Since the restoration of democracy in November 1989, the Czech Republic has been pushing ahead with radical privatization - a model for all Eastern European countries. The internet and television markets have boomed in recent years. New broadcasters have emerged through digital offerings and the internet is becoming increasingly popular. Advertising expenditure on the online market has tripled within five years. Social media usage has also increased rapidly.

The television market is a small market, with two public broadcasters (CT1, CT2)and two private (TV Nova, clear market leader, and Prima). The Czech Republic is also the first country in Eastern Europe to establish a commercial television station after the collapse of the USSR: TV Nova (1994) - with high market shares of up to 51 percent from the start. Radio can maintain a constant audience, but plays a subordinate role in the Czech Republic. The public media are financed by fees collected separately. The broadcasting fees are also controversial here due to the recently increased amount.

The newspaper market was long dominated by German publishing groups. The Czech News Center (formerly Ringier Axel Springer CZ) publishes the Bild counterpart Blesk, the Mafra Group (until 2013 owned by the Rheinisch-Bergische Druck- und Verlagsgesellschaft), publishes the largest free newspaper “Metro” and Vltava-Labe-Media, the regional newspapers in Deník published, was owned by the German publishing group Passau until 2015.

As in many countries, a major convergence movement can be observed in the Czech Republic. Companies are merging with one another in order to combine as many media offerings as possible. For a long time, many of the largest Czech publishers were owned by foreign, mostly German companies such as Angel Springer Verlag, Passau Verlagsgruppe and Rheinisch-Bergische Druck- und Verlagsgesellschaft. In recent years, however, many of these companies have been bought up by Czech companies.

General Information

Inhabitants: 10.5 million (2021)
Households: 4.85 million (2021)
Average household size: 2.2 people (2021)
Religions: Roman Catholic (10.4%), Protestant (1.1%), Orthodox (0.2%)
Big cities: Prague (1.34 million inhabitants), Brno (382,000)
Form of government: parliamentary republic
Head of State: President Miloš Zeman (since 2013)
Head of the government: Prime Minister Petr Fiala (since 2021)
EU-member since: 2004
Unemployment rate: 3.6% (January 2022), 7.2% (2013)
national debt in 2013: 41.85% of gross domestic product, 44.8% of gross domestic product (2013)
Budget balance relative to GDP: -9,8% (2021), -2,9% (2012)
Share of global GDP: 0,32% (2021)

Digital advertising spending: 1.5 billion USD (2020)
Television viewing time per inhabitant: about 190 minutes per day (2020)
Large media and communication companies: CME Media Enterprises, Telefónica Czech Republic, T-Mobile Czech Republic, MAFRA, Czech News Center, Bauer Media, Vltava-Labe-Media.
Broadcasting fee (radio & television fee):  2160 CZK/year per household (approx. 85€, since 2008)

Tab. 1: Advertising revenue by media type

Historical Foundations

The birth of the Czech press can be dated to 1848 with the first daily newspaper Národní Noviny (National News). At the same time, other magazines dedicated to democracy and freedom were created - the Czech Republic was in a state of upheaval: the "national rebirth" would last until 1918 and end with the founding of Czechoslovakia.

During the occupation of the country by Nazi Germany, the media was heavily controlled and used for propaganda purposes. Even after the communists seized power in 1948, the media was subject to strong state regulation, which is why there was only state-run broadcasting and a press that was also monitored.
The Prague Spring of 1968, led by the intellectual elite, fought for a “socialism with a human face,” but was crushed by the government with military support from Soviet troops.

An important step, also in media policy, was the "Velvet Revolution" of 1989. After the brutal suppression of a student demonstration, 750,000 people took to the streets. They forced free, democratic, parliamentary elections. The democratic system that followed and the separation of the Czech Republic from Slovakia resulted in a revolution in all areas of life.

On the one hand, freedom of opinion and freedom of the press were enshrined early on (1991), and on the other, the Czech planned economy was radically privatized. The Czech Republic opened up to private foreign investors. This is why German publishing houses dominate the newspaper market and internationally active media companies dominate the television sector. The nationalization of television and radio under socialism also led to an administrative separation of these two media. Among other things, this is why broadcasting fees are collected by two different institutions.

print

The Czech Republic has a small newspaper market, but it offers a wide variety of daily and weekly newspapers. The radical privatization after the Sametová Revoluce (Velvet Revolution) opened up the possibility for foreign, especially German, media companies to bring their own products to the Czech market. It is therefore hardly surprising that for a long time the largest daily newspapers were in German hands.

