Ursula Owusu Ekuful
THE
GHANA Independent Broadcasters Association (GIBA) has accused the Ministry of
Communications of publishing what it termed as a doctored standards document
with the intention of sneaking in conditional access for free-to-air
television.
GIBA
made this known in a press release dated January 7, 2020 and signed by its
president, Andrew Danso-Aninkora, who cited a case of unfair treatment on the
part of the Communications Ministry.
According
to the association, which is the umbrella body of private broadcast operators
in Ghana, since 2017, the Ministry of Communications has been attempting to
implement dramatic changes in the television broadcast sector with the
introduction of a system of control (Conditional Access System) which GIBA “objected
to due to its ability to lock down the liberalised airwaves and send the nation
back to the dark days of a government monopolized and controlled media.”
On
the 18th of December, 2019, the release said GIBA welcomed a revised standard
(GS1099: 2019) on Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) and Direct-To-Home (DTH)
Receivers by the Ghana Standards Authority (GSA), which made Conditional Access
System (CAS) non-mandatory for Free-To-Air TV Receivers.
“In
a dramatic fashion”, it claimed, “the ministry, working together with
Andy Townend – representing Inview Technologies, assisted by Oluwatoyin Subair
– Founder of the erstwhile Hi-TV Pay Network in Nigeria and ILC Consulting Ltd,
have come out with an alarming publication which is a doctored version of the
Ghana Standards Authority’s newly gazetted and published Technical Standard of
August 2019 as the Ghana Minimum Technical Specifications for Digital
Terrestrial Television (DTT) & Direct-to-Home (DTH) Receivers for
Free-to-Air Television Reception.”
The
doctored document, which was published on 30th December, 2019 by the National
Communications Authority (NCA) on its official website as a technical standard,
said requires the broadcast industry in Ghana and all Ghanaian households to
abide by its mandatory requirements for the reception of all TV programmes
carried on the nation’s only free-to-air digital broadcasting facility.
The
requirements include the acquisition of a special decoder with proprietary
software, before anyone could watch any Free-to-Air television programme in
Ghana.
The
special decoder, according to the release, shall be controlled by Conditional
Access software and Middleware applications to be provided by a foreign company
called Verimatrix, solely selected by the MoC as its partner.
By
default, Verimatrix which has also been awarded the business of running broadcasting
valued added services shall perpetually provide updates to the platform because
by virtue of the proprietary software introduced, no other entity can perform
updates to the platform.
“They
have also been given the mandate to trade in broadcasting services, without
authorization by the NCA as required,” it said
Unfair Treatment
“This
raises serious issues of unfair competition which will be addressed later in
this release,” the association complained in the release.
It
continued “several entities have had to go through a vigorous qualification
process to receive broadcast authorisation to provide some of the very broadcast
services which the MoC is freely and discriminately giving out to its broadcast
partners exclusively and with the full support of tax-payers funds under the
pretext of them being consultants.”
“Details
of these facts can be found in the service offerings of Inview Technologies as
published in the GIBA Press Release in the Daily Graphic of 28th May 2019,” it
added.
Businesses
It
revealed that among the several businesses handed over to the software partners
by the ministry are on-screen banner advertising, Push Video On Demand and
Portable Video Recording, Connected Services, Interactive Broadcast Services,
with a Conditional Access System, Middleware Applications and Receiver
Security, which are all exclusively handed over to Verimatrix.
Ironically,
these broadcast services, handed down to the Middleware partners as Value Added
Services (VAS), can only be achieved by running on content generated off the
mainstream local broadcast services providers, such as TV3, UTV, Joy News,
Crystal TV, GhOne TV, Net2 TV and every other broadcast channel to be carried
on the nations DTT platform, it added.
This is what GIBA has pointed out is akin to the setting up of a subscription-based television broadcast facility with state funds for the benefit of a private enterprise.
BY Melvin Tarlue
