TVN Group Station with Extended License. The KRRiT is Further Analyzing the Broadcaster

Wirtualne Media | April 26, 2023

HGTV’s current satellite license expires on June 26 this year.

In a statement, the National Broadcasting Council said that “the granting of a license for the distribution of a radio or television program for the next period, in accordance with Article 35a of the Broadcasting Act of December 29, 1992 (hereinafter: urt), is preceded by an analysis of the prerequisites under Article 38 (1) and (2) of Art.”

– The subject of the KRRiT’s analysis is also the evaluation of the fulfillment of the requirements of Article 35 of the urt by an entity holding or applying for a license. At the same time, it must be emphasized that the above circumstances are also subject to evaluation and examination in the course of executing the concession. Thus, the discovery of new relevant circumstances relevant to the above-mentioned regulations, in the course of executing the concession, may result in taking appropriate proceedings in accordance with the above-mentioned regulations, it added.

At the same time, the NCRB reported that it is “continuing its work in connection with the analysis of the ownership structure of TVN, which, as of April 8, 2022, is owned by the US conglomerate Warner Bros. Discovery, formed by the merger of WarnerMedia and Discovery.” It explained that “the proceedings conducted in this case are aimed at investigating the compliance of the capital composition of TVN S.A. with the provisions of the media law.”

HGTV is the first channel owned by TVN Warner Bros. Discovery, whose license was renewed by the current composition of the National Council, appointed last fall. The previous composition made such decisions a few days before the expiration of the license – this was the case in September 2021 with the satellite license of TVN24 and early last year with the terrestrial license of TVN7.

The KRRiT commissioned the monitoring of HGTV

TVN’s application to extend HGTV’s license was submitted to the National Council last June 22. In the fall, KRRiT spokeswoman Teresa Brykczynska reported that a decision on the license would be made at one of the upcoming meetings. However, this did not happen. Later, the Council could be heard saying that a vote would take place later in January.

Instead, at the end of the year, the National Council ordered a program monitoring of HGTV. It showed no irregularities. Prof. Kowalski, who was elected to the KRRiT by the opposition majority in the Senate, also reported that Chairman Maciej Swirski had requested an expert report to assess whether there was “concession trading.” The KRRiT does not report on the results of that analysis.

HGTV mainly broadcasts programs about decorating, renting, and buying houses, apartments, and gardens. In January this year, it had a 0.31 percent share of the viewing market, up from 0.36 percent a year earlier (Nielsen Audience Measurement data).

It is a station in the portfolio of Scripps Networks Interactive, the previous owner of TVN. It was launched in Poland in January 2017, replacing TVN Meteo Active.

TVN has been owned by Americans for 8 years

The TVN Group has been in American hands since mid-2015, when it was acquired by Scripps Networks Interactive, and three years later taken over by the Discovery conglomerate. On the other hand, this spring. Discovery finalized its $40 billion acquisition of WarnerMedia from telecommunications conglomerate AT&T.

For years, TVN’s direct owner was Polish Television Holding, registered at the Amsterdam airport. Since the middle of last year, the broadcaster has been owned by Discovery Communications Benelux.

In its previous term, the KRRiT claimed that TVN was circumventing the Broadcasting Act, which is why it delayed extending the licenses for TVN24 and TVN7, which it eventually did. The law stipulates that a license can be granted to a company based in the European Economic Area. TVN’s stations met this condition, but Polish Television Holding was owned by the US-based Discovery.

TVN had already applied to the National Broadcasting Council late last year to extend the terrestrial concession of its main channel, expiring on April 14, 2024.