GIBA raises red flag

According to GIBA, the new move contradicts a revised standard (GS1099: 2019) on Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) and Direct-to-Home (DTH) Receivers by the Ghana Standards Authority (GSA), the statutory and legally authorised institution mandated for the setting of standards in Ghana.
The GSA in the revised standard made Conditional Access System (CAS) non-mandatory for free-to-air TV receivers.
However, GIBA said the Ministry of Communications, working together with Mr. Andy Townend – representing Inview Technologies, assisted by Mr. Oluwatoyin Subair – founder of the erstwhile Hi-TV Pay Network in Nigeria and ILC Consulting Ltd, has, in a dramatic fashion, come out with an alarming publication on the website of the National Communications Authority (NCA).
GIBA alleges that the said publication is a doctored version of the GSA’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.
In a statement, President of GIBA, Mr. Andrew Danso-Aninkora said the document, which was published on December 30, 2019 as a technical standard, 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.
He explained that the requirements include the acquisition of a special decoder with proprietary software, before anyone could watch any free-to-air television programme in Ghana.
According to him, the special decoder shall be controlled by Conditional Access software and Middleware applications to be provided by a foreign company called Verimatrix, solely selected by the ministry as its partner. By default, he said, Verimatrix, who 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.
This, he said, raises serious issues of unfair competition, which GIBA would later address.
Mr Danso-Aninkora noted that Verimatrix has also been given the mandate to trade in broadcasting services, without authorisation by the NCA as required.
“It is worth noting that 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 taxpayers’ funds under the pretext of them being consultants.
“Details of these facts can be found in the service offerings of Inview Technologies among the several businesses handed over to the software partners by the MoC, 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, 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,” he stated.
Mr. Danso-Aninkora explained that this is akin to the setting up of a subscription-based television broadcast facility with state funds for the benefit of a private enterprise.
“The MoC has also given the mandate to these ‘consultants’ to set up customer service centres nationwide with taxpayers’ funds.
“They are also mandated to select the software partners and source for the suppliers of the specific decoders,” he added.
Mr. Danso-Aninkora alleged that the MoC and its partners have advanced plans with demands on the NCA to provide funds in millions of US dollars for the purchase of decoders and the payment for the Conditional Access System, Software and Middleware, to be applied, counter to the judicious approach of the GSA-gazetted document focus on this project.
“This purported final policy, which major industry stakeholders have been denied the opportunity to make inputs into and which the ministry is unable to publish, has also not been sighted by the stakeholders and is being held closely to the Minister’s chest,” he added.
GIBA believes that Ghana can achieve Digital Migration without the clampdown of the national media space.
According to Mr. Danso-Aninkora, if the reason for the CA is to collect TV license fees, there are time-tested alternatives for the collections which do not require the introduction of a universal control key and content blocking device on the transmission facility of the nation and which does not require unguided spending of public funds.
He noted that the cost of managing a CA-driven collection of TV license fees far outweighs the revenue to be received, thus directly contradicting the intention of collecting license fees without considering the global alternatives.
The MoC has ignored legitimate stakeholder concerns by taking the unilateral decision to impose encryption on the industry against constitutional and statutory provisions guaranteeing media freedom and the right to information.
“In the past, the control over the only national broadcast service could get the citizenry influenced with one-sided government propaganda.
“Now, if the TV reception devices nationwide are controlled, the greater part of the objective is achieved, and even if the government becomes repentant and changes its approach, it would be impossible to reverse gear because once the taxpayer-funded decoders are circulated into Ghanaian homes, the software and CA providers, who are strategically holding the keys to the software within the decoders nationwide, can still communicate with the decoders from any part of the world.
“This is a massive agenda against the future of Ghana’s democracy, which has survived till today largely because of Plural Media and Press Freedom. Let us rise to the defense of our democracy for the sake of posterity.
“The question is, should anyone (be it the government of any political party or individual) have control over the broadcast content delivery in the country?
“Once this is achieved, the national broadcast infrastructure itself will not be of any importance should the main scrambling device be removed subsequently.
“Let us be clear in our minds that nobody can retrieve the decoders already supplied to homes across the nation.
“They can be addressed by any third party in connivance with the software owners.
“Should we be working with a software controller who holds the key to our broadcast space by default because they shall be required to update the software they implanted?” he asked.