ICT Cabinet Secretary Eliud Owalo has disclosed the government’s plans to modernize KBC Channel 1 into Kenya’s number-one TV station.
During a developmental visit in Kisumu on Monday, February 20, 2023, CS Owalo identified three important locations that needed to be communicated in order to drive the State-owned Media House to a modern direction of the journalistic performance.
He pointed out that Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (KBC) needed to ensure that it retained its staff adding that it is costly for the government to train professionals only to less them to higher-paying media houses.
“We have staff who are demotivated. We are going to undertake job evaluations to ensure that we come up with salaries and benefit levels that are not only internally equitable but externally competitive based on what is being paid in the market”, Eliud Owalo said.
“We have been having a problem of KBC being a training ground then journalists leave to pursue greener pastures elsewhere. In fact, we want to make it the greener pasture in itself,” Owalo clarified.
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Also, Cabinet Secretary added that the technological infrastructure used by the station was either outdated in its performance which places the station miles away from the media competition.
“We are smartly dealing with the youth who are familiar with tech-perspective and whose interests have changed. We have to determine what the market needs and alight out content and programmes to meet the expectations of the market,” he added.
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According to the media report published by the Media Council of Kenya (MCK) on February 13, 2023, positioned KBC’s joint-second with NTV in terms of TV viewership.
Showcasing its rank with 12 percent of the market share, KBC Channel 1 TV improved by 9 percent points from 2021 a growth Media Council of Kenya allocated to the streaming of World Cup matches.
