Photo: ANO:CZ

ANO:CZ - Government politicians want all households in the Czech Republic to pay 2,500 Czech crowns annually for public service media, even those who don't watch it. This forces 1.5 million households living below the poverty line and another 1.5 million households living just above the poverty line to bear this additional expense, after the government has already increased the cost of energy, medicine, and food due to its own inefficiency. We absolutely disagree with this. Instead, we want a thorough analysis of the funding of public service media, and a debate about whether these media should be funded through license fees at all.

Karel Havlíček, Chairman of the Shadow Cabinet

At the shadow cabinet meeting, we discussed the issue of increasing license fees. It is irrelevant to start the discussion by saying that the fees have not been increased for 15 years. The goal should not be to create a new automatic mechanism for increasing fees, which, according to the management's proposal, should be linked to inflation. The goal must be something else, and that is what the discussion should be about.

The mission and role of public service media must be redefined, especially in the context of the modern era. We have many changes, such as the rise of social networks, the internet, podcasts, the role of AI, and the further development of commercial stations. It is necessary to monitor and evaluate current trends in the world, and it must be clearly defined when a public service medium is indispensable, when it can be partially replaced (let's discuss this), and when it can be easily replaced. This will lead to a new model for these media that will be relevant for the third decade of the 21st century.

After we have discussed this, the management of these institutions must initiate a change in the program structure. Some programs may be merged. It is necessary to discuss at an expert level what will be broadcast and produced in these institutions, and it must be based on the role of these media in providing a public service, but also on economic considerations. This is, after all, their managerial responsibility. They must not be influenced by the leadership of these institutions or by the pressure of interest groups.

Decisions should not be made by those who may be beneficiaries of these benefits or contracts, and we must not give in to them, even if they have a great deal of media influence. They must not be influenced by the activism of their employees, nor must they succumb to the pressure of politicians. And it doesn't matter whether they are politicians with a 33% share or a 2% share. Simply, no one should have influence, and from this, the management must develop budgets.

There must be a certain control mechanism for politicians over these budgets, and there must be a strong pressure for savings, as is the case in all organizations. I don't see what's strange about that; it's not a denigration, but a factual pressure in any institution.

Only then can we address the funding model, which must show the pros and cons of the current model and the pros and cons of a potential alternative model. As we know today, 18 countries in the European Union operate through a system other than license fees. We must draw inspiration from abroad. None of this has happened, and instead, we see arbitrary decisions made by officials behind closed doors. Bang, they increase the fees, and now we are actually discussing whether it is a negligible amount, because it is actually a small thing.

2,500 Czech crowns per year is a significant amount, especially considering the large number of low-income households in the Czech Republic. Specifically, 1.3 to 1.5 million households are below the poverty line, and another 1.5 million are just above it, meaning we're talking about roughly 3 million households that will inevitably have to allocate funds to cover other essential expenses like housing, expensive energy, waste disposal, and food, medicine, etc.

We are also concerned about the way this is being implemented. It's essentially a situation where "if you have a smartphone, too bad," and for businesses, it's even more outrageous. The fact that the increase for businesses is being waived, ranging from 5x to 100x, is incomprehensible to me. In most companies, employees don't watch Czech Television while at work. And we haven't even discussed the fact that this wasn't even discussed with representatives of the business sector.

Furthermore, we object to the cleverly inserted indexation mechanism. In other words, if inflation is higher, the broadcasting fees will automatically increase. This sounds good if it were applied consistently across the board. It's interesting that when the indexation of pensions was being discussed, the approach was completely different. In other words, if inflation was higher, the indexation would be changed. Here, it's supposed to be automatic, whereas when it came to pensioners, the entire law was changed, and that is unacceptable to us.

Alena Schillerová, Shadow Minister of Finance

First, I would like to highlight some important contextual information regarding the January indexation of pensions, which was announced yesterday at an average of 356 crowns. This figure was calculated based on the new indexation rules approved by the Fiala government, and it was at the expense of our seniors. Specifically, pensioners were shortchanged twice:

Firstly, by approximately 60 crowns, due to the inclusion of a less favorable inflation indicator for them – the so-called pensioner inflation – instead of the currently higher general inflation rate.

Secondly, the average pensioner was further shortchanged by another 40 crowns due to a lower base, because their pension was increased by 1100 crowns less per month in June of last year than it should have been according to the rules of an extraordinary indexation.

In summary, without the interventions of the Fiala government, the average indexation from January 2025 would have been 456 crowns per month, not 356 crowns.

Of course, it's important to remember that, without the Fiala government, the pension of a senior with an average pension of 21,000 crowns would have been an additional 1100 crowns higher each month, because there would not have been the shameful restriction of the extraordinary indexation. This restriction, thanks to which the Fiala government will take a total of 20,292 crowns from each pensioner by the end of 2024. You can easily calculate the specific amount for your pension using our calculator, which is available to citizens and the media on the website of the ANO movement. I highly recommend it!

And where will the money come from, and how will we avoid burdening future generations?

One possible explanation lies in the latest inflation figures for June, which were released yesterday by the Czech Statistical Office: When we look at the month-on-month price changes for food items, we can clearly see a fundamental fact: The government of Petr Fiala, by cosmetically reducing the VAT on food from 15% to 12% starting in January of this year, cost the state treasury 13 billion crowns annually, but this did not lead to a decrease in the prices of these goods. On the contrary, food prices in the Czech Republic increased by 0.1 percentage points compared to December 2023. Those 13 billion crowns per year, which the government of Petr Fiala, despite warnings from the ANO movement, allocated to foreign retail chains, who, along with the banking and energy sectors, are the main beneficiaries of the current government, could have been used to help our pensioners cover their rising living expenses. The 13 billion crowns, which were completely unnecessarily used to increase the profit margins of foreign retail chains, should have gone to our seniors. Because, among other things, unlike the dividends paid to German and British owners of our supermarkets, it would at least have helped the Czech economy. And, of course, it would have helped seniors cope with, for example, the higher broadcasting fees currently being debated, or the newly introduced fee for sharing electricity on electricity bills, or the significantly increasing prices of housing, water, or heating. These are items on which the government, through the tax package proposed by Zbyněk Stanjura, increased taxes this year. https://www.anobudelip.cz/cs/stinova-vlada/vysledky-jednani/2500-korun-rocne-za-ct-a-cro-neni-bagatelni-castka-50190.shtml