The Director-General of the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation, Prof. Amin Alhassan, has called on government to put in place a sustainable mechanism to fund sports rights in Ghana.
According to him, funding sports rights, especially football rights, will enable Ghanaians to watch national sporting teams play internationally and retool GBC.
He stated that the sports business is not generating revenue to pay for the rights, warning that GBC will not continue to risk showing games and incur huge debts.
“It’s become a very difficult terrain for us to move in. Every time we have, for example, the World Cup, Olympics, and other Black Stars matches of international nature, Ghanaians expect us to bring this content to them.”
“We must agree that if Ghanians must see the Black Stars and other national sporting teams play internationally, then let us agree that we will fund it directly from government resources so that Ghanians can watch because if you don’t do that, it will mean that only pay-per-view channels will have these sporting events, and we (GBC) will not be able to continue risking and going for these games only to find itself dealing with huge debts.”
Prof. Alhassan said these when a delegation from the National Media Commission (NMC), called on the management of GBC in Accra on Wednesday, August 16.
He called for a national solution to funding sports rights, as is done within the African region, adding that GBC remains committed to its mandate of bringing sports content to Ghanaians.
“We need a permanent national solution for how to fund Sports rights for the national broadcaster. Within the African region, most of our counterparts have a straightforward solution. All sports rights of national nature are paid for by the Government. So that their citizens can have access to it. In the last few years, all the sports rights we have gone into contract arrangements to get have resulted in huge debts. We can’t continue like this.”
Sharing some of GBC’s sentiments, the Chairman of NMC, Mr Yaw Ayeboafo, pledged to engage authorities and advocate on behalf of GBC, particularly on sports.
“If they pay one football $100,000 and we are to pay 1 million for all Ghanaians to watch, which is more important? It will not make sense for the Black Stars to be participating in the World Cup, and Ghanaians are not watching the thing. Then what is the purpose of our presence there?”
