Stacja wPolsce24 will begin broadcasting on the eighth digital terrestrial television multiplex next Monday, September 2based on the license granted in mid-June by the National Broadcasting Council. The launch was officially announced last Friday, and the new channel’s main journalists and programs were announced on Monday.
In addition to the journalists belonging to the Fratria, the weekly “Sieci” and the portal wPolityce.pl will be on air until December last year. related to Polish television. As we have already reported, the main news service “Wiadomości” will be led by Michał Adamczyk and Marta Kielczyk, and the morning broadcast by Magdalena Ogórek, Małgorzata Opczowska, Rafał Porzeziński and Jacek Łęski.
The hosts of other channels and reporters will be Małgorzata Gałka, Magdalena Wierzchowska and Damian Staisławski, while Marcin Tulicki is the head of the new “Wiadomości” and deputy editor-in-chief of wPolsce24, until December last year. deputy director of the Television Information Agency.
wPolsce24 instead of Telewizja wPolsce.pl
Fratria already has Telewizja wPolsce.plwhich began broadcasting in mid-2017 on YouTube, began appearing on cable networks and digital platforms after a few months. It is available, among others: on Polsat Box, Netia, Vectra, Orange and Play.
– You are asking us whether it will be possible to watch the new TV from existing providers. The answer is: YES – was announced on the broadcaster’s social media profiles. – On September 2, wPolsce.pl station will change to wPolsce24. You will still be able to watch us on the same band – he announced.
Telewizja Republika opted for a different solution: it transferred its current news channel (with a slightly changed name and logo) to terrestrial television and, in the first half of August, launched a new station with a general profile (as we reported in the series earlier this week featuring iconic Polish fairy tales).
wPolsce24 licensed for MUX-8 by the National Broadcasting Council
Telewizja wPolsce24 will appear on the eighth terrestrial television multiplex thanks to the license granted in the second half of June by the National Broadcasting Council. A license was also granted to the Republika channel (broadcast by TV Republika), while the applications of PTV (TV2 Media) and Polska24 (MWE Networks Group) were lost. Republika began broadcasting on 12 July.
READ ALSO: An additional TV station, Republika, is launched. “We are thinking of three channels”
Meanwhile, wPolsce24 will start broadcasting on the latest possible date. The National Council issued the licensing documents on July 2 and, according to the license, the broadcaster has two months from that date to begin broadcasting.
As we have already described, at the end of July a board appeared on channel 52 of digital terrestrial television with the inscription: “TV wPolsce24 will be here soon. Tell others to tune in.” The station’s logo is slightly different from that of Telewizja wPolsce.pl. In addition, on wPolsce.pl, above the information bar, the launch of a new channel was announced.
MWE Networks Group has filed a complaint with the court against the decision of the National Broadcasting Council to grant terrestrial licences to the Republic of Poland and Poland24. The broadcaster accuses the regulator of, among other things, a lack of impartiality.
wPolsce24 schedule according to license
The wPolsce24 channel will have an informative and journalistic character and will be broadcast 24 hours a day. News broadcasts should not occupy less than 40 percent of the weekly program broadcast time between 6:00 and 23:00, and news programs should not occupy less than 30 percent. The broadcaster’s offering will also include, on a smaller scale, documentary, educational and religious programs.
– The news and journalism channel wPolsce24 will be a significant addition to the range of specialist stations focused on disseminating information on current political, social, cultural, economic, religious and sports events. Poland’s current media map lacks an entity that would provide balanced information about the modern world and, in the journalistic layer, complement the often ideologically-driven message of other broadcasters. We see a significant gap in the media market – There is a lack of a conscious broadcaster that shows viewers from all over the world without political fervor, without hiding its conservative identity. We intend to clearly separate information from comments, and in the latter to take advantage of the synergy between the television channel and other projects of the candidate: the portal wpolityce.pl and the traditionally published press titles Sieci and Gazeta Bankowa – this is how the company associated with the Karnowski brothers justified the request for a license.
The new channel’s morning block will be conducted in a relaxed infotainment style. It will include material on the previous day’s events, event announcements and an analysis of the press and the Internet. In the afternoon you will also be able to watch reporters’ calls and broadcasts of political events and press conferences. Politicians will be guests on the station. From 6 pm onwards, wPolsce24 will summarize the past day. Then the main news and current affairs program with guests will go on air. From 9pm to 10pm, two journalists will comment on current affairs in a fun way. The documentary series is scheduled to begin one hour before midnight. On Saturday, orientation programs and talk shows will be shown. Holy Mass will be broadcast on Sunday.
The loan aims to help with financing
A terrestrial broadcasting licence costs almost PLN 18 million (payable in ten installments). To this we must add more than PLN 6 million annually for Emitel. – In the economic and financial part, the Applicant submitted financial assumptions for the implementation of the project of a television programme distributed via digital terrestrial broadcasting in the eighth multiplex. The application contains full financial documentation of the Applicant and its partners who hold more than 10% shares in the Applicant’s share capital – Apella SA, Spółdzielczy Instytut Naukowy G. Bierecki Sp. j. and Mr. Jacek Karnowski. The sources of financing for the project included the Applicant’s own resources and resources that will come from a long-term loan from the partner, Apella SA – we read in the concession.
The relevant documents are attached to the application. – In order to document the possibility of financing the project with a loan, the application is accompanied by a Loan Agreement dated 6 May 2024, concluded between the Applicant and Apella SA, conditional on the award of the concession in question. The National Broadcasting Council stated that, according to the documents and information attached to the application, the Applicant has documented the possibility of financing the television project in the manner provided for in the application – added the National Broadcasting Council. Apella’s supervisory board includes Senator for Law and Justice Grzegorz Bierecki, founder and longtime chairman of the National Savings and Credit Cooperative Union (SKOK).
Fraternities with millions of dollars in profits and dividends
In 2023, Fratria, which, in addition to the television wPolsce.pl, includes, among others, the weekly “Sieci”, the monthly “Gazeta Bankowa” and the portal wPolityce, with an increase in revenues of 10.7% to PLN 41.66 million, earned PLN 6.8 million net, two-thirds more than last year.
From last year’s profit PLN 74.3 thousand PLN were allocated to supplementary capital and PLN 6.7 million to dividends, which was divided into three installments: PLN 4 million by July 20 and PLN 1.35 million by the end of September and December. 50.26 percent of the dividend will be received by the G.Bierecki Cooperative Scientific Institute, and the rest by Apella (28.01%), editor-in-chief of “Sieci” Jacek Karnowski (16.25%), member of the board of directors of Fratria for publishing Michał Karnowski (4.94%) and the president of the company Romuald Orzeł (0.54%).
The report noted that this year the dividend amount was determined “taking into account planned investments in television”.
In recent years, Fratria has regularly paid dividends worth several million zlotys. Last year, almost PLN 4.01 million of the previous year’s net profit went to shareholders. A year earlier, the company made a net profit of PLN 4.59 million, of which PLN 4.57 million went to dividends. Net profit in 2020 amounted to PLN 7.14 million and was almost entirely paid to shareholders, in 2019 – PLN 3.18 million (PLN 3.17 million was allocated to dividends), and a year earlier – PLN 2.18 million (PLN 1.5 million to dividends).
