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Media Landscape - Czech Republic

INTRODUCTION

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The return of freedom of expression to the Czech society and the fast introduction of the market economy were two main elements that influenced media development after the political change in November 1989. The rejection of the former totalitarian political system by Czech society was profound, and led to the long-lasting support for the concept of political and economic reform, in which the role of the state is to be as small as possible, and where free market forces are to govern society as a whole, including the mass media. That was the political climate in which the privatization of entire industries, including the media, took place.

The separation of the former federal state of Czechoslovakia into two independent states, the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic, in 1993 had no major impact on the media, which were organized in the both parts of the federation already before the split. The state federal media Czechoslovak Radio and Czechoslovak Television were dissolved on December 31 1992.

The Czech Republic has a size of a medium European state with the area of 78,886 square km and with the population of 10.2 million people. The number of households can be counted different ways. According to the Central Statistical Office, there are 4,064,000 “census households” (independent economic units) in the Czech Republic. There is also a category “flat household” (with a possibility of more “census households” living in one flat) which is important for radio and television consumption statistics. Total number of flat households is estimated at 3,738,100 units. Besides the Czech capital Prague with 1.2 million inhabitants, there are only four towns with population exceeding 100 thousand people. The largest of them, Brno, has 370 thousand inhabitants.

National minorities (Slovak, German, Polish, Romany) are rather small, their media does not play any significant role at the Czech media landscape. Besides, the largest minority, Slovaks, understand Czech language, which is similar to Slovak language. Slovaks living in the Czech Republic usually consume either the Czech media or the Slovak media imported into the Czech Republic from Slovakia.


1. WRITTEN PRESS

The nine national dailies make two third of the newspaper market. The share of local and regional dailies is about 30 per cent. Nearly all of the daily press, with the exception of the leftist daily Právo and communist daily Haló noviny, are owned by foreign companies. However, no publisher occupies any monopoly or dominant position in the national daily press.

The sold circulation of newspapers is declining, only the boulevard press grows. Besides national daily papers, about eighty regional and local papers are published in the Czech Republic, most of them by the publisher Vltava-Labe-Press (VLP), owned by the German publishing house Verlagsgruppe Passau and its company POL-Print Medien GmbH. The regional press is thus nearly completely controlled by VLP. The first free Czech daily, Metro, published by Swedish MTG and distributed in Prague since July 1997, has been facing new competitors since 2005. Ringier, publisher of the tabloid Blesk, entered the free paper market with the free daily 24 hodin (24 hours) in November 2005. Mafra launched another free paper Metropolitní Expres (Metropolitan Express) in April 2006.

Both newspaper and magazine publishers are mostly foreign owned. The Finnish Sanoma Magazines International (SMI) has a strong position in women’s and lifestyle magazines and Ringier ČR is not only active in the daily press (Blesk, Sunday’s Blesk, Sport), but also in the magazine market.


2. AUDIOVISUAL MEDIA

The Czech Republic introduced a dual public-private system in both the radio and the television broadcasting in the years 1991-1994. The four terrestrial nationwide channels, two public (CT1, CT2) and two private (TV Nova, TV Prima), enjoy 90 per cent of TV audience. The market leader is the TV Nova with the 41 per cent audience share. The TV public service broadcaster operates four channels (two digital) with 30 per cent audience share. Both dominant private TV networks, Nova and Prima have foreign owners.

The owner of the TV Nova is the American company Central European Media Enterprises (CME) and TV Prima is owned by the Prima TV Holding company, which is controlled by 50/50 partnership of the Czech investment group GES Holding and Scandinavian Modern Times Group (MTG). Unlike the other European public service broadcasters, the Czech Television and the public broadcaster Czech Radio are not associated in one organization; they are separated and detached bodies. Like the Czech Television, the Czech Radio is also funded by a radio license fee together with commercials and sponsorship and other commercial activities, which together make about 15 per cent of the total income.

