According to the time schedule of preparation for the RA presidential elections, yesterday it was the deadline to decide the prices offered by TV companies to candidates in the pre-election campaign period, thus the “independent, but responsible” TV companies have published the price for one minute of pre-election campaign on the air of their companies. Accordingly, the national TV has defined a fee equal to 80.000 AMD per minute, Armenia TV – 130.000AMD, Shant and ALM TV companies – 120.000, H2 and Kentron – 108.000 and Yerkir Media – 100.000 AMD.
The TV companies have also defined the maximum time limit to be provided to each candidate. Thus, the maximum paid time for each candidate offered by the National TV is 120 minutes, Armenia, Kentron, Shant and H2 TV companies – 180 minutes (by the way, besides the national TV, the other companies have also defined that the maximum daily time that can be provided is 6 minutes for each candidate). The TV companies have decided to earn super-profits and in parallel with that not to give an opportunity to the opposition to speak out. This is the price of “responsibility”.