Compliance with the minimum local content requirements set by the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) to broadcasters is on the decline, an industry quarterly survey shows.
During the third quarter of Financial Year 2022/23, the authority monitored 35 television and 15 FM broadcasting stations for compliance with set programming standards. The broadcast content standards used are set out in the Programming Code and have been broadly characterized as local content, watershed period, children protection, advertisements, religious guidelines, and accessibility for persons with disabilities.
The Authority found out compliance level with minimum local content quota decreased from 98.2 per cent in quarter 2 to 91.4 per cent in the third quarter 2022/3. The compliance with the programming guidelines for watershed period, and children protection decreased from 96.4 to 91.4 per cent.
At the same time, compliance with religious programming guidelines stood at 94.3 per cent while that of accessibility to broadcasting services by people with disabilities was at 100 per cent.
“With respect to radio stations, all the monitored stations complied with programming guidelines for the watershed period and the advertisement and broadcast standards.
During the period under review, a total of 26 licenses were issued to broadcasting service providers for radio and television broadcasting services, bringing the total number of licensed broadcasting service providers to 616.
The total number of broadcasting stations that were operational increased from 89 Television (TV) and 186 FM radio in the year 2018/2019 to 195 TV and 228 FM radio as at 31st March 2023.
The subscriptions to broadcasting services grew by 0.05 per cent (32,464) to a total of 6,223,574 subscriptions.
The subscriptions on DTT, Direct to Home (DTH), and Cable grew by 0.27 per cent (11,858), 0.84 per cent (14,822), and 8.87 per cent (5,784) to result in a total of 4,392,349, 1,761,001, and 65,224 respectively. There was no growth in DTT population coverage, and it remained at 92 per cent.
As the ICT industry regulator, the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) is mandated with promoting and facilitating the development of a diverse range of broadcasting services in Kenya.
This mandate includes issuing licenses for various broadcasting services, and regulating and monitoring compliance with broadcast content standards. This report gives an overview of the performance of the broadcasting services during the third quarter of financial year 2022/23.
The Authority in its Strategic Plan 2018-23, has committed to achieving efficient ICT markets by fostering competition in the ICT sector through licensing of additional operators and service providers.
The Strategic Plan also includes the objective of ensuring compliance with regulatory requirements.