The nine largest newspapers already cover around two thirds of the entire newspaper market, with regional and local daily newspapers accounting for around 30 percent – most of which are grouped together as Deník of the publishing house Vltava-Labe-Media (formerly Vltava-Labe-Press).
Overall, sales of printed daily newspapers have declined sharply, especially after the pandemic, and are falling every year.

Czech News Center as
The Czech News Center (formerly Ringier Axel Springer CZ as) was bought in 2013 by Czech entrepreneurs Daniel Ketínský and Patrik Tkác. The tabloid Blesk (Blitz), the counterpart to the German Bild, is published by the Czech News Center. It is still the newspaper with the highest circulation, but between 2020 and 2021 alone, sales fell by 10 percent (133,731 copies per day). Extensions form the Ned?lní Blesk (Sunday edition of Blesk) and Blesk magazine.
The Czech News Center also includes the sport (22,006 copies, 2021*), which appears daily and is also published as a Sunday edition and magazine.
Other magazines include the daily newspaper Aha!, the political weekly magazine reflex and various car magazines such as AUTO Tip or Svet motor.

Mafra
The Mafra Group belongs to the holding company Agrofert, owned by the politician and former Prime Minister Andrej Babiš. Alongside the Czech News Center, it is the media company with the highest revenue on the newspaper market. The company originally belonged to the Rheinisch-Bergische Druckerei- und Verlagsgesellschaft (RBDV), but was sold to the Agrofert Group in 2013. Bauer Media is currently negotiating to buy the Mafra Group.

Mladá fronta dnes (87,539 copies, 2021*) is the successor to the daily newspaper of the socialist youth organization Mladá fronta, and the best-selling daily newspaper after Blesk. Lidové Noviny (People daily, 24,082 copies, 2021*) is also one of the few newspapers that was able to withstand the economic pressure – it was the newspaper of the former dissidents. Mafra also tried to metro (MTG) with Metropolitní Expres In 2007, the two merged to form the free newspaper metro which is the largest newspaper in the Czech Republic. (276,000 copies, 2018*)
Other newspapers: DOMA DNES, Magazín Dnes+TV, ONA DNES, Pátek LN, Víkend DNES.

Bauer Media
Bauer Media publishes the Czech version of the Bravo, other teenager magazines and various cooking and TV guides. In 2007, the publisher bought the TV guides published by Ringier Axel Springer CZ and thus holds the leading position in this area as well as in weekly, affordable lifestyle and society magazines. In 2018, however, most of the Bauer Media products were bought by Mafra.

Vltava-Labe-Media
Vltava-Labe-Media is owned by Penta Investment Limited. Until 2015, the former Vltava-Labe-Press belonged to the German Passau Publishing Group.
Almost all regional newspapers, 73 in total, were published by September 2006 at the latest under the main name Deník (daily newspaper) with the respective city name suffix (e.g. Prague Castle – Prague Daily Newspaper). They are characterized by their uniform design and their respective regional sections. As an association, they represent considerable competition to the daily newspapers published nationwide.

TV

The Czech television landscape consists of 4 nationally broadcast channels (CT1, CT2, TV Nova and TV Prima), 12 local TV channels sharing the frequency with TV Prima, and many digital satellite services such as Ócko (Music channel, 2002), TV Barrandov (2009).
In 2020, around 50 percent of Czech households could only receive terrestrial television, while 42 percent of households received it analogue. IPTV (pay TV) usage is 15 percent. Satellite television is around 20 percent (2020) and cable television is used by around 15 percent (2020). Advertising expenditure on television is around 64 billion crowns in 2021, and rising. TV generates around 33.4 percent (2021) of all advertising revenue, making it the second largest advertising revenue after the Internet.

public television
Public television Czech Television (CT) consists of six channels. The two main channels are CT1 and CT2The news channel has been running since May 2005 CT24 (digital), at the beginning of 2006 another digital CT program was added: CT Sport. The latest digital offering CT 😀 is for children and started on 31.08.2013. It is broadcast from 6:00 to 20:00. Afterwards the art channel takes over CT type until about 2:00 am.
Public television is financed by television license fees that every household has to pay. In return, the broadcasters are usually only allowed to fill 0.5 percent of their broadcast time with advertising. In terms of ratings, public television is significantly behind the private broadcaster TV Nova.

