- PART ONE Amendments to the Act on Radio and Television Broadcasting Operation
- PART TWO Amendments to the Electronic Communications Act
- PART THREE Amendments to the Act on Administrative Fees
- PART FOURChanges to the Act on Radio and Television Fees
- PART FIVEEffect
ACT
of 25th April 2006,
which amends Act No. 231/2001 Coll., On Radio and Television Broadcasting Operation
Parliament has passed this Act of the Czech Republic:
Article I
Act No. 231/2001 Coll., on Radio and Television Broadcasting Operation and Amendments to Other Acts, as amended by Act No. 309/2002 Coll., Act No. 274/2003 Coll., Act No. 341/2004 Coll., Act No. 501/2004 Coll., Act No. 626/2004 Coll., Act No. 82/2005 Coll., Act No. 127/2005 Coll. and Act No. 348/2005 Coll., is amended as follows:
1. Section 2, Paragraph 1, Point a) including Footnotes Nos. 1 and 1a reads as follows:
“a) Radio and television broadcasting shall mean primary dissemination of original radio and television programmes and services directly related to these programmes, including teletext from analogue television broadcasting, which are intended to be received by the general public in the form of protected or unprotected conditional access systems1), 1a) via electronic communications networks1),
1)
Act No. 127/2005 Coll., on Electronic Communications and Amendments to Certain Related Acts (the
Electronic Communications Act), as amended. 1a)
Act No. 206/2005 Coll., on the Protection of Certain Radio and Television Broadcasting Services and Information Society Services.”.
The previous Footnotes Nos. 1 and 1a are denoted as Footnotes Nos. 1b and 1c as are the references to these Footnotes.
2. Section 2, Paragraph 1, Point b) reads:
“b) Retransmission of radio and television broadcasts shall mean reception of broadcasted original radio and television programmes or their substantial part, including services directly related to such programmes or their substantial part, and their simultaneous, complete and unchanged dissemination for the general public via electronic communications networks1); unchanged dissemination shall also mean the dissemination of Czech versions of television programmes which were primarily broadcast in foreign languages,” “e) Regional broadcasting shall mean radio and television broadcasts, which may, in a defined territorial area, be received by more than 1% and less than 70% of the population of the Czech Republic, calculated using data from the last Census1b),”.
The existing Points e) to i) are denoted as Points f) to j).
6. In Section 2, Paragraph 1, at the end of the text of Point f) the comma is replaced by a semicolon and the words “locally defined areas must not include more than 1% of the population of the Czech Republic, calculated using data from the last Census1b),”.
7. In Section 2, Paragraph 1, Points g) and h) read:
“g) A radio or television broadcaster shall mean a legal entity or natural person that prepares programmes, including services directly related to such programmes, who bears responsibility for their content and who disseminates these programmes and the directly related services themselves or via third parties, using audio or visual identification, which uniquely identifies them, (hereafter only the "Broadcaster"),
h) Retransmission broadcaster shall mean a legal entity or natural person who decides on the composition of retransmitted programmes, including any directly related services and who disseminates such programmes and directly related services either themselves or via third parties completely and unchanged on the basis of authorisation to broadcast retransmission broadcasts (hereafter only “Registration”) pursuant to this Act,”.
8. In Section 2, Paragraph 1, a new Point k) is inserted after Point j), which reads as follows: “k) Full format programme shall mean television programmes which contain programmes
with various types of subject matter and genres, in particular news, film, documentary, music and educational programmes, which are not aimed solely at a specific population group which has compatible interests,”.
The previous Points j) to l) are denoted as Points l) to n). text, audio or visual information, which either individually or as a whole creates content related to a digitally disseminated programme, and which is intended to be received by the general public together with this programme; directly related services are also understood as being the creation and provision of data files for electronic programme guide content and services which increase the utilisation options for the programme by an end-user’s equipment,
p) Electronic programme guide content shall mean text, audio or visual information on programmes disseminated in electronic communications networks1), which are disseminated by the same electronic communications networks and are synchronically connected to these programmes.”.
The previous Points m) to u) are denoted as Points q) to x).
