Reservations as MACRA Launches “Kiliye-Kiliye”

By: Thula Chisamba

Some Malawians in the Northern region, have expressed reservations on ‘Kiliye-Kiliye’ digital decoder as the Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority (MACRA) is today launching the same at Mzuzu stadium.

In random interviews ahead of the event, people claimed that the decoder being launched has numerous technical problems than the usual analogue one.

“Picture quality is very poor as compared to the analogue antennae. I am speaking from experience because I already have one at home,” said Joel Ziba.

Before the official launch, people were already buying the decoder from Malawi Post Cooperation (MPC) offices across the country.

Mercy Banda claimed that she has already dumped the ‘Kiliye-Kiliye’ decoder for GOtv, owing to numerous problems encountered using the former.

“I was failing to access other channels through that decoder thus I just switched my attention to GOtv-though I find it hard to subscribe monthly,” she said.

As if that was not enough, some went on to complain that the cost of the decoder is too exorbitant to most ordinary Malawians.

David Mvula confessed that most Malawians cannot afford to buy the equipment at the current cost of about MWK20,000.

“In the end, MACRA will see itself migrating alone to the said digital broadcasting. We would have loved if they reduced the price to something affordable to most of us,” he said.

This publication has established that the said decoder is not delivering what it is promised and most Malawians are finding the decoder to be too expensive compared to the analogue which was only selling at MWK1500.

This may result into a situation where a huge number of Malawians not having access to television in the country.

However, director of the project at MACRA, Gideon Munthali, agrees to disagree with the raised concerns, citing they have never received such complaints from Malawians.

“But because we are now clued up, we are going to look into that, so that we migrate together with every Malawian,” he said.

The analogue to digital migration across the country is set to be completed on 1st July as the deadline for viewing TV via analogue antennas.