Thousands of Kenyan households may have no television access from December 13 as the Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK) refuses to extend its digital migration deadline.

Statistics say that over 1.2 million households in Nairobi alone are yet to acquire the digital set top boxes required to access digital broadcasts.

But CCK director general Francis Wangusi has insisted that despite these statistics, no extension is planned for the country’s digital migration process.

Instead, the telecoms regulator plans to embark on a campaign to promote the uptake of set-top boxes.

“The CCK will this week commence on consumer awareness campaigns to get about 500,000 households to purchase set top boxes before the deadline,” said Wangusi.

Wangusi added that the digital migration programme is expected to be carried out in phases, starting with Nairobi and moving to other parts of the country.

The CCK further aims to complete the digital migration by June 14, 2014 according to a schedule publicly made known in August.

The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) deadline for the migration is set for June 2015.

The digital migration process in Kenya though has been postponed several times, owing to what the CCK has termed as a “lack of preparedness” by some stakeholders.