Just as you can subscribe to watch movies and series on TV or on a computer, the new Czech video portal Dramox has been operating since Tuesday. It offers recordings of theater performances at a time when, due to the coronavirus pandemic, the theater had to stop performing for the second time this year.
Dramox so far it includes forty plays from 30 stages, including the Dejvice Theater in Prague or the Brno Goose on a String. Users can play individual games from the menu at any time.
55 percent of the subscription service will be sent back to the creators, says one of the founders, Martin Zavadil. A monthly subscription costs 299 crowns, an annual 2990 crowns. It is currently possible to try the video library for free for seven days, but after entering a valid e-mail address, the user must provide information about his payment card.
We help theaters on the Internet and launch Dramox, the first Czech theater streaming service. It will significantly expand the range of performances you can see and help theaters in difficult times. The curtains are rising, we are starting! https://t.co/lap8UM1xIM pic.twitter.com/JLqHSxV9oF
– Martin Hajek (@marthajek) October 20, 2020
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According to Hospodářské noviny the money will go to specific creators according to viewership. “For example, if someone sees only plays from one theater, this scene gets the full share of their subscription. If a viewer sees 100 performances from different theaters, the amount is divided among them. Users will also be able to directly support individual theaters beyond their flat rate. Dramox will not keep a penny of this money, “Hospodářské noviny described.
The founders of the service count on thousands of subscribers. So far, most of the productions on offer are recordings made by Czech Television, while the television fee for providing the recordings was one of the initial investments in the portal.
Over time, however, Dramox wants to make its own recordings and use as many cameras and screens as possible. There are also recordings of ballet, musicals and operas.
Dramox subscriptions cost a little more than, for example, a Netflix account, which can be purchased for CZK 199 per month. The HBO GO video library collects 159 crowns per month, HBO film channels with film premieres cost from 235 crowns per month.
The Dramox subscription also includes support for theater creators. Those interested can support theaters through the service beyond the subscription. Theaters do not expect Dramox to compensate them for the loss of sales, but they welcome any help. “We don’t know how big it will be yet, because Dramox is just starting. We will have to wait, but it is definitely something that will at least relieve us a bit,” Blanka Cichon, director of the Dejvice Theater, told Hospodářské noviny.
In the Dramox library it is possible to see performances of the Dejvice Theater in Prague, the Klicper Theater in Hradec Králové, the FX Šalda Theater in Liberec, the JK Tyl Theater in Pilsen, the Zlín Municipal Theater or the Goose on a String in Brno. So far, on the contrary, the Prague National Theater, the Vinohrady Theater and the Pod Palmovkou Theater are missing.
The founders promise to add new performances every month. They started with dramas and puppets, because it was easiest to get the rights to them.
The portal currently offers productions Marriage from the Na Jezerce Theater, Liar from the Theater in Dlouhá, Whimsical Summer by the Theater in Celetná or Velvet Havel and The Golden Sixties or the Diary of Pavel J. from the Na Zábradlí Theater. The most popular records include The Black Hole, Teremin and Stories of Ordinary Madness, all three from the Dejvice Theater, or the Baskerville Dog from the South Bohemian Theater.
Dramox also wants to present archival productions or those they already have after the last show. Viewers will also be able to access performances that are normally sold out.
The founders of the service have to deal with all copyright holders, but they are usually accommodating at the time of coronavirus. A few days ago, for example, Dramox acquired the rights to two productions of Milan Kundera’s plays.
“We want to get the theater closer to the people and allow them to spend more time with it than they could so far,” says one of the founders, Martin Zavadil. “I believe that Dramox will attract more people to the theater. As before, similar services have attracted more people to movies or listening to music,” he added.
In addition to Zavadil, who previously worked for Creative Dock, the founders of Dramox are Radim Horák and Martin Hájek, an internet entrepreneur and owner of the Livesport brand, which offers a worldwide popular overview of live updated sports results or a sports news aggregator.
According to Hájek, every live performance can only reach a limited audience, while Dramox has the potential to reach audiences throughout the Czech Republic. “I was even more aware of the service that will offer performances online at the time of the first lockdown,” said Hájek, who has been preparing the theatrical video library for five months. Originally, he wanted to launch it around Christmas, due to the current closure of theaters throughout the country, he hastened the plan. That is also why Dramox will only be launching applications for smart TVs and mobile phones in time.
Another of the founders of the portal, Radim Horák, previously helped launch the Nova Voyo.cz television video portal and owns the Weemazz 2.0 company, which removes illegal copies of their works from the Internet for copyright owners. According to the founders, this could also happen through Dramox.
As Hospodářské noviny reminds us, the government is also trying to compensate theaters for losses. For closed scenes, the state will reimburse one hundred percent of the salaries and contributions of their employees up to the amount of 50 thousand crowns. Self-employed persons among theatergoers who do not have a main employment are entitled to a contribution of 60,000 crowns from the Covid Culture program.
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