IS THERE ANY PLACE FOR LOCAL COMMERCIAL TELEVISION IN POLAND? EXPERIENCES AND PROSPECTS
The article attempts to summarize more than two decades of the development of local commercial television in Poland. The initial spontaneous flowering of local earth station during the ‘piracy period’ (1990–1994), when 19 stations operated (including 12 within the network Polonia 1) was hampered by the regulator (KRRiT – the National Broadcasting Council) after the first licensing process (1994) when Polonia 1 was eliminated and 12 licences were granted.
After two decades of changes, the market of ground stations consolidated (especially stations operating in western Poland known as TV Oder). Today there are only four broadcasters (however, TV Odra broadcasts in fi ve regional variants), the programs of local interest take only about 2 hours per day, and the remaining air time is used for retransmissions of programs of nationwide stations – TV4 or TVN.
The future of the station after switch off (July 2013) is unclear, because none of these stations has a licence for digital broadcasting. Of the three competing satellite stations in 2008–2010 only one survived (Silesian TVS), but at the cost of reducing regional materials in favour of the universal content, especially entertainment. There are few examples of successful local programs in their own cable television (one of the glorious exception is Poznań WTK).
The so-called local Internet TV is only the beginning of real television: such stations produce video content occasionally or once a week (which is short). However, in view of popularising the offer of twenty nationwide channels within the framework of digital terrestrial television in the near future (and plans to transform the public channel TVP Info into the one detached from its regional roots) the Internet will probably be the only enclave to continue the activities of local commercial television.

IS THERE ANY PLACE FOR LOCAL COMMERCIAL TELEVISION IN POLAND? EXPERIENCES AND PROSPECTS
The article attempts to summarize more than two decades of the development of local commercial television in Poland. The initial spontaneous flowering of local earth station during the ‘piracy period’ (1990–1994), when 19 stations operated (including 12 within the network Polonia 1) was hampered by the regulator (KRRiT – the National Broadcasting Council) after the first licensing process (1994) when Polonia 1 was eliminated and 12 licences were granted.
After two decades of changes, the market of ground stations consolidated (especially stations operating in western Poland known as TV Oder). Today there are only four broadcasters (however, TV Odra broadcasts in fi ve regional variants), the programs of local interest take only about 2 hours per day, and the remaining air time is used for retransmissions of programs of nationwide stations – TV4 or TVN.
The future of the station after switch off (July 2013) is unclear, because none of these stations has a licence for digital broadcasting. Of the three competing satellite stations in 2008–2010 only one survived (Silesian TVS), but at the cost of reducing regional materials in favour of the universal content, especially entertainment. There are few examples of successful local programs in their own cable television (one of the glorious exception is Poznań WTK).
The so-called local Internet TV is only the beginning of real television: such stations produce video content occasionally or once a week (which is short). However, in view of popularising the offer of twenty nationwide channels within the framework of digital terrestrial television in the near future (and plans to transform the public channel TVP Info into the one detached from its regional roots) the Internet will probably be the only enclave to continue the activities of local commercial television.