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ČT launches bourse broadcasting

Show looks to lure investors to BCPP

By Michael Heitmann
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
March 12th, 2008 issue

VLADIMÍR WEISS/THE PRAGUE POST
Petr Novotný refrains from using a teleprompter in his broadcasts.
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Czech Television (ČT) is mastering the art of reporting on the bulls and bears of the stock market.
The public station has begun broadcasting a show based at the Prague Stock Exchange (BCPP) three times daily. But viewers won’t see the show’s correspondents standing in front of wildly gesticulating traders in the pits — the Prague bourse is entirely electronic, with its traders reclining in front of computer screens.
Nonetheless, ČT hopes its show, Studio Burza, will give it an edge in reporting. “We can get a first-hand account,” said Lenka Dolanská, who takes turns moderating the live broadcast with her colleague Petr Novotný.
The duo recounts the bourse’s ups and downs in the morning at 8:45 and 9:35, and a wrap-up at 16:45 p.m. The morning session, part of ČT1’s breakfast show Dobré ráno, is timed to coincide with the BCPP’s opening, while the last show, on ČT24, covers the day’s business news after the close of trading.
In an unusual move for the industry, the show’s moderators have eschewed the use of teleprompters, which heightens the show’s sense of immediacy.
“The investor community in the Czech Republic is constantly expanding and quality information is the most valued commodity to investors,” said Petr Koblic, the BCPP’s general director. ČT’s professionalism and respectability guarantee high-quality programming, he added.
Memories of the tech crash of 2000, in which many small investors in the United States lost money, have led broadcasters worldwide to dampen the “stock market enthusiasm” that some of their economic reporting displayed during the bubble. Dolanská will refrain from giving any buying advice, even if upcoming developments seem clear-cut, she said.
Still in the works is a fiber-optic network that will connect the stock exchange studio with cameras in the offices of market makers around Prague.
The bourse employs a system of several competing market makers, such as the brokerages Patria Finance and Atlantik, which buy and sell stocks at their displayed offer price. ČT is negotiating with the traders but expects that analysts from the major banks and brokers will make regular appearances on Studio Burza.
Dolanská hopes that these live interviews will make the market maker system more transparent to the average viewer, which the bourse is trying to attract as investors.
Currently, there are only about 40,000 small traders in the Czech Republic, compared with 650,000 in neighboring Austria, according to the BCPP. But the bourse’s small numbers belie their sophistication: Small investors can be bold and aggressive at times, said BCPP spokesman Jiří Kovařík.

Michael Heitmann can be reached at mheitmann@praguepost.com


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