- May 28, 2019
- Posted by: emblisha
- Category: Uncategorized
1. BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE OF MIGRATION FROM ANALOGUE TO DIGITAL TERESTRIAL TELEVISION
The Republic of Ghana signed on to the Geneva 2006 (GE-06) Agreement establishing the
Digital Terrestrial Broadcasting Frequency Plan in the radio frequency bands (174 – 230)
MHz and (470 – 862) MHz. The Agreement also set 17 June 2015 as the deadline for the
transition from analogue to digital broadcasting in the Ultra High Frequency (UHF) Bands
IV & V. This deadline and many subsequent time commitments have been missed.
The migration from analogue to Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) involves a process in which the transmission of television broadcasting signals using analogue technology is replaced with the transmission of television broadcasting signals using digital technology (“digital migration”). This digital broadcasting migration only involves terrestrial broadcasting and does not affect satellite broadcasting, which has been digital for some years now in Africa.
Digital migration is inevitable and has occurred in television markets around the world. In most countries, the process is guided by a government policy on digital broadcasting migration. Once analogue broadcasters have migrated to DTT, spectrum will be freed up for licensing to new services. This spectrum is in high demand for a range of new services, including new broadcasting services and mobile broadband services (4G).
The reason why governments globally have been involved in digital migration is to ensure that television households are not deprived of access to Free-to-Air (FTA) television during and after the transition from analogue to digital broadcasting.
In Ghana, the process for the migration from analogue to digital broadcasting was led by the MoC with the establishment of the Digital Broadcasting Migration Committee (DBMC) involving all stakeholders under the supervision of the National Communications Authority (NCA).
Analogue to digital broadcasting entails the transmission and reception of digital signals from a transmission point into homes, offices and public places throughout the country. The smooth take-off of digital migration in Ghana depends on reception of digital signals through set-top-boxes or digital TV sets. To ensure that viewers would purchase the right equipment and are not deprived of TV viewing, there was the need to set up technical standards to drive the transition. The NCA, DBMC and the Ghana Standards Authority (GSA) set up the conformance regime with minimum specification requirements to guide the manufacture and importation of set-top-boxes and digital TVs for use in Ghana.
The regulatory framework in Ghana provides for broadcasting types and models among which are:
• Digital Terrestrial Pay Television (Service Only)- : A Television Broadcasting Service comprising of a bouquet of services provided over an independent/third party wireless digital terrestrial television network and which requires television viewers to pay a subscription fee to watch the television service.
• Digital Terrestrial Pay Television (Service and frequency)- A Television Broadcasting Service provided over the service provider’s own wireless digital terrestrial television network and which requires television viewers to pay a subscription fee to watch the television service. The service provider obtains a frequency for the rollout of its own DTT transmission network infrastructure which shall be co-located
• Digital Terrestrial Television (Network only) – a service consisting of the provision of: An electronic communications network utilizing radio frequencies to transmit broadcasting programmes in digital form, for general reception. Combining or packaging (i.e. multiplexing) a number of television and other services for transmission over its network. Providing information on all programmes carried on its network (e.g. Electronic Programme Guide [EPG] etc)
• Digital Terrestrial Free-to-Air Television Programme Channel- A Television Broadcasting Service in which a single programme channel is broadcast unencrypted or in ‘clear’ over a digital terrestrial television (DTT) network and capable of being received without payment of subscription fees
• Digital Terrestrial Radio Service on TV Multiplex- A sound broadcasting service in which content is deployed on the Digital Terrestrial Television Network.
• Satellite Television Broadcasting (Pay TV Direct-to-Home Bouquet)- A Television Broadcasting Service comprising of a bouquet of services provided over a satellite transponder and which requires television viewers to pay a subscription fee to watch the television service.
• Satellite Television Broadcasting (Free-to-Air Direct-to-Home Bouquet)- A Television Broadcasting Service comprising of a bouquet of services provided over a satellite transponder and which is capable of being received without payment of subscription fees.
• Satellite Television Broadcasting (Free-to Air Direct-to-Home Single Channel)- A Television Broadcasting Service in which a single programme channel is broadcast over a satellite transponder and capable of being received without payment of subscription fees.
