Broadcasters Raise Alarm

Ghana’s plans toward switching from analogue broadcasting to digital broadcasting services by the end of 2014 cannot materialise if some urgent concerns raised by the Ghana Independent Broadcasters Association (GIBA) are not addressed with dispatch.

CITY & BUSINESS GUIDE has gathered that members of GIBA are highly displeased with the manner in which government is treating them over the national television and radio digital migration process.

As a result of the fracas, GIBA has been holding a high-level emergency meeting to consider its next line of action and probably go to court because it feels government wants to short-change it. Meanwhile, the international deadline set to achieve such change is June 17, 2015.

GIBA is an association of authorised and operational non-state owned, private and independent broadcasting organisations with a common interest.

Though the full details of the issue are expected to be disclosed soon, an inside source told this paper that “currently, tender is being issued and the cost of old technical set for transmission facility is about US$100 million. We are saying we cannot be part of this. We want the public private partnership (PPP) to be formed first so it could be evaluated.

“GIBA decided to work with the public broadcaster but there has been a change midstream and so it is unhappy about the current contract arrangement including the financial arrangement too.”

An excerpt of a tender document sighted by CITY & BUSINESS GUIDE stated: “A Public Private Partnership (PPP) involving Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) and the private sector – Ghana Independent Broadcasters Association (GIBA) shall be created to own and operate the digital terrestrial television services in Ghana.

It added that the successful bidder shall be required to pre-finance the DTT network rollout nationwide while the purchaser shall repay over a period of not less than 10 years.

Furthermore it said bidders shall indicate their capacity or otherwise to pre-finance the DTT network rollout and offer a proposed re-payment plan over a period of not less than 10 years.

The source said though Cabinet had approved the deadline set by the National Digital Broadcasting Migration Technical Committee (DBMC) to meet the deadline, such efforts are being sidelined due to the current treatment being meted out to GIBA.