Television in the Czech Republic

TV market share views in 2023:[1]
  1. Nova (18.0%)
  2. Nova Cinema (3.21%)
  3. Nova Gold (1.91%)
  4. ČT1 (16.4%)
  5. ČT24 (4.44%)
  6. ČT2 (4.31%)
  7. ČT Sport (3.32%)
  8. Prima (12.0%)
  9. Prima Krimi (4.06%)
  10. Prima Max (2.53%)
  11. Prima Love (2.15%)
  12. Prima Cool (1.95%)
  13. CNN Prima News (1.91%)
  14. Other channels (23.9%)

Television was introduced in Czechoslovakia in 1953. Experimental projects with DVB-T started in 2000. Finally on 21 October 2005, multiplex A (DVB-T) was launched with three channels of Czech Television and one of TV Nova and radio channels of Czech Radio.

On 12 April 2006, six digital terrestrial television licenses were awarded to commercial broadcasters. The receivers of the licenses were: Z1, TV Pohoda, Regionální televizni agentura (RTA), Febio TV, TV Barrandov and Óčko. However, because of delays some projects lost investors and will not start (e.g. Fabio, Pohoda) or were cancelled. Z1 provided a news service in from 2008 to January 2011, when it ceased broadcasting. Óčko delivers a music service. TV Barrandov provides general programming services.

Czech Republic become the first country in Central Europe to start to end all analogue broadcasts in November 2011.[2] The process completed when the last analogue transmitters in south-east Moravia and northern Moravia-Silesia were shut down on 30 June 2012.

Czech TV Crisis

Between December 2000 and February, 2001, a struggle took place for control of Czech Television, locally known as ČT (Česká Televize). On 20 December 2000, Jiří Hodač was appointed the new director of ČT.[3] [4] A group of journalists felt that Hodač was too closely tied to former Prime Minister Václav Klaus, which would result in compromising ČT's journalistic integrity.[3]

The journalists went on strike and occupied the newsroom, airing unauthorized newscasts.[3] The new leadership sometimes cut the feed or replaced it with their own news reports.[3] The unauthorized broadcasts displayed a "strike" logo in the corner of the screen.[4] Citizens of Prague staged street protests in support of the journalists, which were the largest street protests since the overthrow of the communist government.[4]

The Czech lower house of parliament met on 5 January 2001 to discuss the situation.[3] Hodač was put under pressure to resign, and was eventually admitted to hospital after suffering an alleged breakdown from exhaustion.[3] The stand-off and its strong public support resulted in the Social Democrats withdrawing support for Hodač.[3] He resigned in January.[4]

On 10 February 2001, the standoff ended with the signing of an agreement between the staff and station management, replacing Hodač with Jiří Balvín. The signing took place on live television. Balvín announced his goals for ČT to remain politically independent.[4] The protests leading to the passing of new media legislation. However critics felt it provided fewer safeguards against political interference than the old laws.[4]

Most-viewed channels

The ATO measures television ratings in the Czech Republic since 1997. The channels with most share according to ATO's measurements were:[5]

Channel Logo Whole-day share, 15+ (April 2010) Whole-day share, 15+ (March 2011) Whole-day share, 15+ (May 2014)
TV Nova
31.08% 31.24% 23.36%
Prima televize
16.92% 17.16% 14.26%
ČT1
17.53% 15.91% 14.27%
TV Barrandov
5.38% 4.83% 4.88%
ČT24
3.87% 4.60% 4.09%
Nova Cinema
3.90% 4.19% 3.8%
ČT Sport
2.00% 4.11% 7.6%
Prima Cool
2.95% 3.74% 3.1%
ČT2
3.63% 2.78% 3.95%
Prima Love
- - 2.19%
Nova Action
- - 1.44%
Nova Fun
- - 1.2%
Nova Krimi
- - 1.18%
Prima Zoom
- - 1.92%

