Final Word from Thursday, October 6, 2005
The few companies that have paid attention to the new law on radio and TV users' fees have done so mainly because of the gradual ban on advertising at Czech Television. Many companies, therefore, will be surprised to learn that they must now pay a monthly fee of Kč 45 for each radio and Kč 100 for each TV they own. Even a bigger surprise will be the demand by Czech Radio that they pay the monthly radio fee for each computer with a sound card, because this allows them to access Czech Radio over the internet. If they don't pay, they can be fined Kč 5,000 for each qualifying computer. Oddly, Czech TV isn't trying to collect the user's fee for computers, although some of its TV broadcasts are on the internet. Czech Radio's policy on computers will probably be challenged in the courts. If upheld, it will essentially amount to the CR's first internet tax.[Czech Republic license licensing]