The future of the radio and television license fee, which is disliked by Poles, is basically already decided. There has been talk for several weeks that the fee may be modified or replaced by another one.
The end of the TV license fee is near. New regulations from next year?
The head of the parliamentary culture committee, Bogdan Zdrojewski, stated in an interview that the appropriate act should be ready in the second half of this year. The new regulations will then have a chance to enter into force from the beginning of 2025. Unless, of course, the idea of a ruling coalition is vetoed by President Andrzej Duda. – The Act on new methods of financing the media should be ready by the end of September at the latest. The point is that if we cancel the subscription and limit advertising – because these two elements are included in both variants – we want to start 2025 from January 1 with new statutory solutions – assured the politician in Wirtualne Media. Zdrojewski added that work on a specific solution in the government is still ongoing.
As the website writes, two methods of financing public media are now being taken into account, which could replace the current RTV license fee. The first idea is a state subsidy from the budget calculated as a certain percentage of GDP. A similar solution operates today in many European countries. The second is an annual contribution (audiovisual fee) in the amount of approximately PLN 9 per month, which would be collected from each taxpayer automatically from the PIT or CIT.
An audiovisual fee that cannot be avoided?
Similar voices have appeared before. At the end of January, Tadeusz Kowalski, member of the National Broadcasting Council, stated in Wirtualna Polska’s “Newsroom” program that the subscription fee would most likely be abolished. He added that it is still unknown when this would take place, but the process would probably not be carried out by the end of this year.
According to Kowalski, a new fee will be introduced in place of the subscription fee, but its form has yet to be determined. One of the options considered is the above-mentioned audiovisual fee, imposed on all taxpayers regardless of whether they use radio and television or not. This would seal the levy for public media, which is currently paid by only a small percentage of citizens.
– Various options are being considered. One of them is the audiovisual contribution, i.e. a common fee that would be collected from all PIT, CIT or KRUS payers. It wouldn’t be a big fee, around PLN 8.34 per month, or approximately PLN 100 per year. It would give a chance to create a citizen television – said an expert in the WP studio.
Source: Gazeta
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