11. Section 2, Paragraph 1, Point v) reads:
“v) Cable systems shall mean an electronic communications network pursuant to special laws1), by which broadcasters or retransmission operators disseminate pre-paid programmes for an agreed price; cable systems include cable television networks, microwave systems for terrestrial radio and television broadcasting or other technical equipment except for terrestrial radio broadcasting equipment,”. Republic for nation-wide broadcasting, and for regional or local broadcasting it shall mean the area set out in the authorisation for radio and television broadcasting (hereafter only the “licence”) in compliance with the opinion of the Czech Telecommunication Office defined by; 14. Section 2, Paragraph 2, Point b), reads:
“b) Providing electronic communications networks and providing electronic communications services pursuant to special laws1),”. 22. Section 5, Point h) reads:
“h) Grants an agreement to the Czech Telecommunication Office to issuing individual authorisation to use radio frequencies for other radio communications services from sections of the frequency spectrum exclusively reserved for radio and television broadcasting.”
23. Section 5, Point i) reads:
“i) Requires an opinion from the Czech Telecommunication Office containing coordinated frequencies for analogue radio and television broadcasting, including their technical parameters; in its request for an opinion the Council will denote the area which should be covered by the transmission and the requested location of the transmitters,”.
24. Section 5, Point j) reads:
“j) Requires the opinion of the Czech Telecommunication Office for the process of awarding licences for broadcasting or for changes to licence conditions1); in its request for an opinion the Council will denote the area which should be covered by the transmission,”.
25. In Section 5, new Points k) and l) are inserted after Point j), which reads as follows: “k) Shall set the territorial area of broadcasting for broadcasters pursuant to Section 3,
Paragraph 1, Point b) in compliance with the opinion of the Czech Telecommunication Office, l) Shall work with the Czech Telecommunication Office to the extent set out in the special laws1), 3), 4),“.
The previous Point k) is denoted as Point m).
26. In Section 5, a new Point n) is added after Point m), which, including the Footnote No. 4, reads as follows: “n) Sets programmes and services directly related to these programmes which must be
disseminated in the public interest via electronic communications networks for radio and television broadcasting and shall also look into the duration of such compulsory dissemination, and shall submit a binding opinion to the Czech Telecommunication Office for the purposes of laying down or cancelling this compulsory dissemination pursuant to special laws4e),
4e)
Section 72, Act No. 127/2005 Coll.”.
The previous Points i) to p) are denoted as Points o) to t).
27. In Section 5 Point t) the word “thereby” is deleted. 33. In Section 12 Paragraph 2 reads:
“(2) a separate licence for broadcasting teletext via analogue television broadcasting and for providing services directly related with programmes via digital broadcasting may not be awarded.”. 37. Section 14, Paragraph 1, Point i) reads:
“i) Business plan, including documentary evidence of the finances which they are capable of spending on radio and television broadcasting.”.
38. Section 15, Paragraph 1 reads:
“(1) The Council will commence licence procedures by its own instigation or on the instigation of candidates for licences by announcing the licence procedure. Before it commences the licence procedures the Council will request the opinion of the Czech Telecommunication Office on the definition of the territorial area of the broadcasting in the manner set out in Paragraph 2. If the licence procedure involves one or more licences to broadcast one or more programmes disseminated only by digital transmission it will also request the Czech Telecommunication Office opinion on the options for placement within electronic communications networks; in the event that instigation for a licence comes from a candidate, the Council is obliged to request the necessary opinion from the Czech Telecommunication Office at the latest within 15 days of the date when the notice of instigation is received. The Council will announce the licence procedure at the latest within 30 days of the date it receives from the Czech Telecommunication Office the opinion which enables the licence process to commence; if the Council requests more than one opinion from the Czech Telecommunication Office for a given licence procedure, the 30 day deadline will start running from the date it receives the last of the requested opinions, if this is an opinion which enables the licence procedure to commence.”
39. In Section 15, Paragraph 2, the first sentence is replaced by: “In its announcement of a licence procedure the Council will set the deadline and location for submitting requests for licences, the time schedule of the broadcasting, the territorial area of the broadcasting determined by the set of technical parameters for analogue broadcasting or the plan of radio frequency utilisation for digital broadcasting; for nation-wide broadcasting the Council will set the requirements for basic programme specifications for the nation-wide broadcasting (hereafter only the “Requirements”).”
