articles, Broadcast, DSO