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GTV has come under a lot of flack following the station’s inability to telecast live all the matches at the ongoing World Cup.
 
GTV as well as all the other local television networks have been given the rights to telecast 28 matches live from the 64 matches being played in Qatar.
 
Many have attributed GTV’s inability to get the rights for all 64 matches to the unwillingness and unpreparedness of Ghanaians to pay TV license.
 
The argument has been that, with these payments, GTV would have been able to get enough funds to secure the rights for the matches.
 
That cannot be the case. In my considered opinion, that argument has a lot of flaws.
 
First of all, the fees would have gone into their operations and other expenses other than expending same in securing rights for the matches.
 
In any event, which media platform depends on its internally generated revenues to secure such rights? Proceeds from advertisements, oftentimes, are used for these.
 
Media houses enter into contracts with businesses and enterprises for money for such rights and run their adverts for them.
 
More importantly, I do not think all the media houses combined could have raised enough revenues to secure such rights looking at how FIFA has changed things.
 
On the African continent, only DSTV has the exclusive rights to broadcast all the 64 matches. In the UK, BBC has the rights, in the US, Fox Sports has the exclusive rights.
 
What this means is that any network that would want to broadcast all the matches live must pay huge sums of money to these networks.
 
GTV and all the local channels do not have the financial muscles to compete with DSTV or buy the remaining rights.
 
FIFA is to blame, not GTV or any other media network when it comes to their inabilities to show all the 64 matches live. As for the payment of TV license, I am all for it, but same cannot take the fall for GTV’s inability to show all the matches.
 
P.K.Sarpong, Whispers from the Corridors of the Thinking Place.