There is an ongoing fight for Poles’ money for TV license fees. Chaos and disinformation

The National Broadcasting Council has not yet made a decision on the transfer of funds from the RTV license fee to public media for next year. The amount is up to PLN 620 million. The regulator has serious legal doubts and demands to determine the situation of public media companies.

Dispute over money from TV license fees

Let us recall that in January this year, the National Broadcasting Council decided to freeze payments to public media. This is money from radio and television license fees. In the official statement we could read that the decision was made “due to the legal chaos created in public radio and television broadcasting units caused by the decisions of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage.” In February, the amount was placed in court deposit and has not yet been distributed.

In total, the court deposit is to contain as much as PLN 490 million. Speech and money for 2024. Next, public media should receive an amount of approximately PLN 620 million, of which PLN 316.2 million to Polish Television and PLN 151.9 million to Polish Radio and regional stations. The thing is that the National Broadcasting Council is still delaying making a decision on this matter, even though the statutory deadline is September 30. The problem is the legal status of public media companies that have been put into liquidation.

Due to the nature of the legal status of public media companies, i.e. actual liquidation, the National Broadcasting Council expresses serious doubts as to the possibility of transferring subscription funds to these companies in 2025. According to the National Broadcasting Council, the public broadcasting entity’s implementation of the public mission referred to in Art. 21 section 1 of the Broadcasting Act, is excluded from the liquidation of such a company under the provisions of the Commercial Companies Code, in particular the tasks imposed on the company’s liquidator referred to in Art. 468 § 1 of the Commercial Companies Code

– we read in the announcement of the National Broadcasting Council.

The National Broadcasting Council turned to the Minister of Culture on this matter. He demands confirmation whether the liquidation of the media will continue, whether the government will withdraw from it and their legal status will be restored. Without this, the regulator does not want to make decisions on the allocation of funds. At this point, the amount for 2024 is frozen and no decision has been made about the money for 2025, so there is an impasse.

Meanwhile, the government is working on the assumptions for the new media law. This is to completely eliminate radio and television license fees. Instead, public media are to be entirely financed from the state budget.