Tigran Hakobyan, President of the National Television and Radio Commission (NTRC), presented a program on the activities of NTRC in 2018. 31 MPs have been registered to ask a few questions after Hakobyan’s speech.

We present the thematic citations from Tigran Hakobyan’s words.

Until May 2018, on television control

Until May 2018, the activities regulated by other parallel centers have been completely eliminated since May, it would even be a mistake to say regulated activity as it was harsh interference with television and radio companies, editorial staff and financial policy.

From May 2018, the only body regulating this field is the NTRC, which greatly increased our responsibility, increased our burden, but also clarified this field.

Since May, the institute of “approving,”  institute of responsible persons have been eliminated, when any action in TV and Radio companies including  the sale of shares, the appointment of positions, the use of public resources, participation in tenders, all of this had not been agreed upon and did not give clear instructions. Today, all of that has been eliminated.

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In the past, there was a very interesting system, a very well-functioning system of “those responsible” (Russian term, meaning a group of responsible people). In other words, every person or grouping itself was someone “responsible” for the given TV station and that “responsible” entity could only be changed with consent. And even if the TV company was sold to another person, it could still belong to the same person “responsible.”

Until May 2018, on control over regional television

Regional television funding was previously set on different political and financial-economic groups that did not use or did not have their impact after the revolution or did not see the need to fund local broadcasters.

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…the competitions (in the regions) were unfair, in each region, it was clear beforehand who would win.

On Public Television

Public Television does not work badly and has not worked badly even a couple of years ago. The only component, for which the Public Television was very fairly criticized was the lack of freedom, diversity and that it was strictly controlled by the authorities.

About administrative proceedings against television channels

Last year, 11 administrative proceedings were instituted. Some of them have been discontinued. Several broadcasting companies were punished, Ararat TV, which is now TV4, Ar, Dar 21, Radio Armenia and Crossnet Cable Television.

For example, AR TV was fined for advertising cigarettes. This was not an open advertisement, but our observers noticed.

Ararat and Dar 21 TV companies have shown copyrighted, unlicensed and unpaid for films.

Radio Hay, for the gross violation of the Electoral Code during the pre-election period, and Crossnet also violated copyright.

About the TV advertising market

All calculations from different companies show that over the past few years, the market for TV advertising has dropped by about 2.5 times (in Armenia).

If the 2013-2014 TV market was up to $35 million with all of its components, sponsorships, commercial programs and advertising, then last year, the sum, with optimistic estimates made up to $18 million.

Prepared by Gegham Vardanyan