In recent years, public media have been supported mainly by compensation for lost subscription revenues, provided for in laws passed by the Sejm. In 2023, Telewizja Polska received a record amount of PLN 2.67 billion from television license fees and license fee compensation, than the compensation itself amounted to PLN 2.35 billion.
At the end of last year, President Andrzej Duda vetoed the law on the budget for 2024. It provided PLN 2.95 billion in compensation for Polish television, Polish radio and regional broadcasters.
Therefore, Donald Tusk’s government decided to finance these companies mainly from the budget reserve. – Due to the failure of the Chairman of the National Broadcasting Council to transfer funds from license fees to the public broadcasting entities entitled to them, the Minister of Culture and National Heritage, from February 2024, grants grants to Telewizja Polska SA in liquidation, Polskie Radio SA in liquidation and Regional Broadcasting Stations of Polskie Radio SA in liquidation of specific subsidies aimed at co-financing the implementation of the above-mentioned statutory tasks. companies related to the implementation of a public mission in accordance with the Broadcasting Act – the Ministry of Culture informed Wirtualnemedia.pl at the end of August.
In total until August this year, public broadcasters received PLN 1.275 billion, including: TVP – PLN 1.02 billion, Radio Polskie – PLN 145.3 million and regional public radio stations – PLN 109.7 million. These are subsidies obtained by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage from the general reserve and specific reserves of the State Budget.
More government support for TVP and Polish Radio
The money from the budget reserve was paid out in several installments. The last one took place in September. “Presserwis” reported that the total amount was approximately PLN 80 million. The Corporate Communications Department of Telewizja Polska informs Wirtulanemedia.pl that the public broadcaster recently received PLN 40 million from the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage. At the end of August, the ministry reported that since the beginning of the year, TVP has received PLN 1.02 billion. Thus, after the changes, public television received a total of PLN 1.06 billion from the government.
The new TVP authorities have not yet carried out any major restructuring. Although some management positions have been eliminated and savings have been made, for example all television channels continue to broadcast. Only the draft Charter of Duties for the coming years provides for their reduction.
Polish Radio received PLN 30 million in subsidies from the ministry and seventeen regional stations received almost PLN 10 million. – Polskie Radio SA in liquidation signed on September 11 this year. an agreement with the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage on co-financing from the state budget of PLN 30 million of the Company’s current expenses to ensure continued co-financing of statutory tasks related to the implementation of the public mission in 2024 specified in Art. 21 section 1 of the Act of December 29, 1992 On Broadcasting, including ensuring financial liquidity, taking into account the obligations incurred in 2024 for the implementation of this mission in 2024, through the provision of a special purpose subsidy referred to in Art. 31 section 2 and 4 of the Act of December 29, 1992 On Radio and Television Broadcasting of Polskie Radio SA in liquidation. The funds will be allocated for the purpose indicated in the agreement – informs Wirtualnemedia.pl Piotr Daniluk, spokesman for Polish Radio.
There are many indications that there will be more government subsidies for public media this year. – The cost of implementing the public mission by public media in Poland will amount to approximately PLN 3.5 billion per year – announced the Deputy Minister of Culture and National Heritage, Andrzej Wyrobiec, at the end of May.
Money also from the National Broadcasting Council
At the beginning of the year, due to changes in public media, the National Broadcasting Council froze the payment of license fees. In February, the regulator decided to transfer the money to court deposits. Many companies appealed these actions, and only those companies whose appeal had been exhausted were able to count on these funds recently. These were: Radio Poznań (a portion of PLN 720,000), Radio Rzeszów (PLN 643,000), Radio Łódź (PLN 641,000), Radio Lublin (PLN 624,000), Radio Katowice (PLN 739,000) and Radio For You (PLN 694,000). Member of the National Broadcasting Council Prof. Tadeusz Kowalski requested payments to all public media, but his request was not approved by the Council.
The National Broadcasting Council’s policy was only changed by the floods and the demand for information from the regions affected by the natural disaster. – In view of the disastrous effects of the floods that affected many Polish families, as well as the need to support public media, which are the main source of information, the National Broadcasting Council decided to amend resolution No. 40/2024 regarding the use of revenues from licence fees to implement a public mission in 2024. The Council decided to accelerate the payment of the October tranche of subscription fee funds for 2024, intended primarily for regional centers. The Council also adopted a resolution to transfer the 2022 surplus to the media in the amount of more than PLN 22 million, it announced in a press release. The regulator noted that TVP will receive 51 percent of this amount, but was obliged to transfer 70 percent of these funds to regional subsidiaries. Since December last year, TVP has not received any subscription funds. Neither has Polish Radio.
TVP’s Corporate Communications Department confirms in correspondence with Wirtualnemedia.pl that the public broadcaster received PLN 23.56 million from the National Broadcasting Council (RTV license fee from October 2024) and PLN 11.35 million (excess license fee from 2022).. Paweł Majcher, the liquidator of Polish Radio, also informed us that we received PLN 11.319 million from the license fee and more than PLN 5.451 million from the surplus. Regional radio stations received almost PLN 11.5 million from subscription fees and approximately PLN 5.4 million from the surplus.
