Industry expert Barnabas Nii Laryea has said that Ghana’s broadcasting landscape must urgently embrace stronger competition to prevent the entrenched monopoly of DSTV, as tensions between the pay-TV giant and the Ministry of Communications and Digitalisation spill into the public domain.
Mr. Laryea noted that while frustrations over DSTV’s pricing regime are valid, the current spectacle, challenging the Minister directly against the company risks politicising regulatory enforcement and distracting from the bigger issue which is the absence of meaningful alternatives for Ghanaian consumers.
He said robust competition is what Ghana truly needs to prevent DSTV’s entrenched monopoly, adding that, alternatives such as IPTV and streaming services already exist for anyone with a decent internet connection.
He emphasised that under Ghana’s Electronic Communications Act, the role of direct enforcement and dispute resolution rests with the National Communications Authority (NCA) and the Communications Tribunal not with a government minister wading into public spats.
Allowing regulators to act independently, he said, would help insulate public policy from political theatre and reduce the risk of diplomatic fallout with South Africa, DSTV’s home country.
Laryea further cautioned that a minister locking horns with a private foreign company “risks straining Ghana–South Africa relations, unsettling investor confidence, and creating the perception of hostility to South African enterprises.”
While criticising DSTV’s combative public posture, he advised the broadcaster to adopt “silent diplomacy” similar to MTN’s strategy when it faced ministerial scrutiny, stressing that its focus should remain on efficiency, job security, and sustaining livelihoods rather than engaging in media battles.
He said that Ghana’s broadcasting and communications sector faces far weightier challenges including digital migration, spectrum efficiency, broadband penetration, and AI policy, issues he believes should occupy more of the Minister’s attention than a pricing dispute “for a service that only the relatively well-off consume.”
Mr. Laryea added that DSTV, for all its dominance, is but a fly that can be swatted through regulatory firmness rather than ministerial brinkmanship.
