'Financial Challenges Undermine GBC�s Capability'

The Director General of the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC), Major Albert B. Don-Chebe (Rtd), says financial challenges have undermined GBC’s ability to produce captivating, elevating and fulfilling content for viewers and listeners.

He said the financial challenges could be partly attributed to the inability to revise the 30 pesewas TV licence fee meant to resource the corporation from 1991 to 2014.

“Certainly, the failure to review the TV licence fee when the cedi was depreciating and devaluating dramatically from 1993 to 2014 severely impacted the capability of the GBC to execute its mandate,” he stated.

Major Don–Chebe made these remarks when he took his turn in the series of lectures to mark the GBC’s 80th anniversary in Accra.

“The crippled financial status of GBC made it impossible to replace obsolete equipment, revamp studios and sponsor much-needed capacity building courses,” he stated.

For public service broadcasting bodies such as the GBC, Major Don–Chebe said if the funding model did not ensure reliable, predictable and guaranteed funds, it would become prone to several pressures that could control or influence the operations of the corporation.

“Consequently, for GBC, what was achieved in the days shortly after the coming into force of Act 449 was eroded as a result of a failure to adjust the TV licence fee to reflect the falling value of the currency.

Therefore, he said, the revision of the TV licence fee from 30 pesewas to GH¢3 per month for domestic users provided GBC with the brightest opportunity to move towards the ideal state of a good public service broadcaster.

He commended the various stakeholders for ensuring the revision of the law and said the GBC would work to improve on its operations and delivery.

Having evolved from a colonial broadcasting entity to a state broadcaster committed to nation building, Major Don–Chebe said it was important for public service broadcasting to be significantly different from commercial broadcasting.

On the migration of broadcasting stations from analogue to digital, Major Don-Chebe said the GBC was currently providing digital broadcasting services.

He indicated that by the end of the first quarter of 2016, the digital broadcasting services would be available in the whole country.