The elections for the Yerevan Council of Elders will take place on September 17, with the pre-election campaign beginning on August 23.  

In compliance with the law, television and radio companies have released the per-minute tariffs for paid airtime during the pre-election campaign.

The Electoral Code defines the pricing mechanism as follows:

• For the public broadcaster, one minute of paid airtime should not exceed 50% of the average cost of commercial advertising in the six months preceding the election.
• As for the private broadcasters, the cost of one minute of paid airtime should not exceed the average cost of commercial advertising for the six months preceding the election.

“Armenia TV” has set the highest price for political advertising. The television company offers paid airtime from 3:00 to 8:00  pm at 100,000 AMD per minute.

 Shant TV holds the second position. During the evening hours, from 6:00 pm to 11:59 pm, one minute of airtime costs 90,000 AMD. However, during the daytime, from 6:00 am to 5:59 pm, the cost of one minute is set at 45,000 AMD.

Out of the six countywide broadcasting television stations and five Yerevan broadcasting stations, Public TV ranks third, having set the price at 48,000 drams per minute.

Dar-21 has set the lowest price per minute at 8000 AMD.

Channel 5, owned by “Shark” LLC, has established the minimum amount of airtime for paid TV advertising that will be dedicated to the pre-election campaign. The TV network has allotted only six minutes of airtime for paid political advertising during the day.

Of all the licensed companies that broadcast exclusively through network operators, the most expensive is “Skizb Media Kentron,” LLC’s First TV. They have set the price at 55 thousand drams per minute for paid political advertising.

Radio advertising rates for political campaigns are considerably lower than those for television. Of the 12 radio companies, “Radio Van” charges the most at 4,500 drams per minute. “News Radio FM 106.5” follows with 3,500 AMD, and “Radio Jan” 3,200 AMD.

Public Radio has been assigned a minimum rate of 1300 drams by the TRC, which is currently the lowest rate compared to other radio companies.

Image from CEC Facebook page

The parties and party alliances participating in the Yerevan Council of Elders elections can now present their pre-election program to the 823,559 voters of Yerevan until September 15.

Marianna Danielyan