Private broadcasters:
The relatively small television market is shared by CT with two private television channels: TV Nova and Prima. Both achieve very high ratings. (See Table 6)
The Czech Republic was the first country to establish a private television station nationwide after the collapse of the USSR (TV NovaIn contrast to public broadcasters, 12 minutes of advertising time per hour is permitted here.

TV NOVA
TV Nova is a strong market leader with around 35 percent. Nova took over the frequency of the former Czechoslovakian broadcaster F1, which made nationwide broadcasting possible right from the start. Within a very short time after the broadcasting start in 1994, the broadcaster achieved a market share of up to 51 percent. TV Nova has a wide variety of channels: Nova, Nova Cinema, Smíchov, Telka, Nova Sport, MTV, Nova News and Voyo Cinema (Video on-Demand). TV Nova belongs to the American group Central European Media Enterprises (CME), which operates other television stations in Romania, Slovakia and Croatia, among others.

Prima
Prima is from the Prima TV Holding which since 2005 has been owned equally by the Czech investment group GES and the Scandinavian Modern Times Group (MTG) Here, many western series such as Bones, Criminal Minds and Monk sent.
The “Prima Family” includes: Great, Great Cool, Great Zoom and Prima Love.
Regional and local television stations of the Regional Televizní Argentura (RTA) Until recently, they received a three-hour broadcast slot on Prima. Following the station's license renewal, this time was drastically reduced to 20 minutes following several issues; Prima is compensating the RTA for this.

Table 4: Prime-time market shares 2023

radio

While print newspapers are experiencing declining readership, radio listeners are at a record high. In 2019, the weekly radio audience was 1.938 million, rising to 2.791 million in 2023.

Czech Republic, the public radio station, operates 26 radio stations, of which twelve are nationwide and 14 are regional. The rest are operated by private companies, four of which are national. Four private stations follow the most popular radio station in the ratings list: the public RadiožurnalRadio is the least invested in advertising, which is why only 8.1 percent (2022) of advertising expenditure ends up here.

Public radio:Czechoslovakian Revolution started operations on 18.05.1923 and became the Czech Republic (Czech Radio). Since then, there have been several structural changes, with significant programming changes only taking place in early 2013. Ceský rozhlas has now developed several new stations, including Rádio Plus and Rádio Junior, and discontinued some programs, some of which broadcast across Europe. It also has other exclusively digital offerings – D major, Radio Wave and jazz - tried Czech Republic to keep the offerings as contemporary and diverse as possible. All stations have a live stream on the internet. The radio is financed through the radio license fee, which is separate from the television license fee, which is charged to each household, as well as advertising and sponsorship.

Radio urnal
The Czech Republic's most popular radio station launched on January 1, 1993. It is comparable to the German Inforadio.
Private broadcasters: The private radio market is dominated by the broadcasters Rádio Impuls, Rádio Blaník, Frekvence 1 and Europe 2 Together, they account for a market share of approximately 35 percent – the nationwide public broadcasters, in contrast, only 17 percent. However, there is no clear market leader, as is the case with television, as the top five stations each command between eight and twelve percent of the audience share. The next three radio stations primarily broadcast chart music.

Radio Impulse
Radio Impuls was the most popular station for a long time, although in recent years the public broadcaster Rádiožurnál has taken over this position. Rádio Impuls has been on air since 1999. This station is owned by Londa, which was acquired in September 2023 by the Kaprain investment group of the entrepreneur Karel Pražák was purchased. Rock Zone by this group is also broadcast in the Czech Republic.

Frekvence 1
This station began operating in 1993. Frekvence 1 belongs to the media holding Czech Media Invest, which also Evropa 2, Rádio Bonton, Dance radio and BBC in the Czech Republic.

Europe 2
Evropa 2 was the first commercial radio station in the Czech Republic and began broadcasting on March 21, 1990. It is also owned by Czech Media Invest.

Radio Kiss

Rádio Kiss, a merger of many regional stations of MEDIA CLUB, sro, was broadcast for the first time in 2017 and is aimed at listeners between 25 and 40 years old.

Radio Beat
Along with Country Radio, it's one of the largest local radio stations, with a signal covering Prague and regions in Bohemia and Moravia. The station specializes in rock music.

