A fresh debate over how Ghanaians fund public broadcasting has been reignited, with President John Dramani Mahama pointing to a possible overhaul of the TV licence system into a public media levy to better resource the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation.
The announcement was made during President Mahama’s high-profile visit to GBC’s headquarters on Thursday, a trip that underscored the government’s increasing emphasis on strengthening public media institutions. Discussions around the TV licence, a fee long criticised for its limited revenue yield and questionable relevance in the digital age, took centre stage, raising a key question: should Ghanaians brace for a rebranded levy on media consumption?
“We are thinking in the same direction to amend that law to make it a public media levy of some sort,” President Mahama told GBC officials, highlighting that alterations to the existing TV licence law are being considered by Cabinet ahead of submission to Parliament.
The proposed levy, as envisaged by the presidency, would go beyond traditional TV licence fees, which historically required owners of television sets to pay a modest annual charge, and instead aim to mobilise broader funding to subsidise public media work that often fails to attract commercial advertising.
For decades, GBC has struggled with chronic underfunding, surviving on minimal licensing revenue that critics argue is insufficient to support its mandate as a public broadcaster. During the same visit, GBC Director-General Professor Amin Alhassan painted a stark picture of the funding gap, noting that where benchmark institutions like the BBC draw the bulk of their budgets from licence revenues, GBC’s intake from such fees amounted to a tiny fraction.
“Last year, 1% of our budget was funded from TV licences,” he said, referring to the financial constraints confronting the national broadcaster.
Professor Alhassan also made a case for reframing the conversation around the levy, arguing that the term TV licence has become anachronistic. “It is not about TV. It is not about you watching TV. It is about raising funds to ensure public service broadcasting,” he told the President and officials. Beyond semantics, his plea reflected a deeper frustration with the legacy costs and operational hurdles that have plagued GBC’s efforts to modernise.
The idea of transforming the fee into a public media levy has stirred curiosity and cautious optimism among stakeholders. GBC says a wider levy could tap into a broader base of services and technologies, potentially including digital platforms, thereby generating more stable revenue.
The government’s approach appears to be one of measured consultation. Mahama indicated that once proposals are finalised within Cabinet, discussions will be held with GBC leadership before any legal amendments are tabled in Parliament. “When we’re ready, it will be discussed in Cabinet… but we’ll discuss with you what our thinking is before we finally go to Parliament,” the President said, promising an inclusive process.
The announcement comes against growing scrutiny of public trust in the media and the systems that sustain it. GBC, despite its constitutional mandate to provide national information, education, and cultural programming, has faced criticism from viewers who say the broadcaster has struggled to meet expectations.
Complaints range from poor picture quality to limited coverage of major and engaging events, including key football competitions. In this context, the proposed levy could offer more than financial relief; it may mark an opportunity for institutional renewal and greater relevance in an increasingly digital media landscape.
Yet as discussions on the structure of the proposed levy progress, several critical questions remain unresolved, including the likely rate, the scope of contributors, and the mechanisms for revenue collection and transparency. How these issues are addressed is expected to significantly influence public acceptance and the broader policy debate in the months ahead.
