On Monday, September 2, on the basis of the license granted by the National Broadcasting Council in June, the wPolsce24 channel will start broadcasting on the eighth digital terrestrial television multiplex. The new news and journalistic station, with a cosmetic change in name, will replace the existing television owned by the Karnowski brothers’ company Fratria – wPolsce.pl. However, much bigger changes are coming down the pipeline.
The wPolsce24 team was joined by faces from the former TVP (Michał Adamczyk, Magdalena Ogórek, Marta Kielczyk, Maciej Tulicki, Jacek Łęski and Małgorzata Opczowska), and the schedule included announcements of programmes not so much inspired by old formats (such as “Polityka in the dessert”, which is equivalent to “In the depths of vision” from TVP Info, which directly refers to them). For example, the channel’s main news format, broadcast at 19:30, will be called “Wiadomości” (the team leader will be Maciej Tulicki, former deputy director of the Television Information Agency), and will be hosted by Michał Adamczyk and Marta Kielczyk, former presenters of this programme on TVP1.
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Does the new channel, promoted by the stars of the former TVP, have a chance of expanding the audience it can now reach via terrestrial television? The commentators we asked for their opinion on this subject were quite sceptical. They point out that in Poland 24 will be competing for the same viewers as TV Republika or Trwam, and that the competition is fierce.
Tomasz Sakiewicz’s broadcast, which was already shown at the multiplex in July, is currently the second largest audience among news channels (TVN24 is in first place according to July data from Nielsen Audience Measurement). On average, Telewizja Republika attracted 192,000 viewers (in the 4+ group), leaving Telewizja wPolsce.pl, whose average result in this group is only 16,000 viewers, far behind (the difference is 175 thousand viewers).
Barełkowski on wPolsce24: controversial and well-coordinated faces will weigh on the future of the project
– No doubt, wPolska24 is closing [na nowego widza – red.]and this is due to the division of viewer clans in Poland – comments Piotr Barełkowski, president of Telewizja Media Narodowe, former co-founder of Telewizja wPolsce.pl and TV Republika, in an interview with the Wirtualnemedia.pl portal. – Either viewers support one side of the political scene, Law and Justice, and this is TV Republika and wPolska24, which is starting on a larger scale, or they support the left side, and these are the viewers of TVN24 and TVP. When choosing contributors from the former TVP, wPolce24 chose one of the clans, which somewhat limited the possibility of reaching and gaining fans among these viewers. We are talking about supporters, for example, of the Confederation, we are talking about undecided voters, and we are talking perhaps about some supporters of the current government – Barełkowski notes.
Contrary to the statements of the creators of the new station about a “balanced message without political fervor”, our interlocutor has considerable doubts about this. – As a conservative and a voter on the right side of the political scene, I would very much like the future offspring of wPolsce24 television to be just like that, more nuanced, more ideological and not oriented towards party propaganda. However, the selection of authors raises some doubts – emphasizes Barełkowski, adding that “the disadvantage of being closed and having very united and controversial faces from the former TVP will certainly weigh on the future and the possibilities of development of this project”.
Łukasz Warzecha, a columnist for the weekly “Do Rzeczy”, also criticizes the participation of former TVP stars in the Karnowski brothers’ television and has no doubt that wPolsce24 will want to reach the same audience as TV Republika.
Former faces of TVP wPolsce24. “Addressing the concrete PiS electorate”
– The group of viewers that Republika is currently fighting for and that the Karnowski brothers want to fight for is the same group. They are the ones who watched the old TVP with passion and now it is a question of giving something back. However, the strategy adopted by both entities does not, in my opinion, imply any attempts to expand the group of former TVP viewers who remained with this station until it was taken over by the current government. And there were many centre-right viewers who gave up on the old TVP because they could not watch it. Neither TV Republika nor the Karnowski brothers have any proposal for them. However, we have a return, but under different circumstances, to the rivalry between the Karnowski brothers and Tomasz Sakiewicz. Previously, it was a competition for state money. Now there will be competition without state money, but for the same closed audience, mainly the strong PiS electorate, this time on terrestrial television. – says Warzecha, stressing that the former faces of TVP can only encourage the most loyal voters of Jarosław Kaczyński’s party.
– Michał Adamczyk is one of the most discredited figures of the former TVP. Therefore, this is clearly an appeal to the hard-core and even concrete PiS electorate. This kind of program has no chance of reaching any group other than the radical PiS supporters, especially with this person.
The columnist for the weekly “Do Rzeczy” also draws attention to another challenge facing wPolsce24, namely the financing of the station. – We must remember that launching such a television station costs a lot of money. Therefore, the question is whether this money is on the market. It is easy to do something like this when you have government money, but without it it is much more difficult, he notes.
Finances will determine Poland’s success24
Bogusław Chrabota from Rzeczpospolita also draws attention to money as a key element in the success of the Karnowskis’ new project. – Of course, the target audience is quite large. They will certainly have viewers, albeit with a distinct loss to the fast-paced TV Republika. It will be worse with advertising, because it will be difficult to convince viewers to pay another subscription fee, and free-to-air television costs money. Big costs. Not only the program, the technology, but also the fees for frequencies, broadcasting network, etc. Without significant resources, it will be difficult to maintain it during the first seasons. Sakiewicz will not help either, the editor-in-chief of the daily emphasizes.
– Of course, the faces of the former TVP will help, but I don’t know if Kurski factotum is ready for such an ordeal as launching a new channel. I’ve been through this many times, so I know how hard it is. In my opinion, the channel will survive if it finds funding for two or three years. It will not be able to survive without a reliable investor. The competition is also significant: Trwam and Republika. It is a danger for them, says our interlocutor.
Funding the wPolsce24 channel
We remind you that the terrestrial broadcasting license will cost the creators of wPolsce24 almost PLN 18 million (the payment was divided into ten installments) plus PLN 6 million annually for Emitel. In the financial assumptions included in the license application, the station owner submitted full financial documentation for himself and for partners who held more than 10 percent. shares in the Applicant’s share capital – Apella SA, Spółdzielczy Instytut Naukowy G. Bierecki Sp. j. and Mr. Jacek Karnowski.
The project’s financing sources included the Proponent’s own resources and resources from a long-term loan from the partner, Apella SA – we read in the concession. Apella’s supervisory board includes Senator for Law and Justice Grzegorz Bierecki, founder and long-time chairman of the National Savings and Credit Cooperative (SKOK).
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The loan agreement was concluded at the beginning of May this year, and the National Broadcasting Council concluded that the terrestrial license applicant had sufficiently documented the possibilities of financing a new television project.
