Change in Czech TV main news time benefits Nova - 10-01-2007 - Radio Prague Many Czechs catch their television news in the early evening, between 7 and 8 o'clock. But which particular news programmes they choose to watch has changed somewhat since the New Year, when Czech Television brought its main evening news forward by 15 minutes. The change also affects hundreds of thousands of Czech children, as a popular animated programme also starts earlier.
It is interesting, if not surprising, how important TV schedules are for the cultural patterns of a nation. For Czech, culturally particularly important time is between 7 and 8 pm which is a transition between children's time and adult time. Children watch their 10-minute evening story -
Večerníček, and then adults watch the news (boring for children) and than at 8 pm the main adult (as in not for children, not pornographic) programming starts when children go to bed. So a change of even as little as 15 minutes can have quite an impact on individuals' lives. Particularly when it comes down to the institution of Večerníček (so important it even has its own
Wikipedia entry):
Večerníček is a daily animated children's programme which has become a national institution since its first broadcast, way back in 1965. Czech TV are now showing it a quarter of an hour earlier, to allow for the earlier news programme. But the station's spokesman says there have been extremely few complaints.
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