Czechia

[CZ] Act on the Support for Filmmaking

IRIS 2013-2:1/15

Jan Fučík

Česká televize

On 26 October 2012, the Parliament of the Czech Republic adopted the new Act on the Support of the Cinematography (the Act). The purpose of the Act is the creation of an institutional basis for the development of resources to finance selected projects in Czech cinematography.

The Act regulates the conditions for the support of Czech cinematography, deriving from the Czech State Fund for Support and Development of Czech Cinematography (the Fund).

The provision of resources to individual projects is conducted by the Council of the Fund (the Council), which is an independent collective body. Its members are elected by the Parliament of the Czech Republic. The Act creates a legal environment which ensures that the financial resources of the Fund are used to finance specific works or activities serving the promotion and development of Czech cinematography. Unspent resources can be transferred to the next calendar year.

Commercial television broadcasters are obliged to contribute CZK 150 million (EUR 5.8 million) per year to the Fund. This corresponds to two percent of the overall turnover from broadcast advertising in Czech commercial television. In the case that the two percent do not reach CZK 150 million, each broadcaster has to pay a proportional share of the residue. Furthermore, the Fund is financed by one percent of the turnover of cinema ticket sales and contributions deriving from copyright to older Czech films, which is estimated to amount to up to 30 million CZK (EUR 1.2 million) per year. Also providers of retransmission and audiovisual media services on demand will have to contribute to the Fund. Retransmission providers have to pay 1 % of their revenue; on-demand AVMS providers 0.5 % of their revenue from respective activities.

If the Council reveals serious misconduct, the matter will be passed on to the tax authorities, which can order the reimbursement of granted subsidies and impose fines to be paid to the general state budget.

The Act aims to replace existing outdated regulation of film subsidy suffering from a lack of resources (see IRIS 2009-10/110). It is intended to not only support the production of films, but also to allow the Czech cinematography to become competitive.