Kenyan media owners have welcomed an extension of the deadline for a digital migration switchover in the country to June 2014.

The deadline has been extended by six months following a resolution by President Uhuru Kenyatta and The Information Cabinet Secretary, Fred Matiang’i.

And local media owners have welcomed the extension as they say it is a ‘positive move’ that would bring all stakeholders on board.

The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) has set the digital terrestrial television migration deadline for July 2015.

“The change of dates will allow us to address certain issues the government has not addressed. First, as media owners, we have had issues with foreign ownership of signal distributors. This will allow us address that,” the media owners said in a joint press statement.

The media owners have previously raised concerns that “controversial” issues would not have been addressed ahead of the previous December deadline.

The owners had pointed out that there were not enough set-top boxes in the market and feared that the deadline could inconvenience locals.

Matiang’i had earlier announced that the switch off would take place in phases, with Nairobi being the first city to go live followed by other towns in the country.

The anticipated digital migration will entail a switch-off from analogue broadcasting to digital broadcasting.

All the VHF and UHF frequencies will have to be changed to digital signals.