Table 6: Station shares among radio listeners in 2023

transmitter	distribution area	corporate group	type	Daily listeners	Market share 2022 in %
CRo Radiožurnál	national	Czech Republic (CRo)	Public	884.000	11,5
Radio Blanik	national	MEDIA BOHEMIA as	private	619.000	10,6
Radio Impulse	national	LONDA spol. sro	private	716.000	9,8
Europe 2	national	Czech Media Invest	Private	688.000	7,7
Frequency 1	national	Czech Media Invest	private	438.000	6,7
Radio Kiss	national	MEDIA CLUB, sro	private	427.000	6,5
Hitrádio (all channels)	Network of regional broadcasters	MEDIA BOHEMIA as	private	473.000	6,4
CRo Dvojka	national	Czech Republic (CRo)	Public	357.000	5,6
Radio Beat	Prague and Central Bohemia	Radio United Services sro	private	284.000	4,3
Country Radio	Prague and Central Bohemia	Radio United Services sro	private	279.000	4,2
Rock Radio	Prague and Central Bohemia	Radio United Services sro	private	179.000	2,6
Source: apsv.cz (radio project October 1, 2021-March 31, 2022)

On-line

The Czech online market is booming, as evidenced by advertising spending in this medium. From 2012 to 2022, advertising spending more than quintupled. The internet is thus the strongest advertising spending sector, accounting for approximately 50.2 percent (2021), far surpassing television.

In the mid-1990s, internet expansion progressed slowly and sluggishly, and internet access was only offered by Czech Telekom – at very high prices. However, there are now more affordable options, and the number of regular internet users has risen rapidly from 70,281 per cent (2014) to 89,681 per cent (2022).
The most frequently visited websites are also noteworthy: After google.com, the Czech site Seznam.cz comes in first – even ahead of Facebook and YouTube. Like web.de or yahoo.de, Seznam is a web portal with additional services, including news, translation, etc. News is provided by the daily newspapers Právo and SuperSpy. Search engines and news services are the primary searches.

Major media outlets like the Czech News Center now reach a large portion of their audience through their online presence. Each month, the Czech News Center reaches approximately 6.7 million people online, compared to just 5.2 million through print. The media world is attempting to reach younger generations via the social network TikTok, with accounts like the sports newspaper iSport.cz (published by Czech News Center).

Table 7: The most popular websites in the Czech Republic (2020*)

Rank	Webpage:	Description	Parent company
1	Google.com	Search engine	Google Inc.
2	seznam.cz	Web portal, email	Seznam.cz as
3	Facebook.com	Social network	Facebook Inc.
4	youtube.com	Video portal	Google Inc.
5	idnes.cz	News	Mafra Group
6	novinky.cz	News	Borgis as
7	super.cz	Tabloid news	Stratosfera as
8	Google.cz	Search engine	Google Inc.
9	wikipedia.org	Encyclopedia	Wikimedia Foundation
10	sport.cz	Sports news	Borgis as

Media policy framework / regulation

Most of the legal foundations for media were consequences of the political upheaval of 1989. Freedom of expression was established as early as 1991 and incorporated into the Czech Constitution in 1993 (Article 17 of the 1991 Charter).
The fact that this newly won freedom of expression and the accompanying freedom of the media is very serious to the Czechs is illustrated by the strike of the employees of the Czech Television 2001. There were fears of excessive political influence by the Television Supervisory Board, which was composed of members of the governing and opposition parties in parliament. The new Director General, already controversial in advance, was forced to resign after a 36-hour strike and large-scale mass street protests. The Television Supervisory Board was dissolved, and a new, politically independent body was established.

The Radio and Television Council of the Czech Republic grants broadcasting licenses and oversees the regulation of both media. It consists of 13 members who are elected every six years (maximum two terms). However, the Broadcasting Council (13 members, appointed by the Prime Minister but elected by Parliament) and by the Telecommunications Council (five members) Radio and television are regulated and supervised separately according to the Broadcasting Act.

There is no regulatory authority for print media—especially for content—but publishers' rights and obligations are monitored. For example, legal deposit copies must be made available to public institutions such as libraries.

These external regulatory bodies are complemented by a number of self-regulatory bodies. These include the Association of Advertising Agencies, the Union of Journalists of the Czech Republic, various unions of media and newspaper workers, and the Association of Private Broadcasters.

Sources/Literature

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