• Digital Terrestrial Television Additional Services (eg. Teletext, etc) – any service provided by any person with a view to its being broadcast in digital form by means of a DTT multiplex service but which is not a digital television programme service or a radio service which may or may not require the payment of subscription fees.
• Digital Terrestrial Mobile Television Service – A Digital Television Service in which the programme channels are delivered over a terrestrial infrastructure for reception primarily by handheld devices and which may or may not require the payment of subscription fees.
• Digital Cable Television (Pay TV) – A Television Broadcasting Service where the distribution of television programs to subscribers is delivered by the means of coaxial cables or light pulses through fiber-optic cables and require the payment of subscription fees.
• Television over Internet Protocol (Pay TV)- A Television Broadcasting Service where programs to subscribers are delivered via Internet Protocol (IP) over an electronic communications network (wireless or cable) and which may or may not require the payment of subscription fees.
Since August 2014 till date, over 504 digital televisions and set-top-boxes have been approved and certified by the NCA to be used in homes, offices and public places across the country and millions of these are already in the market and homes.
Under many broadcasting regulatory frameworks including Ghana’s, there is a distinction between free-to-air broadcasting and subscription broadcasting. One is broadcast free-to-air for no payment for reception by the public and the other is broadcast encrypted through the implementation of the specific technology known as “Conditional Access” or “set-top-box control” for payment by subscribers to the service and the two are authorised separately.
In order to remove access to the broadcast contents, pay TV operators turn to conditional access or CA. Conditional access system, as the name itself suggests, provides the service of interfering with the access to digital program content through scrambling or encryption, to people who have not paid irrespective of the presence of the pay-TV digital signals in the receiving device (IDTV or STB). This is not a model used globally for Free-To-Air (FTA) broadcast services and as authorized by the regulator in Ghana.
Pursuant to existing authorisation framework and the recommendations contained in the Report of the National Digital Broadcasting Migration Technical Committee (NDBMC) to the Government of Ghana dated August 2010, the regulator categorised FTAs to continue broadcasting in the clear upon migration to DTT.
However, upon assuming office in 2017, the Honourable Minister for Communications, Mrs. Ursula Owusu-Ekuful working in consultation with Inview Technology Africa Limited, sought a policy shift to now introduce encryption of FTAs by means of a Conditional Access (CA) module which will mean a single approved recommended STB for all DTT TV signals in Ghana and ignoring the massive acquisition of digital television sets and decoders already approved by the NCA. This new aspect of the DTT policy proposal has however not received the support of GIBA, due to its complete disruption of the blooming Ghanaian FTA TV mass media transmission and reception model as authorised by the regulator, NCA.
Being the stakeholder that is most impacted by the migration from analogue to digital television with this disruptive introduction of a CA, GIBA is very concerned that Ghanaian FTA TV viewers, will have an immediate loss of FTA DTT program content if the viewers are unable to satisfy the MoC’s conditions for accessing free-to-air TV, irrespective of the investments made on NCA certified STBs and IDTVs over the last 5 years. Further, GIBA members and other free-to-air TV broadcasters will be heavily impacted by the immediate loss of access to Ghanaian viewers and the impact on advertising, acquisition opportunities of local and international content and commercial viability thereof. This brings to the fore, the thinking of the current FTA TV licensing regime. The current regime guarantees free access to viewers of key national events and development programmes for all classes of viewers, freedom to choose the brands of digital television receiving devices based on affordability for the individual and ensures constitutional rights to access to information. The shift in policy and the introduction of CA for FTA broadcasting, will be an infringement on the rights of Ghanaians.
The MoC has in many ways avoided engagement with GIBA on the subject and is pushing through with implementation of their policy without key stakeholder validation. The MoC has further directed the National Communications Authority (NCA) to publish a notice, which appeared in the dailies and on social media platforms on 1st, 2nd and 23rd April 2019, banning the distribution of DTT Set-Top-Boxes (STBs) previously authorized by the NCA based on the minimum conformance regime and the GSA minimum specifications for Free-to-Air STBs (GS 1099), reflecting exactly the intent of the MoC, as stated in their draft policy document.
