Czech developments

摘要

Zdenek Vanicek, who is departing as president of the Czech Association of Competitive Communications after 10 years, evaluates the situation and prospects of the Czech Republic's broadband sector. Ten years ago I was invited to act as a legal advisor for the Czech cable TV association and for this fresh start in a new profession I received an instruction to settle "three problematic issues": negotiating contracts with collecting societies; finding a "legal way" of transmitting international channels "free" and with "no copyright obligations"; and killing "must carry" rules. The first two were relatively easy. Achieving the last one, however, seems to take for ever, as the current 2006 Review indicates. With amazing speed the industry is moving forward everywhere, at least in terms of its further consolidation and the arrival of new technologies as well as business models. We are all confronted with new challenges. Since I have - unwillingly - become a Czech cable TV "patriarch". I feel that in this connection I may present this brief account of the Czech CATV sector at the dawn of digital TV broadcasting and, at the same time, at the dusk of obsolete legal concepts that have until very recently governed the turbulent world of electronic communication networks and services.