Transparency International Georgia published a report, which presents the analysis of pre-election advertising expenditures of political subjects carried out during the last 4 elections and covers the period of 2016-2020.
Namely, the data is based on the cash expenditures in declarations submitted to the State Audit Office – the body responsible for monitoring political finances.
The organization notes, that the largest amount of expenses for advertising purposes was made by political parties in 2020, which summed up to 14.5 million GEL. Critical TV-company Mtavari Arkhi is the leader by the revenue of 4.5 million GEL, which is followed by state-owned TV-company Imedi Holding.
"During the previous three elections, most of the political advertising was mainly published on Imedi TV and Rustavi 2, but in 2020 the largest number of commercials was ordered to Mtavari Arkhi and Imedi Holding. 58% of the total amount was spent on TV advertising for those two TV companies. This percentage indicates that the 2020 elections were less polarized than in previous years in terms of TV political advertising.
The data shows, that the ruling party Georgian Dream did not place any political advertisements on Mtavari Arkhi and delivered most of the advertisements (54%) to Imedi Holding. As for the National Movement, the opposition party placed 88%of their advertising on Mtavari Arkhi and did not cooperate with Imedi TV.
"Georgian Dream" is the only party that placed a political advertisement worth 259 thousand GEL on the state-owned television "PosTV".
Lelo Georgia published largest part of political advertisements on TV-Pirveli, while Rustavi 2 broadcasted political advertisements of Georgian Dream.
