State of the media report Q1-2021 such, this translated into reduced placement of adverts and other sponsored programmes which negatively affected media houses with regard to revenue generation. Further, most of the inputs used by media houses (such as broadcast equipment, entertainment programmes and newsprint) are imported and the cost is dependent on the exchange and inflation rates, among other factors. As such, in the quarter under review, media houses incurred high costs of doing business and were, thus, negatively affected regards capital investments, especially that market interest’s rates still remained high throughout the quarter, despite a marginal reduction. This was also observed by one of the interviewed respondents who noted that the economic environment was “fair with very few opportunities to excel and do business”. In this regard, and as pointed out in the political environment section, violent attacks on media houses and interruption of sponsored programmes not only lead to self-censorship but also have an effect on the media house’s revenue, especially that the majority of sponsored programmes are of a political nature, particularly in an electoral year such as this one. Other effects noted in the economic environment included electricity load management which was projected to continue throughout the quarter. Continued load shedding increases the cost of doing business for media houses as they have to rely on alternative energy sources such as generators to 25