2.THE POLICY OF FTA ENCRYPTION BEING UNILATERALLY ADOPTED AND IMPLEMENTED BY THE MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS (MoC)
Encryption refers to the process in terms of which a broadcast content is deliberately encrypted at the source before being broadcast to prevent unauthorised access. The encrypted broadcast content is then transmitted to TV households where it can only be de-crypted by an STB that has been loaded with the right software, hardware and decryption keys. Using encryption also requires subscriber management, which gives rise to additional financial and human resource costs to those who encrypt the broadcast content as opposed to broadcasting it in the clear or free-to-air. Encryption is usually used only by subscription broadcasters, which wish to prevent non-subscribers from accessing their services. The technology is costly to operate, but is considered essential by subscription broadcasters to protect their subscription revenue.
3.GIBA’S POSITION ON FREE-TO-AIR ENCRYPTION AND MISREPRESENTATION BY MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS
GIBA has received information about statements attributed to the Honourable Minister for Communications about GIBA’s presence at a meeting to discuss the final draft digital migration policy and its concurrence to the same. GIBA wishes to use this medium to clarify its level of involvement with the MoC on matters relating to Ghana’s Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) since the Honourable Minister took office in January 2017 to date, and its position on the draft digital migration policy document. We wish to state emphatically that GIBA was not allowed the opportunity to be represented at the meeting of stakeholders which purportedly finalized the draft policy.
In July of 2017, the MoC wrote a letter signed by the Minister, dated 10th July 2017 to GIBA, introducing ILC Consultants Limited (ILC) and Inview Technology Africa Limited (Inview), as the Ministry’s Consultants, who will undertake a review of the current status of the DTT Network infrastructure and to make recommendations to the Ministry.
By another letter to GIBA dated 24th August 2017, and signed by Hon. George Andah, the Deputy Minister for Communications, the MoC introduced ILC and Inview and requested GIBA to meet with them on Wednesday, the 30th of August 2017 at 2:00pm at the office of GIBA.
Subsequently the consultants, led by Mr. Andy Townend, met with the Executives of GIBA, to brief the association about their roles and activities in line with their mandate as Consultants to the MoC.
Among several issues discussed was their intention to introduce Conditional Access (CA) and other value added services into the national DTT Service.
In response, GIBA sharply rejected the idea to introduce CA onto the platform, which will carry Free-To-Air (FTA) broadcast services nationwide. GIBA stated that, it’s Free-To-Air (TV) members’ programme contents were produced in line with the NCA Authorization granted them, specifically to provide Free-To-Air broadcasting as their service model, aimed at achieving universal access to their TV programming across the nation, therefore GIBA would not accept the introduction of Conditional Access (CA) into the National DTT Platform, which would limit public access to their Free-to-Air programme-content.
At this meeting, the Consultants (ILC and Inview) shared with GIBA, correspondence between them and the Minister of Communications, received by the MoC on 5th July 2017 outlining series of services to support their duties as mandated by the MoC. The letter confirms that, the Minister personally had an earlier discussion with the consultants about the launch of “FreeTV Ghana”. FreeTV is a broadcast service brand belonging to Inview, which they introduce to countries where they have partnerships with State Authorities to operate DTT platforms. GIBA is in possession of Inview’s product portfolio and official release, confirming a management contract they had entered into in Nigeria, where they launched their “FreeTV” brand.
In the said ILC letter which the Minister received just before writing to GIBA and other stakeholders including NCA and GBC on 10th of July 2017, it was disclosed that, ILC Consultants Limited and Inview Technology Africa Limited, had entered into a consultancy contract to provide certain services, some of which fell within the statutory mandate of the NCA. The services stated in the letter are set out below with GIBA’s questions and comments:
SERVICES GIBA’s Question/Comment
• Spectrum Planning The work GIBA believes is legally mandated to be carried
• Spectrum Auction Design out by the NCA
• Oversee Spectrum Auction
• Source Set-Top-Boxes – Have the Consultants now become STB
providers/suppliers as referenced in their services
brochure?
Is this the reason why the NCA published a Notice to
Suspend DTT Conformance Certification which supports
the current decoder standards in Ghana, regardless of
the negative impact and financial losses suffered by
those who the NCA certified to deal in the DTT receivers,
in order for the consultants to source their specific and
exclusive set-top-boxes, embedded with their conditional
access and control mechanism for television viewing in
Ghana?
• Set-Top-Box Specifications – A task undertaken by the Ghana Standards Authority.
