Final Word from Tuesday, May 4, 2021

PPF's TV Nova set the goal of signing up 1m Czech and Slovak customers to its Voyo streaming service within five years. It's current number is a trade secret, according to CEO Didier Stoessel of CME. There are two main ways to achieve a sharp rise. The first is to invest heavily into content, which TV Nova is doing, and to attract new viewers with good programming at an enticing price. The other is to limit the competition and the alternatives. Banning Netflix in the CR probably wouldn't fly (after all, we are not Communists, to quote Don Barzini), but getting other major local providers to start charging for streaming is feasible. Vladimír Mlynář of PPF reportedly asked Hana Lipovská of the Czech TV Council who the new CEO of ČT will be, because PPF needs the public station to sign on to its plans to charge for content. Mlynář probably achieved the opposite of what he set out to do, because it will now be difficult for the next CEO of Czech TV to collude with PPF. Any effort to make ČT's viewers pay again for something they have already paid for once will be seen as an effort to drive more people to Voyo. [ Czech Republic Central European Media Enterprises Television Petr Dvořák The Godfather ]