Russia’s National Advertising Agency (NRA) plans to raise the cost of TV ads in the country by 20% next year.
According to Vedomosti, they will then be a third more expensive than in 2016.
The NRA is jointly owned by The First Channel, VGTRK, Gazprom Media and the National Media Group (NMG) and accounts for 95% of the TV ad market in Russia.
Although TV is still the leading media in Russia in terms of ad revenue, it is now only just ahead of the internet, with the two claiming shares of 40.7% and 39.5% respectively.
One of the NRA’s main objectives is to stop the flow of revenues to the internet and in late 2016 it announced an aggressive sales policy.
While this saw the cost of TV advertising increased by 15% this year, advertisers felt it was inadequate and said they might move some of their budgets from TV to the internet.