40. In Section 15, Paragraph 5 is expanded to read:
“(5) In the event of the existence of two or more electronic communications networks for digital broadcasting pursuant to Paragraph 1, the Council will commence the licence procedure without allocating the programme to a specific electronic communications network. The Council will similarly not determine the programme structure for separate electronic communications networks.”.
41. Section 16, Paragraph 1 reads:
“(1) If a licence procedure involves broadcasts via only digital transmitters, the Chairman of the Council will call a public hearing within 30 days of the date the deadline for submitting applications for licences expires. This last deadline will be set by the Council pursuant to Section 15, Paragraph 2. In other cases the Council Chairman will call public hearings within a 90-day deadline from the date the licence procedure commences.”. “(2) During the distribution of licences for digital broadcasting the Council will assess the following: a) The financial, organisational and technical preparedness of applicants for providing
broadcasts; the transparency of their ownership structures; the benefits the programme make-up will bring to the diversity of the existing range of programmes and the representation of European productions (Section 42), productions by European independent producers and the prevalent productions (Section 43) in the proposed programme make-up of the television broadcasts,
b) The benefits the applicants will bring to the development of original productions, c) The applicants’ preparedness to provide a certain percentage of broadcast programmes with hidden or open subtitles for the hard of hearing, d) The benefits the applicants will bring to the development of the culture of national, ethnic and other minorities in the Czech Republic.”.
The previous Paragraph 2 is denoted as Paragraph 3.
45. Section 17 is completed by a new Paragraph 4, which reads:
“(4) Licences for radio or television broadcasting disseminated solely by digital transmitters or registrations to operate retransmissions disseminated only digitally [Section 2, Paragraph 1, Point g), Section 26 and subsequent] may not be awarded to entrepreneurs who provide electronic communications networks1) (hereafter only “electronic communications network entrepreneurs”) or to groups of electronic communications network entrepreneurs or persons who are financially or personally connected to such entrepreneurs; this does not apply in cases where radio and television broadcast licences for only digital dissemination are awarded directly by law. Financially or personally connected persons are understood as persons who either directly or indirectly share in the management, control or assets of second parties, or if the same legal entity or natural person directly or indirectly shares in the management, control or assets of both parties. Participation in control or assets is understood as ownership of a more than 20% share in registered capital or voting rights; the share in registered capital or voting rights in a tax period is set as the share of the aggregate status as of the last day of each month and the number of months in the tax period.”. 48. In Section 18, Paragraph 4 Point e) reads:
“e) Basic programme specifications and other programme conditions, including information on if it is a case of a full format programme; in the case of digital broadcasting, also the conditions related to the broadcaster’s obligation to create and provide data files for electronic programme guide content and conditions related to the provision of any services directly related to the programme,”.
49. Section 20 including the title reads:
“Section 20
50. Section 21, Paragraph 1 Point b) reads:
“b) Changes to the time schedule of broadcasting or the territorial area of broadcasting pursuant to Section 2 Paragraph 1 Point y),”.
51. Section 21, Paragraph 5 reads:
“(5) The Council may also change licence conditions if this is necessary in order to uphold commitments arising from international agreements which are binding to the Czech Republic and which are listed in the Collection of Acts or the Collection of International Agreements, or from membership of the European Union or other international organisations.”. 55. In Section 26, Paragraph 1 reads:
“(1) Registration authorises retransmission operators transmitting via electronic communications networks to operate using the respective electronic communications network except for broadcasts disseminated via terrestrial radio transmission equipment. This does not prejudice their obligations pursuant to special laws.”.
56. Section 27, Paragraph 2 reads:
“(2) The application for registration shall contain the information set out in Section 14, Paragraph 1, Points a) to e) and also; the technical, organisational and financial manner in which the retransmission will be provided; information on the programmes the applicant intends to disseminate, and the technical specifications of the electronic communications network which will be used to carry out the retransmission. Retransmission Applicants must also submit authorisation to broadcast issued by the broadcaster of the original programme.”.
57. New points i) and j) are inserted in Section 32, Paragraph 1 after Point h) which read: “i) Not include programmes which could promote prejudicial stereotypes of ethnic,
religious or racial minorities;
j) and Amendments to Other Acts, as amended, and certain other Acts
PART ONE Amendments to the Act on Radio and Television Broadcasting Operation
Changes to Sets of Technical Parameters and Plans