The IRS will take the money out of the account itself. PLN 108 per year from each adult

There is simply a fundamental change in the way public media is financed in Poland. Government finalises improvement workthat assumes replacing the existing RTV subscription with a fresh audiovisual fee. Importantly, Collection of PLN 108 per year from all adult Pole will take care of Tax Office, automatically adding it to income tax.

The aim of the improvement is to guarantee stable, fair and effective financing of Polish tv and Polish Radio, which have been facing dramatically low subscription recovery for years.

End of ineffective RTV subscription

The current strategy assumed that all owners of radio or tv receivers had to pay the subscription. However, in practice Many people avoided paying, treating work as unnecessary and unjust spending. In 2024, the monthly subscription rate was 27.30 PLN for tv and radio or PLN 8.70 for the radio itself.

The ineffectiveness of the collection resulted in the request to subsidise public media from the state budget – from the funds of all taxpayers, regardless of the actual usage of TVP or Polish Radio services.

New audiovisual fee: rules and details

Audiovisual fee replace the existing subscription and will be 9 PLN per monthWhat gives PLN 108 per year. The main changes include:

• Automatic collection by the taxation Office with income tax.
• Fee attributed to person (not for equipment), covering the full household.
• Scope of the obligation: concerns natural persons 26 to 75 years of age.
• Exemptions: students up to the age of 26, people earning below the minimum wage, seniors over 75, people with disabilities and unemployed.

Thanks to the combination of the charge and the taxation system, the government expects almost 100 % recovery fresh benefits.

The importance of improvement for public media and citizens

For the average citizen, the fresh strategy means End of payment avoidance and less individual financial burden compared to the current subscription amount. In turn, for public media, improvement provides a chance:

• Stable funding independent of budgetary decisions.
• Increasing editorial independence by limiting direct State subsidies.
• Greater predictability in programme activity planning.

At the same time, critics draw attention to the anticipation of seeing a fresh charge as another tax and ambiguities regarding the fairness of the exemption system.

Television inactive crucial to Poles

Despite the dynamic improvement of the net and streaming platforms, tv in Poland remains a highly crucial medium. According to Nielsen's research:

• Statistical Pole spends on average 3 hours and 48 minutes a day.
• In winter this time increases to 4 hours and 12 minutes.
• 58% of adult Poles He declares that in his spare time he is most eager to go for television.
• Even with the popularity of streaming, 52% of subjects inactive choosing conventional TV.

Also increase in the number of households utilizing cable tv to 46% In 2024, it confirms that request for tv content is not weakening.

Models from abroad and fresh challenges

The fresh audiovisual fee model in Poland is modelled on solutions operating in Germany, the UK or the Nordic countrieswhere akin automated collection systems supply unchangeable sources of backing for public media.

The Polish improvement takes account of local realities, but there is no shortage of critical voices. Doubts arise, among others:

• Will the exemption criteria cover all those in need?
• Will the quality of the public media programme offer be adequate to the work for all citizens to finance them?

Future prospects

The introduction of an audiovisual fee is to end many years of disputes concerning the fairness and efficiency of the public media financing strategy in Poland. improvement can contribute to greater journalistic independence and better quality content, although the final success of the fresh model will depend on its social acceptance and effectiveness of implementation.

The government remains determined to make changes again in 2025, meaning that Soon all adult Pole income taxation settlers will automatically retreat PLN 108 per year for public media.