Photo: Adam Kliczek, http://zatrzymujeczas.pl
The chairman of Poland’s National Broadcasting Council (KRRiT) has provided an explanation of why it is holding back on awarding a licence to TVN Discovery’s TVN7.
Responding to letters from economic organisations, including the president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Poland, Witold Kolodziejski said according to the Broadcasting Act, “a licence can be granted to a subsidiary of a company having its seat in the European Economic Area. This provision was introduced into the Polish legal system in connection with Poland’s accession to the European Union so that there would be no discrimination against entities from the European Union in relation to Polish entities. Undoubtedly, the purpose of this regulation was not to create the possibility of circumventing the norm, according to which foreign entities may not hold (even indirectly) more than 49% of shares in a company licensed in Poland. It is worth pointing out that such a restriction was in force in Poland from the beginning of the 1990s, although it should be noted that the threshold of foreign shareholders was increased from 33% to 49% at the same time as Poland joined the European Union.
“In other words, with Poland’s accession to the European Union, the limit of shareholders from outside the European Union was increased to 49% and to 100% in the case of shareholders from the European Economic Area”.
Kolodziejski added that it cannot be denied that the acquisition of shares in TVN above the 49% limit, by an entity outside the EEA, would not be possible in the light of the Polish legal system. Any investor from outside the EEA should be aware of this when investing in a concessionaire in Poland.
Significantly, he also said it should be emphasised that the American investment in TVN took place without the consent of the KRRiT, which takes all decisions by resolutions adopted by an appropriate majority, and such a resolution on the American investment in TVN never happened.
He added: “Granting the licence to TVN24 (in September last year) did not mean the KRRiT’s approval of the legal status related to the capital structure of the broadcaster. In the licensing process for TVN7, members of the KRRiT voting for the licence, taking into account primarily the interests of viewers, believe that a separate, parallel procedure should be conducted regarding the capital structure of TVN, regardless of the licensing procedure. In turn, in the opinion of the members of the Council voting against the granting of the licence, the lack of correctness of the ownership structure of the broadcaster with Polish and European law is a serious breach of the act, preventing the granting of a licence”.
