Telewizja Polsat TV4 KRRiT must carry, must offer penalty, court of appeal, verdict

On 7 September 2018, the head of the National Broadcasting Council, Witold Kołodziejski, imposed a ban on Telewizja Polsat PLN 9,862.40 fine under the terms of article 53 of the Broadcasting Law. It allows the application of a fine in cases of, among others: breaching the broadcaster’s obligation to make the television programme available free of charge. – If the broadcaster has not complied with the obligation to make the programme available free of charge, the President of the National Council, at the request of the operator redistributing the programme, requests the broadcaster to make the programme available to this operator within 14 days from the date of delivery of the request – we read in the respective article 43 of the Radio and Television Law.

The National Broadcasting Council announced in a statement that Telewizja Polsat had failed to comply with the order of 10 October 2017 regarding the free provision of the programmes “Polsat” and “TV4” to the operator managing the programmes of the Grudziądz Housing Cooperative. After the fine was imposed, the broadcaster appealed to the courts. – The Warsaw Court of Appeal confirmed that there was no violation of procedural or substantive provisions in the decision issued by the Chairman of the National Broadcasting Council, fully agreeing with the judgment of the Warsaw District Court of 22 May 2023. – the National Broadcasting Council added in a statement. Polsat must return PLN 1,350 to the chairman of the National Broadcasting Council for the costs of the proceedings.

Problems with compliance with the must carry, must offer principle

According to the must carry, must offer principle, cable networks, satellite platforms and streaming services with linear channels registered in Poland must offer: TVP1, TVP2, TVP3, Polsat, TV4, TVN and TV Puls. Broadcasters must not block the free distribution of these stations. There are usually no problems with traditional operators complying with this rule. However, they often occur on streaming services from the largest broadcasters. Of these, only Canal+ online offers all the stations covered by the rule.

Polsat Box Go is missing: TVP1, TVP2, TVP3, TVN, Player is missing TVP1, TVP2, TVP3, Polsat and TV4, while TVP VOD is missing Polsat, TV4, TVN and TV Puls. Broadcasters are reluctant to make their channels available to encourage viewers to also use their streaming service. Another sticking point in these deals is the CDN issue. Telewizja Polska wants other platforms to make stations available from its servers.

The public broadcaster recently assured that it was in talks with the services of commercial broadcasters. – Only television programmes broadcast by Telewizja Polska are available on the TVP VOD and TVP GO services. In accordance with the applicable Charter of Obligations, TVP distributes its programmes on ICT systems, to the extent possible in light of the rights and licences acquired. TVP is in constant contact with the operators of the Player and Polsat Box Go platforms. We will inform you about any measures regarding the programmes covered by the must carry, must offer principle in due time – said in May this year Wirtualnemedia.pl corporate communications department of TVP.

The National Broadcasting Council has repeatedly called on streaming service providers to comply with the must carry, must offer principle. However, it has not decided to punish any of the platforms. – The operator that distributes programmes and thus also the OTT service provider, in case of violation of the must carry/must offer principle, you may be subject to a fine of up to 10%. revenue The operator’s revenues for the previous financial year, imposed by the Chairman of the National Broadcasting Council (KRRiT). The broadcaster may also be subject to a financial penalty if he violates his obligations under the must carry/must offer principles. In case of violation, he is subject to a fine of up to 50 percent. an annual fee for the right to use a frequency intended for terrestrial broadcasting of a program and, if the broadcaster does not pay a fee for the right to use such a frequency, a fine of up to 10 percent. the broadcaster’s revenues – Jakub Borowiak, a lawyer at the Media Law Firm, recently said in an interview with Wirtualnemedia.pl.