Agencies prepare to spread word on pension reform

Accounting firm PriceWaterhouseCoopers, which provides tax, legal and training assistance for the country's pension system reform, hired the two agencies to put together a nationwide campaign explaining how the new, three-pillar system will work. Under the system, a portion of pension contributions will begin flowing to privately managed pension funds next April.
While no final budget has been given for the campaign, media watchers said it is likely to devour around $10 million of a USAID grant. The campaign will have two key goals. The first one will be to inform the public that people under 30, and those under 50 who choose to participate, will have to select the funds they want to invest in. And the second is to ease older people's fears that their pension payments could be threatened.
"It's not only about showing people under 50 who will join the new system what the reform is all about, but also showing those older than that that it not being carried out at their cost," said Rafal Szymczak, a member of the management board with Profile.
Under the original reform deadline, private funds were supposed to be licensed as of Aug. 1. That has been delayed, however, until Nov. 1, and the start date of the reformed system has been pushed back until April 1999.
Despite those setbacks, the information campaign is expected to go ahead at the beginning of next year.
Ad execs said that informing Poles about the system change is the most daunting public awareness task to be undertaken since the Mass Privatization Program (MPP), or when citizens received shares in publicly owned companies under a large-scale privatization program. "It's a huge project, comparable only with the Mass Privatization Program (PPP), but much more complex when it comes to the product itself," Szymczak said.
In addition to being a large endeavor, the pension info campaign is also going to have to compete for attention with the new private funds. About 20 funds will be created under the scheme and all of them will be touting their own media messages in a quest for investors. The funds are created under the second pillar of pension reform, which calls for people under 30 to automatically invest a fifth of their pension contribution in a private fund. People 30-50 can choose to participate in the new system, or stay with the state-run pension fund.
While the funds will automatically gain the 3.5 million Poles under 30, they will have to convince the 12 million 30-50 year olds that private investment is the way to go, advertising agencies said last week.
The advertising campaigns of the pension funds are expected to dominate the advertising space available on television and other media this fall. Those funds are estimated to spend zl. 400 million-zl. 500 million ($116 million-$145 million) on their promotional efforts.
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Fifteen private television and radio broadcasters met last week and agreed to work together to better regulate the media market.
The Association of Private Broadcasters wants to create a strong lobbying group that would help tame the wild media sector here through regulations and enforcement. They also hope to force regulatory agencies to better spell out what broadcasters' obligations are, and to prevent situations where the courts step in and question previously awarded licenses.
"A group which includes a number of very strong broadcasters should be much more difficult to ignore," said Malgorzata Kaminska, programming director at lodz-based Classic radio station.
The group includes supraregional television stations tvn and Nasza TV, pay television and soon-to-be digital broadcaster Canal+ Polska, as well as a number of radio stations, including Radio Zet, Radio WaWa and Radio Kolor.
Some of the group members, such as tvn and Nasza TV have already felt the sting of unclear regulations. Just two months ago, the country's Supreme Administrative Court (NSA) suspended the stations' broadcasting licenses because it said media watchdog National Radio and Television Council (KRRiTV) had violated its own guidelines when granting the licenses. The two stations have continued to broadcast, despite the fact that their legal status is not clear.
Also Canal+ Polska, the country's largest premium channel, said the Radio and Television Act needs to be clarified. The station wants to introduce clear regulations that would ban broadcasters from beaming their programming into Poland from abroad without having to get a broadcasting license.
One of the most bothersome issues to private broadcasters, however, is the way public stations are subsidized through mandatory subscription fees while at the same time are able to sell advertising.
"If TVP generates 70% of its revenue from advertising, then it seems to be much more commercial than public, and still it gets money from a subscription fee," Kaminska commented.
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Polish boxer Andrzej Golota disappointed the 3,700 people who filled the auditorium at the Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resort in Atlantic City, United States. Golota, known for punching below the belt, kept his gloves unusually high in a fight with Corey Sanders on Wednesday, July 22. He won the fight fair, square and clean.
While a strong showing turned out for the live fight, 1.3 million Poles also pulled themselves out of bed - or out of the bar - to watch the fight on television at 3 a.m., according to media surveyor ABG Polska. Broadcast on Polsat, the fight managed to grab more than 90% of viewers watching TV at that time. The replay of the fight mid-day the following day still managed to attract 1.6 million viewers.
The gender make-up of the audience was not surprising - 76% of the viewers would have winced had Golota punched below Sanders' waistline.