Czechia’s governing coalition continues to struggle to push a rise in the license fee that finances the country’s public media past the parliamentary opposition.

The broadcasters claim there’s a risk of severe cutbacks without the extra funds, but they may face an existential threat should those opposition parties win elections in the autumn.

The license fee for Czech Television hasn’t risen since 2008, and for Czech Radio (CRo) since 2005.

Widely respected for their independence, the pair has long been in desperate need of increased funding. However, populist and extremist forces, including factions from within the current ruling five-party coalition, have long opposed hiking the fee.

That helped prevent the government from handing the public media a Valentine’s present on February 14 as it delayed an amendment bill, which, if passed, would increase the monthly fee paid by households for CT by CZK 15 to CZK 150 (6€), and raise the fee for CRo from CZK45 to CZK55, to March 5.

The legislation also indexes the fee to inflation and expands the charge to include those households that can access output through mobile phones or computers.

‘Relic’

It was obstruction by the opposition that delayed the vote on the third and final reading of the legislation in mid-February, as it has for several weeks. The government first introduced the bill in 2024 but has faced hurdles in pushing it forward.

“The government is coming up with a new tax,” declared Andrej Babiš, leader of the ANO party, which currently enjoys a healthy lead in opinion polls.

Supported by the far-right SPD, which echoes his claim that the licence fee hike is an attempt by the government to buy the loyalty of the broadcasters ahead of the upcoming vote, the former prime minister says license fees are a relic, and no longer used in the majority of EU states.

Analysts note that while there has been a recent trend to change funding models, there has also been resistance in several states. They also insist that license fees remain among the best options for maintaining the independence of public media.

Babiš failed during his term in office in 2017-20 to tame CT, when blatant attempts were made to politicize the oversight body of the Czech public broadcaster. Now, with ANO looking set to win the most votes in the upcoming election, he’s threatening to replace them with a new institution.

Home truths

Taking inspiration from neighboring Slovakia where Andrej Babiš was born, the industrial barron says that should he be re-elected prime minister, he will seek to merge the broadcasters – by some distance Czechia’s most used and trusted media outlets – into a single entity, which would be directly funded by the state.

Such a transformation was recently carried out by the government in Slovakia, where combative Prime Minister Robert Fico, who has a long history of hostility towards the media, disbanded Radio and Television of Slovakia (RTVS) and created STVR in July 2024.

This allowed his ruling party and its parliamentary allies to vote to install new leadership, which critics, including international organizations, among them IPI, worried that it allowed the government to influence the editorial agenda and damage media freedom. Several prominent journalists have since left the broadcaster, claiming interference.

“It’s no longer possible to work there as before,” said TV editor Barbora Sisolakova, who quit STVR when her report on a potential corruption scandal was spiked and she was warned to avoid posing tricky questions to politicians. “News content is viewed more strictly, more carefully, and is often adjusted.”

“The content has moved closer to the government agenda,” says Vaclav Stetka, Senior Lecturer in Communication and Media Studies at Loughborough University in the UK. “We saw how the same model was set in Hungary some years ago. The worry is that Babiš is seeking to copy it.”

‘Economic nonsense’

Babiš insists that a merger of CT and CRo would offer huge savings; an appeal to common populist claims that the pair greedily gobbles billions of koruna due to corruption and waste. However, denied a rise in funding, inflation has been shrinking their resources for at least a decade and a half.

CT trimmed its 2025 budget by CZK 460m to CZK 7.5 bn (€300m) and warned of huge production and job cuts should the licence fee remain frozen this year. CRo’s budget is below CZK 2.5bn. Analysts insist that a single entity would not offer potential savings.

Culture Minister Martin Baxa, an opponent of a hike when he started the job four years ago, but now its head cheerleader has been less diplomatic. He brands the claim, for which Babiš has presented no evidence: “Economic nonsense.”

“It’s quite clear from the Slovak example that such a move would not offer significant savings, but rather is driven by an ambition to install new leadership and governance,” says Marina Urbanikova, an assistant professor at Brno’s Masaryk University who sat on an advisory commission for the ministry of culture regarding the issue.

Analysts also point out that, regardless of the economics, public media is a key pillar of democracy, especially amid the increasing deluge of misinformation that governments should be protecting citizens against.

The increase in the license fee, though smaller than originally proposed, and its indexing to inflation is a key step towards maintaining CT and CRo in that role, says Stetka.

“However, there are clearly tangible dangers on the horizon,” he warns.