The distribution of foreign, though especially Czech, TV channels in Slovakia is becoming an increasingly controversial issue, especially among dissatisfied viewers.
To highlight the point, the country’s Council for Broadcasting and Retransmission has issued a statement in which it says that it does not control which such channels are allowed to be offered by Slovak cable and satellite companies.
Instead, it is up to the latter to reach carriage agreements with the channels.
It adds that in Slovakia the law protects the right of broadcasting and retransmission and is broken if operators retransmit channels without the consent of the original broadcaster.
The Council then has the right to impose fines ranging from €99 to €33,193. It also said that it has received information from Czech TV Nova and Germany’s RTL that their services are being distributed in Slovakia without their consent.
The Council ended its statement by saying that it was only concerned about the law being respected and had no interest in the content, be it Czech stations or otherwise.
