Digital Terrestrial TV:NCA did no wrong in regulatory changes — Prof. Dodoo

He explained that as the regulator, the NCA had the sole mandate to determine or make changes to regulations in the communications sector.

However, Prof. Dodoo said regulators must ensure that any alteration to an accepted standard or technical regulation was made with the input of all interested parties to help foster consensus building.

“Any changes made without the input of the GSA and other interested parties is unacceptable,” he said

Speaking to the Daily Graphic in Accra yesterday, Prof. Dodoo said such a revised document could neither be called a national standard nor technical regulation.

“So if there have been any changes to the standard document, and even one letter changed, it can’t be known any longer as a national standard document,” he said.

Prof. Dodoo was reacting to concerns expressed by the Ghana Independent Broadcasters Association (GIBA) over the revision made to the DTT standard document (GS1099: 2019) by the NCA which was published on the NCA’s official website as a technical standard.

He explained that although regulators were free to set their own regulations, they had to ensure that such regulations did not contradict the national standard.

“The document they have now can’t be called a national standard document; maybe they can call it their own regulation or guideline because it has been altered,” he said.

Building consensus

In setting standards that could be adopted by regulators as technical regulation, Prof. Dodoo said, the GSA engaged players in the industry, including regulators, to ensure fairness and understanding.

“What the GSA does in setting standards is that we bring all players to the table and we build consensus.

After that, the document is sent for review by everybody, so that when it is endorsed, it is final.

So if there are supposed to be changes, the same procedure must be followed,” he said.

Although the changes made to the document were not illegal, Prof Dodoo said, the changes “were not done in good spirit”.

“Setting standards is a very difficult process because sometimes it takes two to three years and you have to engage everybody.

Now what they have done is not illegal but it was not done in good spirit because when you all agree on something at a table and you go round to say you have changed it, next time when you try to engage them, they will not come,” he said.

GIBA’s concern

The GIBA last month backed the decision of the technical committee of the GSA to exclude a mandatory CAS from the standards on DDT.

The standard made CAS non-mandatory for FTA receivers, which meant they did not have to pay to receive FTA channels, such as TV3, GHOne, TV Africa, Adom TV, UTV, Joy News, Joy Prime and Crystal TV.

However, a release signed by the President of GIBA, Mr Andrew Danso-Aninkora, said contrary to the accepted standards on DTT, the NCA was attempting to implement dramatic changes in the television broadcast sector which were not favourable to players in the sector.