EBU presses Polish government to support public broadcasting

The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) has held talks in Warsaw about ways to overcome a funding crisis for the Polish public broadcaster.

Licence fee revenue in the country has fallen following suggestions that the government might reform the funding system for public service media, and because it recently exempted some segments of the population from the licence fee.

EBU president Jean-Paul Philippot wrote to the Polish president and prime minister in December urging them to arrest the decline in funding for public service media. The latest visit by an EBU delegation led by vice-president Claudio Cappon follows a similar mission to Budapest earlier to discuss the funding problems of Hungarian public broadcaster MTV.

Separately, the EBU is to acquire the media and marketing rights to the 2015-17 Alpine and Nordic World Ski Championships from the International Ski Federation (FIS).

The parties will enter into exclusive negotiations to reach a final agreement within the next two weeks. The EBU has been a long-term partner of the FIS.