Broadcaster groups market share

Current
TV Group Whole-day share, 15+ (January-December 2024) Prime-time, 15+ (January-December 2024) Whole-day share, 15-54 (January-December 2024) Prime-time, 15-54 (January-December 2024) Whole-day share, 18-69 (January-December 2024) Prime-time, 18-69 (January-December 2024)
Czech Television 30.43%30.17%27.33%27.38%28.64%28.56%
Nova Group 26.88%30.43%32.41%34.95%29.64%32.56%
FTV Prima 26.83%26.22%23.31%23.39%25.32%25.12%
Atmedia 6.18%5.05%6.00%5.07%6.45%5.33%
Barrandov TV 2.28%1.85%0.87%0.69%1.51%1.20%
Televize Seznam 1.66%1.62%1.54%1.58%1.78%1.73%
Stanice O 0.24%0.23%0.37%0.29%0.29%0.25%
Others 5.50%4.43%7.17%6.65%6.37%5.25%
Source:[6]
Historical 15+
YearNova GroupCzech TelevisionFTV PrimaBarrandov TSAtmediaStanice OTV SeznamOthers
1997[7] 52.04%35.55%8.90%N/aN/aN/aN/a3.51%
1998[7] 51.61%33.74%11.08%N/aN/aN/aN/a3.57%
1999[7] 50.35%32.23%12.47%N/aN/aN/aN/a4.95%
2000[7] 46.37%31.32%16.55%N/aN/aN/aN/a5.76%
2001[7] 47.73%29.11%17.58%N/aN/aN/aN/a5.58%
2002[7] 44.23%29.93%20.33%N/aN/aN/aN/a5.51%
2003[7] 43.36%29.62%20.58%N/aN/aN/aN/a6.44%
2004[7] 42.23%30.38%21.58%N/aN/aN/aN/a5.81%
2005[7] 40.95%29.77%23.13%N/aN/aN/aN/a6.15%
2006[7] 41.76%31.26%20.28%N/aN/aN/aN/a6.70%
2007[7] 39.59%31.89%19.36%N/aN/aN/aN/a9.16%
2008[7] 38.30%31.03%17.93%N/aN/aN/aN/a12.74%
2009[7] 39.89%28.57%17.34%1.50%0.69%N/aN/a12.01%
2010[7] 36.12%28.85%17.37%4.22%2.32%N/aN/a9.31%
2011[8] 33.97%27.64%22.22%5.07%2.05%N/aN/a9.02%
2012[9] 29.85%30.16%24.19%5.20%2.01%N/aN/a8.60%
2013[10] 31.17%29.84%22.44%4.39%3.31%N/aN/a8.84%
2014[11] 31.98%29.86%21.54%4.58%3.88%N/aN/a8.16%
2015[12] 30.70%30.42%20.81%5.53%3.22%0.76%N/a8.37%
2016[13] 28.71%30.96%21.03%7.35%3.09%0.73%N/a7.48%
2017[14] 30.47%29.20%21.00%8.66%3.79%0.71%N/a5.25%
2018[15] 29.05%30.13%22.66%7.01%3.43%0.61%N/a7.11%
2019[16] 28.66%29.99%23.85%6.27%4.31%0.52%N/a6.40%
2020[17] 27.09%30.86%24.78%5.53%4.74%0.44%N/a6.66%
2021[18] 26.34%32.34%25.17%3.99%4.79%0.39%0.73%6.25%
2022[19] 26.42%31.47%26.90%3.21%4.77%0.38%1.01%5.84%
2023[20] 27.04%29.88%27.56%2.63%5.61%0.32%1.49%5.47%
2024[6] 26.88%30.43%26.83%2.28%6.18%0.24%1.66%5.50%
2025[21] 27.75%29.29%26.78%2.06%3.81%0.28%2.05%2.48%

List of channels

Terrestrial free-to-air channels (DVB-T2 & Satellite)

Regional terrestrial free-to-air channels (DVB-T2)

  • Praha TV
  • Brno TV 1
  • Info TV Brno a Jižní Morava
  • Polar
  • JTV
  • JČ1 Televize jižní Čechy
  • JČ2 Televize jižní Čechy
  • i-Vysočina.cz
  • LTV PLUS
  • Plzeň TV
  • RTM+
  • Televize FILMpro[22]
  • TV Morava
  • TVS
  • TV ZAK
  • Ústecká TV
  • V1

