Media
Political freedom after the year 1989 resulted in an enormous boom in all types of media, which had been censored for forty years. At present organisations monitoring freedom of the press rank the Czech Republic among those countries with the highest standards of press freedom. Dozens of new periodicals and broadcasting stations, and several TV channels emerged at both national and regional level.

The newly established market has already experienced varying degrees of success. In 1996, 5,028 journals and magazines were being published in Czech Republic. 10,224 book titles were published in the same year. About 53,824,000 book titles have been loaned from public libraries.

The share of foreign investors - mainly Swiss and German, is quite significant in the most important newspapers. The Swiss syndicate Ringier owns one of the most widely read tabloids - Blesk, the more sophisticated Lidové noviny, and more than ten other main periodicals. The regional press in Bohemia is controlled, with only a few exceptions, by three subsidiary companies of Passauer Neue Presse, the German publishing company.

Daily periodicals
90 national and regional dailies

The following are the most popular daily newspapers distributed throughout the Czech Republic (average daily circulation is listed in parentheses).

Mladá Fronta Dnes (425,000) The largest independent national daily newspaper. Formerly published under the communist regime as a youth paper, it is now a modern, western-style daily aimed at a general readership and strives for objectivity.

Blesk (300,000) This independent, colour tabloid daily is published seven days a week; once a week a glossy magazine is published along with the newspaper.

Právo - formerly Rudé Právo (260,000) A national news-oriented paper which strives to give an objective and independent interpretation of events; it was formerly published by the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. Today, it is not openly attached to any political party, but it has a leftist political slant and focuses on social issues. It has a reputation of having high professional standards.

Zemské noviny (formerly České a moravskoslezské Zemědělské Noviny) (160,000) The paper is the continuation of the daily Zemedělské noviny (l945-1990); the paper is issued nation-wide and it focuses particularly on rural and other non-metropolitan readers.

Hospodářské noviny (125,000) This economic daily paper features news on economic issues at home as well as abroad. It draws on the model of economic daily newspapers such as the Financial Times or Handelsblatt.

Lidové noviny (80,000) Famous as a dissident newspaper published by the illegal samizdat press under the communists, it is now an independent daily aimed at a liberally-minded and university-educated readership.

Weekly Papers and Monthly Periodicals
Just as with daily papers, the successors of magazines which existed before 1989 are among the nation's favourite periodicals. However, several new magazines founded after 1990 are also popular. Here, too, foreign capital has brought many changes - notably in improvement in print quality and lay-out. At the same time, the content of new magazines has started to approach international standards.

The most widely read periodicals are general interest weeklies such as Květy, Reflex, Týden and Mladý svět. In addition, a wide array of new titles have emerged to fill the demands of special niche markets ranging from magazines that cater to women to publications that focus on sports.

Two English weeklies are published in Prague - The Prague Post and The Central European Business Weekly. One glossy business magazine is published in French and English - La Tribune De Prague
In German is published Prager Zeitung. This weekly paper features news and analysis about economy, politics and culture in Czech Republic, Eastern Europe and European Union.

Radio and Television
The Czech Republic has a dual state and private broadcasting system.

At this time the only operators recognised by law are the publicly owned institutions Czech Radio and Czech Television. They have an arms-length relationship with the government and finance their own activities. These institutions have a specific mission in regard to upholding public interest and they are limited in developing their own business, particularly as regards advertising.

The Council for Radio and Television Broadcasting in the Czech Republic administers licensing policy. The council is elected by parliament and is not dependent on the government.

At present, over 70 licences for radio broadcasting have been granted, and there are 150 radio stations. The largest licensed radio stations operating in the Czech Republic include Radio KISS 98 FM, Impuls, Radio Frekvence 1, Radio Evropa 2, BBC World Service and Radio Free Europe.

52 television licenses have been granted. There are two state television stations and two private independent stations - Nova and Prima. State television broadcasting covers the whole area of the Czech Republic. There are 118 television broadcasting stations in the country.
Nova was the first private television station in the former Eastern bloc to receive a broadcasting license. It went on air Feb. 4, 1994 and within six months had secured half the viewing audience in the Czech Republic.

Advertising
Since 1989, advertising expenditure has increased dramatically - from almost five million dollars in 1989 to more than 212 million dollars in 1993. It is estimated that in 1994 total expenditure on advertising had increased to 250 million dollars.

Advertising expenditure for various media in the Czech Republic (% of total)

*****1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1996

Press 85.1 82.9 70.5 58.3 54.3 43.6

TV 10.1 10.7 12.0 22.2 28.3 41.3

Outdoor 1.4 2.1 8.3 12.7 10.2 8.4

Radio 1.4 2.1 6.1 5.3 5.7 5.6

Other 2.0 2.1 3.2 1.6 1.6 1.1

Total in mil.USD 5.0 12.5 46.4 157.7 212.0 428.5

After 1989, international advertising agencies quickly became the largest in the country in terms of turnover. Most of the successful Czech agencies merged with foreign partners.

The five largest agencies (in terms of turnover in 1996 in mil. USD)

1. Mark/BBDO 36.2
2. McCann-Ericson 35.4
3. Leo Burnett Advertising 26.3
4. Grey 24.1
5. Young & Rubicam 24.0

Telecommunications

Telecommunications in the Czech Republic have not yet reached the standards of developed countries. On the other hand, huge customer demand and ambitious plans for the future make this one of the most promising areas for development and investment.

Number of main telephone participant lines (without branch lines):
1980 - 1,108,000
1990 - 1,623,000
1996 - 2,816,000,

(1,855,000 of this last figure were home lines. Approximately 45% of households have their own telephone. The number of mobile telephones now stands at some 204,000. 900 million USD has been invested from abroad into the telephone network. By the end of the year, 577,000 households and entrepreneurs asked for a new telephone line.