Exclusive: This Is Why NMG Is Vehemently Fighting Digital Migration. Their Unaudited Financial Result Will Stun You
Nation Media Group’s unaudited results for the past year are likely to shed light as to why East Africa’s largest media house has been on the forefront advocating for the return of analogue transmission.
NMG together with two other media houses, Royal Media Services (RMS) and Standard Media Group (SMG) have been VERY reluctant to migrate to digital platform ever since the government announced plans to move the country to a digital platform.
But are they ‘boycotting’ digital platform due to the fear of venturing into ‘unfamiliar territory?’ NMG’s half year unaudited result may reveal something interesting that may just be an eye opener.
The group made a staggering 1.65 billion profit before tax for six Months period ended 30th June 2014. According to NMG’s unaudited results released by the group’s secretary J. C Kinyua, the media house had a turnover (the amount of money made in 2014) of 6.45 billion.
The report explains the group was taking appropriate action to mitigate potential adverse effects hindering its growth.
With the country ‘abruptly’ switching off analogue transmission, the group’s growth is uncertain since the prospects of increasing its turnover on a digital platform is farfetched.
In an article Larry Madowo wrote about a week ago, he revealed NTV’s subscriptions dwindled dramatically the last time the station tried using StarTimes and GoTV’s digital platforms.
“The last time the stations pulled off the Star Times and GoTV platforms, subscriptions dropped precipitously. The forceful analogue switch-off was designed to force them into using these same providers to reach viewers.” Larry wrote in part.
So is the fear of their profit plummeting the real reason why NMG is being hesitant to migrate to a digital platform?
Check out its report below:
