UNDECIDED ON AIRTIME
A1+
April 21, 2009
"ALM" television set the highest price for advertisements during the
local self-government elections in Yerevan at 110,000 drams for a
minute of airtime.
"H2" and "Kentron" television stations set 84,000 drams for a minute
of airtime, 82,000 at "Armenia" TV, while AR and "Yerkir Media" set
80,000 drams for a minute of airtime respectively. Public Television
will grant 30 minutes free and will charge 80,000 drams a minute for
50 minutes.
Leader of the Armenian Socialist Labor Party Movses Shahverdyan,
who is running in the elections for mayor, says that the prices set
by television stations are very high.
"How is the public going to use the services provided by Public
Television at those rates? We will use free airtime and consider if
we can afford the high price, but only very rich political parties
may use that," says leader of the party .
Leader of the People’s Party Tigran Karapetyan’s press secretary
Ruzan Stepanyan says that Tigran Karapetyan will use the paid airtime
provided by other television stations, but it is not clear how much
from each television network. According to her, the prices are good
and they were the same two years ago as well.
National Assembly Deputy, press speaker for the Republican Party
Edward Sharmazanov said that they will use the airtime provided
by all networks by the order constituted by law. According to him,
they are not too different from the prices set during the previous
elections taking into consideration the global economic crisis.
Press speaker for the Armenian National Congress Arman Musinyan
says that they will use the airtime, but not all of it. There are
television stations that have offered normal prices and there are
others whose prices can be considered "exaggerated". However, the
ANC has not made a decision yet.