These developments helped to reduce the financial stress on media houses that were still reeling from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic in the previous quarters, owing to a slump in production, significant depreciation of the Kwacha as well as reduction in staff. This was because COVID-19 preventive measures demanded social distancing, among other measures that required work rotation-thereby introducing new costs such as data bundles and equipment purchases/upgrades to cope with the ‘new normal’. In the quarter under review, however, media houses were able to benefit from the noted increases in production and customer demand, as this translated into advertising and procurement of airtime by commercial entities. The appreciation of the Kwacha translated into a slight reduction in the cost of operating a media house, especially that the majority of the media inputs are imported. These include news print and broadcast equipment. The economic environment was also significantly affected by the general elections held during the quarter amidst COVID restrictions with virtual campaigning encouraged. As such, political parties purchased airtime for advertisements as well as programme sponsorship as indicated by most respondents19. However, the media over-reliance on advertising and programme sponsorship remains a major concern as observed by some of the interview respondents. This was even more salient considering that the media were expected to offer checks and balances to the very entities they received significant sponsorship from. Sadly though, and as Banda (2004) notes20, the business potential or viability of the media in Zambia is linked to advertising. 19 While no official statistics of total campaign media spending are available, a Transparency International Zambia Billboard Costing Report for July indicates that the Patriotic Front spent an estimated K2.9 million, Socialist Party K864, 000, the United Party for National Development K648, 000 and the Democratic Party K 108, 000 on presidential candidate billboards alone. The organisation collected primary data on the number and sizes of presidential candidate billboards in 12 towns across the country. Information on the cost of billboard placement was then collected from advertising agencies for estimation of expenditure. The report is available at https://tizambia.org.zm/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Billboard-Costing-Report.pdf 20 Banda, F. (2004). Newspapers and magazines in Zambia-a question of sustainability. Lusaka: MISA. 28