Alcoholic Beverages to be Advertised on Armenian Television After 10 pm

The Armenian National Assembly's Standing Committee on Science, Education, Culture, Youth and Support yesterday approved a legislative package submitted by a group of parliamentary deputies to make amendments to the Law on Advertising and the Law on Television and Radio.

Co-author of the legislative package, MP Samvel Farmanyan yesterday said that with the adoption of this package, broadcast media will be able to advertise alcoholic beverages (those having an alcohol content of 20% or more) from 10 pm to 6 am.

Authors of the legislative package said, on one hand, minors don't watch television during these hours, and thus the logical restrictions in the existing laws remain in effect, while on the other hand, due to the restrictions in the law, large firms importing or producing alcoholic beverages consumed in the Republic of Armenia don't allocate advertising budgets for Armenia, which is a great deal of money annually.

According to preliminary calculations, upon adoption of the legislative initiative, advertisers may direct up to an additional 1 billion AMD annually to Armenian TV stations, which to some extent will improve their current financial situation, according to the website of the National Assembly.