Gov't adopts bill forcing TV providers to provide customer data

The Polish cabinet adopted a draft bill that, if approved by the parliament, will force pay TV subscribers to collect TV and radio registration from their clients. Such data would be provided to state-owned postal operator Poczta Polska which is responsible for collecting audiovisual fee, which supports state run TV and radio channels. The current media fee is set at PLN 22.7 per month, however its collection rate is very low. Out of some 3.3 million households obligated to pay the fee, only one million did so, according to Poczta Polska statistics. The draft bill is being contested by providers who claim that it is against privacy laws. They're also afraid that this move will convince some of their customers to switch to terrestrial digital TV.