Former Board Chairman of the Ghana Airports Company Limited, Paul Adom-Otchere, has raised alarm over the financial state of Ghana’s broadcasting industry, warning that nine out of ten television and radio stations are running at a loss.
He made the remarks at the Broadcasting at the Crossroads forum, organised by the Africa Media Bureau at the Alisa Hotel in Accra on Friday, September 26.
According to Adom-Otchere, the collapse of traditional advertising as a sustainable revenue stream has left most media houses financially distressed.
“Right now in Ghana, 90% of TV and radio stations are running at a loss because advertising is not working anymore,” he said.
He explained that the conventional business model, which depended heavily on advertising from corporate Ghana, is no longer viable in an increasingly digital media ecosystem.
The journalist noted that many broadcasters are turning to platforms such as YouTube to survive.
“Radio and TV stations are opening YouTube channels and putting their content there because that is how they get money,” he observed, underscoring how digital platforms have become lifelines for traditional broadcasters.
The seasoned broadcaster called for a national conversation on how the National Communications Authority (NCA) and other stakeholders can support local content monetisation.
“It is important that this conversation about monetising local content through the NCA infrastructure is taken very seriously,” he said. “Otherwise, a lot of these stations are grounding to a halt, and the danger is that they will be overtaken by politicians and politics.”
Mr Adom-Otchere stressed that only bold policy interventions, ranging from infrastructure support to regulatory reforms, could prevent widespread station closures.
With the local media landscape at a tipping point, Adom-Otchere insisted that monetisation of local content is the only way forward.
“The only way to redeem this situation is to have a way in which content can be monetised so that people can earn money from their content,” he concluded.