The Czech Media Landscape

The Czech Media Landscape

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. Number of households can be counted different way. 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. The written press

Main Features:

• Nine national dailies make two third of the newspaper market
• Sold circulation of newspapers is declining, only the boulevard press grows
• The regional press is nearly completely controlled by a single publisher - VLP
• The both, newspaper and magazine publishers, are mostly foreign owned

The number of national daily newspapers is – with regard to the size of the Czech media market - rather high. 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 foreign owned. From the point of view of ownership, no publisher occupies any monopoly or dominant position in the national daily press.

The boulevard daily Blesk (Flash) ranks first (average circulation in 20056: 480524,000 copies). The Blesk was launched by the Swiss company Ringier in 1992, and modelled on Swiss tabloid Blick or German Bild. Blesk is a cornerstone of Ringier’s publishing business in the Czech Republic, which encompasses another national daily Sport (66,00069,400 copies), the weekly Nedělní Blesk (Blesk on Sunday – 300,000 copies), and several magazines (see below).

The second most sold newspaper is MF Dnes (MF Today - 300,000 copies), a descendant of the former socialist youth organization daily Mladá Fronta, which perished in 1990. The publisher of the paper is Mafra a.s., owned by Rheinisch-Bergische Verlagsgeselschaft (RBVG). The same German investor publishes another Czech national daily Lidové noviny (The People’s Daily - 70,000 copies).

The third place at the circulation chart occupies Právo ( The Right – 165,000 copies), a descendant of the former Communist party daily Rudé právo (The Red Right), which severed all ties with its former publisher in December 1990. The Pravo’s publishing company Borgis a.s. was originally owned by editors and reporters of the paper. Later on, the editor-in-chief Zdeněk Porybný acquired the majority.

Unlike all the other Czech newspapers, which are distributed by newsagents, the daily Hospodářské noviny (The Economic Daily – 63,000 copies) relies mainly on subscriptions. Its publisher Economia a.s. is owned by publishing group Verlagsgruppe Handelsblatt, represented by the HB-DJ-Investment B.V. which is connected to the Dow Jones Group.

In the situation, in which the sold circulation of newspapers has been declining, and only the boulevard press has tendency to grow, two extra national boulevard dailies were launched in 2005-2006: Šíp (The Arrow – 60,000 copies), and Aha! (80,000 copies). Life expectancy of these projects is uncertain.

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. In 2000, the VGP consolidated several of its Czech companies, including the publishers Vltava and Labe, into one big company Vltava-Labe-Press. Next year VLP took control over all regional press in the Czech Republic thanks to an arrangement with other German publishers. In September 2006, VLP unified different headers of the regional newspapers. All of them contain the word “Deník” (The Daily) with regional adjectives, eg. Pražský deník, Brněnský deník etc. The local identity represents a section inside the paper with local news.

Verlagsgruppe Passau was one of the three German publishing groups, which invested into the Czech newspaper industry after 1989. The other two were: Rheinisch-Bergische Verlagsgesellschaft (RBVG) and Mittlerhein Verlag (MRV). All of them took part in the both national and regional newspaper business. After several years of competition, the German investors reached a mutual agreement about division of interest and on the future of Czech regional press. The RBVG and MRV passed their regional dailies to the Passauer VGP group, which became a monopolist in the Czech regional press. MRV pulled out of the publishing industry in the Czech Republic and remains active only in the Czech printing industry. As a result of this arrangement, RVBG became a minority (20 per cent) owner of the POL-Print Medien GmbH.

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, publisher of the daily MF Dnes, launched another free paper Metropolitní Expres (Metropolitan Express) in April 2006.

The major part of the Czech magazine market is controlled by foreigners as well. Foreign publishers seized the opportunity to bring to the Czech magazine market clones of their home products (e.g. Burda, Bravo, Tina, Readers Digest, Chip, Autotip etc.) after 1989. However, some of the elder Czech magazines have survived the challenging market economy environment, and several new projects emerged after 1989 as well.

While there is a plenty of lifestyle magazines for women, girls, family or home, only three or four magazines, launched after the Velvet Revolution (Respekt, Reflex, Týden), have some ambition to be more than a lifestyle and an entertainment media.