The MoC plans to sponsor a review, of the legally gazette Free-to-Air DTT Receiver Standard (GS1099), mainly to support the Consultants’ supply of their STBs into the country.
• Specification of FreeTV Services – The “FreeTV” brand is owned by Inview Technology
Africa Limited which uses the CA technology that
exclusively controls TV content delivery to consumers. It is
alien to Ghana and does not support Free-to-Air service
delivery.
The name “FreeTV” is not the same as Free-to-Air
broadcasting. It is no more than a Pay TV service which
has the Conditional Access mechanism to decide on
viewers who should be allowed or denied access to Free-
to-Air programme contents, on condition that they pay money to
receive even Free-to-Air programmes.
Specifications for all Types of TV Services in Ghana is the
mandate of the regulator-NCA. Per the Authorisations of TV
services by the NCA, Ghana operates only the aforementioned services, which includes:
(1) Free-to-Air Television (both terrestrial and satellite),
(2) Pay TV services (Terrestrial and Satellite) and
(3)Television over Internet Protocol.
The “FreeTV” brand cannot replace Free-to-Air Television
services, which is television broadcast in the clear as legally
defined by NCA and the GSA.
• Launch FreeTV Ghana – It is glaring that, the MoC has here again decided to ignore
the voices of the people, who forms the over 99% of TV households that relies exclusively on Free-to-Air terrestrial broadcasting (source: GSS; GLSS 6, 2014 – Ref. DTT draft policy document) and preferring rather to introduce, a permanent Pay TV service in Ghana, by hand-picking a service provider with their brand of TV service called “FreeTV Ghana” as a replacement for all Free-to-Air broadcast services in Ghana.
• Setup Customer Contact Centers – A clear indication that, the introduction of the CA
technology into the DTT platform and decoders, is meant to establish a complete nationwide Pay TV operations and not necessarily for the collection of TV License fees as purported by the MOC. This is because the cost of establishing and managing nationwide customer contact centers (usually setup by Pay TV operators for subscription services to address accounting discrepancies, reconciliations and customer challenges) is far higher than TV license fees payable by law on the devices in Ghana. Currently, the amount payable is GH¢36.00 per year. Even the recurrent cost to service the CA license alone is very expensive and adding other costs (customer contact centers) to this will burden Free-to-Air broadcasting and viewers who rely exclusively on Free-to-Air programme-contents in Ghana. The MoC’s intentions are clearly to do away with the legally authorized and constitutionally guaranteed Free-to-Air, mass media communication services in Ghana, in order to replace it with a Pay TV service branded “FreeTV” Ghana.
GIBA wonders why the MoC would hand-pick a service provider as their CONSULTANTS, whose primary business interests are in the operations of already built Digital infrastructures and who are also traders in everything relating to Digital Broadcasting of which the Nation had already authorized broadcast entities to provide. Since the liberalization of the airwaves in Ghana, the NCA has authorized hundreds of Free-to-Air TV services and many Pay TV operations. Even after signing the ITU-Geneva 2006 Agreement, to migrate the nation from Analogue to Digital Broadcasting, the NCA issued Authorisations to Free-to-Air Service Type of Broadcasting by issuing Logical Channel Numbers and defining the service as broadcast in clear – not broadcast through encryption, as is legally required for Pay TV operations.
After GIBA’s meeting with the Consultants, the MoC called their first meeting to introduce the DTT Policy to the stakeholders. It was decided at this meeting that, for the stakeholders to make meaningful inputs, they will have to be given the opportunity to study the Draft Policy document.
On the 15th of March, 2018, the Consultants had another meeting with GIBA, to discuss among other things their new STB specifications with the view to secure our support for it to be published. They also talked about Digital Access Fees to be paid by viewers throughout Ghana, as well as changes in the draft DTT Policy document, to reflect new technical features including Conditional Access System.
GIBA observed that the works to be reviewed as mandated by the MoC were works already done so efficiently by highly rated engineers and technocrats from the National Communications Authority – NCA as a body, the Digital Broadcasting Migration Committee-DBMC and Professionals from all the institutions of higher learning in Ghana as well as experts from the Ghana Institute of Engineering, together with all other stakeholders. All other reviews by the ILC and Inview Consultants, were amendments to the original roadmap document to support their business as service providers and operators.
