KTN, NTV, CITIZEN TV and QTV to come back on air on Thursday.

The standoff over digital migration that saw four leading television stations remain off air for three weeks is over... for now.

The four stations, whose analogue signals were switched off during the row, will be back on air from about 6.50pm on Thursday this week.

A deal reached Tuesday between the government and the four — NTV, QTV, KTN and Citizen TV — will allow them to broadcast in Nairobi on the digital platform under their Africa Digital Networks (ADN) consortium.

Their broadcast signals will be available to all owners of universal free-to–air set top boxes within Nairobi and its environs.

NTV and QTV (both owned by the Nation Media Group), KTN (Standard Media Group) and Royal Media’s Citizen TV, have meanwhile written to the industry regulator asking that pay TV providers get authorization from them to carry their content.

The four are demanding that providers such as GoTv, StarTimes and Zuku sign a commitment to pay for the content and to ensure it is never switched off, even if their subscribers are in default, before they provide access to it.

The three will be offering their digital signals through the ADN consortium that owns the self-provisioning license issued to them by the Communication Authority of Kenya (CA).  

The move is a win for television viewers who had free-to-air set top boxes as they will now have a variety of content to choose from.

Source: Business Daily