The parties spent nearly 915 thousand euros excluding VAT on political advertising during the election campaign, shows an analysis by the Institute for the Development of the Public Environment, quoted by the Bulgarian National Radio.
The winners of the elections from "Progressive Bulgaria" gave the most money for political advertising - about 196,000 euros, with 80 out of 100 of them going to the three national television stations.
They are followed by PP-DB and the "Vazrazhdane" party - with about 170,000-160,000 euros, much less money for promoting their ideas was given by GERB-SDF - about 60,000, of which 1/3 goes to one print edition, and the rest to online media. Online publications were also preferred by the MRF, which invested nearly 32,000 euros in this type of campaign.
According to the Institute for the Development of the Public Environment, this campaign also confirmed the trend of high concentration of funds in a limited number of media outlets, especially televisions. According to them, this is understandable, given the higher rates for coverage in large private televisions, while the public BNT and the Bulgarian National Radio work with lower prices determined by the Council of Ministers.
Smaller formations, on the other hand, use their media packages, with control over the spending of these funds often remaining minimal. The Institute draws attention to the increased use of social networks by parties. Thus, on the one hand, access to information and communication channels is expanded, but on the other hand, the risk of disinformation is increased.