Public service announcement

Czech TV 1's "Reportéři" investigative show ran revealing stories last night about both Orco and Roman Janoušek and their real-estate practices. Although it cast an unfavorable light on Czech business in general, the public station found 10 advertisers willing to sponsor the show, including T-Mobile, Raiffeisen, Citroen, Zentiva, ING and KMV. This is no insignificant matter. VP Petr Dvořák of CME admitted in Týden last week that one reason TV Nova pulled the similar "Na vlastní oči" show was that advertisers didn't want to be linked to it. The job of commercial TV, he said, is to fill the space between ad blocks with some sort of programming, and if sponsors don't like the programming, it must go. Providing some kind of "public service" by means of commercial TV is a contradiction in terms, he added. In at least this respect, PM Petr Nečas is wrong to say that ČT1 is basically a commercial station subsidized by user's fees. With "Reportéři," it's still serving a valuable public service that viewers can't get elsewhere.