Government spend on print, TV ads sees sharp fall

The government is spending less than half of what it did seven years ago on print and TV advertising, a reply by the information & broadcasting ministry to Parliament revealed on Tuesday.

The ministry revealed that in 2014-15 it spent ₹424.84 crore and ₹473.67 crore on print and TV advertising, respectively, while it spent ₹508.22 crore and ₹531.60 crore on the same the very next year. The expenditure was around ₹468.53 crore on print ads and ₹609.15 crore in TV in 2016-17, which rose to ₹636.09 crore and ₹468.92 crore the next year. It dipped to ₹429.54 crore and ₹514.28 crore in 2018-19. The expenditure was ₹295.05 crore and ₹317.11 crore in 2019-20.

The years that Covid loomed large saw a significant dip, with the government spending just about ₹197.49 crore on print ads and ₹167.98 crore for TV in 2020-21. It was ₹179.04 and ₹101.24 crore last year. The government has spent ₹91.96 crore and ₹76.84 crore on print and TV advertising, respectively, this year till December. All the expenditure has been through the Central Bureau of Communication.