Launch of Dramox – first streaming service for theatres in Czech Republic

Launch of Dramox – first streaming service for theatres in Czech Republic

In the biggest library of recorded versions of theatre performances you can find productions of the Dejvické Theatre, Klicpera Theatre, JK Tyl Theatre, Husa na provázku Theatre and other Czech venues. There will be experimental pieces and productions that are usually sold-out. “We want to bring theatre to people’s  homes and allow them to spend more time with it than they did before,” explains one of the founders of the streaming service, Martin Zavadil. “I believe Dramox will draw more people to theatre, like similar services have drawn people to films and music,” he adds.

According to Martin Hájek, a live performance can only reach a limited audience. But Dramox extends the audience to potentially all spectators in the Czech Republic. “I initiated this platform to increase the cultural impact of theatre and help it play a bigger role in the free time of its fans. I’d been thinking about a project like Dramox for a couple of months and I’d been wondering why there was no such platform in our country, and why a service offering online theatre performances was completely missing – which I felt very strongly during the first lockdown. And that’s why I contacted Martin Zavadil and asked him if he wanted to launch Dramox. He agreed, invited Radim Horák to the team and 5 months later, Dramox is here,” describes Hájek how the service started.

The majority of the proceeds will go directly to theatres, which the co-founder Radim Horák sees as the key feature of the project: “We will support creators, actors and theatres and their operation in the time which is unfavourable for culture. In addition, theatre makers will reach wider audiences. Dramox can give you a teaser and you’ll go to see other performances live as soon as it is possible.” The service will help theatres eliminate any illegal copies of their recorded performances.

Dramox is the first Czech streaming service which provides watching recorded versions of theatre performances online. Currently, it cooperates with 30 theatres from all around the Czech Republic. It is based on two types of subscription – 299CZK per month or 2,290CZK per year. More than a half of the proceeds go to theatres themselves. Dramox also enables supporting theatres beyond the regular subscription. In that case, the portal will hand the whole sum to the institution. The platform was founded by Martin Hájek (Internet entrepreneur and Livesport owner), Martin Zavadil (who used to focus on building digital companies and worked for Creative Dock), and Radim Horák. He helped to launch the video portal voyo.cz and his own company Weemazz 2.0 which removes illegal copies for copyrights owners.

Source: Press release