On TV channels ads: UP govt spent 160 crores in one year

Ground Report | New Delhi: On TV channels ads; The Yogi Adityanath government of Uttar Pradesh has spent Rs 160.31 crore for advertising on TV news channels between April 2020 and March 2021. The state government has given this information in response to a question asked under the Right to Information (RTI),  according to a Newslaundry report.

The data revealed in response to a Right to Information (RTI) application states that "national TV news channels" and "regional TV news channels". The former got Rs 88.68 crore and the latter got Rs 71.63 crore.

According to the RTI reply, a major part of the advertisement expenditure was used for the promotion of the 'Self-reliant India' campaign launched by the Narendra Modi government at the Center in May 2020. Aaj Tak news channel was given 20 advertisements worth Rs 10 crore 14 lakh between 15 April 2020 to 8 March 2021. Of this, 9 were related to 'Self-reliant India', two 'Self-reliant states', and four about the corona epidemic.

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The Yogi Adityanath government gave the highest advertising amount to the Mukesh Ambani-owned channel 'News 18' group and Subhash Chandra's group 'Zee News'.

On TV channels ads

According to Newslaundry, Channels of 'Network 18' group, CNN News-18, News 18 India, and News 18 UP-Uttarakhand got advertisements worth Rs 28.82 crore. On the second number 'Zee Media Group' channels, Zee News, WION, and Zee Uttar Pradesh-Uttarakhand, Yogi Sarkar gave an advertisement of Rs 23.48 crore.

The Yogi government gave an advertisement of Rs 18.19 crore to ABP Group's national news channel, ABP News, and regional news channel, ABP Ganga, which was at number three in terms of advertising. After this, India Today Group's English news channels India Today and Aaj Tak got advertisements of Rs 10.64 crore.

This RTI was filed by Umashankar Dube, 45, a resident of Lucknow, on March 15. Dube is working in Lucknow with DD News since 2007. Along with this, he is the president of the Jan Kalyan Mahasamiti formed by merging the Resident Welfare Association (RWA).

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Newslaundry reported that the top five Hindi news channels receiving advertising revenue from the Uttar Pradesh government are News18 India, Aaj Tak, India TV, Zee News and Republic Bharat.

Curiously, this RTI has names of all the channels in Hindi and English, but NDTV, a channel known for questioning the government, is missing from this list.

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