Operators and Broadcasters Unhappy with Law and Justice Amendments to Pilot Law
Representatives of broadcasters and TV operators gathered in the Polish Chamber of Electronic Communications are not satisfied with the amendments to the so-called Pilot Law proposed by Law and Justice.
As reported by the Polish Chamber of Electronic Communications, the industry maintains its previous call for the removal of the proposed amendments to the regulations introducing the Electronic Communications Law (which modify the Broadcasting Law).
Broadcasters and operators want a transparent dialogue with the market to take place through a public hearing.
“Key provisions that are harmful to subscribers and the market, including privileging public TV programs on the remote control, the KRRiT’s selection of compulsory channels, and imposing the sale of TV in a single channel model, have not been removed in the proposed amendments. Thus, the corrections are mainly editorial, not substantive,” PIKE said in a press release.
The package of amendments to the draft, which was presented just before the start of the session of the parliamentary committee on digitization, innovation, and modern technologies, proposed reducing the number of mandatory channels, selected by the KRRiT, from 30 to 10 (already without assigning them places on the remote control).
However, the first five channels are still reserved for TVP antennas. According to Dziennik Gazeta Prawna, however, the must-carry/must-offer rule will eventually include Polsat, TVN, TV4, and TV Puls (they were excluded from it in the first version of the regulations). Still, their order on the pilot will be decided by the operators.
According to PIKE-affiliated broadcasters, implementation of the regulations in this form will lead to a deterioration in the quality of channels and reduce the richness of choice for customers.
The parliamentary committee on digitization, innovation, and modern technologies will take up the draft at its February 6 meeting.