NTV, KTN & CITIZEN TV ABUSING THEIR OWN DOMINANCE! Its obvious Kenyan mainstream media houses; NTV, KTN CITIZEN TV, were not ready for digital migration and should not pretend that their delay tactics are for any public good. They are not fighting for Wanjiku. They never did. Its all about their own selfish business interests. They are playing with our minds. The digital migration process in Kenya started on January 1st. NTV, KTN and Citizen were issued with a digital BSD license without going through the tendering process due to their investment in the sector after a Court of Appeal’s directive. After they got the license, they went back to court to stop the digital migration and ask for more time because they were not ready. It has not escaped our memories, that earlier this month, the three media companies announced they would import their own digital boxes to sell to Kenyans. Instead of rolling out, they started engaging in dirty business practices of defaming their competitors. Barely two weeks into the migration, the three started a media campaign telling people not to buy boxes from their competitors. The timing of these ads were intended to cause confusion and disrupt the migration programme. They were offensive and in gross violation of legal provisions on competition, exhibiting a cartel-like behaviour and anti-competitive conduct. They intend to lock their programmes into their own set-top boxes, blackouting all the Kenyans who have bought the boxes from other media (ie Signet, Gotv, Startimes and Bamba). It is in gross violation of the legal and regulatory framework governing the sector for the three media houses to allege that they are the exclusive vendors of Free-To-Air set-top-boxes that can enable the public to view their channels. The sale of set top boxes in Kenya is a free market. Consumers need not be constrained to purchase a specific set top box to view the content of the three broadcasters whose content is Free-to Air. The digital migration framework allows for the distribution of the ‘Free-to-Air’ signals on the digital platform under the “must-carry principle. It allows for the availability of Free-to-Air channels to the public through all set-top-boxes (FTA and Pay TV). The three broadcasters, individually or collectively, have not applied to The Communications Authority of Kenya for approval of any set top box model for sale in Kenya as per the law. What am trying to say is that the three media house are just playing politics with digital migration. They were never in support of this global development with the aim of making the government fail when the global switch off time in June comes.
Posted on: Thu, 22 Jan 2015 10:52:14 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015