Abolition of TV and radio fees from January could be pushed back to 2028

The Czech government will most likely fail to scrap television and radio licence fees by 1 January 2027 — that's according to Deputy Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies Patrik Nacher, whose comments were effectively backed up by Chamber Speaker Tomio Okamura, who had previously insisted the reform would go through exactly on schedule.

"It's September now, and the Chamber of Deputies has other matters on its agenda, including the budget. Then there are the regional and Senate elections — it's still unclear what topics people will want to focus on. If we don't manage it by 1 January 2027, it makes sense to push it to 1 January 2028," Nacher told iDNES. He added that objections would almost certainly come from the opposition, as well as from the Senate and the president.

Okamura had been pushing for speed

Back in August, Okamura's stance sounded different: he said he wouldn't delay the reform by a whole year. "The effective date might shift, but we're not going to drag it out for a year. If we can't make it by 1 January, then 1 February or early March could work," Seznam Zprávy quoted him as saying.

At the time, he also stressed that scrapping the fees was a coalition priority and had to happen this year. At the same time, the Chamber Speaker admitted that drafting the law was taking longer than expected. "From the start I said we need to focus solely on abolishing the fees, without mixing it up with the media law. That's the reason for the delay," he explained.

"The only thing we can guarantee is that we'll die"

In early June, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Petr Macinka commented on the upcoming changes: "The goal remains the same — from 1 January 2027, nobody will pay licence fees." Prime Minister Andrej Babiš was already more cautious at the time: asked whether he could guarantee the government would push the changes through by year's end, he replied, "the only thing we can guarantee is that we'll die."

Two months earlier, Babiš had still insisted the changes would take effect from January 2027, while Nacher was already openly skeptical.

Doubts had been circulating for a while

The idea that the government would barely manage to carry out the reform by January 2027 had been voiced throughout the year, notably by Hynek Hudarek, director general of Czech Public Television, who publicly pointed out that pulling this off legislatively in such a short timeframe was unrealistic. As far back as 10 March, opposition MP František Talíř (KDU-ČSL) said that Culture Minister Otto Klempíř (Motorists movement) had personally told him: "the government definitely won't make it by 1 January 2027."

The coalition denied this at the time. On 24 March, Okamura stressed he wouldn't back down from the plan, since the parties had promised it to voters, and Babiš confirmed the same day that the full abolition of the fees from 2027 still stood. Okamura repeated the same message in late May after a coalition council meeting.

The government approved the bill on financing public media on 15 June. It provides for scrapping the law on radio and television broadcasting fees — the state budget is meant to become the main source of funding for Czech public television and radio.

Source: novinky.cz