Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, the Communications Minister, has warned that if broadcasters do not pay for the use of the Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) platform, television signals to homes and workplaces may be cut off as early as next year.
Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, addressing on the House Floor on Monday, stated that the government, which has paid the platform’s operational costs, can no longer shoulder the financial burden.
She emphasized that, despite many notifications, certain media outlets have been hesitant to meet payment responsibilities.
“None of the broadcasters on the DTT platform pay for using it as I speak and this situation cannot continue in our current economic state,” she said.
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“GIBA is not a broadcaster hosted on this platform. So I don’t know in which capacity they would be acting. They have constituent members who are broadcasters on the DTT platform but none of them have paid a pesewa to date for being hosted on the platform so it is not correct any member being hosted on the platform has paid for it.”
The Communications Minister cautioned that if payments are not made, the platform might be shut down owing to non-payment of operational fees, thereby disrupting TV broadcast signals.
“Government says it cannot continue to pay for it so if they do not pay for it, unfortunately, we may find ourselves in a situation where we cannot receive TV broadcast signals because the platform will be shut down for non-payment of the operational expenses that it is incurring,” the Communication Minister stated.
Digital Terrestrial Television is a terrestrial television technology in which television stations broadcast television programs in digital format.