Respekt is the successor of an opposition samizdat paper from 1989, whose readership consists mainly of intellectuals (16,000 copies). Reflex (55,000) stands on the borderline between a current affairs periodical and a “society” glossy. Týden (The Week – 52,000) tries to be a newsmagazine of western style. Czech business weeklies are represented by the periodicals Ekonom (The Economist – 22,000), Euro (24,000) and Profit (14,500).

The Czech magazine market is rather stable one; the spheres of influence have been divided already in the nineties.

Finnish Sanoma Magazines International (SMI) has a strong position in women’s and lifestyle magazines.

The publishing house Ringier ČR is active not only in the daily press (Blesk, Sunday’s Blesk, Sport), but also in the magazine market. Besides the above-mentioned weekly Reflex, Ringier prints several TV guides,and bi-weekly for young readers.

Bauer Verlag’s company Europress has a dominant position in societal and lifestyle cheap weeklies. Axel Springer Verlag publishes teenager monthlies, the auto-moto magazines and a computer magazine.

Bertelsmann, which is active mainly in Czech book publishing, teamed together with the Verlagsgruppe Passau in a join venture Astrosat. Astrosat publishes weekly magazines, which serve as supplements of VLP regional dailies.

Another joint venture of foreign publishers, the company Vogel Burda Communications, specializes in technical and computer magazines.

Only 34.5 per cent of the total advertising revenue flows into the print media, while the television enjoys 50 per cent share of disposable advertising revenue (about 18 billion crowns = 630 million euro).

2. The audiovisual media

Main Features:

• The four terrestrial channels, two public, two private, enjoy 90 per cent of TV audience
• The TV public service broadcaster operates four channels (two digital) with 30 per cent audience share
• The both dominant private TV networks Nova and Prima have foreign owners
• The penetration of cable and satellite television is low

Czech Republic introduced a full-fledged dual public-private system in both the radio and the television broadcasting in the years 1991-1994 already.

There are four terrestrial nationwide television channels available: two public service channels CT1, CT2 and two private commercial channels, TV Nova, TV Prima. Besides, twelve local TV stations in the regions operate mainly as a local “window” programmes, sharing frequencies with the overall frame of the TV Prima broadcast system.

The four nationwide channels enjoy more than 90 per cent of the total television audience. The market leader is the TV Nova with the 41 per cent audience share. Another private channel Prima got the attention of 23 per cent of viewers, the both channels of public service television CT1 and CT2 attracted 30 per cent audience share in 2005. It means, that only six per cent of TV audience were allocated to the cable and satellite channels.

This situation stems from low penetration of cable and satellite in Czech households, and from a rather short supply of Czech TV programming services on the cable and on the satellite, where most of the channels are the foreign ones (Eurosport, HBO, Discovery, Animal Planet, MTV etc.). Since the major part of the Czech population lives in smaller towns up to ten thousand inhabitants, building of cable networks was not profitable, and availability of cable TV is restricted to the densely populated area of the larger towns.

With the perspective of digital broadcasting, several new cable and satellite Czech channels emerged since 2002. Among them are two public service channels: the news channel CT24 (2005), the sport channel CT4 Sport (2006), and private television channels Ocko (music - 2002), Top TV (teleshopping - 2005), Galaxie Sport (sport - 2002) and others.

The strong position of the TV Nova has historical roots, because the channel, when launched in February 1994, received the frequencies of the former Czechoslovak federal channel F1 with the hundred per cent coverage. TV Prima, the very first Czech private commercial TV, which started in June 1993 as a small Prague local station TV Premiera, later, after 1995, evolved into the nationwide channel.

The owner of the TV Nova is the American company Central European Media Enterprises (CME), which operates several other television stations in Central and Eastern Europe (Slovakia, Romania, Slovenia, Croatia, Ukraine). The Prima TV Holding company, which operates the TV Prima channel, is controlled by 50/50 partnership of the Czech investment group GES Holding and Scandinavian Modern Times Group (MTG).

The public service broadcaster Czech Television (CT), established by the Act 483/91 as an independent public service corporation, is descendant of the former state Czechoslovak Television, whose record of regular broadcasting commenced in 1953. The Czech Television separated from the Czechoslovak Television in January 1992. After the split of Czechoslovakia in January 1993 CT became a sole public broadcaster in the country.

