TV licence fees and the State Broadcaster

The Speaker of Parliament, Rt. Hon. Alban Su­mana Kingsford Bagbin, is in the news as publicly paying his TV license fee to the Ghana Broadcasting Corpora­tion (GBC). His demonstration of leadership in paying for his TV license is not just com­mendable but also fascinating.

Per news reports, the lead figure at the nation’s legislation assembly at a visit to the state broadcaster, GBC, showed by an example of the need for citizens to honour their civic responsibilities.

According to the reports, he also took the opportunity to ap­peal to Ghanaians to pay their TV licence fee.

Leading political, religious and traditional leaders on dif­ferent occasions have reiterat­ed the need for Ghanaians to voluntarily pay their TV licence fees. The former Minister for Information, Mustapha Hamid, while in office for instance led a campaign towards this and the current Information Minister, Kojo Oppong Nkru­mah, among many others, on a number of occasions, have expressed the urgent need to effectively resource the GBC to enable it function as required.

Media Historians suggest that radio broadcasters in the early 20th century needed to raise funds for their services. In some countries, this was achieved via advertising, while others adopted a compulso­ry subscription model with households that owned a radio set being required to purchase a licence.

The first combined radio and television licence was then issued in 1946 for £2. A supple­mentary licence for colour TVs was introduced in 1968.

It was the United Kingdom that was first to adopt compul­sory public subscription with a licence, originally known as a wireless licence, used to fund its state broadcaster, the BBC which was emulated in many other countries.

In Ghana, television was in­troduced in 1965, 30 years after the introduction of broadcast­ing in the country which was strictly under state control. TV licence was later introduced like many other countries to fund the then only TV station in the country.

The GBC held a monopoly on television broadcasting until 1994, following the 1992 consti­tution of the new democratical­ly elected government.

The TV licence fees remained GH¢ 0.30 for domestic TV us­ers with one TV set since 1991. However, the reintroduction of TV licence fees on August 11, 2015, resulted in a significant increase in the fees to reflect economic factors and to ensure the revenue outweighs the cost of collection, raising the fee from GH¢ 30 to 36 for domes­tic users with one TV set.

The TV Licensing Act 1966 (NLCD 89) as amended, directs that “a person shall not install or use a television receiving set unless there is in existence in relation to that set a valid television receiving set license granted by the licensing author­ity under this Act”. Section 1.1

The Act also directs that “a person shall not carry on the business of selling, hir­ing or otherwise disposing of television receiving sets or of repairing television receiving sets unless that person holds a valid dealers’ license, granted by the licensing authority concern­ing the respective business”. Section 2.1

The law was relaxed for more than a decade primarily due to collection challenges GBC the mandated institution to collect the fees officially reintroduced the collection in 2015.

Currently,domestic TV users pay between GH¢36 and GH¢60 for one or more TV sets in the same house annually. TV set repairers and sales out­lets are to pay an annual sum of between GH¢60 to GH¢240.

Such laws throughout the world have seen broadcasting institutions including such big names as the British Broad­casting Corporation (BBC) and the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) thriving. England for instance raises an average of £3.7 billion annu­ally from TV license fess with South Africa in the region of 2.4 billion dollars.

In England, it is a criminal offence to fail to pay an annual TV license of 159 Pound Steel­ing without any cogent reason. Even residents and citizens over the age of 75 are not exempted and therefore the government through concessions provides for these categories of people.

Official could visit your ad­dress to confirm if you need a TV Licence. If we find that you have been watching, recording or streaming programmes with­out paying the stipulated annual TV license fee of £159. You will then risk prosecution and a fine for not having a TV licence of up to £1,000 plus any legal costs and/or compensation you may be ordered to pay.

Such measures could be adopted here in Ghana to en­sure effective collection of TV license fees to ensure advanced resourcing of the state broad­caster to enable it to deliver its functions effectively.

This is important because all around the globe, TV license fees are the major means of resourcing state broadcasting institutions.

It is imperative therefore that all stakeholders welcome the initiative of the Speaker of Parliament to help GBC raise its own money to be truly inde­pendent of government control even in terms of government subvention so that it can posi­tion itself as a global player in the international broadcasting arena.

The GBC is expected to raise revenue of GH₵250 million annually from the collection, which could be used to compete against pri­vate dominant players in the broadcasting in­dustry. Importantly to position itself to com­pete favourably in the broadcasting industry here in Ghana and on the international stage.

Currently, even though it is the premier broadcast­ing institution and arguably the largest in the network spread, it is not the first in audience share. This may primarily be due to certain basic challenges such as human resources and modern and effec­tive equipment, all of which come with adequate financing.

Comparatively,Ghana’s TV licence fee of a minimum of GH₵36 is in the lowest group if not the lowest. Residents in South Africa, for instance, pay an annual TV license fee of Rand 265 about GH₵156.

Undoubtedly, GBC’s efforts to collect the fees remain a challenge as there is a general apathy among the populace in paying the fees. Therefore,such moves by highly placed citizens to motivate citizens to pay are commendable.

Importantly, employing prag­matic means of TV licensec­ollection in the country must be welcomed and supported. This will primarily used to fund the television, radio and online services of the GBC.

GBC itself must lead the way. Very easy and motivational methods need to be employed to help achieve this feat. In conjunction with the National Commission on Civic Educa­tion as well as the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assem­blies, the GBC must embank on a massive education of the masses to ensure that the citi­zenry understands and appreci­ates the urgent need to willingly pay their TV license fees.

This is a sure means of helping the state broadcaster well-resourced to conveniently compete in this highly technical and expensive media terrain locally and internationally

Now what we, as a na­tion,have to do is to help GBC rollout innovative ways of col­lecting TV licences, and work to make the state broadcaster a major brand that could be competitive on the international scene.

Let us help provide resources to the state broadcaster through the voluntary payment of TV licence fees to position GBC to be internationally competitive in the broadcasting industry so we can be proud as the English are with BBC and the South Africans with SABC. GBC is viable and when well-resourced will be one of the best across the globe. This is evident in the recent changes and improve­ment in infrastructure and programming under the current Director-General, Professor Amin Alhassan.

BY NANA SIFA TWUM (PHD)