ČT sport

What is ČT sport?

ČT sport is the sport television channel of Česká televize, the Czech public television broadcaster, and its website is sport.ceskatelevize.cz.^[1]

Česká televize is a statutory body. Its law is Zákon České národní rady č. 483/1991 Sb., o České televizi, promulgated on 29 November 1991. The text read here is the Czech version that the statute register e-Sbírka serves for 25 September 2026 and marks as current, in effect from 1 May 2025; the latest amending acts it lists are Nos. 225/2023 Sb. and 119/2025 Sb.^[3] Section 1(1) reads: “Zřizuje se Česká televize se sídlem v Praze.” Section 1(2) makes it a legal person that manages its own property, founded on property transferred from Československá televize.^[2]

Section 2(1) sets out the public service: “Česká televize poskytuje službu veřejnosti tvorbou a šířením televizních programů, popřípadě dalšího multimediálního obsahu a doplňkových služeb na celém území České republiky za účelem naplňování demokratických, sociálních a kulturních potřeb společnosti a potřeby zachovat mediální pluralitu (dále jen „veřejná služba v oblasti televizního vysílání“).” That is, Česká televize provides a service to the public by creating and distributing television programmes, and where applicable other multimedia content, across the whole country.^[2]

What does ČT sport cover?

The law names sport in the public remit. Section 2(2) opens “Hlavními úkoly veřejné služby v oblasti televizního vysílání jsou zejména”, and its letter (e) lists “výroba a vysílání zejména zpravodajských, publicistických, dokumentárních, uměleckých, dramatických, sportovních, zábavných a vzdělávacích pořadů a pořadů pro děti a mládež” — the production and broadcasting in particular of news, current-affairs, documentary, artistic, dramatic, sports, entertainment and educational programmes and programmes for children and young people.^[2]

The website groups its coverage under football, ice hockey, tennis, athletics, basketball and volleyball, with further sections for sports that include biathlon, canoe slalom, cycling, figure skating, handball, motor sport, parasport, rowing, skiing, speed skating and swimming.^[1] On 25 September 2026 its newest items included Czech medals at a canoe slalom championship, the national under-21 football team's away draw in Azerbaijan, the women's tennis team in the Billie Jean King Cup, Formula 1 qualifying, ice hockey extraliga results, the entries for the Velká pardubická steeplechase and a new arena in Brno as host of a Euro Hockey Tour event.^[1] Those are one day's items.

Its rights have included the ice hockey world championship. MediaGuru, a trade site, reported on 27 May 2025: “Česká televize odvysílala všech 64 utkání letošního mistrovství v dánském Herningu a švédském Stockholmu na kanálech ČT sport a ČT sport Plus a speciální HbbTV aplikaci k mistrovství světa.” — Czech Television showed all 64 games of the 2025 championship, in Herning and Stockholm, on ČT sport, ČT sport Plus and a dedicated HbbTV application.^[5]

How large is ČT sport's audience?

Television audiences in Czechia are measured for the Asociace televizních organizací; MediaGuru publishes the results under the source line ATO-Nielsen. Its table for the whole of 2025, published on 5 January 2026 with the source note “Zdroj: ATO-Nielsen, TV živě+TS0-3 ke dni 4.1. 2026. CS15+, celý den”, gives ČT sport a share of 3.08 per cent of full-day viewing among viewers aged 15 and over, a fall of 1.49 percentage points from 2024. The same table lists ČT1 at 16.04 per cent and Nova at 18.04 per cent.^[4] That is a full year's reading.

MediaGuru also reported from ATO-Nielsen data: “Celodenní podíl sportovního kanálu ČT sport se v době konání hokejového mistrovství světa (9.5.-25.5. 2025) vyšplhal na 12,93 % v divácké skupině starší 15 let.” That is, during the 2025 IIHF World Championship, from 9 to 25 May, the channel's full-day share among viewers over 15 reached 12.93 per cent. It reported that the Czech team's games averaged 1.564 million viewers, 88,000 of them on the stream.^[5] Those are seventeen days' readings.

Online, SPIR's NetMonitor, whose contractor is Gemius, publishes a monthly landscape of Czech publishers. For August 2026 it gives Česká televize as a whole 2,444,640 real users, a reach of 28.1 per cent of internet users aged 10 to 99. That figure covers all of the broadcaster's sites, not its sport site alone.^[6]

Since when has ČT sport existed?

The broadcaster's history states: “Česká televize vznikla k 1. lednu 1992 podle zákona o České televizi” — Czech Television came into being on 1 January 1992 under the Act on Czech Television, No. 483/1991 Sb.^[7] The same history lists, under 2006, “Zahájeno vysílání sportovního programu ČT4 SPORT” — the start of broadcasting of the sport channel ČT4 SPORT.^[7] The channel appears as ČT sport in the ATO-Nielsen table for 2025.^[4] The date of the change of name was not established from a retrieved source.

Why does ČT sport matter in Czechia's sport?

ČT sport is the sport channel of the statutory public broadcaster, whose law lists sports programmes among the main tasks of its public service.^[2] In 2025 it showed every game of the ice hockey world championship, and during that tournament its full-day share among viewers over 15 was 12.93 per cent, according to ATO-Nielsen data published by MediaGuru.^[5]

Two monitoring bodies have published on Czech public media. Reporters Without Borders, in its 2026 index entry, which ranks the country 11th of 180, names among the trends of the media landscape “the strong presence of respected public media (Česká Televize and Český Rozhlas), which, nonetheless, remain at the mercy of possible political pressure.” It also states: “Despite the effectiveness and transparency of the licence-fee system, the government of Andrej Babis, in power since December 2025, announced a plan to fund the public broadcasters from the state budget, which may threaten their independence.”^[8]

The Media Pluralism Monitor's 2026 page for the Czech Republic, last modified on 2 July 2026, states: “The plan to eliminate the fee and replace it with direct state funding, which Prime Minister Babiš indicated could be implemented as early as 2027, has been widely interpreted as an attempt to undermine the financial sustainability and political independence of public service media, and has drawn criticism from both domestic and international media organizations (EBU, 2026).”^[9] Those are the monitoring bodies' characterisations.