To pay or not to pay TV licence fees? Debate comes off at Graphic today

The Daily Graphic, the flagship of the Graphic Communications Group Limited (GCGL), will host a media session on the TV licence fees at its corporate headquarters on the Graphic Road at 11 a.m.today.

The speakers — Dr Charles Wereko-Brobby, the owner of the defunct Radio Eye; Mr Akwasi Agyeman, the President of the Ghana Independent Broadcasters Association (GIBA); Major Don-Chebe (retd), the Director-General of the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC), and Mr George Sarpong, the Executive Secretary of the National Media Commission (NMC) — will discuss the subject matter as to whether television owners should pay or should not pay the fees.

It will offer the platform for journalists to ask the speakers to state their position on the ‘Yentua’ and ‘Yebetua’ debate raging over TV licence fees.

Background

The Television (TV) Licensing Act 1966 (NLCD 89), which established the licence fees and was amended in 1991 under the PNDC Law, states: “Except as otherwise prescribed, 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 licence granted by the licensing authority under this act.”

However, since the National Media Commission (NMC) announced the resumption of the collection of the TV licence fees by the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) from Saturday, August 1, 2015, some television users have raised eyebrows in objection to the payment.

According to some of them, the collection of TV licence fees amounted to robbery in broad daylight by the national broadcaster for no work done because it had not served Ghanaians in any peculiar way.

They also claimed that the GBC ran countless advertisements and had various corporate sponsors such that it was now more of a private business than a national asset.

The new fees

A breakdown of the new television licence fees shows that domestic TV users with one set will pay GH¢36 yearly, while those with more television sets are required to pay GH¢60 every year.

Hotels will have to pay between GH¢2 and GH¢3 a month for a TV set.

Television dealers such as repairers are required to pay GH¢5 a month, while retailers and sales outlets will pay GH¢20 a month as TV licence fees.