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A Selection of Important Events of 2002
January
1 January
A new Czech Television programme schedule was introduced on both CT1 and CT2, with new programmes and programme cycles, no major changes in the overall structure compared to the previous period, and with the anticipation of three major sports events in the first half of 2002 (Winter Olympics and Ice Hockey and Football World Championships).
9 January
The Czech Television Council rejected the proposal of the Director General of Czech Television Jiří Balvín to re-appoint Zdeněk Drahoš as the Director of Brno Television Studio and called on him to advertise a new competition for the post. In the meantime, Zdeněk Drahoš continued to occupy his post on the basis of a still valid previous appointment.
11 January
The Director General of Czech Television advertised a competition for the posts of the Chief Editor of the News Department, Chief Editor of the Current Affairs Department, Chief Producer of the News Department and Director of Brno Television Studio.
15 January
The Director General of Czech Television recalled Vít Novotný from his post of a CT Production and Engineering Director and subsequently abolished the post (see also 16 January).
16 January
On the basis of the results of a public competition, the Director General of Czech Television appointed Petr Erben, the former Chief Producer of Creative Programming of Czech Television, as the new Director of Production.
25 January
Czech Television, together with the Internet sports server Sportovní noviny (Sports News), launched a website (www.zoh.cz) offering the latest news from the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. During the Olympics, the pages were visited by nearly 350,000 people; the same project accompanied also other important sports events.
30 January
On the proposal of the Director General, the Czech Television Council appointed Ilja Racek as the new Director of Ostrava Television Studio for the period from 1 March 2002 to 28 February 2008; it simultaneously recalled Miloslav Petronec from the post.
February
10 February
The Director General of Czech Television recalled Tomáš Oliva from the post of Financial Director and, on the basis of a competition for the post, appointed Petr Klimeš as the new Financial Director as of February 11.
13 February
The Czech Television Council approved the draft version of the Czech Television Code stipulating the principles that govern the fulfilment of public service obligations in the area of television broadcasting. It has subsequently authorised its chairman to submit the draft to the Chamber of Deputies of the Czech Parliament (after the meeting of the Standing Commission on Media on 15 April, the Council withdrew the draft). The Czech Television Council also adopted a resolution stating that the Director General had failed to discharge the tasks given to him by the Council concerning the debate over Czech Television's budget for 2002 and called for the submission of a detailed budget.
28 February
As of 1 March 2002, the Director General of Czech Television Jiří Balvín launched a restructuring of Czech Television with regard to its financial situation and with the aim of achieving greater effectiveness, economic efficiency and better work organisation. The first phase of the restructuring, beginning on 1 March, concerned the Departments of the Director General, Director of Programming, Director of Production and News Director; 1 January 2003 was set as the date by which the whole new organisational structure would take effect. The Czech Television Council criticised this step in its resolution of 6 March as an expression of unwillingness to bring about the beginning of restructuring and requested that the Director General provide it with detailed explanation.
March
Czech Television launched a several weeksí campaign in support of the payment of television licence fees. Its aim was to point to the extent and diversity of the programming genres and information offered by Czech Television 24 hours a day on both channels and to thank all those viewers who duly pay the licence fee.
6 March
The Czech Television Council did not approve the budget of Czech Television for 2002, the draft version of which was submitted to it by the Director General. It asked the Director General to draw up and submit a new proposal with an additional approximately CZK 200 million saved on costs. The Council also took notice of the resignation of J. Korb, J. Pártl, I. Dvořák, H. Kučerová and M. Tajč as members of the Supervisory Commission of the Council (i.e. the resignation of the entire Commission), after the Commission had been called on to resign by the Council on the grounds of the objections it had to the Commission's work.
8 March
The Director General of Czech Television laid down guidelines for the accessibility of Czech Television programmes to the hard of hearing by interpretation into sign language, on-screen captions or closed captions and enumerated the programmes that were to be made available in each of the given forms. It was also decided that the aforementioned range of programmes would be regularly updated by 15 August and 15 December of each year.
20 March
The Czech Television Council approved the draft framework budget of Czech Television for 2002, submitted to it by the Director General after the requested changes had been made, with costs totalling CZK 4,822,915,000 and revenues at CZK 4,708,335,000 (the budget surplus in aggregate financing was secured owing to the unrealised investment of CZK 153,133,000 in 2001).
27 March
The Czech Television Council approved the Annual Report on the Activities of Czech Television for 2001 and authorised its chairman to submit it by the end of March to the Chairman of the Chamber of Deputies of the Czech Parliament according to Act No. 483/1991 Coll. on Czech Television, as amended. The text of the Report was published as a parliamentary print; the chairmen of some of the trade union organisations of Czech Television Prague and Brno and Ostrava Television Studios protested against some passages of the text in an open letter addressed to the deputies.
