TV license fee to be eliminated? The Ministry of Finance comments on the controversial issue
Discussions have been going on in Poland for a long time about how to finance public media. It is known that the subscription does not work. There have been numerous announcements regarding its liquidation. What could there be instead?
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Public media without state budget financing?
A key ministry commented on the draft of the new media law. In its opinion on the project, the Ministry of Finance and Economy indicated that it did not see the possibility of financing public media from the state budget in the face of the large deficit of the public finance sector.
The opinion states that the designed solutions will generate very large financial consequences – of a rigid nature – increasing state budget expenditure over 10 years by approximately PLN 25 billion, including in 2027 by PLN 2.5 billion.
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“The amount presented is impossible to cover by the budget and will have a negative impact on the general government sector calculated according to the EU methodology (ESA2010). The introduction of a mechanism for financing the public media mission directly from the state budget and the simultaneous abolition of radio and television license fees, i.e. de facto introducing a model of financing the public media mission from the state budget, will require “allocation” of funds within the limit resulting from the stabilizing expenditure rule (SRW) and will slow down the fiscal consolidation process,” we read in the opinion of the Ministry of Finance.
In the opinion of the Ministry of Finance, the optimal solution seems to be replacing the subscription fee with another source of income. At the same time, the new system of collecting funds to finance the media's public mission should be effective, simple and evenly distribute the burden.
Let us recall that due to the high deficit of the general government sector in 2023 In July 2024, Poland was subject to the excessive deficit procedure. On January 21, the EU Council adopted recommendations for Poland, setting 2028 as the deadline for eliminating the excessive deficit. Therefore, the proposed changes should not cause additional burdens on the state budget.
Who will finance public media? The Ministry of Finance sets a condition
“In connection with the above, I request the use of a mechanism making the entry into force of the Act conditional on achieving the result of the general government sector in the amount of – 4%. (minus 4%) GDP or more. I note that there are already provisions in legal acts making statutory changes dependent on specific circumstances (specified by specific provisions) that may occur in the future, an example of which is the Act on tax on goods and services,” writes the Ministry of Finance in its opinion.
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Let us recall that on December 8, the Minister of Culture and National Heritage, Marta Cienkowska, submitted a draft amendment to the Broadcasting Act for public consultations. Comments can be submitted until January 23, 2026.
The project aims to depoliticize public media, ensure stable financing and implement the European Media Freedom Act (EMFA) into the Polish legal system, i.e. the provisions of the Regulation of the European Parliament and of the EU Council of April 11, 2024 on establishing a common framework for media services in the internal market and amending Directive 2010/13/EU.
The legislator emphasizes, among other things, that the current system of financing public media does not meet the requirements set out in EMFA. It is proposed to repeal the Act on License Fees and, consequently, to abolish the obligation to pay license fees by households and other entities obliged to pay them..
The state budget is proposed as the basic source of financing the public mission of public broadcastersfrom which the funds would be transferred for purposes related to the implementation of the public mission. The proposed solution is to include a fixed amount (PLN 2.5 billion) of budget financing for public media in the draft law.