Premium channels

Film

Entertainment

Documentary

Sport

  • Canal+ Sport (version for Czech Republic and Slovakia)
  • Eurosport 1 (HD)
  • Eurosport 2 (HD)
  • Extreme Sports Channel (Czech subtitles)
  • Fast&FunBox HD
  • FightBox (English audio only)
  • Oneplay Sport 1
  • Oneplay Sport 2
  • Oneplay Sport 3
  • Oneplay Sport 4
  • Sport 1 (HD)
  • Sport 2 (HD)
  • Kanal1 Sport (HD)
  • Kanal1 Xtra (HD)
  • Premier Sport 1 (HD)
  • Premier Sport 2 (HD)
  • Premier Sport 3 (HD)
  • Auto, Motor & Sport (HD) (version for Czech Republic and Slovakia)
  • Ginx Esports TV (English audio only)
  • Golf Channel (HD) (version for Czech Republic and Slovakia)

Kids and teens

Music

Erotica

News

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Stanice ČT zůstaly v roce 2023 nejsilnější, rostly ale komerční TV". MediaGuru.cz (in Czech). Retrieved 10 March 2024.
  2. ↑ "Czech Republic first in CEE to complete switchover". Retrieved January 31, 2014.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Lawmakers discuss Czech TV crisis". CNN. US. 5 January 2001. Archived from the original on 2024-09-22. Retrieved 16 June 2026.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Peace finally at Czech TV". BBC. UK. 10 February 2001. Archived from the original on 2024-11-27. Retrieved 16 June 2026.
  5. ↑ "Měsíční zpráva o sledovanosti televize, prosinec 2010" (Web presentation) (in Czech). ATO. 1 December 2010. Slide 8. Retrieved 28 January 2011.
  6. 1 2 "Česká televize zůstala v roce 2024 první, pomohl sportovní rok". MediaGuru.cz (in Czech). Retrieved 2 January 2025.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Potůček, Jan. "Vývoj televizního trhu v letech 1997 až 2010 pohledem peoplemetrů". Lupa.cz (in Czech). Retrieved 16 January 2023.
  8. ↑ "TV v roce 2011: nejvíce posílila skupina Prima". MediaGuru.cz (in Czech). Retrieved 16 January 2023.
  9. ↑ "Skokanem roku vloni Prima Love, ze skupin ČT". MediaGuru.cz (in Czech). Retrieved 16 January 2023.
  10. ↑ "Nova odrazila konkurenci, získala nejvyšší podíl". MediaGuru.cz (in Czech). Retrieved 16 January 2023.
  11. ↑ "Nova obhájila v roce 2014 pozici jedničky, dvojkou je ČT". MediaGuru.cz (in Czech). Retrieved 16 January 2023.
  12. ↑ "Nova loni těsně před ČT, pořadem Policie Modrava". MediaGuru.cz (in Czech). Retrieved 16 January 2023.
  13. ↑ "Stanice ČT loni nejsilnější v 15+, Nova drží 15-54". MediaGuru.cz (in Czech). Retrieved 16 January 2023.
  14. ↑ "Nova byla nejsilnější TV skupinou v roce 2017". MediaGuru.cz (in Czech). Retrieved 16 January 2023.
  15. ↑ "ČT byla v roce 2018 nejsilnější v 15+, Nova v 15-54". MediaGuru.cz (in Czech). Retrieved 16 January 2023.
  16. ↑ "TV 2019: ČT vede v 15+, Nova první v PT a 15-54, rostla Prima". MediaGuru.cz (in Czech). Retrieved 16 January 2023.
  17. ↑ "Televize v roce 2020: ČT překonala 30 %, rostla i Prima". MediaGuru.cz (in Czech). Retrieved 16 January 2023.
  18. ↑ "TV sledovanost 2021: ČT opět nejsilnější skupinou v 15+". Mediaguru. Retrieved 16 January 2023.
  19. ↑ "Televize 2022: ČT nejsilnější, Nova vede u mladších, posílila Prima". MediaGuru.cz (in Czech). Retrieved 2 January 2023.
  20. ↑ "Stanice ČT zůstaly v roce 2023 nejsilnější, rostly ale komerční TV". MediaGuru.cz (in Czech). Retrieved 2 January 2024.
  21. ↑ "ČT v roce 2025 i přes pokles obhájila prvenství, rostla Nova". MediaGuru.cz (in Czech). Retrieved 5 January 2026.
  22. ↑ https://rrtv.gov.cz/cz/static/prehledy/povinne-zverejnovane-seznamy.htm