How to Start a TV Station in Ghana (2023)

Are you interested in starting a TV station in Ghana? Then you’ve come to the right place.

Starting a TV station in Ghana would prove to a profitable and viable business, especially if you’ve done the right research and if you’re determined and passionate about getting something meaningful out of the business.

There has been an increase in the number of people watching TV in Ghana, especially general TV stations that promote politics, local movies and other forms of entertainment. This makes owning a TV station a very lucrative business.

Unfortunately, starting a TV station is very capital intensive. Processes like getting a license, constructing and installing TV station equipment, and hiring staff all take up a big chunk of the capital.

But if you’d still want to go ahead and start your own TV station, then you can follow the steps below and get your TV station displayed in all Ghanaian homes.

How to Start a TV Station in Ghana

TV Station in Ghana

Decide What Your Station Will Be All About

Before you start anything, you will have to first decide the type of content that will be displayed on your TV station.

Sports TV stations focus on sports games, news, and the lifestyle of sportspeople. While, news channels focus on breaking news, interviews, and documentaries. Other channels include music channels, lifestyle channels, religion, and children channels.

Before settling for a choice, you should do thorough research on the industry. There are some channel types that are oversaturated and only lead to dead ends. However, there are several opportunities that are unexplored. You can easily take advantage of them and make a huge profit.

Write A Business Plan

A business plan makes things easier. With it, you will be able to monitor your progress, capital, profit, and losses. A business plan will also be required from you if you plan on getting sponsors to support your TV station business.

You can write the business plan for your business by yourself or get a professional or a lawyer to write it for you.

Get Your Capital

Capital refers to money (or other assets) used in starting of a company. As said earlier, starting a TV station in Ghana requires huge capital which you might not have. You can easily get capital from the government, banks, online lenders, local lenders, family, and friends.

To increase your chances of getting sponsors, you will need an impressive business plan and an excellent financial profile. Banks usually focus on these two things before deciding who and who not to give loans.

Government organizations, on the other hand, give out loans based on multiple merit systems. Unfortunately, it might take too long for you to get the right amount from the government.

Your best options are online lenders, crowdfunding campaigns, banks, and your family, and friends.

Get Licensed

Prior to starting your own TV station in Ghana, you will have to meet certain requirements as set by the National Communications Authority (NCA) of Ghana.

TV station operators are required to apply for a license or frequency authorization from the Authority before they can provide any broadcasting service to the general public.

Before applying, you should know how TV broadcasting authorizations are classified in Ghana so that you can choose the one that best suits you.

  • Digital Terrestrial Pay Television (Service Only)
  • Digital Terrestrial Pay Television (Service and frequency)
  • Digital Terrestrial Television (Network only)
  • Digital Terrestrial Free-to-Air Television Programme Channel
  • Digital Terrestrial Radio Service on TV Multiplex
  • Satellite Television Broadcasting (Pay TV Direct-to-Home Bouquet)
  • Satellite Television Broadcasting (Free-to-Air Direct-to-Home Bouquet)
  • Satellite Television Broadcasting (Free-to-Air Direct-to-Home Single Channel)
  • Digital Terrestrial Television Additional Services (eg. Teletext, etc)
  • Digital Terrestrial Mobile Television Service
  • Digital Cable Television (Pay TV)
  • Television over Internet Protocol (Pay TV)

After picking an option, you can go to any NCA office nearest to you to pick up the application form and make inquiries for the required documents and qualifications.

Install the TV Station Equipment and Office Space

TV station equipment takes the bulk of your capital. You can get them at a lesser price if you go for used items, but that will in no way benefit your business. If you’re on a tight budget or you’re looking for a way to save money for other operations, then you can go for used items on some parts of the TV station equipment.

Office space is where you store and install the equipment. It is also the place where your staff will work and handle all the TV operations.

Depending on the type of TV station you want to run. You will need a TV studio to talk shows, interviews, and read the news.

Hire the Right Staff

The type of people that work with you will determine how far your TV station business will go. So it is important that you hire only people that believe in your dream. Also, check for successful TV hosts, engineers, and technicians. These people have gained some kind of experience in the broadcasting industry and they will help promote your business.

Hiring the best staff is going to cost a lot of money, so instead of going cheap on the hands you hire, you can open your doors to interns and offer them allowances to work for your company. For you to attract the smartest interns, your company needs to look attractive.

Generally, interns aren’t looking for a huge pay, but in need of the experience. The more attractive your company looks, the more interested they will be in signing up for an internship there.

Be Creative

Once your TV station has been set up, you will have to populate it with interesting, entertaining and creative content so as to draw the attention of viewers. The more viewers your TV station has, the more attractive you will look to advertisers and third party content transmitting companies.

Advertising and third party content transmission are the two main ways through which TV stations make money in Ghana. These privileges are usually reserved for the top TV stations in the country and the amount you can charge for advertisements depend on the number of active viewers you have on your TV station.

See more details on Doing Business in Ghana

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