Czech Television Council approves salary and new bonus structure for Director General Hynek Chudárek

The Czech Television Council, the supervisory body for the nation's public service broadcaster, approved the employment agreement for the new Director General, Hynek Chudárek, on Wednesday, July 16, 2025. The terms, which were supported by 11 of the 12 council members present, establish his monthly salary and a revised structure for performance bonuses.

Chudárek, who assumed his role at the beginning of July, will receive a gross monthly salary of CZK 346,800 (approximately CZK 252,000 net). The contract stipulates that this amount will be adjusted annually on January 1st to equal six times the average salary of a Czech Television (ČT) employee from the previous calendar year, a practice consistent with previous agreements.

A key change in the new contract is the frequency of bonus evaluations. The Director General's performance will now be assessed on a semi-annual basis, rather than annually. For each six-month period, Chudárek can be awarded a bonus of up to five times his gross monthly salary. While the evaluation period is shorter, the maximum potential annual bonus remains the same as for his predecessors, totaling up to ten times his monthly salary, or currently CZK 3,468,000 gross.

The Council has already defined the criteria for the first evaluation period, running until the end of 2025. The most significant factors are maintaining a balanced budget (30% weighting) and effective communication with the Council and implementation of its resolutions (20%). Other criteria include legal and ethical compliance (15%), fulfillment of long-term plans (15%), actively promoting the broadcaster's reputation (10%), and achieving specific targets for audience market share and viewer satisfaction (5% each). Should the Council fail to decide on the bonus amount within the stipulated timeframe, the Director General is automatically entitled to 60% of the maximum possible bonus.

For context, Chudárek’s immediate predecessor, Jan Souček, who served for a year and a half, earned a monthly salary of CZK 289,000. Souček is currently in a dispute with Czech Television over his bonus for 2024, for which the Council awarded him only 10% of the maximum amount. He claims the decision was made improperly and is demanding a further payment of CZK 1.3 million, arguing his contract guaranteed a 50% payout if the Council did not reach a valid decision. Czech Television has rejected his claim.

Petr Dvořák, the long-serving Director General from 2011 to 2023, started with a salary of CZK 200,000, which grew to CZK 242,000 by his second term in 2017. He regularly received the maximum annual bonus until 2020, when the composition of the oversight Council changed, leading to reductions in his bonuses for 2019 and 2020. Dvořák later successfully claimed back part of a reduced bonus after a Council resolution was deemed invalid.