Staying at home for many Kenyans, of course, means paying numerous bills including decoder subscriptions. But it seems the government wants to ease that load from Kenyans with a recent order. The Communications Authority Of Kenya (CA) has directed pay-TV providers to grant access to free-to-air channels on their decoders.

This came with a good example of GoTV that had barred its users from receiving channels transmitted from FTA (Free Trade Agreement) signals like PANG, Signet, Bamba and ADN.

Two years ago, providers like GoTV and Star-Times had received licences to broadcast these channels. And even though, it was a huge advantage for them, they, later on, blocked access to FTAs and weren’t free anymore for anyone that hadn’t fully paid.

Start off your week with tech news recap and trending conversations in your inbox

Enter valid email-id

Subscribe

I prefer it on Telegram

The directive, according to CA, comes as a response to the numerous complaints arising from consumers across the country. CA director-general, Mercy Wanjau, highlighted that consumers did accuse the service providers of configuring their services in a way that bars them from accessing the free-to-air channels.

This according to Wanjau, is a violation of the regulatory directive. As it stands, “all type DVB-T2 set-top boxes should be configured to receive all FTA channels”.

“This is therefore to direct all licensed DTT broadcast signal distributors and DTT pay-TV providers to unconditionally remove any restrictions and enable reception of all FTA broadcast signals from all other DTT platforms within forty-eight hours from the date of this letter, failure to which the Authority will take necessary measures to stop the violation,” the letter concluded.

Luckily, now the service providers can adhere and give their consumers what is theirs by law. After all, we do require entertainment as we stay at home to try and beat the coronavirus spread.