During the first quarter of 2019, broadcasting advertising revenues grew by 8% year-on-year. Time allotted to commercial advertising also increased by 25% in Q1 compared to the same period last year. All national broadcasters reported growing advertising revenues with the exception of the Georgian Public Broadcaster, where revenues fell by 52%. This is an interesting development, as GPB’s revenues decreased despite the changes to the Law of Georgia on Broadcasting coming into effect, whereby the limit on commercial advertising on GPB was raised in accordance with European practices.

The highest figure of growth in television advertising revenues was posted by Palitra TV (216%), followed by Pirveli TV (38%), GDS (35%), Rustavi-2 (27%) and Maestro (13%). Teleimedi’s revenues grew by 4% year-on-year. As mentioned earlier, the Georgian Public Broadcaster collected 52% less in advertising revenues during the first quarter this year compared to the same period in 2018. This is a remarkable development, as it came after the raising of the limit on commercial advertising for the Public Broadcaster. Regional media representatives and NGOs have insisted that as a result of these changes, GPB’s revenues would increase at the expense of the regional broadcasters.

The aforementioned figures apply to broadcasters who posted largest revenues during the first quarter of 2019 compared to other companies. These are Imedi, Rustavi-2, GDS, Silknet, TV Pirveli and 1^st Entertainment Channel.

Detailed information about broadcasting revenues can be viewed on the analytics portal of the Communications Commission – analytics.gncc.ge.