By Augustus Acquaye
The Ghana Broadcasting Corporation, GBC, has cautioned media operators not to transmit the forthcoming AFCON tournament without clearance from the Consortium with the broadcasting rights of which GBC is the Chief Rights Holder.
At a media briefing at Broadcasting House in Accra, Director of Legal Services at GBC, Kwame Wadja, said the Corporation and the Consortium have invested more than €2,000,000 (Two Million Euros) into acquiring the Rights.
”GBC has formed a partnership with the Police, and put in place monitoring mechanisms, and so any Media House found to illegally broadcast any match from the AFCON 2021 Tournament, will find itself on the wrong side of the law”.
Mr. Wadja said a lot of investment is going to go into broadcasting, citing money and time as the key investments .
“What it means is that if people are investing their time and money to ensure that this comes across into the country, that investment would have to be protected” he said.
The GBC Lead Counsel noted that because of technology, people would like to take exploits, even though they would not like to be part of the investment.
”Such opportunists would like to steal the content and show it for free”.
That he said the Consortium would not condone.
The Channel Manager for GTV SPORTS+ George Lomotey, said for those who would like to telecast the tournament as well as sponsor, should contact the offices of the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation, nationwide for assistance.
He said no affiliate of a partner station has the right to telecast the matches.
”The Consortium is also in league with CAF to monitor the signals and so any illegal tapping of the feed will be rooted out”, he stated.
Deputy Director in charge of Public Affairs of the Police Service, ASP Victor Dosoo, said the IGP, Dr. George Akufo-Dampare is committed to prosecuting people who illegally tap into the Broadcast feed.
He said the Police does not take piracy issues lightly.
”Persons who would like to hide under a Corporate entity to commit the crime, should think twice”.
GTV SPORTS+, was announced as the main sponsor with Obonu TV, Garden City TV, Net 2, Angel TV, Metro TV, ETV, amongst others as partner stations that will telecast the tournament as well as numerous other radio stations.
