Polish Television (Telewizja Polska, TVP) is the national television broadcaster in Poland. The company operates 13 nationwide television channels, including both generalist and thematic channels focused on culture, sports, movies, history, and more. Additionally, it has a network of local channels under the TVP3 channel, and two international channels: TVP Polonia, which caters to the Polish diaspora worldwide, and TVP Wilno, which focuses on the Polish diaspora in Lithuania. TVP also operates Belsat, a broadcaster focused on neighboring Belarus. As Belsat is a subsidiary of TVP, it is analyzed separately in this report.
Media assets
Television: National- TVP1, TVP2, TVP3 (TVP3 Białystok, TVP3 Bydgoszcz, TVP3 Gdańsk, TVP3 Gorzów Wielkopolski, TVP3 Katowice, TVP3 Kielce, TVP3 Kraków, TVP3 Lublin, TVP3 Łódź, TVP3 Olsztyn, TVP3 Opole, TVP3 Poznań, TVP3 Rzeszów, TVP3 Szczecin, TVP3 Warszawa, TVP3 Wrocław), TVP Info, TVP Historia, TVP Kultura, TVP Rozrywka, TVP Seriale, TVP Sport, TVP ABC, TVP Parlament; International- TVP Polonia, Belsat TV, TVP Wilno
News portal: PolandIn
State Media Matrix Typology: State-Controlled (SC)
Ownership and governance
The public broadcasting media in Poland, including TVP and Polish Radio, are regulated by the Broadcasting Act, which was originally enacted in 1992 and has since been amended. TVP functions as a state-owned joint-stock company under the control of the Minister of State Treasury, who establishes its regulations in consultation with the KRRiT.
In 2015, the Sejm passed the Small Media Act, amending the 1992 Broadcasting Act. The amendments brought changes to the appointment procedure of the public service media governance structures. Under the new amendments, members of the Board of Management, including the President of the Board of Management and members of the Supervisory Board, were to be appointed by the Minister of the Treasury, instead of the KRRiT as was previously the case. In essence, these legal changes gave the government extraordinary powers to directly appoint the governance structures of the public media (TVP and Polish Radio), resulting in an immediate negative impact on the editorial independence of the Polish public media.
The legal changes received strong criticism from international institutions and the European Union. Thorbjørn Jagland, the Secretary General of the Council of Europe, expressed concern about the new law’s impact on the independence of public media. At the time, Dunja Miljatović, OSCE Representative on the Freedom of the Media, criticized the government’s direct control over the governance structures of Polish public media.
In 2016, in response to criticism from European institutions, the PiS-dominated Sejm passed a new law establishing the National Media Council. This council was responsible for appointing the governing bodies of TVP, Polish Radio, and the Polish Press Agency (PAP). However, three of the newly appointed council members were PiS lawmakers, which allowed the government to maintain significant control over the governing structures of Polish public media. Before this, the government had already removed unwanted employees from public media and appointed their people to lead these institutions.
After the opposition parties won enough seats in the elections on October 15, 2023, to take power from the right-wing Law and Justice (PiS) party, significant changes have occurred in the country’s public service media.
The new coalition, comprising the centrist Civic Coalition (KO), center-right Third Way (Trzecia Droga), and The Left (Lewica), led by Prime Minister Donald Tusk, began reforming the public media in the country in the fall of 2023. Their goal was to transform these institutions into independent, impartial, and pluralistic news outlets. However, their attempts have been blocked by Polish President Andrzej Duda, who represents the interests of the PiS party.
In late December 2023, President Duda vetoed a bill related to state media subsidies that the coalition put forward, labeling their actions as “illegal” seizure of public media. In response, the culture minister announced on December 27, 2023, that TVP, Polish Radio, and PAP would be placed into liquidation, a move aimed at taking back control of public service media from the former ruling PiS party. This decision came after the management of TVP, loyal to PiS, was replaced before Christmas 2023. In April 2024, a court confirmed that TVP is in a state of liquidation.
Source of funding and budget
TVP is funded through a combination of a license fee (a fee imposed on Polish households to support public broadcasting in the country), government subsidies, and advertising. According to the License Fees Act of 2005, the National Broadcasting Council (KRRiT), Poland’s media regulator, determines the level of the fee every year, not later than June 30th.
