Belarus is planning amendments to its law on advertising that would see a ban imposed on commercials carried by foreign TV channels.
Quoting the parliamentarian Oleg Levshunov, TV News reports that the reason for the proposed ban is that foreign advertisers, placing commercials on foreign channels that are broadcast on cable networks in Belarus, do not bear the cost of distributing such commercials in the country.
TV advertising of imported goods in Belarus is distributed and the income from this received exclusively by foreign and not domestic TV companies.
This makes Belarusian goods less competitive than their foreign counterparts.
Local advertisers are at a disadvantage to their counterparts in Russia, where there is a ban on advertising on cable channels.
Furthermore, advertising on foreign TV channels does not always comply with legislation in Belarus.