Indiantelevision.com Team

(6 March 2008 9:00 pm)

NEW DELHI: There is a significant drop in expenditure on advertisements in newspapers through the Directorate of Advertising and Visual Publicity (DAVP) during the current financial year, which was Rs 175 million till 22 February, as against Rs 394.5 million for 2006-07.

Even the expenditure last year had shown a drop as the DAVP had spent Rs 439.6 million during 2005-06.

DAVP sources told indiantelevision.com that the number of advertisements released both to the print and the audio-visual media has come down, although advertisements amounting to Rs 3.07 billion were released by the Government during 2006-07 including around Rs 1 billion to the audio-visual medium,.

DAVP, which is the nodal agency for the purpose, released a total of 150,965 advertisements during 2006-07, of which 130,787 went to the audio-visual media.

The number of advertisements released in 2005-06 was 156,850 (133,471 to the audio-visual media) and 115,137 in 2004-05 (92,903 to the audio-visual media).

While the DAVP gives advertisements to the print and audio-visual media, it does not advertise on the Internet as these facilities are not available to a large number of the population.

Meanwhile, Parliament was informed this week that an audit to see the effect of the Government’s spending on communication is done through impact studies undertaken from time to time through professional communication research organisations.