A riddle wrapped in mystery inside an enigma

Churchill famously said the above about Mother Russia. And Tyutchev wrote 'Russia cannot be understood with the mind...in Russia one simply believes.'

Bollocks

I prefer Ingvar Kamprad of IKEA fame - 'It will take 25 years to furnish Russia, that is what we need to concentrate on' (quoted in the FT, August 1998)

Russia can be measured. And on most measures it is performing poorly. As a friend of mine brutally puts it, Russia is the only poor white country (including Ukraine & Belarus) on the planet.

Despite, or because of, the enormous mineral wealth Russia is behind all the Central European ex-communist neighbours in GDP per capita. The only countries performing worse are the Central Asian Dictatorships. Slovenia has already overtaken Portugal.

However the purpose of this blog is not to discuss why this is so. It is to show how this affects TV Prices. And how TV prices affect the efficiency of other media.

So let's stick to facts. The GDP of Russia is $1,680 Billion. Or $11,880 per capita. And the CPT on TV is around $3.

The GDP of Slovenia is $56 Billion, per person that is $27,690 & the CPT is about $6.

CPT rises directly in line with GDP per capita as Jane Perry of Y&R proved 15+ years ago