Typically, the license fee is meant to cover over 50% of the broadcaster’s budget. However, a poorly designed system for collecting the license fee (where postal workers are expected to collect money from each household in person) combined with people’s unwillingness to pay the fee (either because they dislike the station or are generally averse to spending money) has resulted in a situation where government subsidies have become TVP’s main source of funding in recent years. The government regularly uses funds from the state budget to fill the financial gaps caused by the low collection of license fees.
Some 60% of the total revenue generated through license fees is supposed to go to TVP, with the rest reserved for Polskie Radio (Polish Radio), the country’s public service radio channel.
In 2018, for example, TVP saw its revenues from sales advertising increase by nearly 14% year on year to PLN 908m (€211m), which accounted for 47% of the broadcaster’s total budget. The license fee contributed PLN 385.5m to TVP, while the government approved PLN 593.5m in state subsidy to compensate the broadcaster for the losses incurred from uncollected license fees. That means the government subsidy accounted for approximately 30% of TVP’s budget in 2018.
In its 2019 annual report, TVP stated that the license fee had generated approximately PLN 1.45bn (€330m) in revenue. However, the state covered a significant portion of that sum, resulting in a total of PLN 1bn (€250m) awarded to the station. This adjustment was made because the initially projected amount was not fully attained.
In February 2020, after intense debates, the lower house of Poland’s parliament, the Sejm, approved a state subsidy of PLN 2bn (€470m) for the public media. Approximately 60% of this subsidy was allocated to TVP, increasing the share of state subsidy to over 50% of the station’s total budget. Local experts reported that only 8% of Polish households paid the license fee in 2020. Experts criticized the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party, arguing that the generous state subsidy is used by PiS to ensure favorable political coverage on TVP’s channels.
In conclusion, although it represents less than 50% of TVP’s budget in some years, the state subsidy is utilized by the government as a potent tool to control the public media in Poland.
In February 2022, Polish President Andrzej Duda signed the 2022 budget act, granting a state subsidy of €500m to the Polish public media, with €400m of that going to TVP. In November 2022, the PiS party pushed for approval in parliament of an increase by around PLN 800m (€171m) in TVP’s budget, raising it to over PLN 2bn (€428m). Opposition MPs criticized the decision, stating that it is intended to secure funding for the electoral campaign.
According to TVP’s internet home page, the broadcaster received a total of PLN 1.02bn (€228m) between February and July 2024. The funds were awarded as the station is in a state of liquidation.
Editorial independence
The government has exerted significant influence over the editorial affairs of the Polish public media (TVP and Polish Radio) for a long time. Legal changes adopted in 2015 and 2016 further solidified this control by granting the government total power over the outlets’ employment structures. The immediate effects were evident as most independent journalists from both TVP and Polish Radio were dismissed shortly after the 2015 legal amendments were passed.
Journalists supportive of the PiS party have been employed, transforming TVP and Polish Radio into openly pro-government media outlets, often referred to as “government mouthpieces” by journalists, experts, and activists.
Over the past six years or so, numerous reports from media NGOs, independent journalists, and experts have criticized the increased government control over the editorial independence of the Polish public media. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has stated that the Polish public media serve as “government propaganda mouthpieces.”
Over the past six years, politicians from the PiS party have been chosen for top management positions at the station. This has had a negative impact on the station’s news coverage. For instance, with Jacek Kurski, a PiS politician, leading TVP, the station’s news reports became overly supportive of the government and critical of the opposition. After a period away from the director position, Kurski was re-appointed as head of TVP in July 2020.
PiS argued that preceding governments also exploited public media, reinforcing that PiS treated TVP as a state-controlled media outlet.
After the 2023 elections, the new government began reforming the station by rehiring journalists who had been dismissed by the previous administration. However, there are ongoing concerns about the broadcaster’s editorial independence, with accusations of bias towards the current government surfacing occasionally.
The Broadcasting Act enshrines the responsibilities of Poland’s public service media, TVP and Polish Radio. The act requires the public media to provide services, including information, journalism, culture, entertainment, education, and sports services, that demonstrate pluralism, impartiality, balance, autonomy, innovation, high quality, and integrity. However, these requirements are vaguely worded and have no impact on the broadcasters’ editorial independence, as they are routinely ignored.
The government exerts total control of the outlets’ editorial affairs through funding schemes and control of the governing structure.
There is no independent/oversight mechanism validating TVP’s editorial independence.
August 2024