Final Word from Monday, February 14, 2011
When Jiří Šmejc of PPF told HN in Oct. of last year that 2011 would be "decisive" for CME, the broadcaster's shares were selling for Kč 453. After the comment, the share price went into a dive, and within a month, PPF's man at CME, Petr Dvořák, was out of a job. Since Šmejc's remark, the CME share price has by fallen by 27%, to Kč 329. No one is speaking publicly about whether these events were triggered by some kind of dispute between CME and PPF. Be that as it may, CME can't blame anyone but itself for its disastrous decision to run a cheap Turkish soap opera in prime time on TV Nova. When Piers Morgan was hired to replace Larry King on CNN, he said that the ratings would show that he is either brilliant or an idiot. The jury is still out on Morgan's "intelligence," as it is on the new management's at TV Nova. By pulling the Turkish show quickly, it at least showed a willingness to learn from its mistakes.
Glossary of difficult words
Five and one nights - an allusion to "Thousand and One Nights," the Turkish show that ran in prime time on TV Nova for just six nights;
dive - a sudden and significant fall in prices or profits;
CME/CETV - Central European Media Enterprises, owner of TV Nova;
PPF - in early Feb., PPF sold 11% of its 3.5m shares in CME, bringing its stake from 7% to to 5.5%;
to trigger - to cause an event to happen or exist;
be that as it may - even if this were true;
the jury is still out - a decision or judgment has not yet been reached on a controversial subject.