On December 12, “Asparez” Journalists’ Club of Gyumri announced the results of the monitoring on the volumes and distribution of advertisement on six TV channels in Armenia. The monthly survey, held in August 2013, covered six national TV channels –First Channel of the Public Television of Armenia (PTA), Second Armenian TV Channel, “Armenia,” “Shant”, “Yerkir Media” and “Kentron.”
The monitoring aimed at revealing how many TV channels complied with the provisions of the RA Law “On Advertising” and whether the public broadcaster implements the 7 percent (of total air time) time allocation for advertising, envisaged by the RA Law “On Television and Radio”.
According to the survey, conducted by “Asparez”, in August 2013 the PTA First Channel complied with the 7-percent time allocation. In the meantime, a number of other requirements were not met in the monitoring period. Thus, the norm, forbidding interrupting a program more frequently than every 20 minutes, was violated at different degrees by all the six TV channels.
Another provision on the Law “On Advertising”, establishing a 14-minute advertising ceiling within every broadcast hour, was violated by 4 of the monitored TV channels: single cases of violation of the allocation norm were detected on “Armenia,” “Yerkir-Media,” and “Kentron” (from several seconds to one minute), whereas on “Shant” the given legislative provision was not complied with practically throughout the whole monitoring period (the allocation ceiling was seriously exceeded, and in individual cases – it was exceeded more than twice).
The August 2013 report by “Asparez” is accessible on the website of the Journalists’ Club. “Asparez” is conducting an identical monitoring in December 2013. According to Levon Barseghian, Chairman of Journalists’ Club, the periods for the survey were not accidentally selected: August is the most passive month in terms of broadcasting (the vacation season), and December is the most active one (on the Eve of the New Year).
