Radio and television broadcasting in the Czech Republic
photo: (sxc.hu)
Radio and television broadcasting in the Czech Republic is specified by Act no. X20 231/2001 Coll. X20. This Act determines the rights and duties of broadcasters, licence proceedings and registration of broadcasters of adapted programmes.
On 1st June 2010 the act was amended and expanded by regulation of so-called audiovisual media services on demand. Supervision of adherence to this law in the field of radio and television broadcasting is executed by the
Council for radio and TV broadcasting.
There is a so-called dual broadcasting system in the Czech Republic, meaning that both public and private broadcasting function jointly here.Public broadcasting
Czech Radio and
Czech Television, which assure public broadcasting, are independent subjects and receive no support from the government. They provide an information service for the public by creation and distribution of radio and television programmes and other contents. Their activities are financed through income from radio and television fees and from their own business activities.
According to the law, everyone who has permanent residence or business premises in the Czech Republic and is the owner of a radio or television receiver is required to pay these fees. If you need to register a receiver you can send a written request to the relevant institution by post or fill in a request online using the Internet. Both
Czech Television and
Czech Radio have links on the homepage of their websites concerning fees.
According to the law the Czech Television Board and the Czech Radio Board are appointed as supervisory bodies over public broadcasting. The jurisdiction of these boards includes appointment and dismissal of the Managing Director of Czech Television, approval of the budget and final accounts, decisions concerning complaints directed towards the managing director, etc.
Private sector
The television stations
TV Nova and
Prima TV are well-known nationwide in the Czech Republic. Recently established television stations include
TV Barrandov. Development of digital broadcasting significantly contributes towards establishment of additional private television stations. You can find a list of these
here. Private television stations in the Czech Republic only broadcast in Czech. Digital broadcasting also enables viewers to watch foreign language television stations.
A number of nationwide and regional radio stations, which there is a greater number of, broadcast in the Czech Republic. The most popular radio stations are Radio X8 Impuls X8, X9 Evropa 2 X9 and X10 Frekvence 1
. Significant regional stations include Hitrádio Vysočina, Radio Blaník, Radio Beat etc. You can also tune into foreign radio stations such as the BBC World Service
, the French RFI
or Austrian Radio Österreich 1
, in the Czech Republic. You can find a list of radio stations here X15.

Author:
Ivana Jenerálová
Source: MKCR, Ceská televize, Ceský rozhlas, Ceské radiokomunikace, atd.

Added:
15.07.2010