The Media Academy of the Communications Commission has successfully responded to the challenges caused by COVID-19 pandemic. In 2020, the Media School launched its first exclusive project in the Georgian media space – the online masterclass that gives people a unique opportunity to learn about different aspects of professional journalism free of charge. “Learn from the Best” is a project that offers people studying journalism and all other interested individuals an online...

The Communications Commission has published ComCom Digest for the month of May, which provides an overview of the activities and important decisions taken by the Commission over the past month. ComCom Digest includes information about the advertising revenues of TV and radio broadcasters. In the first quarter of 2021, advertising revenues of TV broadcasters increased by 3% compared to the same period of 2020 and amounted GEL 14.5 million, whereby direct advertising and...

The Communications Commission is conducting  media literacy trainings for over 1000 high school pupils from 50 schools in Tbilisi and the regions. The training sessions are part of the “Truth or Fiction?” contest and have been devised using the learning materials from the BBC Academy. Together with representatives from the Media Literacy Department of the Communications Commission, winners of the previous contest shared their experiences with 9th, 10th and 11th grade...

The Communications Commission has fined NNLE Media Union Obieqtivi GEL 2500 for broadcasting a programme unsuitable for minors. The case concerns the programme “Studio N8,” which was aired on 23 April and included scenes depicting torture and rape. As the programme was aired between 23:00 and 23:05, the company violated the Law of Georgia on Broadcasting, which prohibits broadcasting of graphic violence and other scenes that are unsuitable for persons under 18 years of age between...

Throughout 2020, the Communications Commission implemented important measures designed to enhance media literacy among the public. In cooperation with the Ministry of Education and Science, the Commission expanded the target audience to include not only school pupils, but also students and academic staff from public and private universities. Due to the pandemic, media literacy training and learning courses took place online.  Over the course of 2020, approximately 700 students from the...

The web-platform of the Media Academy of the Communications Commission mediacritic.ge, which was established to promote media literacy and enable informed choices, has been accessed by over one million users on social media. This underlines the relevance of the platform and the high level of public interest towards qualified media critique.  There were 59 analytical articles, 63 blogs and 178 reviews published on www.mediacritic.ge in 2020. The website had 300,000 unique visitors...

http://www.sheamotsme.ge – the innovative service introduced by the Communications Commission in 2020 to protect the interests of consumers, has been named as the best example for the development of internet freedom and quality. The platform was included in the report of the influential international organization Freedom House as an exemplary tool for protecting consumer rights. Freedom House highlighted the importance of the consumer-oriented platform and presented Georgia in the report...

According to the 2020 annual report of the Communications Commission, the number of mobile internet users is very high (94 %) in relation to the population of Georgia. Mobile internet traffic increased by a record level in 2020. Mobile subscribers used 197 million gigabytes of internet, aided by the growth in the number of mobile internet subscribers and new generation of phones on the market. Increased internet demand during the pandemic and the development of the 4G network and services have...

The use of fixed broadband internet services in Georgia is growing both in terms of subscriber numbers and revenues.  The number of fixed broadband internet service subscribers reached 998,000 in 2020, up by 57,000 (6.1%) since 2019. As in the previous year, the number of subscribers grew faster in the regions. The broadband service market in Tbilisi is almost completely saturated, while the number of subscribers in cities and villages in the regions is growing significantly, especially in...

According to the annual report of the Communications Commission, telecom operators collected total revenues of GEL 1.153 billion in 2020, down from 1.185 billion in 2019. Thus, the revenues of telecom operators decreased by GEL 32 million in 2020.  Revenues from retail services totaled GEL 961 million in 2020. This includes revenues from fixed internet, as well as mobile, roaming and fixed phone services and broadcast transit.   Retail revenues of mobile operators amounted to GEL...