Toward an explanation of television broadcast restructuring in the Czech Republic

Czech television has been in ferment since the collapse of Communism in 198 9. A little over a decade ago, the stare monopolized television. Today, the Czech Republic has a well-developed dual broadcast syst em. The state cont inues to have a television operation but this is now institutionalized as a public broadcast corporation. Coexisting with this corporation are several private sector operations, the most successful being TV Nova. The purpose of the article is to delineate and explain this transformation. Building on the conceptual work of Sparks and Reading, we identify the key economic, p olitical and cultural forces that have shaped the different moments of the restructuring process. We conclude by discussing briefly the theoretical im plications of our analysis.