CT is funded by a TV licence fee, which is levied on every household with a TV set. The additional revenues come from commercials and sponsorship. The advertising time in CT broadcast has been limited for one percent of total broadcasting time so far. An amendment of the Czech Television Act of 2005 determined that the amount of commercials in CT shall be gradually decreased, and since January 2008 the advertising in the public service channels CT1 and CT2 shall wholly disappear.

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. The history of the Czech Radio is similar to the Czech Television. The former state Czechoslovak Radio with a broadcasting history reaching to the year 1923 came to the end together with the end of the Czechoslovak federation. Since January 1993 the independent Czech Radio established by the Act 484/91 became the only public radio broadcaster in the country.

Like the Czech Television, the Czech Radio is 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 networks of seven stations, from which three have fully nationwide coverage. CRo1 Radiozurnal is 24 hour news and current affairs station. CRo2 Praha is a family station. CRo3 Vltava is a culture station. CRo4 Radio Wave targets to teenagers. CRo5 Regina encompass the regional stations. CRo6 is an AM current affairs station with broadcasting time limited to the afternoon and evening hours. CRo7 is a short wave international broadcasting station.

Apart from radio programmes broadcasted by the public service broadcaster Český rozhlas (Czech Radio) there are 77 other radio stations, among them two – Frekvence 1 and Impuls – with a nationwide coverage.

Among the Czech private radio broadcasters there is no dominant station with a position comparable to that of television Nova at the television market. The three stations with the largest audience share are: Čro1 Radiožurnál operated by the public service Czech Radio, and two commercial nationwide radio stations Frekvence 1 and Radio Impuls. All of them have nearly the same share of the listening public, between 10 to 12%. The rest of the audience share is dispersed among seventy other private local stations, some of which are interconnected into co-operating mini-networks (e.g. Evropa 2, Radio Hey).

From the point of view of the ownership, the most powerful position at the radio market is occupied by a group of a French investor Lagardere Active Radio International SA, which consists of a nationwide station Frekvence 1, a set of the stations Evropa 2 and a media sales agency Radio Regie Music (RRM).

The second largest private broadcaster, the nation-wide station Radio Impuls, is controlled by a joint venture of radio broadcasters from Eastern Germany, the investment consortium Eurocast Rundfunk Beteiligungs GmbH.

About 70 per cent of households receive television broadcasting terrestrially only. The cable companies claims that about 1,2 million households could be connected, however only 700,000 of them, e.g. 20 per cent, have subscribed the TV services. The satellite penetration varies between 9 and 15 per cent of households.

The cable market is controlled by two companies UPC Czech and Karneval, which are going to merge on condition that the Czech Office for the Protection of Competition will endorse it. Karneval currently has 310,000 subscribers, of whom 57,000 have broadband Internet access, while UPC has 420,000 subscribers for its cable and satellite services, with around 100,000 receiving broadband Internet access.

3. Digital Media

Main Features:

• Two digital satellite services operates in the Czech Republic – UPC Direct and Digi TV
• Digital terrestrial TV broadcasting was launched on regular basis only by the public broadcaster Czech Television in October 2005
• The other digital terrestrial TV broadcasts supposed to be launched in 2007 after the quarrels about digital licensing will be cleared
• Experiments with digital radio broadcasting DAB has been halted in 2005

The digital satellite service UPC Direct, launched in September 2000 offers to its clients more than thirty TV channels in Czech language, apart from dozens of foreign channel not localized in Czech. Number of subscribers in 2006: 120,000 households. New digital satellite service Digi TV, based in Romania with services in Hungary and Slovakia, entered the Czech market in autumn 2006. Number of channels supplied by the service is smaller, however the subscription fee is considerably lower.

Since 2000 the digital terrestrial broadcasting has been tested locally in Prague. In July 2004 the Czech Telecommunication Office has granted set of permits for operation of three DVB-T networks/multiplexes “A”, “B”, “C” to the Czech Radiocommunications (CRa), the Czech Digital Group (CDG) and to the Cesky Telecom (today’s Telefónica O2)