The Broadcasting Act adopted by the Parliament on December 29, 1992 allows foreign investors to hold only minority shares (max. 33%) in Polish electronic media. Licences for wireless television broadcasting, which are granted for maximum 10 years (radio broadcasting ś seven years), can be given to individuals of Polish citizenship and permanent residence in Poland, or to any corporate body with the head office in Poland. In the case of companies with foreign capital shares, their participation in initial and stock capital of the company cannot exceed 33%. Moreover, members of the Board of Directors and Supervisors should in majority consist of Polish citizens living in Poland, and the number of votes of foreign entities at the general essembly should not exceed 33%. These rules remain in force also after granting the licence. Any changes in the ownership structure of the licence-granted entities (even in the case of only Polish share-holders) must be accepted by the National Radio and Television Broadcasting Council (KRRiT) after a very thorough verification.

Informacje, Polsat

Teleexpress, TVP1

Wiadomoœci, TVP1

Since the middle of 1994 after a four-year-long period of ćpirateę or ćtemporaryę broadcastersę activity the formation of the on-the-air order with legal means has been going on. At that time two national stations (RMF FM and Radio Zet), which had been launched at the beginning of the 1990s, strengthened their broadcasting position. Since 1997 the consolidation of broadcasters and concentration of the ownership can be observed as well as a greater involvement of foreign investors in Polish radio and television market.

At present most of the non-religious radio broadcasters of national (or regional, linked into networks) transmission range have foreign partners. However, the scattering of investments still prevails, though the sources of investments are traditional, especially after the withdrawal of Belgian, Irish and Scandinavian companies. They are represented for instance by France (EDI ś as Eurozet company involved in Radio Zet and Radiostacja), Germany (Eurocast in Radio WAWa), Great Britain (GWR Group PLC in Radio TOK FM) or the USA (Cox Enterprises as Agora SA holding in 14 local stations). Recently, a remarkable activity of Advent International, the British-American investment trust, can be observed (in Radio Kolor and ś indirectly ś in Radio Zet and Radiostacja). Nevertheless, as yet it is hard to speak about advanced ownership concentration in Poland, though we can find examples of entities which invest in several different undertakings, e.g. Advent fund, Agora company or Eurozet media group. Foreign shareholders in Poland do not represent global multimedia giants from world-wide or even European ranking lists. In Poland only two large private radio broadcasters still remain purely Polish in their ownership structure. These are: the national radio RMF FM (co-operating with several local stations) and Radio Eska network formed under the auspices of the multimedia holding ZPR SA (ZPR controls 11 companies which were granted licences to broadcast in 18 towns). In the recent months, a stock-company Chemiskor SA (4Media) has formed another new group of local broadcasting stations (by buying minority shares in local stations).