Not only for a television or radio receiver, but also for an internet connection, a new television and radio fee should be paid. At least if Parliament approves the government's amendment to the law on licence fees, which, in addition to increasing the fees and indexing them to inflation, also introduces a new definition of a licence holder. The hard-wrought compromise, in which the interests of commercial media have spoken, will be one of the topics of the 19th annual DIGIMEDIA 2024 professional conference, which will take place on Thursday 13 June in the Congress Hall of Czech Television in Prague's Kavčí Hory.
The debate will be attended by the directors general of Czech Television Jan Souček and Czech Radio René Zavoral, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) director for regulatory and legal affairs Richard Burnley, the president of the Association of Commercial Television Klára Brachtlová and the director general of Óčko Štěpán Wolde. "The government's proposal to regulate the financing of public service media was presented by the Ministry of Culture less than a month before this year's DIGIMEDIA and continues to arouse passions. Among the most discussed innovations are the extension of the definition of a licence fee payer to include households with internet access, restrictions on sponsorship in the broadcasts of Czech Television and Czech Radio, and a ban on internet advertising in these media," says Pavel Brabec, president of the Association of Czech Advertising Agencies and Marketing Communications, which is organising the DIGIMEDIA 2024 conference.
What will the public service memoranda contain?
Part of the compromise with the commercial media is the promise to create public service memoranda, which are to define every five years what Czech Television and Czech Radio should provide to the public in return for licence fees. The draft memorandums are to be submitted by the general directors of the two public service media, but the commercial media will also be able to comment on them in public consultations. They have already succeeded in pushing for the abolition of internet advertising on the websites of CT and CRo and a reduction in the share of sponsorship in broadcasting, but they have also sought to significantly reduce or end advertising on both public service media. In the case of ČT, this would mean a loss of revenue for the State Fund for Culture and the State Fund for the Support and Development of Czech Cinema, which are directly dependent on ČT's advertising revenues.
The DIGIMEDIA 2024 conference is being held under the auspices of the Ministers of Industry and Trade Jozef Sikely and Culture Jan Baxa, the Czech Telecommunications Authority, the Council for Radio and Television Broadcasting, Senator David Smoljak and the Director General of Czech Television Jan Souček. The main partners of the event are České Radiokomunikace, Czech Radio, Czech Telecommunications Office and Digital Broadcasting, media partners are Marketing and Media magazine, MediaGuru.cz, Televizniweb.cz, ICT Network News and B2B Network News from Averia Ltd.
Source: televizniweb.cz
