2013 could be a year of considerable change in the Czech Republic’s TV market.
It has already got off to an eventful start, with the news that its two leading commercial broadcasters TV Nova and FTV Prima will both be adding new channels to their growing portfolios in early February.
In the case of TV Nova, the still-to-be-named service will make its debut barely two months after the launch of a comedy channel named Smichov, which has only been on air since late December.
FTV Prima, on the other hand, will launch Prima ZOOM, a free documentary channel targeting all age groups, at the beginning of February. Its main appeal is likely to be that it will carry high quality content from such broadcasters as the BBC, National Geographic and Discovery.
All this comes against the backdrop of a DTH sector still dominated by Skylink and CS Link. However, the two platforms are now operated by Luxembourg-based M77, which was merged into its parent M7 at the beginning of this year.
The latter move was significant in that M7’s interests already include a total four platforms in Benelux and Austria. What strategy will it now employ in the Czech Republic and indeed Slovakia, where Skylink and CS Link are also the leading DTH operations?
Will, for instance, the two services, which have different target audiences, be merged or carry on as separate platforms?
Elsewhere in the Czech DTH sector UPC’s freeSAT operation has clearly turned a corner and it will be interesting to see how its recovery continues in 2013. Digi TV may meanwhile continue to struggle.
Since late last year the Czech Republic has also had a new national commercial station. Named Petka (‘Five’), its operator Metropol, whose interests also include the Prague-based regional station TV Metropol, has nevertheless run into financial difficulties.
These could result in a change in ownership sometime in 2013, with the entrepreneur Jaromir Soukup in pole position to buy the company.
