Remote Control Act postponed. Public Hearing on March 6th
The Remote Control Act is to be heard at a public hearing on March 6th at 12 pm, as decided by the Sejm Committee on Digitization, Innovation, and Modern Technologies. “In its current form, the bill would apply to 10 million households,” says Teresa Wierzbowska, President of the Management Board of the Association of Private Media Employers Lewiatan, which associates broadcasters and television operators.
On Monday, the Committee voted in favor of the motion for a public hearing of the Electronic Communications Law and its implementing provisions. In accordance with the proposal, the first five channel numbers would be assigned to TVP channels.
“In its current shape, the bill would specify channels that are assigned the first channel numbers on your remote control, and the operator’s offer would be changed through the introduction of the à la carte model. As a result, millions of customers would pay more for a poorer offer. So we need to look at this in the long term and not just in the short term. However, this requires a discussion that has been lacking so far,” says Teresa Wierzbowska.
She added that the Electronic Communications Law had been carefully consulted with various stakeholders for two years. “The bill proposer wanted to understand the actual consequences of these provisions. However, there was no discussion regarding this last-minute legislative proposal, which amends provisions of the Broadcasting Act. There was also no analysis of the consequences of the regulation. It is, therefore, important to have this room for discussion for understanding the far-reaching consequences both for the viewer and for the market. During this public hearing, we want to draw attention to the different dimensions and consequences of these regulations,” says Wierzbowska.
Nine members of the committee voted in favor of the motion for a public hearing, and nine members voted against the motion. Therefore, the vote of the session chair (Jan Grabiec of the Civil Coalition club), who voted in favor of the motion, was the decisive vote. The public hearing will cover the provisions of the Electronic Communications Law and the implementing provisions (the so-called Remote Control Act). Initially, the committee was to review amendments to the acts of law on Monday. However, following the vote on the motion for a public hearing, the work of the committee was ended.
“The Act requires talks with citizens to find out what they think about this matter. It is about the legislation dubbed lex remote. The government wants to pre-set remote controls of the Poles just before the election campaign so that the government television network could be prioritized and available by choosing the first five channel numbers,” said Arkadiusz Marchewka, member of the Civil Coalition club, during the committee meeting on Monday.
For a long time, operators and broadcasters have pointed out that provisions of the so-called Remote Control Act have not been consulted with them.
By introducing the Electronic Communications Law, the government wanted, among other things, to secure wider access for law enforcement agencies to telecommunications data of the citizens, but eventually, the government withdrew from parts of the legislation on this subject.
Meanwhile, the provisions implementing the Act on the Electronic Communications Law, despite the amendments tabled by Law and Justice, still guarantee first channel numbers to TVP channels. The provisions are also supposed to obligate television operators, namely cable networks and satellite platforms, among others, to sell individual channels (à la carte).
Today, television stations are mainly sold to customers in bundles. Operators warn that implementing12 the model of single channel purchase by customers may cost the market hundreds of millions of zlotys.