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. 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.
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.
The journalists went on strike and occupied the newsroom, airing unauthorized newscasts. The new leadership sometimes cut the feed or replaced it with their own news reports. The unauthorized broadcasts displayed a "strike" logo in the corner of the screen. Citizens of Prague staged street protests in support of the journalists, which were the largest street protests since the overthrow of the communist government.
The Czech lower house of parliament met on 5 January 2001 to discuss the situation. Hodač was put under pressure to resign, and was eventually admitted to hospital after suffering an alleged breakdown from exhaustion. The stand-off and its strong public support resulted in the Social Democrats withdrawing support for Hodač. He resigned in January.
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. The protests leading to the passing of new media legislation. However critics felt it provided fewer safeguards against political interference than the old laws.
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:
ChannelLogoWhole-day share, 15+ (April 2010)Whole-day share, 15+ (March 2011)Whole-day share, 15+ (May 2014)TV Nova31.08%31.24%23.36%Prima televize16.92%17.16%14.26%ČT117.53%15.91%14.27%TV Barrandov5.38%4.83%4.88%ČT243.87%4.60%4.09%Nova Cinema3.90%4.19%3.8%ČT Sport2.00%4.11%7.6%Prima Cool2.95%3.74%3.1%ČT23.63%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 +CurrentTV GroupWhole-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:
+Historical 15+ Year Nova Group Czech Television FTV Prima Barrandov TS Atmedia Stanice O TV Seznam Others 1997 52.04% 35.55% 8.90% 3.51% 1998 51.61% 33.74% 11.08% 3.57% 1999 50.35% 32.23% 12.47% 4.95% 2000 46.37% 31.32% 16.55% 5.76% 2001 47.73% 29.11% 17.58% 5.58% 2002 44.23% 29.93% 20.33% 5.51% 2003 43.36% 29.62% 20.58% 6.44% 2004 42.23% 30.38% 21.58% 5.81% 2005 40.95% 29.77% 23.13% 6.15% 2006 41.76% 31.26% 20.28% 6.70% 2007 39.59% 31.89% 19.36% 9.16% 2008 38.30% 31.03% 17.93% 12.74% 2009 39.89% 28.57% 17.34% 1.50% 0.69% 12.01% 2010 36.12% 28.85% 17.37% 4.22% 2.32% 9.31% 2011 33.97% 27.64% 22.22% 5.07% 2.05% 9.02% 2012 29.85% 30.16% 24.19% 5.20% 2.01% 8.60% 2013 31.17% 29.84% 22.44% 4.39% 3.31% 8.84% 2014 31.98% 29.86% 21.54% 4.58% 3.88% 8.16% 2015 30.70% 30.42% 20.81% 5.53% 3.22% 0.76% 8.37% 2016 28.71% 30.96% 21.03% 7.35% 3.09% 0.73% 7.48% 2017 30.47% 29.20% 21.00% 8.66% 3.79% 0.71% 5.25% 2018 29.05% 30.13% 22.66% 7.01% 3.43% 0.61% 7.11% 2019 28.66% 29.99% 23.85% 6.27% 4.31% 0.52% 6.40% 2020 27.09% 30.86% 24.78% 5.53% 4.74% 0.44% 6.66% 2021 26.34% 32.34% 25.17% 3.99% 4.79% 0.39% 0.73% 6.25% 2022 26.42% 31.47% 26.90% 3.21% 4.77% 0.38% 1.01% 5.84% 2023 27.04% 29.88% 27.56% 2.63% 5.61% 0.32% 1.49% 5.47% 2024 26.88% 30.43% 26.83% 2.28% 6.18% 0.24% 1.66% 5.50% 2025 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) Czech Television - public service broadcaster ČT1 (HD) - main channel ČT2 (HD) - second main channel ČT24 (HD) - news channel ČT Sport (HD) - sport channel ČT :D (HD) / ČT art (HD) - time shared position (channel for kids / culture channel) Nova Group (PPF) TV Nova (HD) - main channel Nova Cinema (HD) - movie channel Nova Action (HD) - channel for men Nova Fun (HD) - channel for younger Nova Krimi (HD) - crime series channel Nova Lady (HD) - channel for women Nova Sport 1 (HD) - sport channel with pay TV Nova Sport 2 (HD) - sport channel with pay TV Nova Sport 3 (HD) - sport channel with pay TV Nova Sport 4 (HD) - sport channel with pay TV Nova Sport 5 (HD) - sport channel