April
3 April
The Czech Television Council elected a new Supervisory Commission. The new members were J. Jeřábková, J. Pártl, M. Tajč, D. Trnková and L. Kozák.
10 April
The Czech Television Council recalled Zdena Hůlová from her post of a vice-chairman of the Council.
24 April
After a repeated competition for the post of the Director of Brno Television Studio, the Director General of Czech Television submitted to the Czech Television Council a proposal for the re-appointment of Zdeněk Drahoš to the post; the Council requested that the Director General submit to it by 30 September his proposal for a permanent solution of this personnel issue. Zdeněk Drahoš remained at his directorial post.
29 April
The electronic measurement of viewing figures by TV meters, till 2007 provided for ATO by Mediaresearch, was put in regular operation in the Czech Republic. The data, accurate to a second, are being collected daily from the panel of at least 1200 households; the new project replaced the older peoplemeter surveys.
30 April
As of 1 May, the Director General of Czech Television changed the Organisational Rules of Czech Television with regard to the restructuring process.
During this organisational change, the most extensive ever, three production centres (Creative Programming, Current Affairs and Documentaries, and Acquisitions), directly subordinate to the Director General, were abolished in Prague, together with the subordinate structure of creative groups; on the other hand, five new centres, directly subordinate to both the Director of Production and the Director of Programming, were set up (Centre for Drama, Centre for Entertainment, Centre for Theatre and Music, Centre for Children's Programmes, Centre for Factual and Learning), as well as the sixth, Centre for Acquisitions, which is subordinate only to the Head of Programming; each of the Centres is jointly headed by a Chief Producer and a Chief Editor, the Centre for Acquisitions being headed only by a Head of Acquisitions.
In practice, this change meant a return from the producer-based system to the editorial system.
May
8–12 May
The Prague Municipal House hosted the 39th Golden Prague International Television Festival dedicated to music and ballet programmes. The Golden Prague Grand Prix was awarded to the televised version of the ballet performance Dracula: Pages from a Virgin's Diary, produced by the Canadian company Rhombus International. The Director of the Golden Prague ITF was Tomáš Šimerda; the festival was attended also by the Director General of Czech Television Jiří Balvín.
29 May – 11 June
Before the elections to the Chamber of Deputies (14 and 15 June), Czech Television broadcast election spots of political parties and coalitions, as required by the relevant provisions of Act No. 247/1995 Coll. on Elections to the Parliament of the Czech Republic.
31 May
The announcement of a new phase of structural changes at Czech Television brought about, apart from other things, also changes at Brno and Ostrava Television Studios, such as had been implemented in Prague as of the beginning of May; the changes ensuing from this phase of the restructuring process took effect on 1 June in the Ostrava Television Studio and on 1 July in the Brno Television Studio.
June
12 June
During the transmission of the ZLATÁ TRETRA (GOLDEN SPIKES) athletics competitions taking place in Vítkovice, ČT2 as the first channel in the Czech Republic made use of the so-called virtual advertising, i.e. the insertion of sponsor messages in the picture in such a way as to produce the impression that they are directly at the stadium. The new advertising technique was implemented by ARBOmedia.
14–15 June
On these two days, the elections to the Chamber of Deputies of Czech Parliament took place; after the closing of election premises, ČT1 broadcast ELECTION STUDIO 2002, which comprised nine special news reports – 150 minutes of broadcasting time in total.
July
4–13 July
The main prize of the 37th International Film Festival in Karlovy Vary, the Crystal Globe, was awarded to the film THE YEAR OF THE DEVIL directed by Petr Zelenka, which won in the main competition section of live-action films. In the documentary section, the winner in the category of short documentaries (up to 30 minutes) was MUNICIPALITY B directed by Filip Remunda and co-produced by Czech Television. Czech Television was likewise the co-producer of the second Czech film in the main competition section, BRATS, directed by Zdeněk Tyc, as well as of the Matej Mináč's film THE POWER OF GOOD – NICHOLAS WINTON competing in the category of documentaries over 30 minutes in length. From 8 to 10 July, the festival was attended also by the Director General of Czech Television.
August
12 August
On this day, at 9.58 a.m., Czech Television launched a special news service on CT1 focusing on the floods; from 13 to 17 August Czech Television broadcast 24 hours a day, continually providing information on the flooding. The last special news edition relating to the floods was broadcast on 1 September at 3 p.m.
23–24 August
The headquarters of Czech Television at Kavčí hory hosted the 1st international seminar for television producers and editors from Central and Eastern Europe Documentary Film in International Co-Production. The seminar was initiated by the Czech Documentary Film Institute, by Eureka Audiovisuel with headquarters in Brussels and by Czech Television; the project, supported by the Czech Ministry of Culture and the Czech-German Fund for the Future, focused on producing and financing one-off documentaries in the framework of international co-production.
28 August
The Czech Television Council approved the Annual Report on the Financial Performance of Czech Television for the year 2001 and authorised its chairman to submit it to the Chamber of Deputies of the Czech Parliament by 31 August.
