Polish Television (TVP)

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 maintains a network of local channels under the TVP3 banner, and two international channels: TVP Polonia, which caters to the Polish diaspora worldwide, and TVP Wilno, which focuses on the Polish community in Lithuania.

As of 2025, Belsat, the Belarusian-language channel created under TVP in 2007 to counter state propaganda from the Lukashenko regime, underwent a major restructuring. Following prolonged budget disputes and the dismissal of its founding director Agnieszka Romaszewska-Guzy in March 2024, the channel was folded into a new international broadcasting structure managed by TVP World. The new arrangement placed Belsat alongside Russian-language (Vot Tak) and Ukrainian-language (Slava TV) editorial offices, each allocated six hours of daily programming. Accordingly, from 2025 onwards, Belsat will no longer be featured as a separate entity in the State Media Monitor typology, but as part of TVP’s consolidated international broadcasting portfolio.

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, TVP World-Belsat TV, TVP Wilno

News portal: PolandIn

State Media Matrix Typology

Independent State Funded and State Managed/Owned (ISFM)

Ownership and governance

Public broadcasting in Poland—including TVP and Polish Radio—is regulated by the Broadcasting Act of 1992, amended over time. TVP functions as a state-owned joint-stock company under the control of the State Treasury, with governance structures shaped in consultation with the National Broadcasting Council (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 (RMN). This council was made 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 Law and Justice (PiS) party 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 former Polish President Andrzej Duda, who represented the interests of the PiS party.

In late December 2023, 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 the news agency 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 was in a state of liquidation (and multiple subsequent rulings in 2024–2025 reaffirmed the liquidator’s authority).

During the December 2023 transition the Supervisory Board appointed Tomasz Sygut as President/CEO of TVP, a move later upheld as legally valid by Warsaw courts (Dec 2024–Feb 2025 rulings). In parallel, the PiS-backed National Media Council tried to counter-appoint Maciej Łopiński on 25 December 2023, which the Culture Ministry declared void. In October 2024 the Sejm dismissed RMN chair Krzysztof Czabański over conflict-of-interest concerns; in December 2024 Wojciech Król (KO) was appointed to RMN and elected chair on 12 December 2024. These steps are tied to aligning appointments with EMFA Article 5 safeguards now under public consultation in Poland.

The European Media Freedom Act (EMFA), in effect as of August 2025, has binding standards on transparent, merit-based appointments and editorial safeguards in public service media that create an external compliance benchmark. RSF, EBU and MFRR submissions to Poland’s 2024 consultation emphasized civil-society roles in supervisory and management boards and called for de-politicized governance procedures.

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 has been used by the government as a potent tool to control the public media in Poland.

In February 2022, former 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.

In March 2024, KRRiT suspended transfers from the license-fee system amid the governance dispute; courts later confirmed KRRiT could hold license-fee proceeds in escrow while litigation ran. In response to September 2024 floods, KRRiT approved the 2025 split of projected license-fee income— some PLN 308m for TVP and PLN 148m each for Polish Radio and regional radios—unlocking the October 2024 instalment; meanwhile, since December 2023 public media have relied mostly on state-budget tranches, with TVP’s 2024 inflows from the state roughly in the PLN 1.06–1.9bn range depending on counting methodology and timing of tranches. The Culture Ministry later confirmed PLN 2.341bn total public-media transfers in 2024.

Looking ahead, the government has floated the idea of abolishing the household license fee and replacing it with a 0.09% of GDP tax (PLN 3.5 bn/year) as a stable appropriation.

Editorial independence

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. There is no independent/oversight mechanism validating TVP’s editorial independence.

However, the government exerted significant influence over the editorial affairs of the Polish public media (TVP and Polish Radio) for many. 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 were employed, transforming TVP and Polish Radio into openly pro-government media outlets. For many years, 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.”

During the PiS’ regime, politicians from the PiS party were 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 October 2023 elections, the new Donald Tusk-led coalition moved to dismantle this system, liquidated existing management, and relaunched TVP’s flagship news with a stated commitment to impartiality. Symbolically, on 20 December 2023, TVP Info went off air, and the following day the new “19:30” bulletin promised to end propaganda and restore factual reporting.

Although TVP’s independence remains fragile—with political battles over appointments, oversight, and funding still shaping its operations—the broadcaster is no longer under the overt political control it experienced during the PiS era. Since the leadership changes and reforms of late 2023–2024, its news coverage has become more balanced. For this reason, in our State Media Monitor taxonomy, we have reclassified TVP as Independent State Funded and State Managed/Owned (ISFM).

September 2025