About 5 million Czech viewers, half of the population, are able to watch the new television through digital broadcasting, cable channels, or satellite.

TV Barrandov (www.barrandov.tv) is owned by Barrandov Televizni studio and Moravia Steel a.s. (www.moraviasteel.cz) A group of investors headed by steel mogul Tomas Chrenek, who also owns a major equity share Barrandov film studios (www.barrandov.com), invested one billion crowns (€37 million) into the launch, press representatives to TV Barrandov announced recently.

Both Barrandov studios and TV Barrandov have the same director, Janka Vozarova, who is the Chairperson of the Board of Directors as well as Barrandov´s General Director.

According to Janis Sidovsky, marketing director of TV Barrandov, the new station wants to focus on young viewers around 30 years old, using the rich film archive of Barrandov studios.

After TV Nova (www.nova.cz) and TV Prima (www.iprima.cz), TV Barrandov is the third full-programme television in Czech Republic, combining both news and documentaries with movies, TV series, and entertainment talkshows.

The first days of broadcasting by TV Barrandov received mixed reviews; several critics argued that the main celebrities of the new station were former TV Nova stars who used to be popular in the late 1990´s.