Kenyan pay TV operators condemn broadcasters’ ‘misinformation’

Kenyan pay TV operators GOtv Kenya and StarTimes Kenya have said they will take legal action after local broadcasters aired adverts advising viewers not to purchase the two firms’ digital set-tops, according to local reports. 

The broadcasters, Nation Media Group (NMG), Royal Media Services (RMS) and Standard Group (SG), which together recently formed the Africa Digital Network (ADN) to supply digital set-tops to the Kenyan market, aired the adverts on channels NTV, KTN, QTV and Citizen, asking vieers to wait for their own deciders to made available to the market.

GOtv and StarTimes have taken issue with claims that they breach copyright by making the channels available on their own services, arguing that they are obliged to do so by must-carry rules that have been upheld by the country’s Supreme Court.

The pair said that the advert is defamatory and intended to mislead, and that their boxes offered Kenyans the option of receiving channels for free or signing up for pay TV services.