For months, the National Council has not been able to decide on the extension of the license for the lifestyle channel TVN Style. The station’s broadcaster submitted the application in July 2023 and sent several reminders to the regulator due to the delay. The United States ambassador, Mark Brzezinski, and the Entrepreneurship Council, which described the actions of the National Broadcasting Council as “hostile inaction”, also appealed for the extension of the channel’s license.
The National Broadcasting Council granted a license to TVN Style. Although the broadcaster submitted the application almost a year ago, Maciej Świrski was in favor only now
The resolution extending the license of TVN Style was passed by the National Broadcasting Council on Wednesday. All members of the National Broadcasting Council voted for the decision, including chairman Maciej Świrski, who in May questioned the chance of re-licensing the station. He pointed out that “granting a license for the TVN Style program could involve breaking Polish and European law.”
For this reason, the company’s capital structure will be subject to a detailed analysis by independent experts, Świrski said in a May announcement.
The chairman of the National Broadcasting Council does not like the ownership structure of TVN Warner Bros. Discovery, which is the official broadcaster of television stations. Świrski refers to Art. 35 section 3 of the Broadcasting Act, according to which foreign entities cannot own (even indirectly – ed.) more than 49 percent. shares in a company with a license in Poland.
However, the statement also stated that “with Poland’s accession to the European Union, the Broadcasting Act was amended in such a way that the limit of shareholders from outside the European Union in a company holding a license to broadcast a program was increased to 49%, and in the case of shareholders from the European Area Economic up to 100 percent.
It was also mentioned that the owner of TVN SA shares, who controls 100 percent. this company is not a European Economic Area entity because the United States is a non-EEA country. According to the head of the National Broadcasting Council, the American investment in TVN SA was made without the consent of the Council, “because such a resolution on the American investment in TVN SA has never taken place.”
TVN Style was not the only one that had problems with the license. The National Broadcasting Council did not want to extend the license for TVN24 and TVN7
This was not the first situation when the National Broadcasting Council did not want to extend the license for stations from this group. The issue that attracted the most attention was the extension of the license for TVN24 in the summer of 2021. At that time, the channel was the only major news station that was critical of the actions of the United Right government.
The National Broadcasting Council withheld the decision until almost the last days before the license expired, and the broadcaster then obtained a license from the Dutch regulator, which it intended to use if the Polish one was not extended. A few months later, the granting of a re-license for the terrestrial TVN7 was delayed.
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.
