Regional Broadcasters Left without Paid Political Ads

Political parties participating in Georgia's local elections haven't bought any political advertisement in regional media outlets yet, in response some TV companies decided not to air any political ads at all.

"Buying political ads is no longer useful after the amendments were made to legislation. Political parties rarely use more time for their promotion than they already have for free under the latest amendments to the legislation, therefore we stopped airing any political advertisement" - Director of Khashuri-based TV station Dia David Lomidze told media.ge. He meant Law on Broadcasting, which has the following stipulations:

"Article 66. Electoral Advertisement

1. A general terrestrial broadcasting license holder, as well as other broadcasting license holder that broadcast electoral advertisements, shall, during an election campaign conducted within its service area, broadcast the electoral advertisement presented by the electoral subject. Such election advertisement shall be broadcast free of charge and without any discrimination no more than 90 seconds per 3 hours."

Managers of other TV stations also talk about the inconveniences associated with this Law. If the political parties don't buy ads in TV station Rioni (Kutaisi) then Director of the TV station Tamar Ghvinianidze will refuse to air any political advertisement.

"We have certain services to offer the political parties. We offer them to produce and air their political commercials, but so far we haven't received any offers from them" - Tamar Ghvinianidze said.

Association of Regional Broadcasters of Georgia decided to look into that problem due to numerous complaints of regional TV stations. During the meeting held in November 2009 Association of Regional Broadcasters of Georgia informed the MPs about this problem. Representative of the Association Natia Kuprashvili says the Association's initiative has yet to be lobbied in the Parliament. The Association plans to raise the problem connected with free political advertisement in near future.

Managers of Adjara TV and TV station Channel 25 don't think the article 66 of the abovementioned Law is a big problem. They told media.ge they have already sold paid political ads that will be aired during primetime. They air free political ads mainly during other periods of day.

25 days are left till local elections. However, most regional TV stations haven't received any orders concerning paid political ads. TV stations Imervizia (Chiatura), Tanamgzavri (Telavi), Dia  (Khashuri), Mega TV (Khoni), Borjomi (Borjomi), Channel 9 (Akhatsikhe), Gurjaani (Gurjaani), Channel 12 (Bolnisi), Odishi (Zugdidi), 9th Wave (Poti), Trialeti (Gori), Argo (Zestaponi) and others are waiting in vain for paid political ads.

Those TV channels currently air the public service announcements supplied by Central Election Commission.

Leading Georgian political parties and movements have no immediate plans to buy political ads from regional TV channels.

"We haven't decided yet whether we'll have political ads in regional media. We're currently working on this issue. As the elections draw near we'll think which TV channels are best to have our political ads at, of course if their prices are not too high. We haven't had any negotiations with any broadcasters about these issues yet." - Tbilisi Mayoral candidate Zviad Dzidziguri told media.ge.

"At this stage we haven't decided anything. We're currently gathering information about prices and conditions in various media outlets. We'll place our ads in the TV channels that will offer the best conditions" - member of Alliance for Georgia Irakli Chikovani said.

Christian-Democratic Movement is the only party that has already decided to have political commercials in regional media. According to member of the party Levan Vepkhvadze, the party will publish its ads in Guria News newspaper (Chokhatauri, Guria). The party is also having negotiations with Rioni TV station.

Secretary General of ruling United National Movement Zurab Melikishvili told media.ge that if the party decides to buy advertisement somewhere "the decision will be supported with a corresponding contract". So far the ruling party hasn't made any contracts with any regional media outlets.

National TV channels have been regularly broadcasting both paid and free political ads during the last few days. Price of a 10 second ad in primetime of those TV channels often exceeds 10,000 GEL. Regional TV stations charge only 1000-1500 GEL for one-minute ads. Due to higher quality of broadcasting as well as larger coverage area political parties most often favor national TV channels.