The Polish National Broadcasting Council (KRRiT) has no plans to privatise the public broadcaster TVP.
However, according to the regulator’s chairman Jan Dworak, it has far-reaching suggestions on how TVP should be funded in the future.
Put simply, it would like to see its annual revenues raised from the current PLN1.4 billion (€334.7 million) to PLN2 billion, with 80% of the latter being obtained from new audiovisual fees charged to viewers.
What is more, the KRRiT would like TVP to stop carrying commercials – a move that would, in its view, benefit the market as a whole.
Dworak spoke at some length about a new audiovisual strategy for 2014-16 being currently devised by the regulator.
It is in the process of obtaining views of stakeholders in the industry and expects the process to take another three months.
Dworak also spoke of the need for a common European strategy as national legislation is not enough.
This did not mean creating a super regulator, but rather EU industry regulators working together, as has already been suggested by France.
Juliusz Braun, the president of TVP, said that the public broadcaster’s aim was not to make money.
At the same time, it would like to retain a combined market share of around a third for its TV channels.