Czech Radio operates seven stations, three of which has fully nationwide coverage. From the ownership point of view, the most powerful position at the radio market is occupied by a group of a French investor Lagardere Active Radio International SA. The second largest private broadcaster is the nationwide station Radio Impuls, controlled the investment consortium Eurocast Rundfunk Beteiligungs GmbH. The penetration of cable and satellite television is low.


3. DIGITAL MEDIA

There are two digital satellite services operating in the Czech Republic: UPC Direct and Digi TV. Digital terrestrial TV broadcasting was launched on a regular basis only by the public broadcaster Czech Television in October 2005.

The other digital terrestrial TV broadcasts are supposed to be launched in 2007 when the quarrels about digital licensing will be cleared. Experiments with digital radio broadcasting (DAB) was halted in 2005 after several years of testing.


4. ONLINE MEDIA

The rate of Internet use in the Czech Republic is low comparing to the EU average and the country ranks at the 24th place in the OECD Broadband Statistics with 650,000 total broadband subscribers. Czechs are using Internet more at their workplace than in their homes. All the traditional media has its online versions, the No 1 webpage operated by a traditional media publisher is idnes.cz.

The http://www.seznam.cz is the most visited internet portal. Its news sections http://www.novinky.cz and http://www.super.cz are supplied by the daily Pravo and by the local tabloid SuperSpy.


5. NEWS AGENCIES

The Czech News Agency (CTK) is the only Czech full service information agency in the Czech Republic. CTK offers the text, picture, video and audio news, infographics and other services.


6. MEDIA ORGANIZATIONS

Two most important associations are: Czech Publishers Association (UVDT) for newspapers, Association of Private Radio Broadcasters (APSV) for commercial radio, Association of Television Organizations (ATO) for television broadcasters. Public and commercial television operators are members of the ATO, which organizes the audience research for all of them.

The only working organization of journalists is the Union of the Czech Journalists. However, only minor part of working journalists are members of the association.


7. NATIONAL MEDIA POLICIES

All the Czech media are now in private hands. The only exceptions are the public broadcasting organizations Český rozhlas (Czech Radio), Česká televize (Czech television) and the news agency ČTK (Czech Press Agency), which are established by law, have a status of independent public corporations, and are controlled by the Parliament.

The Press Act defines the rights and duties of the publishers, but does not mention any provision regarding ownership or content of the media. Radio and television broadcasting is regulated by the Broadcasting Act. The freedom of media is guaranteed by the Constitution, and by the Charter of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms. There are no limits to foreign ownership in print nor in broadcast media.

Czech legislation is compatible with EU legislation, namely with the “Television without Frontiers” directive.


8. ACCOUNTABILITY SYSTEMS

According to the Press Act and the Broadcasting Act, publishers are responsible for their published material and they shall observe the general legal norms (Constitution, Civil Code, Penal Code etc.). The public broadcasters’ activities are surveyed by the Czech Television and the Czech Radio Councils, the members of which are appointed by the Parliament.

The Ethical Commission of the Union of Journalists acts as an independent professional body and it handles complaints from the public. An initiative of Czech advertising agencies led to the foundation of the self-regulatory body of the Council for Advertising in 1994.


9. RECENT MEDIA DEVELOPMENTS

Nowadays the main issue of the Czech media policy is the transition from analogue to digital terrestrial broadcasting. Four digital multiplexes are to be operational in July 2007. The maximal coverage shall be given to the multiplex No. 1, reserved for the public service Czech Television. However, their content and programming is not decided yet.

The newspapers are facing a small but permanent decrease in the circulation numbers, which is caused by growing consumption of online media and by emergence of free papers in the market. Television still takes the largest share of the advertising pie, while the Internet‘s share of it is growing.


10. REFERENCES


11. AUTHOR

Milan Šmíd – .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) - lecturer of Journalism and Media History at the School of Social Sciences, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic – http://www.fsv.cuni.cz


12. MEDIA RESOURCES

Newspapers

Audio/Visual Media

Media Institutions

Blogs/Civil Media

Excerpt from EUROPEAN MEDIA GOVERNANCE: THE NATIONAL AND REGIONAL DIMENSIONS, published by Intellect (http://www.intellectbooks.com).

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