First installment of TV spot price hike

Television broadcasters announced that they would increase the prices of advertisements by 10-20% from the beginning of 2004. According to sector analysts, such a move will be beneficial for the media market. According to Agora Monitoring, in 2002 the real average prices of commercials were 67% lower as compared to the ratecard. Media representatives were irritated by a heavy discount policy, which was above all applied by TVP and private broadcasters TVN and Polsat. On Friday their representatives assured they would begin to use substantial discounts again, starting in 2004. TVP plans to increase its prices by 10%, which will be the first stage of a wider 40% increase scheduled to be carried out over the next three years. "Similarly to TVN, we plan a 20% increase. This will be due to the fact that we have already sold all our ad space, as well as due to new regulations coming into force in 2004 which will limit the time quotas allowed for commercials," explained Polsat Media's managing director Maciej Stec. (Parkiet, p. 5) M.M.