The Future of TV and Internet in Kenya

As per the 2019 Kenya Census data, there are 12.1 million homes in Kenya out of which 4.9 million have television sets and only 2 million have internet. What is the future of these two? The number of Kenyan homes with Television sets has been rising steadily while Kenyans being plugged to the internet are fast rising.

The data also shows how Kenyans who have radio have been rising slowly as the census recorded that 6.9 million homes have a radio. When giving his talk on the future of TV and internet at the CIO 100 Symposium and awards, Francis Kamuyu the IT Manager at Multichoice Kenya said that where radio is right now is where TV is headed to.

With digital transformation having started in Kenya’s capital Nairobi, the data shows well the future of TV and Radio and how they are both dependent on internet for their growth.

In Nairobi, TV and Radio are not growing anymore and what is growing is the internet. The capital is transforming digitally as the rest of the country transforms, then the trend will reflect on the respective regions as well.

“As we looked at this data, we found out that if a sub-county has a high percentage of homes with internet, that sub-county does not have a high percentage of TV,” Kamuyu noted.

“At multichoice, we also looked at data of where our customers are paying from. We realized that people living in the urban areas use GOTv while those living in the outskirts of towns use DSTV,” Kamuyu noted during his presentation.

People living in urban areas have access to the internet and would prefer to pay less for TV as they can access a lot more via the internet.

TV and Internet need to grow side by side or else one just might replace the other.