Czechia

[CZ] Amendment of the Audiovisual Regulation

IRIS 2011-9:1/11

Jan Fučík

Česká televize

On 6 September 2011 the Parliament of the Czech Republic adopted amendments to audiovisual legislation that concern advertising and teleshopping in public television programmes and the funding of Czech cinematography.

During the transition period from analogue to digital terrestrial television broadcasting the public broadcaster ČT is allowed to broadcast advertising in the amount of 0.75 percent of the daily broadcasting time in the programme of CT 1 and of 0.5 percent in other programmes. A part of the income from this is reserved for the support of the Czech cinematography sector. With regard to teleshopping, the public television broadcaster is allowed to extend its share of advertising time as specified in the above-mentioned provisions, up to 5 percent of the daily broadcasting time on each programme. During the time period from 19.00-22.00 h, the share of advertising and teleshopping time should not exceed six minutes per broadcasting hour, as regards each of the public broadcasters’ programmes, respectively.

The transition period ends on 11 November 2011. After this date a public television broadcaster shall not be allowed to broadcast advertising other than such, the insertion of which is directly connected with the broadcasting of a sports or cultural event, provided that the acquisition of the rights to broadcast such an event requires the inclusion of the advertising. If advertising is inserted in the public broadcaster’s programme as indicated in the preceding sentence, the share of broadcasting time reserved for such advertising shall not exceed 0.5 percent of the daily broadcasting time, and during the time from 19.00-22.00 h it must not exceed six minutes per broadcasting hour. Direct connection with the broadcasting of a sports or cultural event means the insertion of advertising in the programme immediately before or immediately after the broadcasting of, and in breaks during, such an event. Czech Television should transfer the revenues from the broadcasting of advertising on its programme CT 2 (Culture) to the State Cultural Fund of the Czech Republic. Revenues from advertising on CT 4 (Sports) should be used for the production and broadcasting of sports programmes on Czech TV. The public broadcaster is not allowed to broadcast teleshopping.

The broadcaster of free-to-air non-local or non-regional television with a license to distribute programmes containing cinematographic works is obliged to pay a fee for the broadcasting of advertising to the State Fund for the Support and Development of Czech Cinematography. This fee amounts to 2 percent of the advertising revenues.