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The Media Council has urged the Communications Authority of Kenya and media owners to resolve their differences, stating that the digital migration conflict was hurting Kenyan consumers.
MCK's Deputy CEO Victor Bwire said that the government should have come up with a policy to guide the process of migration in order to show members of the public the way to go.
"There should have been public and private engagement on the issue instead of leaving everything to be done by a small clique," he argued.
Speaking at a public forum held in Kisumu on Monday, the Deputy CEO noted that digital migration was for all Kenyans and asked the Commission to allow extension time for the four media houses in order to comply.
The four broadcasters namely, NTV, KTN, CITIZEN and QTV had requested the Commission to grant them 100 days in order to comply. The four TV stations grouped under the African Digital Network Consortium have switched themselves off all digital platforms over the dispute.
"The issue of migration is not a life and death affair, and we should be able to learn from South Africa which has allowed extension period though it is not among the 30 International Telecommunication Union (ITU) countries," Bwire stated.
The ITU has set June 17th this year as the global migration from analogue to digital broadcast.
ITU has allowed 30 African countries to delay the switch beyond the June 2015 deadline with Eritrea, Sudan and Somalia among those allowed to continue using analogue signal beyond the stipulated time.
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