GIBA was surprised that, the review of the works already done could be assigned to the current hand-picked Consultants who were placed above the professionals in Ghana including experts from the NCA and the various institutions of higher learning in Ghana who actually completed the nation’s digital migration roadmap document (reference to Report to the Government of Ghana on the Migration from Analogue to Digital Broadcasting in Ghana –August 2010, for details on professional expertise).
With in-depth knowledge of the nature of business of Inview Technology Africa Limited, GIBA queried Inview for introducing their OWN PRODUCTS to the Ministry as Consultants as this constituted a conflict of interest. Inview Technology Africa Limited, are traders and operators of DTT platforms and the owners of the “FreeTV” broadcasting brand. They are also providers of Set-Top-Boxes (decoders), Conditional Access Systems, Middleware and Digital Rights Management (DRM) Solutions all of which they have introduced to the National DTT project. GIBA is in possession of Inview’s Services Brochure, showing their core business.
4.FURTHER EXPOSÉ ON INVIEW
What we find with service providers and operators such as Inview are that, they take advantage of the ignorance of State Authorities to exploit the provisions of nationwide transmission platforms and the provision of set-top-boxes with tax payers’ funds to enable the launch of their “FreeTV” brand of broadcast services.
The “FreeTV” brand is a creation of Inview as a media platform which is being launched from country to country, aimed at becoming the biggest TV platform in Nigeria and around the African continent.
The agenda of Inview to increase their presence in Africa with the “FreeTV” brand is achieved only through connivance with, or the ignorance (not tech. savvy) of State Authorities who have oversight responsibility for the communications sector and / or with Regulators.
They rely on tax payers to fund their project through the purchase of set-top-boxes, etc., embedded with Conditional Access encryption technology for the control of broadcasting services, aimed at the establishment of service availability nationwide, without they themselves investing in the setup nor acquiring broadcast Authorisation from the Regulator as other operators do with the NCA.
The “FreeTV” creation is software-driven by middleware and conditional access providers, capable of delivering competing services such as advertising, information data management, bulk outbound messaging services for the relay of news contents on politics, etc., as a platform for dissemination of information with the precision to address all smartphones, TV sets, computers and other TV receiving devices, exclusively through the conditional access key. The control of the Conditional Access System will allow short messaging service from one point to many, massively than any other broadcaster after the launch of “FreeTV Ghana”.
Because Inview is the creator of the software and provider of the middleware technology, they are automatically made to be in charge of the platform operations because of the needs for software updates, etc.
In Nigeria, Inview is in charge of the Conditional Access System, Advertising over Electronic Programme Guide (EPG) and Middleware management as well as Video-On-Demand (VOD) and other value added services.
Inview and its collaborators introduced a revenue collection model In Nigeria, through the creation of what they call “Digital Content Access Fees” (DCAF) which is under their control. In Ghana, it is believed that because of the constitutional challenges on matters relating to control over media contents and the rights of content owners, the MoC introduced the same revenue collection method and labelled it as Digital Access Fees (DAF), in replacement of TV license fees by removing “content” out of the equation.
At the meeting with the Consultants GIBA told the Consultants that, while the TV stations will be paying the cost of carriage on the digital platform, it would be wrong to request the viewers to pay for accessing our digital programme-contents.
GIBA is asking the following questions:
1. What kind of due diligence was carried out on Inview and why should such an entity be appointed as Consultants to the MoC for Ghana’s DTT in the first place?
2. Why should Inview be given the mandate to launch “FreeTV Ghana” which is the brand of service they are operating elsewhere, in conflict with their supposed engagement as Consultants to the MoC?
3. Is the NCA aware of “FreeTV Ghana” and have they Authorised this Type of Service as a broadcast platform for Ghana?
5.GIBA’S FRUSTRATIONS
Since GIBA’s last meeting with the Consultants, the MoC did not engage GIBA on any matter concerning Ghana’s DTT. GIBA wrote a series of letters to the MoC, stating its concerns about some discreet activities around the DTT Project in Ghana with the involvement of StarTimes and the introduction of their “Access to Satellite TV for 300 Villages in Ghana Project”, which enjoyed exclusive Tax exemption granted to them by the Parliament of Ghana, leading to GIBA putting up a publication in the national dailies to express their dissatisfaction.
