Mad. Ursula Owusu-Ekuful – Minister for Communications says her Ministry will commence negotiations with relevant stakeholders to find financing mechanism to the operations of the Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) platform.
This is after she sparked controversy with a request to the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) to reduce the number of channels on its DTT platform from six to three.
But the President ordered a suspension of the directive after protests by the stuff of GBC and Crystal TV network as well as other stakeholders.
Mrs. Owusu-Ekuful has therfore stated that dialogue will be key in the future management of the DTT platform.
“We’ll discuss the options to finance the maintenance of the platform going forward.”
“So we will have that further consultation of the stakeholders and we will all agree on how to finance the platform going forward and they will all be bound by the decisions that are taken subsequently,” she explained.
The recent issues surrounding the platform have compelled calls for it to come under public management.
The Chairman of the National Media Commission (NMC), Yaw Boadu-Ayeboafoh, suggested that the managers of the platform be selected by the NMC.
“For as long as it is media and it is funded by public funds, our position is that it is the National Media Commission that must appoint the Chief Executive and the Board of Directors to manage the DTT platform,” he argued.
The NMC had also prevented the Ministry of Communications from limiting the channels of GBC on the DTT platform following a petition on the matter.
The DTT platform is currently managed by KNET, a private firm which has been under contract since 2015.
The workers union of GBC also said it was taking steps to take back the management of the DTT platform from KNET.
It argued that the DTT platform was originally set up by GBC and therefore has the personnel to man it.
