The government of Kenya has denied the Media Owners Association (MOA) request to extend the deadline to April 30 to allow more time to put up and implement digital infrastructure across the country.
This move means that come December 30, Kenyans in Nairobi who will not have subscribed to a digital television plan will be cut off from watching television and will either stick to watching movies, listening to music or radio.
Those outside Nairobi will be lucky enough to wait until next year depending on their area analogue switch off dates as scheduled.
How Prepared Are you?
Following the announcement of the new deadlines for digital migration in the country, MultiChoice Kenya, yesterday, announced it was cutting prices for its GOtv decoders in efforts to help Kenya speed up the migration process.
GOtv has reduced prices of its decoders by 50% to retail at KSh 1, 799 instead of the earlier pricing at KSh 3,399 and will be inclusive of two months GOtv Plus subscription, offering Kenyans an easy and affordable way to migrate to digital broadcasting.
MultiChoice offers content to Kenyans through two digital platforms; GOtv and DStv. The DStv platform that is considered pricy to many offers services through Satellite Direct-to-Home while the GOtv uses Digital Terrestrial Transmission.
As Kenyans work to meet the deadline, they will be looking for best offers that will be affordable to their specific lifestyles and the distributors of digital content have realised this. So just how informed about
GOtv is also offering its customers a fun weekend starting this Friday, December 5 that will see anyone subscribed to the Pay-TV service enjoy all the channels offered through the decoder without any extra charge, regardless of bouquet or subscription status.
StarTimes Kenya currently has an offing allowing customers to watch main local channels without requiring subscription through a kit to cost the customer KSh 8,000 for the Satellite Dish, LNB cable and installation with an option to purchase only the decoder for 4,500 for those with satellite dishes.
The offer by StarTimes will allow those on other Pay-Tv plan an opportunity to change to the service in the case they are dissatisfied with their operations.
Other Pay-Tv plans facilitating the migration is through Wananchi Group’s Zuku. Subscribing with Zuku Satellite will cost the customer up to Ksh 2,400 for its Premium package with the least package Zuku Poa (with 45 TV channels) going for Ksh 799.
Don’t get too excited yet though, the setup fee for the packages will cost the user up to KSh 5, 600.
When it comes to DStv, full installation will cost the customer a total of KSh 13,150 with the decoder pricing at Ksh 7,100, with the least subscription package going for about KSh 900 for up to 44 channels.
As the country counts down to the migration deadline, just how prepared and informed about it are you? JUUCHINI gives you a breakdown of the migration process here.