On 27th September 2018, the Council of Elders and Executives of GIBA appeared before the Parliamentary Select Committee on Communication to express concerns about worrying developments with respect to the proposed operational policy for the digital migration process in Ghana. Key among the issues expressed were:
1. The Ministry of Communications (MoC)’s lack of engagement with industry stakeholders on the digital migration process and policy formulation;
2. The MoC’s proposal for the governance of the national Digital Terrestrial Television Platform (DTT), which gives the mandate to the President, for the appointment of the governing board, instead of the National Media Commission.
3. The MoC’s unilateral decision to effect a revision of the Ghana Standard (GS 1099) which will include but not limited to additional features such as increased memory, conditional access (CA) support, middleware, DRM support, Dolby sound, etc.
Later that day, the Ministers of Communication and Information met with GIBA and other industry stakeholders and agreed to engage in the digital migration process going forward. Subsequently, GIBA made written representations on the MoC’s proposed revision to the policy, some of which bordered on the introduction of a CA on the national DTT platform and the challenges, this would pose to Free-to-Air broadcasting entities, whose Authorised service model relies solely on advertising, sponsorships and the number of viewers for their survival.
It was agreed that, a meeting of all the stakeholders would be called to discuss the various inputs together, with the view of aligning the document with the relevant contributions and also make reference to existing regulations and directives, recognizing that, DTT in Ghana is an ongoing process with a lot of technical implementations already on ground.
The MoC called a meeting on the 19th of October 2018 for the planned discussions. This meeting was cancelled only after a full house of all stakeholders had assembled on time, at the conference room of the MoC.
Around 4pm, the evening of 13th December 2018, GIBA received another invitation to participate in a final stakeholder engagement meeting scheduled to take place the following day, on the 14th of December 2018 to conclude the DTT Policy. The GIBA Secretariat responded to the letter on the same day drawing attention to the extremely short notice at which the meeting had been called and requested for at least one clear day of notice to enable it organize its executives who at the time were mostly out of Accra to attend.
Unfortunately the MoC proceeded with the meeting without GIBA. Since that meeting, two letters have been issued from GIBA requesting for a copy of the current version of the draft policy, pursuant to the meeting of 14th December 2018, to enable it ascertain the extent to which its written inputs had been adopted, but the MoC has, till date, failed and/or refused to let us have the draft policy document as amended. Instead, the MoC chose to respond to one of our letters, inferring that GIBA did not care about the importance and urgency of the meeting she called and therefore had to meet other stakeholders.
It therefore comes as a surprise that the Honourable Minister maintains that GIBA was represented in the said meeting and had agreed to the policy in its current form. Even more disturbing is the fact that, the GIBA Secretariat continues to receive information from its members about word going round attributed to the Honourable Minister that GIBA had agreed to the policy of implementing Conditional Access (encryption) of Free-to-Air (FTA) services, to facilitate the collection of Digital Access Fee (DAF).
We would like to believe that, the Honourable Minister is genuinely in error about the records of attendance and proceedings at the various meetings that have taken place at the Ministry of Communications on the subject matter. We would therefore like to use this opportunity to state for the records that GIBA, as the most impacted stakeholder in the digital migration process has sought and continues to seek opportunities to engage with the Ministry of Communications on this important subject but has so far had none.
GIBA has indicated through its written submissions on the draft policy that it was concerned about the introduction of a Conditional Access module on the National DTT infrastructure as a means of collecting Digital Access Fee (DAF). Not only will the introduction of Conditional Access technology destroy Free-to-Air broadcasting but all broadcasting related services in the country, including television advertising and the industries that rely on it, because, the several needed eyeballs will be restricted from the continuous viewing of Free-to-Air television against their rights. GIBA has indicated in other fora that it is not opposed to the idea of raising revenue to support the operations and maintenance of the National DTT infrastructure and the state broadcaster.
