TV migration suffers from funding shortfall


According to business daily a lack of funds will hamper Kenya’s migration from analogue to digital TV in 2012.
The report says that the government had allocated KES 650 million (€5.5 mill) to the project while the full switch, due to start in seven months, requires KES 3 billion (€25 mill).
The Communications Council of Kenya (CCK) said the country has prioritised next year’s general election, which is diverting attention from digital migration. Limited fiscal allocation for migration infrastructure rollout has delayed the process, Rosemary Mwangi, an officer at CCK’s digital wing secretariat, told Business Daily. She said the scheme was allocated KES 250 million (€2.1 mill) in the supplementary budget of 2010/2011 and another KES 400 million (€3.4 mill) in the 2011/2012 budget.
The total budget is supposed to be utilised for building towers, upgrading equipment and consumer education. The project will see all television users migrate to a DVB-T2 signal network.
Source: Telecompaper
Item added: 12th December 2011