Victory for the Opposition on the Committee on Digitization. “Lex Pilot” Postponed

wiadomosci.wp.pl | February 6, 2023

The opposition triumphs over “lex pilot.” The bill has been suspended until a public hearing, which is scheduled for March 6, 2023.

Nine members of the committee were in favor of adopting a resolution to hold a public hearing, and nine members were against it. However, in this situation, the casting vote is the vote of the chairman of the meeting, unless he abstained from voting. The chairman of the commission was Jan Grabiec (PO), who voted “for” the adoption of the resolution.

Opposition victory in the Digitization Committee: the lex pilot bill was suspended for a public hearing on March 6, Grabiec said on Twitter.

“The ‘lex pilot’ act has been postponed. The opposition won the vote at the meeting of the Digitization Committee is because we want citizens to have the right to say what they think about it. Just before the elections, the authorities changed the electoral law, gave PLN 3 billion to TVP, and now want to program citizens’ pilots. The government Is setting up a solution that will force access to government television on the first five channels, and the sequence of the next ones will be determined by the National Broadcasting Council. This is only playing for victory in the election campaign by PiS. They are not doing it with citizens in mind, but with themselves in mind, just to win the elections”, said PO MP Arkadiusz Marchewka during a press conference.

A public hearing is scheduled for noon on Monday, March 6. “Citizens have the right to know what this situation is about. They have the right to express their opinion on this matter, and it cannot be that the government introduces such an important provision a few months before the elections”,  added Marchewka.

“This law primarily affects small regional TV stations and private broadcasters. This act means that there will be a monopoly on the market, i.e. public television and public media”, emphasized Grzegorz Napieralski, deputy chairman of the commission.

“Lex Pilot”. There will be only TVP channels

The government’s project is intended to adapt Polish law to EU regulations regarding the establishment of the European Code of Electronic Communications. However, the Council of Ministers introduced an auto-correction in the draft, which is considered controversial by many commentators.

The statutory “must carry, must offer” principle (which currently assumes that the operator must include the following channels in its offer: TVP1, TVP2, Polsat, TVN, TV4, TV Puls, and the regional TVP antenna) will only include TVP channels, which additionally are to take first place in the electronic program guide in set-top boxes.

This means that if the law comes into force, all commercial channels – TVN, Polsat, TV4, and TV Puls – which are now on it will disappear from the “mandatory list.” Other mandatory stations for operators, after consultations, would be indicated by the chairman of the National Broadcasting Council. There couldn’t be more than 30 of them.

The government also wants a revolution in the functioning of operators. When offering pay TV, they would be obliged to sell access to individual channels. To date, almost all channels are sold in bundles.