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.[1] The process completed when the last analogue transmitters in south-east Moravia and northern Moravia-Silesia were shut down on 30 June 2012.
See main article: Czech TV crisis. A television crisis occurred between 2000 and 2001 as a battle for control of Czech Television, which included jamming and accusations of censorship. During the Czech TV crisis, Czech Television reporters organized an industrial dispute by staging a sit-in and occupying the news studio, and rejected attempts by Jana Bobošíková, the newly-appointed head of the news department, to fire them. They were supported in their protest by politicians such as then-president Václav Havel and Czech celebrities. However, every-time they tried to air their news broadcasts, Jana Bobošíková and Jiří Hodač would jam the transmission either with a "technical fault" screen reading: "An unauthorized signal has entered this transmitter. Broadcasting will resume in a few minutes." or with their own news broadcasts featuring Bobošíková and a team she had hired to "replace" the staff members she had sought to terminate. The Czech TV crisis eventually ended in early 2001 following the departure of Hodač and Bobošíková from Czech Television, under pressure by the street demonstration participants and at the request of the Czech Parliament, which had held an emergency session due to the crisis.
The ATO measures television ratings in the Czech Republic since 1997. The channels with most share according to ATO's measurements were:[2]
| Channel | Whole-day share, 15+ (April 2010) | Whole-day share, 15+ (March 2011) | Whole-day share, 15+ (May 2014) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| TV Nova | 31.08% | 31.24% | 23.36% | |
| Prima televize | 16.92% | 17.16% | 14.26% | |
| ČT1 | 17.53% | 15.91% | 14.27% | |
| TV Barrandov | 5.38% | 4.83% | 4.88% | |
| ČT24 | 3.87% | 4.60% | 4.09% | |
| Nova Cinema | 3.90% | 4.19% | 3.8% | |
| ČT Sport | 2.00% | 4.11% | 7.6% | |
| Prima Cool | 2.95% | 3.74% | 3.1% | |
| ČT2 | 3.63% | 2.78% | 3.95% | |
| Prima Love | - | - | 2.19% | |
| Nova Action | - | - | 1.44% | |
| Nova Fun | - | - | 1.2% | |
| Nova Gold | - | - | 1.18% | |
| - | - | 1.92% |
| TV Group | Whole-day share, 15+ (January-June 2024) | Prime-time, 15+ (January-June 2024) | Whole-day share, 15-54 (January-June 2024) | Prime-time, 15-54 (January-June 2024) | Whole-day share, 18-69 (January-June 2024) | Prime-time, 18-69 (January-June 2024) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 30.49% | 30.21% | 27.7% | 27.87% | 28.81% | 28.79% | |
| 27.32% | 26.83% | 23.1% | 23.24% | 25.50% | 25.43% | |
| 26.41% | 30.12% | 32.3% | 34.99% | 29.27% | 32.40% | |
| 6.04% | 4.79% | 5.9% | 4.85% | 6.42% | 5.11% | |
| 2.33% | 1.94% | 0.8% | 0.66% | 1.52% | 1.21% | |
| 1.54% | 1.47% | 1.5% | 1.43% | 1.73% | 1.60% | |
| 0.23% | 0.22% | 0.4% | 0.28% | 0.27% | 0.24% | |
| Others | 5.64% | 4.42% | 8.3% | 6.68% | 6.48% | 5.22% |
| Source:[3] | ||||||
| Year | Nova Group | Czech Television | FTV Prima | Barrandov TS | Atmedia | Stanice O | TV Seznam | Others | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1997[4] | 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[5] | 33.97% | 27.64% | 22.22% | 5.07% | 2.05% | 9.02% | |||
| 2012[6] | 29.85% | 30.16% | 24.19% | 5.20% | 2.01% | 8.60% | |||
| 2013[7] | 31.17% | 29.84% | 22.44% | 4.39% | 3.31% | 8.84% | |||
| 2014[8] | 31.98% | 29.86% | 21.54% | 4.58% | 3.88% | 8.16% | |||
| 2015[9] | 30.70% | 30.42% | 20.81% | 5.53% | 3.22% | 0.76% | 8.37% | ||
| 2016[10] | 28.71% | 30.96% | 21.03% | 7.35% | 3.09% | 0.73% | 7.48% | ||
| 2017[11] | 30.47% | 29.20% | 21.00% | 8.66% | 3.79% | 0.71% | 5.25% | ||
| 2018[12] | 29.05% | 30.13% | 22.66% | 7.01% | 3.43% | 0.61% | 7.11% | ||
| 2019[13] | 28.66% | 29.99% | 23.85% | 6.27% | 4.31% | 0.52% | 6.40% | ||
| 2020[14] | 27.09% | 30.86% | 24.78% | 5.53% | 4.74% | 0.44% | 6.66% | ||
| 2021[15] | 26.34% | 32.34% | 25.17% | 3.99% | 4.79% | 0.39% | 0.73% | 6.25% | |
| 2022[16] | 26.42% | 31.47% | 26.90% | 3.21% | 4.77% | 0.38% | 1.01% | 5.84% | |
| 2023[17] | 27.04% | 29.88% | 27.56% | 2.63% | 5.61% | 0.32% | 1.49% | 5.47% |