Czechia

[CZ] Amendment to the Audiovisual Law

IRIS 2016-7:1/11

Jan Fučík

Česká televize

On 5 May 2016, the Parliament of the Czech Republic adopted Act no. 139/2016 Coll., amending Act no. 496/2012 Coll., On audiovisual works and promotion of cinematography, and amending some other laws (the Audiovisual Act). The aim of this amendment is to secure sufficient funding to support cinematography. This should enable the long-term planning and predictable funding of the State Fund of Cinematography, so that it can create a long-term strategy of supporting the cinema.

The State Cinematography Fund was established on 1 January 2013, pursuant to the Audiovisual Act. The Act defines the purpose of the State Cinematography Fund, which is to provide support to cinematography. The decision-making body for the support scheme “Support for Cinema" is the Fund Board, which is appointed by the parliament after a proposal from film organizations. All requests for support are subject to a non-binding expert analysis.

To achieve the objective of securing sufficient funding for the support of cinematography, an additional amount of CZK 180 million (approximately EUR 7 million) must be secured annually.

The funds will be provided through regular annual mandatory contributions from the state budget. The amount of the contribution will be calculated from the volume of the collected broadcasting commercial fee by the Fund, and for this year will be approximately CZK 180 million. This broadcasting commercial fee has to be paid by operators other than local or regional television broadcasters, which operate under licence to broadcast via transmitters and which also distribute and spread cinematographic works. When the total fee revenue from broadcast advertising is less than a certain sum, the fee will increase. The proposed financing method is economically justified by the performance of Czech cinematography and the incentive character of the Fund.