GOtv decoder
Kenya finally switched from analogue to digital broadcasting on 30th March 2015. The switch off happened in phases with the Nairobi and its environs being on February 13th 2015. The rest of the country played catch up in two phases, one on 2nd February 2015 (covering Mombasa, Malindi, Nyeri, Meru, Kisumu, Webuye, Kakamega, Kisii, Nakuru, Eldoret, Nyahururu (Nyadundo), Machakos, Narok and Loldiani (Rongai) and another on 30th March 2015 (covering Garissa, Kitui, Lodwar, Lokichogio, Kapenguria, Kabarnet, Migori, Voi (Vuria), Mbwinzau/Kibwezi, Namanga and all other remaining locations).
With the switch to digital, there was a worry that the new technology would be unaffordable to many Kenyans and the government put in place regulations to make sure that this wasn’t the case. One of the regulations was to classify the set top boxes into two, pay tv set top boxes and free to air set top boxes. The idea was that pay tv would have a monthly charges and the free to air set top boxes would not attract any charge after the initial purchase. In essence customers would access available free to air channels at no extra cost.
GOtv has had a pay tv option and free to air option in its set top box offering in Kenya. GOtv sells decoders for Ksh. 1,399 which comes with 2 months GOtv pay tv subscription. Upon expiry, customers have the option of continuing with the pay tv option or pay a one off free and access free to air channels. The latter option was under a bouquet called Gotv Open. That changed on 18th May 2015 according to an internal GOtv document. GOtv Open has now been replaced with GOtv Lite which will attract an annual administration fee to the tune of Ksh. 1,800. GOtv Lite will enable customers will allow customers to access free to air channels + two premium channels i.e. Faith and Islam channels. According to GOtv, the annual administration fee is supposed to cater for network management costs.
Oddly enough, GOtv has not communicated the change in the free to air bouquet to most of its customers. A cursory glance at the company’s social media pages from April till didn’t yield any updates that communicated the said change. The company has however communicated the changed to some customers who have enquired about the free to air option on the comment sections of unrelated updates. According to one of the replies, customers who had paid Ksh. 1,200 for the free to air option will now have to top up the extra 600 to be able to access free to air channels on GOtv.
It is illegal for GOtv to introduce an annual fee on the free to air bouquet contrary to the rules laid down by the Communications Authority. Also, Its lack of communication of the same to its customers points to the fact that they know what they are doing is wrong and that’s why they made the bouquet changes quietly.