Online television and radio service begins operating in Ghana

Ghanaian based online television and radio services have taken a giant leap from the cradle to offer alternative information about Ghana and other parts of Africa to Africans in the diaspora.

The Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) and radio website, www.omanyeonline.com, is the fruit of a viable partnership between Omanye (meaning 'good news') group of companies, Internet Service Providers (ISP) and Ghanaian media groups.

Omanye Chairman, Sammy Crabbe, sums up the objective of the website as an innovation to distribute local and developmental information about Ghana and other African countries. The website would offer unique and truly local programs.

The IPTV service will be available through video on demand that may be bundled with Internet services such as web access with WiMax and voice over Internet protocol options.

Crabbe says the mode of transmission can offer cost effective services and easy access of local content to millions of Africans in the diaspora.

The online service is programmed to operate on very flexible billing methods of a minimum of five pounds a month for news, movies, talk shows, reality shows, features, interviews (among other programs) in text, visual, and voice formats. Patrons will pay through text of credit, credit cards and electronic wire transfer.

A side attraction will be the distribution of specific programs by disc jockeys, musicians and special documentaries on request by visitors to the site.

"The site will become a mega store house of a variety of programs," Crabbe said. Outside broadcasting equipment would be used to lift live sports programs to users. There would be live talk shows through video conferencing.

Omanye is currently working with KNet, an ISP with footprints in West Africa and Global Media Alliance, a multimedia company based in Ghana, to offer the online service to clients.

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