Commercial broadcasters to operate on the second multiplex

2010-01-18

The four commercial TV broadcasters, TVN, Polsat, TV4 and TV Plus, have petitioned the Office of Electronic Communications (UKE) for the change of radio frequencies reserved for them for the purpose of digital terrestrial broadcasting. Initially, the commercial broadcasters were to use the first multiplex and share it with TVP, the public television. It turned out, however, that it is impossible as commercial stations cannot organise a tender together with a public broadcasting company and, therefore, they will most probably broadcast via the second multiplex.
The National Broadcasting Council (KRRiTV) wants TVP, the public broadcaster, to transmit three of its stations on the first multiplex and seven stations on the third multiplex. The UKE, however, wants to introduce on the Polish broadcasting market as many players as possible and it does not want to favour existing market leaders.
These four broadcasters were to have switched from analogue to digital terrestrial television broadcasting in September 2009. However, due to a lack of agreement concerning the multiplexes between the UKE and the KRRiTV, the process of changing into the digital terrestrial broadcasting has been delayed.
The switchover from analogue to digital terrestrial television broadcasting was planned to be completed in July 2013. At present, however, the first multiplex has commenced operating on a trial basis only in several major cities.