The legislative amendments passed by the State Duma of Russia, which veto advertising on cable and satellite TV channels, and then its partial come back, reduced significantly broadcasters’ revenue growth, as Sostav.ru informs.
During the Reporting conference of the Russian Association of Communication Agencies of Russia (RACA) its chairman Alexei Kovylov pointed out that, compared with the first quarter of last year, the Russian pay TV reduced television advertising budgets by 60% and terrestrial TV budgets by 21%.
Also the RACA’s head emphasizes that the main reason for such low indicators can be considered the restrictions in Russian advertising legislation, which has already been liberalized soon for broadcasters.
We shall recall that in July 2014 the State Duma of Russia passed a law banning advertising on satellite and cable TV channels, for which subscribers had to pay a certain fee, or the access to which is provided by means of decoding equipment. In late January 2015 the Law was amended to allow placing advertising on pay TV, if the national product in their airtime exceeds 75%.
But even having amended that draconian law, the earnings of broadcasters slightly exceeded RUR 4.1 billion last year, as for large advertisers television commercials appeared an unstable media segment. Thus, the Russian advertising market was abandoned by the Universal Network International, which owned a number of paid entertainment channels.
RACA notes that, unlike the advertising decline in other media, its segment has been developing more successfully on the Internet due to the context ads, fundamental differences and marketing purposes.
In general, the Association marks the stabilization of the advertising market and despite all negative indicators doesn’t expect a major decline.
