What’s barter to a movie producer? – Ekow Blankson on TV stations’ approach to content

Ghana's movie industry takes a nosedive

Filmmakers worried over Ghana's movie industry

Suggestions made for the rise of Ghana's movie industry

Ace actor, Ekow Blankson has disclosed that managers of television stations do not pay for movies they show on their channels.

According to the actor who has worked with many media organisations in

Read full articleGhana, TV stations often barter airtime for movies, an action that has contributed to the decline of the movie industry.

“Unfortunately, we have had too many TV stations now, TV stations are not really buying the movies. What they do is barter. What is that to a producer? He wants the money. He used hard cash to get it done and now you want to take it on barter. It’s difficult for them,” Mr Blankson said on The Lowdown on GhanaWeb TV.

He continued: “I worked at a TV station so I understand what I’m talking about. We don’t buy films but we want that content. What stops us as a country to say ‘I want to invest in projects, content, films?”

Ghana’s movie industry has lost its vibrancy with many stakeholders giving reasons for the decline. Some have argued that the movie industry has not had distributors and marketers, a situation that discourages movie producers from churning out content.

These views were also shared by Mr Blankson as he argued that movie industries in other jurisdictions have been flourishing because there is always a market for them. He posited that there is the need for government agencies to be proactive, stressing that the benefit would be enormous should there be a conscious effort to sell Ghanaian movies to citizens and the rest of the world.

“We need funds. The industry needs funds to operate. We have an industry but we don’t have a film economy. We have a film industry; we have people who make up the film industry but we lack in the place of film economy.

“As a country, we need to understand what our films can do for us and I’ll speak on the authority that I’ve travelled and I know what content does. What are we as Ghana doing? Today, look at Nigeria. Nigeria has beaten Bollywood. Bollywood was second in the world; it was Hollywood, Bollywood and Nollywood. The reason is that they understand and get funded, get help,” he said.

“Do we understand that we can sell our culture using film? Do we understand that we can communicate our agenda and everything in this country through film? There’s so much opportunity that we have to grab from this industry. If the country knows, if the Tourism Authority knows that we can actually use film to develop Chale Wote, festivals, other things that we are doing, they should be able to get involved,” Mr. Blankson added.

Watch the show below.