In the process of spearheading the digital migration, the Communications Authority was required to engage all stakeholders and especially media houses and other broadcast licensees whose business models and revenues would be affected by the migration.
In December 2012, against protestations by the Media Owners, the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) announced the analogue switch-off date of December 31, 2013. Subsequently, three media houses (Royal Media Services, Nation Media Group and the Standard Group) filed a suit at the High Court seeking to stop the analogue switch-off on the proposed date.
Litigation was to protect media business investments and to move Communications Authority and the Ministry for Information and Communication to protect the Free to Air TV and access of Free to Air Channels to Kenyans. At the time digital broadcasting was a best practice that all media houses were open to. The litigation was to protested the manner in which the process was rushed by the Ministry of Information.
In the process of engaging the policy maker, the three main media houses went off air after a series of court battles occasioning consumer information blackouts and a major drop in revenues by the three TV stations as advertising and programming was disrupted. Viewers who accessed content from these channels were denied access to information, education and entertainment.
