Telewizja Polska

Telewizja Polska S.A. (TVP S.A., or Polish Television) is a public broadcasting corporation, the only public TV broadcaster in the territory of the Republic of Poland. It is the largest Polish television network, with 13 national and 16 regional channels. About a third of TVP's income comes from a broadcast receiver licence, while the rest is covered by commercials and sponsorships.

Timeline of Polish TV service[]

Main TVP headquarters at 17 Jan Paweł Woronicz street (ul. Jana Pawła Woronicza), Warsaw, Poland^[1]

1935: The PIT (Państwowy Instytut Telekomunikacyjny - National Telecommunications Institute) starts working together with Polish Radio on establishing the first television service.
1937: Completion of the first black-and-white broadcasting station.
1938: Experimental channel launched, regular programming scheduled for 1941.
1939: All equipment destroyed by the German Army.
1947: PIT resumes work on television broadcasting.
1951: First Polish telecast after the Second World War.
1952: Beginning of regular programming.
1958: Newscast Dziennik Telewizyjny was founded.
1970: TVP2 was founded.
1971: Start of colour broadcasting (in SECAM).
1989: Introduction of a teletext service.
1989: Dziennik Telewizyjny was replaced by Wiadomości.
1992: Telewizja Polska Spółka Akcyjna comes into existence upon the separation of television and radio public broadcasting by an act of parliament.
1993: Polskie Radio i Telewizja (Polish Radio and Television) joins the European Broadcasting Union as an active member (regrouping of OIRT and UER).
1994: Beginning of the change over from SECAM to PAL for all channels except TVP1.
1995: Change over from SECAM to PAL was completed as TVP1 moved to this colour standard.
2003: Change of TVP logotype.
2009: New main headquarters building opened in Warsaw.
2013: Analogue terrestrial television was switched-off

TVP channels[]

Bolded channels are accessible in Poland via DVB-T. Other channels (except TVP Parlament) are satellite and (except Belsat TV and TVP Polonia) pay television.

General and regional channels[]

TVP1: mostly news, current affairs, movies, dramas, and sports. Broadcasts 23.5 hours per day.
TVP2: mostly news, movies, comedy, soap operas, series, stand-up comedy, culture, sports and game shows. Broadcasts 23.5 hours per day.

Audience share in 2013 ^[2]
Channel	Total viewing (%)
TVP1	13.17%
TVP2	10.30%
TVP Info	2.61%
TVP Seriale	1.14%
TVP Polonia	0.68%
TVP Rozrywka	0.48%
TVP Historia	0.45%
TVP Kultura	0.41%
TVP HD	0.37%
TVP3	0.36%
TVP Sport	0.29%
Total	30.26%

TVP3: region-focused channel, which airs local programmes, and acts as the umbrella label for local stations including:
- TVP3 Białystok in Białystok for Podlaskie region
- TVP3 Bydgoszcz in Bydgoszcz-Toruń for the Kuyavian-Pomeranian region
- TVP3 Gdańsk in Trójmiasto for the Pomerania region,
- TVP3 Gorzów Wielkopolski in Gorzów Wielkopolski for Lubusz region
- TVP3 Katowice in Katowice (Upper Silesian Metropolis) for Silesian region
- TVP3 Kielce in Kielce for Holy Cross region
- TVP3 Kraków for the Lesser Poland region
- TVP3 Lublin for the Lublin region
- TVP3 Łódź for the Łódź region
- TVP3 Olsztyn for Warmia-Masuria region
- TVP3 Opole for the Opole region
- TVP3 Poznań for the Greater Poland region
- TVP3 Rzeszów for the Subcarpathian region
- TVP3 Szczecin for the West Pomerania
- TVP3 Warszawa for Warsaw and the Masovia region
- TVP3 Wrocław for the Lower Silesia region

HD channels[]

TVP1 HD: HD version of TVP1, introduced June 1, 2012;
TVP2 HD: HD version of TVP2, introduced June 1, 2012;
TVP Info HD: HD version of TVP Info, introduced September 30, 2016;
TVP HD: the best productions of TVP in HD, introduced August 6, 2008;
TVP Sport HD: HD version of TVP Sport, introduced January 12, 2014.

Specialty channels[]

TVP Info: news channel. Broadcasts 24 hours per day.
TVP Historia: focusing on history. Broadcasts 20 hours per day.
TVP Kultura: high-brow culture channel, available on cable, satellite and DSL. Broadcasts 21 hours per day.
TVP Polonia: retransmits selected TVP programming for the Polish diaspora (the so-called Polonia) in the USA, Canada, Latin America, Australia and New Zealand, South Africa, Europe, and the Caucasus. Broadcasts 24 hours per day.
TVP Rozrywka: focusing on entertainment. Broadcasts 20 hours per day.
TVP Seriale: focusing on series. Broadcasts 21 hours per day
TVP Sport: sport channel available on cable, satellite and DSL. Broadcasts 17 hours per day.
TVP ABC: Children's channel. Broadcasts 15 hours per day.
TVP Parlament: parliamentary channel. Broadcasts online.

Non-Polish language broadcasting includes Belsat TV – channel in the Belarusian language presenting news and subject-specific programming for the people of Belarus. Broadcasts 16 hours per day.

Criticism[]

In late 2010s, TVP has been criticized for becoming unduly biased towards the ruling Prawo i Sprawiedliwość (PiS) party. In 2018, The Economist noted: "the [TVP] anchors... praise PiS slavishly while branding its critics treacherous crypto-communists.^[3]

International cooperation[]

TVP has an agreement with the BBC, under which they will work together oin film and television productions.^[4]

The French-German TV liberal arts network ARTE cancelled a 15-year cooperation with TVP,^[5] when it learned in February 2009 that TVP's general director, Piotr Farfał, was a member of the League of Polish Families, which opposed Arte’s "philosophy based on intercultural exchange"^[6] and "the party that TVP's chairman is presently connected with does not share European values".^[7] It was again cancelled in January 2016 after an amendment of the media law in Poland, which caused fears of a lack of pluralism and independence of TVP.^[8]