Sports and TV stations dry out

As of January 1, the spirits producers can only advertise between the 10 p.m.- 6 a.m. interval, following a decision of the National Audio-visual Council (CNA). Equally affected by this decision (112/October 8, 2002) are the radio and TV stations, which could see their revenues shrink as a result of the confined advertising space. Sports are yet another party that stands to lose, with football to suffer the most, because it has received significant amounts of cash from the alcohol producers.
The first signs of rebellion against the decision were quick to show. The CNA chairman Ralu Filip says the Alexandrion Group broke the law by a commercial for the Ivy juices, which specifies they are imported by the group.
The law stipulates that any form of advertising is prohibited outside the above-mentioned interval, no matter if it is explicit or not. “It would have been much easier to prohibit it altogether, like other European countries such as France or Poland did, but we wanted to reach a compromise,” the CNA head said.
The Alexandrion Group administrator Navaf Salameh believes that Alexandrion, in its position as a group of companies, may advertise any of its products without breaking the law. “We operate as a group, not as an alcohol producer, and the company has been around for three or four years, during which it has dealt in various fields and not only in spirits. One may not prohibit a company from advertising just because its name happens to be similar to the name of a product. No one may stop us,” Salameh feels. Alexandrion has a sponsorship deal for the 2002-2003 season concluded with Steaua football team on August 13, 2002. Steaua Club chairman Viorel Paunescu said this contract would be kept. “We advertise the Alexandrion Group, which also produces soft drinks, so that we are not advertising alcoholic beverages. CNA’s decision will not impact on our sponsorship contract,” Paunescu told Mediafax.