Budging Babišconi

The American side would also have been compelled to report any official negotiations with Dienstl and Tykač to US regulators. The Czech billionaires, meanwhile, would have gained access to CME’s books. Serious doubts persist about the
financial health of CME. The US side may have been reluctant to reveal this to the Czech billionaires for fear of scaring them off.

“This concern is entirely legitimate. Some 40 percent of CME’s assets are of the ‘goodwill’ variety. Another 33 percent are in the form of rights and licences. Overall, more than 70 percent of CME’s asset balance sheet is of the intangible and hard-to-appraise variety. It is true that auditors should keep a close eye on the accuracy of statements, but the overall risk here is notable,” Tomáš Menčík, an analyst at investment firm Cyrrus, told Euro.

Another issue is that CME shareholders, along with founder American businessman Ronald Lauder, are asking for the group which owns Nova as well as around 30 other TV stations to remain as a single entity, even after a potential sale. The fear is that should any station be broken off from this unit, it could become a target for Russian investors. This is especially the case for Romania’s Pro TV, eyed by Russian energy giant Gazprom. Also of note here is the fact that, according to Euro, some time ago, Gazprom offered Lauder the “royal” sum of USD 4bn for CME. He refused, just as US authorities began expressing an interest in the potential deal.

Billionaires unite!

Arguably, a sell-off of individual components of CME is the only logical path forward, allowing investors the chance to be able to recoup at least some of their monies. There are many interested parties when it comes to the individual stations, but none of them wants to own the entire CME group. Asides from Dienstl and Tykač, another billionaire, Daniel Křetínský, was – and still is – also interested in purchasing Nova. Not long ago, Křetínský succeeded in purchasing the Ringier Axel Springer CZ publishing empire. In that case, any rivalry between the Czech Republic’s top billionaires appears muted, with fears over the huge influence of Babiš serving as the uniting influence. Apparently, many of the billionaires are operating along the principle of the following unwritten agreement: “It doesn’t matter who gets the TV station, as long as it’s not Babiš.”

Last chance

Dienstl and Tykač, along with other potentially interested parties from the ranks of the Czech Republic’s plutocratic elite, have thus been left with one other viable alternative – to build an entirely new TV station. Presently, this pipe dream is developing some very real contours. And of all the choices, it is this concept that appears to be

the cheapest option. Estimates suggest that the creation of a new TV station, aiming for at least a onefifth audience share, would cost its founders CZK 2bn. It is expected that preparing such a detailed project would take between one and two months. Czech serials and variety shows would form the essence of the new channel. Such programmes are far from cheap to produce, but that is not the greatest challenge facing the potential founders. Producing a series along the lines of Nova’s medical drama series Ordinace v Růžové Zahradě (Rose Garden Surgery) or Nova’s soap Ulice (Street) can only be achieved with a relatively small crew pool and a handful of decent screenwriters. New series could conceivably lead to a bidding war for their services. The current tense situation at TV Nova (see “Beware the Mainusch Diet”) very much plays into this scenario.

In the final analysis, all that is absent in terms of creating a new Czech TV station is a final nod from the billionaires. According to Euro, this has hitherto not been forthcoming, but should be seen within the next six months.