A New Television Has Been Launched
Global Czech and Slovak Television under the banner TV Sedna
Introducing new television programming for Czechs and Slovaks boldly named TV Sedna. In question is a radically new and unique project that crosses the boundaries of conventional and tired thought in the same manner as the recent discovery of the tenth planet of our solar system, Sedna. The name of this endearing red planet is associated with the birthplace of the national television broadcast, Canada and the indigenous peoples that inhabit its northern climes - the discoverers naming it after the Inuit goddess of the sea.The conceptualization of the new television broadcast was conjured up by a group of enthusiasts headed by Czech immigrant and media professional Ladislav Horák, who, established a successful post-production studio Creative Post Inc. in Toronto nearly twenty years ago. It was his vision to produce a television on demand through internet, whose mandate is to unite Czechs and Slovaks throughout the world. TV Sedna offers its audience the capability to hand-pick not only custom programming, but custom viewing times as well. This freedom is made possible by the currently underexploited model of communicative interactivity offered by television on demand. Currently, our broadcast quality is comparable with conventional television broadcast standards. Progressively, the digital stream of our broadcast will be improved upon until, in the near future, it will attain the quality of a high definition (HD) television broadcast - offering higher resolutions and better picture quality than conventional analogue or digital formats.
Ladislav Horák is working in conjunction with the producer and creative director of a local Czech and Slovak television group "Nový Záber", Markéta Slepcíková in her capacity as executive producer of the Czech division, and former reporter and anchor of the successful Slovak commercial television enterprise "Markíza", Katarína Homolová, head of TV Sedna's Slovak division.
The recent acceptance of the Czech and Slovak republics into the European Union has reinforced the idea of national reintegration. In the case of Czechs and Slovaks, this idea is all the more poignant given our nations' mutual histories, our linguistic affinity, and points of common cultural heritage. Therefore the boundaries between us are no longer justifiable. The aim of TV Sedna is the promotion of regional cultures, histories, and facilitating tourism, while preserving the standard Czech and Slovak languages. At stake is the realization that we, Czechs and Slovaks world-wide together exude enormous potential and influence in the countries within which we live. Through TV Sedna, we would like, with your co-operation, to further harness and expand this potential. Our nations still lack the organs of representation and promotion essential to compete on a global scale. Let us therefore help mould the new face of our peoples, presenting them to be seen in the eyes of other nations. With your help and support our television can significantly contribute to this process.
TV Sedna offers a wide assortment of thematically categorized programming. You'll find cultural, historical and sport programming as well as suitable programming for children and dependable newscasts. You will also be able to access programming covering domestic concerns such as cooking, and recreational pursuits such as travel and tourism. Additionally, furthering our sense of global community, TV Sedna will occupy itself with questions of genealogy, familiarizing our audiences with their roots or fomenting connections with family members world-wide. And all this is just the advent of greater things to come.
Over time we will integrate into our programming superstructure specialty material reflecting the customized interests of a global audience. Therefore at this time, we invite all those interested in collaborating with us to make themselves known, and to contact us. We are currently looking for correspondents and cameramen (not necessarily only professionals) from Czech and Slovak communities around the world, who would like to contribute to our programming catalogue. TV Sedna offers you the unique opportunity to participate in the creation of our broadcasting content. Of course, we welcome any suggestions of pertinent and compelling themes that you, the audience, would like to see documented by our crews. If you would be interested in co-operating with us in any capacity, please contact us, we are sure to find common ground.
Our intention is to document the past and present time of nearly 5 million Czech and Slovak émigrés around the world. We are interested in stories of humanity, portraits of successful and renown individuals, social events, cultural happenings, and all relevant bits of information useful to Czech and Slovak citizens abroad. We even plan to chronicle people's histories of emigration, to document an epoch which those of the younger generation know next to nothing about, while its witnesses begin to dwindle. We are further interested in strengthening the economic bonds between Czechs, Slovaks, and the rest of the world. We can begin by focusing on tourism etc. We broadcast in standard Czech and Slovak and will provide English sub-titles. In the near future we would also like to offer language courses for the significant segment of Czechs and Slovaks who ascribe to their cultural heritages but who do not speak the language of their progenitors. In these ways will people reclaim a noteworthy portion of their national cultural identity.
At the moment we have 500 minutes of quality initial programming created by the Toronto television group "Nový Záber". You can, for example, choose to watch an interview with Tomáš Bata or writer Josef Škvorecký, or watch performances of the Slovak folkloric dance groups during the annual Slovak day in Toronto, etc. At your disposition is the recent unofficial visit of the Czech president Vaclav Klaus to Toronto, or you can catch the celebrations commemorating the Czech and Slovak entrance into the European Union.
You may ask, "What do I need to access TV Sedna?" The answer is very straightforward. The requirements for accessing the superb picture and technical quality of our broadcast are fulfilled by virtually every computer on the market today. The minimum requirements to run TV Sedna are: Pentium 3, 600 MHz (or equivalent), 128 MB RAM, Windows 98, Internet Explorer 5.5 and Windows Media Player 7. Do not be dissuaded by this technical jargon, the probability that your computer complies with these specifications is extremely favourable. Concerning the prerequisite internet connection, a high-speed DSL or cable connection is required. And one last, final detail, click on "WATCH TV" button on our website and TV Sedna is at your command.
To augment our growing programming cache, and to be able to create the new, original programming such a collection requires, we need your help and support. We are offering an initial subscription of unlimited free viewing for the duration of three days. You will then have the option of configuring your account according to your viewing needs. Our target is free distribution. To this end TV Sedna offers excellent advertising opportunities. If you have a business, through our television, pertinent information concerning your product or service will reach the eyes and ears of Czechs and Slovaks world-wide. Logically, when advertising revenues begin to cover our production costs TV Sedna will be disseminated freely throughout the internet garnering potentially significant exposure for all content. How quickly this potential materializes depends on your co-operation.
We hope that our product and mission statement has piqued your interest, and that soon you will become not only our valued audience but our collaborators as well.
Get in touch!
Further information can be found at: www.tvsedna.com
Call us at tel. 416.979.7678 or email us at: tvsedna@creativepostinc.com
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