Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, the Minister of Communications, has issued a warning: if broadcasters refuse to pay for the use of the Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) platform, television signals to homes and businesses may be turned off as early as next year.

Speaking on the floor of parliament on Monday, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful stated that the government, which had been paying for the platform’s operating expenses, was now unable to continue bearing the financial load.

She emphasized that some media outlets have refused to fulfill financial obligations in spite of multiple warnings.

“None of the broadcasters on the DTT platform pay for using it as I speak and this situation cannot continue in our current economic state,” she said.

“GIBA is not a broadcaster hosted on this platform. So I don’t know in which capacity they would be acting. They have constituent members who are broadcasters on the DTT platform but none of them have paid a pesewa to date for being hosted on the platform so it is not correct any member being hosted on the platform has paid for it.”

The Minister of Communications issued a warning, stating that failure to pay operating expenditures could result in the platform being shut down and possibly causing an interruption in TV broadcast signals.

“Government says it cannot continue to pay for it so if they do not pay for it, unfortunately, we may find ourselves in a situation where we cannot receive TV broadcast signals because the platform will be shut down for non-payment of the operational expenses that it is incurring,” the Communication Minister stated.

With the use of digital terrestrial television technology, broadcasters can now carry digital programming on their networks.