Final Word from Thursday, June 9, 2011
On the same day that Jiří Janeček announced his resignationas CEO of Czech TV, E15 reported that the market shareof ČT1 had slid to 13-14%. The combined market share of thefour public stations is now about 25%. There's probably notany direct causal link between E15's article and the resignation(Janeček cited health reasons, others say he lost politicalsupport), but viewership will likely be one of the issues in thetalks about appointing a new CEO. Sure, you can argue that apublic broadcaster shouldn't chase market share, but a decliningslice of the viewing public means that the cost of informingor entertaining each actual viewer is rising, even if the Kč7.2bn annual budget remains unchanged. This legally mandatedbudget, by the way, is far larger than the combined budgetsof all the stations with the rest of the market (foreign broadcastersexcluded). Czechs have a quaint expression for whatCzech TV is quickly becoming: Expensive fun (drahá sranda).Or boredom (nuda), as 75% of the viewers might attest.
Glossary of difficult words
CEO - chief executive officer; general manager;
causal link - a relationship between cause and effect;
viewership - the audience of a television program or channel;
quaint - charming; attractively unusual or old-fashioned;
to attest - to certify, confirm, verify.