The current act on public media assumes payment for the mere possession of a television or radio receiver. So if there is a TV in the house, but the owners only use it to play games or use streaming platforms, they are still charged. The rate for a radio is over PLN 100 per year (PLN 8.70 per month), and for a television or television and radio receiver it costs almost PLN 330 per year (PLN 27.30 per month).
Jan Dworak on the revolution in financing public media
MP Bogdan Zdrojewski, the new chairman of the parliamentary committee for culture and media, recently emphasized in an interview with the Wirtualne Media portal that the RTV license fee is “anachronistic, unfair, ineffective and brings quite questionable income when it comes to television.” He announced changes. In an interview with “Fakt” he presented two ideas.
According to the first concept, Zdrojewski will want to completely abolish the subscription fee and finance public media from the state budget. The second way is a direct fee from taxpayers’ wallets. This idea was also included in the assumptions of the new act on public media created by Jan Dworak, former president of TVP, and experts.
“TVP should not participate in the fight for advertising budgets”
The document, obtained by the Wirtualne Media portal, states that the new solution is intended to make public media financially independent from both government decisions and competition on the advertising market. The authors of the project point out that due to the lack of funds, public media competed with private broadcasters for commercial content. “This was at the expense of the quality of the program and the proper implementation of the tasks expected from public media,” we read in the document.
Jan Dworak in an interview with Wirtualne Media emphasizes that it is not possible to completely eliminate advertising from Telewizja Polska. He mentioned sports events and international events here. “it should not participate in the fight for advertising budgets with commercial companies. Such competition causes public media to focus on producing programs that attract the widest possible audience, rather than aspirational programs, because only with a wide audience can you get a fair price for advertising,” he noted.
How much should the audiovisual fee be? We know the proposed amount
Instead of an RTV license fee, the authors of the draft new act on public media propose an audiovisual fee. Under it, it would not be households but taxpayers who would be charged the fee. According to preliminary calculations, the contribution would amount to approximately PLN 100 per year, i.e. PLN 8.50 per month for each taxpayer.
“This type of calculation means that an average household consisting of two people paying income tax would bear a lower burden than currently resulting from the subscription fee, i.e. PLN 27.30 per household,” the authors note. In addition, the document emphasizes that low-income people, the unemployed, pensioners and people “with visual or hearing impairments” would be exempt from the obligation to pay fees.
Source: Gazeta
Bruce is a talented author and journalist with a passion for entertainment . He currently works as a writer at the 247 News Agency, where he has established himself as a respected voice in the industry.
