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TV Nova (Czech Republic)

TV Nova
Launched 4 February 1994 (1994-02-04)
Owned by CET 21 s. r. o. (CME)
Country Czech Republic
Sister channel(s) Nova Cinema, Nova Sport 1, Nova Sport 2, TV Fanda, TV Smíchov, TV Telka
Website tv.nova.cz

TV Nova is a Czech commercial television station. It began broadcasting in February 1994 as the first privately held nationwide Czech TV station. Its first CEO was Vladimír Železný. It quickly achieved the largest market share and, as of January 2010, still remains number one.

During the 1990s, NOVA created numbers of own comedy shows featuring most famous actors like Jiří Lábus, Oldřich Kaiser and many more. Also creating quiz show with famous actors' debuts.

It gained minor notoriety for attracting massive audiences to its late-night nude weather reports ("Počasíčko"), in which an attractive woman (later a man as well) would appear, naked, to present the weather. A kind of reverse striptease would ensue, with the presenter putting on clothes appropriate to the weather.

Disputes between broadcasting license holder CET 21 and financial supplier CME resulted in an international arbitration known as CME/Lauder v. Czech Republic where Czech Republic was forced to pay CME compensation of 353 million USD (approx. 10 billion CZK).

Vladimír Železný sold CET 21 to the financial group PPF of Petr Kellner and today, TV Nova is owned by CME. Current CEO is Petr Dvořák from PPF group.

Since October 2008, TV Nova is also broadcast in high definition quality via satellite, cable, and also a test airing via DVB-T is in progress. Currently the signal is broadcast in 1920×1080i with a bitrate of 18Mbit/s.


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