We have in fact, proffered more efficient and cost-effective alternatives for the collection of revenue which is tried-and-tested and accepted worldwide and does not infringe on individual rights. But these appear not to have been considered, as evidenced by the disturbing publications coming from the NCA, which seeks to implement the provisions of the MoC draft policy document. The publication was an instruction to the general public, NOT TO PATRONISE the NCA certified set-top-boxes (STBs) and Integrated Digital TVs (IDTVs) which conforms to the legally gazetted standards of the Ghana Standards Authority (GS 1099). The public notice which was also directed at dealers and manufacturers required them to stop the production of type-approved receivers, thereby causing financial loss to the Authorised Dealers and stakeholders.
It is worrying that, the MoC has commenced implementation of the draft policy without stakeholder validation by directing the National Communications Authority (NCA) to publish a notice in the dailies and on social media platforms, banning the distribution of DTT Set-Top-Boxes (STBs) previously authorized by the NCA based on the minimum conformance regime and the GSA minimum specifications for Free-to-Air STBs (GS 1099), reflecting exactly the intent of the MoC, as stated in their draft policy document.
6.CONCLUSION
GIBA has been engaging in dialogue with the various Stakeholder Authorities (the Ministry of Communications, Ministry of Information, NCA, etc.) over the years with no response nor attention to the concerns it raised. We have also met with the Parliamentary Select Committee on Communication over this matter since the year 2018.
• WITH THE LAUNCH OF THE MOC’S PLANNED “FREETV GHANA” AND THEIR CONDITIONAL ACCESS (CA) ENCRYPTION SYSTEM, ALL THE MILLIONS OF THE NCA CERTIFIED TV SETS PURCHASED AND INSTALLED AT INDIVIDUAL HOMES, OFFICES AND PUBLIC PLACES, WHICH ARE CURRENTLY RECEIVING DIGITAL TV PROGRAMMING THROUGHOUT GHANA, WILL ABRUPTLY STOP RECEIVING FREE-TO-AIR TV PROGRAMME-CONTENTS UNLESS ACCESS IS ENABLED BY THE MOC’S CHOSEN CONTROLLER OR OPERATOR THROUGH THE OPENING OF A CONDITIONAL ACCESS ENCRYPTION KEY, ONLY AFTER YOU ACQUIRE THE MOC’S PRESCRIBED CA-CONTROLLED DECODER.
• THE DIGITAL TV SETS ALREADY CERTIFIED BY THE NCA WHICH ARE IN SHOPS, STORES AND WAREHOUSES ACROSS THE COUNTRY CANNOT RECEIVE FREE-TO-AIR DIGITAL TV PROGRAMMES ANY LONGER, UNLESS BUYERS OR VIEWERS PURCHASE THE MOC’S PRESCRIBED CA-CONTROLLED DECODER IN ADDITION.
• A MAJOR EFFECT OF THE MoC’s POLICY SHIFT AND THE SUSPENSION OF IMPORTATION, MANUFACTURING AND THE USE OF CURRENT NCA CERTIFIED DIGITAL TELEVISION SETS AND SET-TOP-BOXES AS WELL AS ALL OTHER DIGITAL TV DEVICES, WILL BE THE TERMINATION OF GLOBALLY MANUFACTURED AND WORLD ACCEPTED BRANDS OF DIGITAL TV SETS AND SET-TOP-BOXES INTO GHANA FOR FREE-TO-AIR DIGITAL TV RECEPTION, SUCH AS SAMSUNG, LG, PANASONIC, HISENSE, SONY, NASCO, AKAI, SANYO, HITACHI, STRONG, QUALITY, MEGACHOICE AND EVERY FREE-TO-AIR DECODER. ALL THESE GLOBAL BRANDS WILL CEASE TO RECEIVE DTT FREE-TO-AIR PROGRAMME CONTENTS, EXCEPT ONE ACQUIRES THE MoC PRESCRIBED DECODERS IN ADDITION FOR VIEWERS TO BE ABLE TO HAVE ACCESS TO THEIR FAVOURITE FREE-TO-AIR TV PROGRAMMES WHEN THIS HAPPENS.
• WHY SHOULD TELEVISION VIEWERS RELY ONLY ON THE MoC’s PRESCRIBED DECODERS? IF THIS IS RIGHT, THEN WHY ARE THE GLOBAL BRANDS STILL MANUFACTURING DIGITAL TV SETS FOR THE REST OF THE WORLD? CAN ALL THESE GLOBAL BRANDS BE WRONG AND ONLY THE MoC RIGHT, IN THEIR CHOICE FOR GHANA?
