Operators of advertising tarpaulin spaces on buildings in Prague consider the new decree on the regulation of outdoor advertising to be discriminatory and want to repeal it.
This was stated at a press conference yesterday by representatives of the Association of Czech Outdoor Advertising Companies (SČVR). The decree is to apply from October.
About 120 large tarpaulin advertising boards and 1,400 advertisement spaces on benches are to disappear from Prague beginning October, but about 11,000 more billboards outdoors or inside public transport will remain.
According to the chairman of the association, Josef Soušek, the decree affects smaller businesses rather than large companies that have long-term leases with the municipality.
“Our goal is to repeal the decree and at the same time repeal the practice where the municipality and city districts automatically extend contracts for the lease of spaces for advertising,” he said.
Advertising on tarpaulins on the facades of buildings does not require a permit, and according to Soušek, the city cannot regulate it, so it was decided to ban them altogether.
Prague councilor Hana Třeštíková (Praha Sobě) stands behind the new regulation. “Advertising regulations have not yet been enforced outside the historic center,” she said.
According to Filip Antonín from the company Famedia, which operates about 25 tarpaulins on residential buildings in Prague, the new restriction only affects smaller Czech companies.
“If we take off the advertising tarpaulins, the visual ‘smog’ will stay anyway. The city should just try to limit it. But instead, it keeps extending leases with major companies that have advertisements all over the city,” he added.
Last December, the Prague City Council issued an amendment to a decree extending the restrictions on advertising in the Prague Monument Reserve (PPR) to a large part of the metropolis.
The Prague coalition has a program to reduce the so-called visual smog. Additionally, councilors have also approved rules for the appearance of establishments in protected areas and that are located in city-owned buildings.
The municipality also terminated dozens of land contracts, which it previously leased to various companies for the placement of advertising banners.