with pay TV Nova Sport 6 (HD) - sport channel with pay TV FTV Prima (GES) TV Prima (HD) - main channel Prima Cool (HD) - channel for younger Prima Love (HD) - channel for women Prima Zoom (HD) - documentary programs Prima Max (HD) - movie channel Prima Krimi (HD) - crime series channels CNN Prima News (HD) - news channel Prima Star (HD) - archive channel Prima Show (HD) - reality show programs Prima Sport (HD) - sport channel Prima +1 - timeshifted channel TV Barrandov TV Barrandov (HD) - main channel Kino Barrandov (HD) - movie channel Barrandov Krimi (HD) - crime documentary programs Markíza Slovakia (PPF) Markíza International - czech version with Markíza JOJ Czech (J&T Group) JOJ Family - czech version for TV JOJ JOJ Cinema (HD) - movie channel with pay TV CS Mystery - sci-fi documentary programs (former Kinosvět) Stanice O Óčko - music channel Óčko Expres - music channel with pay TV Óčko Black - hip hop & rock music channel Óčko STAR - retro music channel Seznam.cz Seznam.cz TV (HD) - main channel AMC Networks International Central Europe Spektrum Home - documentary programs Warner Bros. Discovery EMEA Warner TV - serial & movie channel TV NOE DofE Šláger Originál Šláger Muzika Rebel Relax (former TV Pohoda) ABC TV Retro Music Television A11 HIT TV DVTV Extra TraLaLa Nalaďte se na digitální vysílání CRA Televize pres antenu
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 TV Morava TVS TV ZAK Ústecká TV V1
Premium channels Film HBO (HD) (version for Czech Republic and Slovakia) HBO 2 (HD) HBO 3 (HD) (former HBO Comedy) Cinemax (HD) Cinemax 2 (HD) AMC (former MGM Channel) TCM (English audio only) Film Europe (HD) Film Europe+ Film+ (HD) FilmBox+ One FilmBox+ Comedy FilmBox+ Emotion FilmBox+ Festival FilmBox+ Hits (HD) FilmBox+ Love&Crime CS Film / CS Horor Canal+ Action
Entertainment AXN (HD) (version for Czech Republic and Slovakia) AXN Black AXN White BBC First E! Fashionbox HD Fashion TV (version for Czech Republic and Slovakia) Food Network (English audio only) HGTV TLC Hobby TV Mňam TV Mňau TV SYFY (coming soon) Viasat Epic Drama
Documentary Animal Planet (HD) BBC Earth Discovery Channel Europe (HD) Investigation Discovery Docubox HD (English audio only) NASA UHD National Geographic (HD) (version for Czech Republic and Slovakia) Nat Geo Wild (HD) H2 (English audio only) History Channel (HD) Crime and Investigation Network Spektrum (HD) (version for Czech Republic and Slovakia) Spektrum Home (former TV Deko) Travel Channel (HD) TV Paprika Fishing & Hunting TV Wild TV Travel xp Viasat History (HD) Viasat Explorer (HD) Viasat Nature (HD) Viasat True Crime (HD) Love Nature Nautical Channel CS History
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 Disney Channel (former Jetix) (version for Czech Republic and Slovakia) Disney Jr. (English audio only) Cartoonito Cartoon Network Nickelodeon (version for Czech Republic and Slovakia) Nick Jr. Nicktoons Jim Jam Minimax Ducktv (HD) Baby TV
Music MTV Europe (Czech localization) Music Box Retro Music Television (FTA in regional DVB-T) Šláger Muzika Šláger Premium Stingray Classica Stingray CMusic Stingray iConcerts Mezzo (French version) Mezzo Live HD (French version) Deluxe Music 360 TuneBox (HD)
Erotica Leo TV Extasy TV Blue Hustler Hustler TV Penthouse TV (HD) Playboy TV (HD) Brazzers TV Europe (former Private Spice) Dorcel TV (HD) Dorcel XXX (HD) Private TV (former Daring TV! (former XXX X-Treme)) EroX (HD) EroXXX (HD) Man-X X-MO The Adult Channel (UK version)
News Al Jazeera Arirang BBC News Bloomberg CGTN CNBC CNN DW Euronews France 24 NHK World Japan Sky News TA3 (Slovak version) TRT World
See also List of television stations
References