Poland has a taste for TV viewing that is fast rivaling that of the Italians, and a third commercial broadcaster is planning to launch this month to help meet demand. 
   In Poland viewers tune in for a massive three-and-a-half hours a day on weekends and a further 12 hours across the week.
     For advertisers, television is dominant among media by far, reaching 74 percent of the population on weekdays and 78 percent during the weekend.
    In the early 1990s, TV advertising opportunities were limited to the two state-owned channels, TVP 1 and 2.
    However, with market deregulation in 1993, an independent National Broadcast Council was established and began to license independent commercial broadcasters.
    The creation of the council had a quick impact on the commercial radio sector that almost immediately mushroomed into some 200 stations. 
   The TV market evolved more slowly, however.
   The licensing of new TV stations was restricted by limitations on foreign ownership. The first commercial station, Polsat, did not face competition until 1997, when TVN, a second cable and terrestrial station, was launched.
   Although its reach was limited to 65 percent of the country, TVN rapidly succeeded in gaining a significant audience share and the ad revenues to match.
    Now the market is set for further expansion with the launch this month of a new network called Puls.
   Puls promises family-oriented viewing and hopes to make inroads into the 80 percent market share held by TVP, Polsat and TVN. The remaining 20 percent of the market is distributed across a range of cable, satellite and digital pay-TV channels.
   Analysts believe that there is still room for further growth, particularly in the pay-TV market. The pay channel, RTL7, was launched by the film and TV giant CLT-Ufa in 1997. It is based outside of Poland and distributed by satellite in order to circumvent Polish restrictions on foreign ownership. Although it can only muster an audience share in the low single digits, it could achieve much more if it were broadcast terrestrially.
   But this is not likely to happen unless the ownership laws that bar foreign companies are changed. The National Broadcast Council is sympathetic to the case and tried without success to raise the maximum foreign ownership stake allowed from 33 percent to 49 percent. 
    Foreign investors are now waiting for Poland’s entry in to the European Union, scheduled for 2003. As a EU member, Poland will have to conform to European-wide media laws, and all ownership restrictions will be lifted.
    With big players like CLT-Ufa waiting on the sidelines, the home-grown Polish broadcasters are making the most of their unfettered access to domestic viewers while it lasts.

-Simon Bond covers European media for Media Life, writing from outside of London.

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