The offices of Polish commercial TV network Polsat and the headquarters of state-owned station TVP have been raided by officers from the Central Anti-corruption Bureau (CBA).
The moves on November 7 were over alleged collusion between the two networks, which saw the state operation allegedly paying well over the odds for broadcasting rights to the UEFA Champions League football.
Polsat is a commercial network which, unlike its competitor the US-owned TVN, was supportive of the previous Conservative (PiS) government.
It was recently rocked by a family dispute between the owner Zygmunt Solorz and his children over management of the network. His offspring have claimed that Solorz’s wife persuaded her husband to move Polsat to the Right of the political spectrum.
Liberal daily news outlet Gazeta Wyborcza has reported claims that TVP lost €85 million on an agreement to secure broadcasting rights from Polsat to the football European football league and volleyball games involving the Polish national team. TVP paid €90 million for those rights whereas the European football governing body, UEFA, had sold those to Polsat for just €5 million.
Jacek Kurski, the former TVP CEO over the period of the previous PiS government (2016-2022) has rejected the accusations, claiming: “TVP paid the market rate” and that bringing the Champions League to free-view public television was “performing a public service as well as drawing advertisers to public television as a result of an increase in the network’s viewership”.
Tomasz Matwiejczuk, a Polsat spokesman, confirmed three CBA officers had arrived at the network’s offices demanding documents that were handed over in accordance with their wishes.
He expressed surprise at the CBA probe as “Polsat had not received any request for any such documents. Had we been informed in writing we would have handed them over”.
The current Liberal Donald Tusk-led government seized control of TVP less than a week after coming into office in December 2023. The network was also raided then and some of its channels temporarily closed before the whole operation was put into liquidation, ostensibly so management changes could be imposed.