• FREE-TO-AIR BROADCASTING THROUGH AN INTERMDIARY CONTENT-BLOCKING MECHANISM SUCH AS THE CA, WILL MAKE MASS MEDIA COMMUNICATION VULNERABLE.
• THE INSULATION OF THE BROADCAST MEDIA FROM GOVERNMENTAL CONTROL AND THE PROTECTIONS IT DESERVE, AND THE DUTY TO HOLD GOVERNMENTS ACCOUNTABLE TO THE PEOPLE CANNOT BE GUARANTEED IF MASS MEDIA PROGRAMME-CONTENTS WOULD HAVE TO BE BROADCAST THROUGH AN INTERMEDIARY BLOCKING/ENCRYPTION DEVICE IN THE HANDS AND CONTROL OF ANOTHER ENTITY.
• GIBA DISAGREES WITH THE SETUP OF A SINGLE MONOPOLY DTT PLATFORM, TO BE INSTALLED WITH THE TECHNOLOGY THAT CONTROLS THE CONTENT DELIVERY OF FREE-TO-AIR PROGRAMMES, WHICH CAN ONLY BE ACCESSED BY VIEWERS THROUGH MONOPOLY CA-CONTROLLED DECODERS RECOMMENDED BY THE MOC.
• THE MOC’S PLAN TO SPONSOR THE REVIEW OF THE LEGALLY GAZETTE DTT RECEIVER STANDARDS AT THE GHANA STANDARDS AUTHORITY-GSA, IS TO SUPPORT THEIR INTRODUCTION INTO THE COUNTRY, OF A PROPRIETARY BRAND OF TV SERVICE THAT USES THE CONDITIONAL ACCESS MECHANISM, CALLED “FREE TV GHANA”. THIS “FREE TV GHANA” BUSINESS WAS AT NO POINT DISCUSSED WITH STAKEHOLDERS, NEITHER WAS IT STATED ANYWHERE IN THE DRAFT DTT POLICY DOCUMENT. THE MOC SHOULD NOT ALLOW THE ANALOGE TO DIGITAL MIGRATION PROCESS TO BE USED TO ACHIEVE THE INDIVIDUAL PAROCHIAL AGENDA OF INVIEW, ILC AND WHICHEVER PERSONS ARE BEHIND THEM.
• GIBA IS CAUTIONING THAT, THE PLANS AS PUT OUT IN THE MOC’S DRAFT DTT BROADCASTING POLICY, IS A LOOMING DANGER THAT WILL BEFALL THE FREE-TO-AIR BROADCASTING INDUSTRY. IT IS AN ATTACK ON THE FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE OF THE MEDIA IN GHANA, IF LEFT UNCHECKED.
• GIBA ALSO DISAGREES WITH THE MOC’S POLICY WHICH WILL ALLOW THE APPOINTMENTS OF BOARD MEMBERS OF THE SINGLE MONOPOLY DTT INFRASTRUCTURE COMPANY, TO BE VESTED IN THE PRESIDENT, INSTEAD OF THE NATIONAL MEDIA COMMISSION, IN ORDER TO INSULATE THE BROADCAST MEDIA FROM GOVERNMENTAL CONTROL.
• DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY IS THE FUTURE OF THE WORLD, THE EVIL OF ITS APPLICATIONS IS THE DOING OF MEN. GIBA IS CALLING ON ALL GHANAIANS TO WAKE UP AND EMBRACE ONLY WHAT IS GOOD FOR US AS A PEOPLE AND IS IN ACCORD WITH LAW, FOR THE GOOD AND GROWTH OF OUR MOTHERLAND GHANA.
We are urging the MoC to hold off implementation of the draft policy and engage with the key stakeholders for proper stakeholder validation.
GIBA would like to reiterate that it was not part of the meeting of the MoC to finalise the policy document, as stated by the Minister.
The moves of the MoC as detailed above is purely against Free-to-Air TV and media for mass communication as guaranteed by the 1992 Constitution and if the MoC’s policy is allowed to be implemented as stated in the draft policy, will wipe away Free-to-Air Public Service Broadcasting and the public’s right to freely access FTA programmes by Ghanaian households who rely exclusively on it.