September
2 September
On this day, the new programme schedule of Czech Television took effect, bringing substantial changes particularly to the system of news and current affairs programmes.
2 September
The appointment of Richard Klatovský as the Head of Public Relations and Promotion and also as spokesperson completed the formation of Czech Televisions top management – the appointments of all nine managers directly subordinate to the Director General.
October
16–19 October
With Czech Television as its traditional host, the EBU conference Religion focusing on religious broadcasting took place in the Prague Pyramida Hotel. The conference was attended also by the Director General of Czech Television Jiří Balvín.
22 October
The Chamber of Deputies of the Czech Parliament debated the Annual Report on the Financial Performance of Czech Television for 2001 without adopting a decision.
26 October
On the occasion of the 1st round of elections to one third of the Czech Senate, ČT1 launched a series of special news broadcasts ELECTION STUDIO 2002.
November
2 November
Czech Television broadcast a series of special news reports ELECTION STUDIO 2002 on the occasion of the 2nd round of elections to one third of the Senate as well as on the occasion of municipal elections.
6 November
The Director General of Czech Television Jiří Balvín submitted to the Czech Television Council a report drawn up by the KPMG consultancy company, proposing a restructuring of Czech Television. The Council discussed the report and called it the first comprehensive analysis of the state of Czech Television, also providing an outline of possible solutions.
9–15 November
The annual PBI (Public Broadcasting International) conference, bringing together almost all of the world's public television broadcasters, took place in Hong Kong, China. The conference, focused on the future prospects of this form of broadcasting, was attended also by the Director General of Czech Television Jiří Balvín.
14 November
Czech Television announced the launch of a new news service – the provision of news in the form of video broadcasts on mobile phones. It launched the service in cooperation with U-Turn as the first television broadcasting operator in the Czech Republic.
18 November
At an extraordinary meeting, the Czech Television Council unsuccessfully tried to vote for the recalling of the Director General Jiří Balvín; the proposal to recall the Director General for a breach of obligations stipulated in his managerial contract was supported by 9 members of the 13 members present, i.e. by fewer than the required majority.
19–22 November
On the basis of a contract between Czech Television and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic, Czech Television was designated as the "host broadcaster" (the exclusive signal provider) for the Prague NATO Summit and as the provider of all technical services to domestic and foreign television companies. Czech Television thus provided services to 221 television companies from 60 countries all over the world; on the eve of the summit, it broadcast an exclusive interview with the US president George W. Bush; from 20 November it offered to the viewers a series of live transmissions from the summit itself and its parallel events under the title NATO STUDIO 2002.
25 November
American National Television Academy awarded the Emmy Award for the best non-American documentary of the year to Matej Mináč's film THE POWER OF GOOD – NICHOLAS WINTON, co-produced by Czech Television (the Emmy Awards are the equivalent of the Oscars in the field of television production).
27 November
The Czech Television Council recalled Jiří Balvín from his office of the Director General of Czech Television for a breach of obligations stipulated in his managerial contract; the decision whereby Jiří Balvín was recalled was supported by 10 of the 12 members of the Council present. Petr Klimeš, the Financial Director at Czech Television, was elected unanimously as Interim Director. Before the expiry of his mandate of the Director General (on 28 November before midnight) and on the basis of mutual agreement, Jiří Balvín recalled the News Director Zbyněk Honys and the Director of Programming Petr Koliha from their respective posts.
December
December
Czech Television introduced a new possibility of paying television licence fees – a direct payment via the Internet. Owners of a TV set can register for the payment of the fee at www.ceskatelevize.cz/ct/poplatek/
4 December
The Interim Director of Czech Television Petr Klimeš made public his programme address, in which he declared his intention to focus on the stabilisation of Czech Television and to make sure that the temporary arrangements in the management of Czech Television would not be detrimental to viewer satisfaction and to the quality of public service broadcasting as such.
4 December
The Czech Television Council advertised a competition for the post of the Director General of Czech Television; the administrative and organisational tasks concerning the two-round selection procedure were entrusted to Hofírek Consulting.
5 December
The Interim Director of Czech Television Petr Klimeš charged Jiří Janeček, the former news presenter, with the duties of the News Director and Markéta Luhanová, the head of programme planning and coordination, with the duties of Director of Programming
11 December
The Czech Television Council approved documentation relating to the competition of tenders for the post of the Director General; 51 candidates registered until the deadline on 14 January 2003; of this number, 40 met the formal requirements for taking part in the competition.
18 December
The Czech Television Council approved the draft of the framework budget of Czech Television for 2003, submitted by the Interim Director, with anticipated revenues and costs totalling CZK 4,588,356,000.
31 December
The Interim Director of Czech Television decided to set up Project Office for the Management of the Restructuring Programme, directly subordinate to the Head of the Secretariat to the Director General.
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