Today's televisions have allowed for many years the convenience of being connected to the Internet. The viewer does not need to install any additional equipment such as a set-top box or a physical antenna for the terrestrial signal, which, by the way, is the only TV service that can be received practically free of charge, i.e. in comparison Internet/IP, satellite and cable TV. This is true for at least the first four to five years, when the manufacturer provides updates for its product and the viewer can thus talk about his TV being new. Thereafter, various additional hardware can address this problem.
On the remote control, the TV owner will also find buttons for various video services such as Netlix, Disney+, Prime Video and others. One of these is usually Rakuten TV. In various articles on the Internet, authored by colleagues from the Czech Republic, I usually found information about the fact that it is an online video library, or a combination of a video rental and a de facto virtual cloud, on which even purchased movies can be permanently stored (as long as they remain in the catalog). But Rakuten TV also includes Free Ad-Supported Stream Television, or FAST channels - free TV stations funded by advertising.
More than fifty channels in (almost) all genres
Rakuten TV isn't the biggest streaming service in the country in terms of FAST channels, that's rival Plex, but it's clearly the easiest to access, literally at the touch of a button. You turn on your TV and press Rakuten TV on the remote. In addition to the online video library, which I won't describe in detail here, there is also a Live TV category. Rakuten TV divides the individual programmes into categories, which are Movies, TV Shows, Entertainment, Sports, Lifestyle, Cooking, Music, Kids, Slow TV, Documentaries and Facts, and News rounds off the range.
You can't look for the brightest pay TV brands among the channels, and you can't forget sports coverage of, for example, the UEFA Champions League or other European football competitions, but the programming is still interesting. Men will probably be most interested in the Sports category, where stations like DAZN Women's Football, FIFA+, Motorvision or Fuel TV are available. One of the channels on offer is Edge Sport, for example, which is also on offer on O2 Czech Republic's pay-TV channel O2 TV.
They are attracted by music and news
The music channel line-up makes for an interesting programming offering. In the Czech Republic, these include Clubbing TV with dance music, Qwest TV with concerts by stars of the past and present scene, and Qello Concerts. A strong reinforcement of Rakuten TV's offering last year was the trio of Now music channels, namely Now 70s, Now 80s and Now Rock. Fans of black music will also be in for a treat, finding Trace Urban at the very end of this category. The station is again familiar from the past to Czech satellite viewers, who could tune in from several positions. At one time it was also broadcast on Astra 3B.
Rakuten TV's offer also includes news channels, including Euronews, which is available here in an English-language version. Euronews is complemented by a sister station, Africanews, which is oriented towards the African continent and is not offered by pay-TV operators in regular distribution on our market. Brands such as Bloomberg, The Guardian and Chinese state media under the CGTN banner are also represented. A few months ago, Newsworld, which is a selection of news television from different parts of the world, was added to the range, which includes, for example, the UK's GB News.
A phenomenon without interest from Czech TV
Television stations in our country ignore the phenomenon of FAST channels. The idea of a Czech FAST platform offering, for example, Nova or Prima programmes for free is practically utopian, given the commercial politics on which these media groups operate. It should be recalled that attempts by the Zdarma TV service to claim Nova channels (except for Nova Sport) have failed miserably, whether it was its HD versions or a "coolie" with the rental of a virtual DVB-T2 tuner.
In a way, however, the Zdarma TV service is something that could be described as a Czech version of an online platform with FAST channels. Within the limits of its possibilities, the operator has managed to build up a programme offer that is available for free, whether it is the channels of Czech Television, Barrandov or even Óčko family. Free TV also has SD versions of the Austrian public broadcaster on offer, specifically the ORF1 and ORF2 stations, into which it inserts online advertising before their launch.
Source: mediaguru.cz
