The Supreme Court in Kenya has extended the deadline for analogue switch off and digital migration earlier fixed for December 31 2014.
This development followed the court’s decision to allow Kenya’s three main media houses, Nation Media Group (NMG), Royal Media Services (RMS) and Standard Group (SG) to legally broadcast on analogue frequencies despite the digital migration date that.
Supreme Court Judge Mohamed Ibrahim and Chief Justice Willy Mutunga extended the analogue broadcast as the Communication Authority sought to block the determination of the case yesterday and applied that the matter should be heard by the full bench of the Supreme Court.
The two-judge Bench also ordered the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) to let the three media houses carry their content on the analogue platform until their application to extend the switch off date is heard. The media houses had filed the application last Friday in which they asked the court to put off the digital migration deadline for another four months to allow them time to procure equipment for the switch-over.
“The switch-off date shall be extended until further directions of the court,” the judges ruled.
The Communications Authority had accused the three media houses of enjoying an unfair advantage over other industry players by having a presence on both digital and analogue platforms.
“CA does not switch off. It gives notice to media houses who switch off the analogue platform. As we speak, only RMS, NMG and SG are on both digital and analogue platforms,” the regulator said.
