Poland

[PL] Planning of Digital Terrestrial Television

IRIS 2003-9:1/23

Małgorzata Pęk

National Broadcasting Council of Poland

On 12 June 2003 the Chairperson of the National Broadcasting Council (NBC) sent a constitutive document entitled "Introductory assumptions of the development for digital terrestrial radio and television in Poland" to the Commission for Culture and Mass Media of the Polish Parliament.

The document stresses the importance of taking decisive steps towards the development of digital terrestrial broadcasting in Poland. According to the report, the Polish broadcasting sector has reached a level that requires the switch-over to digital technology with the aim of obtaining new programming and market possibilities and to accelerate the process of developing the information society. The introduction of digital terrestrial broadcasting would also fulfil some of the aims of the "e-Poland" programme and would follow the EU Lisbon Strategy. The changeover has to be a long-term and carefully prepared project, which therefore will need extensive consultations with administrative and regulatory authorities (regarding, for example, such issues as frequency allocation), broadcasters, providers of additional services, providers of transmission networks, as well as producers and distributors of consumer equipment (particularly set-top-boxes). Considering the substantial cost of the switch-over to digital technology, the public interest must be taken into account.

Currently in Poland only satellite digital broadcasting is available; programme services in digital form are transmitted by satellite to the recipients either via individual satellite decoders or via analogue cable networks. The two only digital satellite platforms, Cyfra+ and Polsat 2, provide access to more than 300 programme services, including 19 Polish ones. The number of individual subscribers ­ based on a rough estimate for 2003 ­ of Cyfra+ in June was 650,000, while Polsat has sold around 380,000 of its decoders so far.

Based on the experiences of other European countries, the document indicates various elements that should be taken into account before choosing the method for introducing digital technology. It describes the different costs related to analogue-digital transformation, various possible obstacles, etc. It is estimated that during the first stage of introducing digital terrestrial television it will be possible to broadcast 8 or 10 national programme services and 8 or 10 cross-regional programme services, within two national and two cross-regional networks. Limitations regarding the introduction of the digital terrestrial radio are of a different nature.