The fixed prices for political advertisements are the topic for heated inter-political discussions during the pre-electoral period. Political parties (especially the opposition) are not only worried over the high prices, but also whether or not everyone will pay the same amount. Nobody can blame the private television network for fixing high prices-it has the right to do that. High pricing of Public Television on the account of taxpayers is a different story. Perhaps it’s cheap among the others, but it’s really very expensive. However, the oppositional parties don’t have that much money to pay.
Well, not only have television networks taken market prices into consideration, but also how much money the future deputies and political parties will have.
Thus, Armenian Public Television (H1) has fixed 80,000 drams as the price for a one minute advertisement for both proportional and majority electoral system candidates. Public Television has fixed 120 minutes as the maximum amount of time for advertisement. “ARMENIA TV” fixed the price for one minute at 130,000 drams. “Yerkir Media” television network fixed the price for candidates on the proportional and majority system at 100,000 drams. The political party or pre-electoral alliance in the proportional electoral system must pay 108,000 drams for one minute airtime, while the candidate nominated on the majority electoral order must pay 60,000 drams in order to organize the campaign on the Second Armenian Channel (H2). The television network is going to provide no more than 180 minutes airtime for the entire electoral campaign, not exceeding 6 minutes a day for proportional candidates and 2 minutes for majority candidates. “Kentron” television has also fixed the same prices and airtime-108,000 drams for the proportional electoral system candidates and 60,000 drams for majority electoral system candidates. The price for one minute airtime for candidates on the proportional electoral system on “ALM” television will cost 120,000 drams, while majority candidates will have to pay 80,000 drams.