Minister for Information and Broadcasting, Ataullah Tarar, announced on Friday that newspapers in the country have received maximum advertisements totaling Rs 9 billion, while news channels were given Rs 6 billion in advertisements.
During the question hour session of the second meeting of the 340th session of the Senate of Pakistan, Tarar responded to Senator Sarmad Ali Khan’s inquiry about the criteria for allocating advertisements to news channels and newspapers. He explained that newspapers were facing a financial crisis, prompting the current government to pay special attention to supporting them through advertisements.
Tarar mentioned that advertisements are currently distributed according to the 1997 Services Manual. Additionally, a new advertisement policy was introduced in 2021 and subsequently amended in 2022.
“There is no specific criteria to determine the eligibility of electronic media for receiving advertisements. However, our rates committee, based on the ratings of news channels, determines the number and limit of advertisements allocated to each channel,” he stated.
The Minister emphasized that no advertisements for any news channel have been halted by the current government.
He further elaborated that the primary criterion for advertisements is to effectively convey the intended message to the maximum audience. The rating system for news channels helps achieve this goal.
Additionally, the Audit Bureau of Circulation verifies the circulation of newspapers and subsequently issues advertisements to the widely circulated publications, Tarar added.
