TV Puls heads back to the air, but no one knows how
By Aleksander Nowacki
TV Puls is to go back on the air as of July 1. The Franciscan Fathers, who hold its broadcasting license, have signed a deal with Antena 1, owned by Marian Terlecki, to broadcast the network. Antena 1 will replace Telewizja Familijna in that role, which went bankrupt on April 19.
That event marked the end of the overly ambitious project to set up a TV station that would give airtime to Christian right-of-center politicians in the country. At the time it was set up back in 2001, Telewizja Familijna had grand ambitions and invested zł. 100 million (E22.7 million) a year into TV Puls.
By the time of its bankruptcy, the company had accumulated debts of zł. 130 million (E29.5 million), including zł. 91 million (E20.7 million) owed to its shareholders, namely Sopot-based IT giant Prokom and four state-owned companies including KGHM and PZU Życie.
"Familijna had the ambition to make grand-scale TV; we intend to broadcast a channel that we can afford," said Marian Terlecki, Antena 1's owner. "I expect to invest zł. 14 million annually." He went on to say that, despite the modest resources at its disposal, he hoped that the station would attract enough advertising to allow the broadcaster to record no more than zł. 2 million-zł. 4 million (E450,000-E908,000) in losses annually.
That, however, is unlikely to happen if TV Puls does not reach viewers. There may well be problems with that, as Puls was deprived of the use of its eight ground transmitters in November last year. The size of Telewizja Familijna's debt to TP EmiTel, the transmitter operator, is not known publicly, but unofficial reports suggest more than zł. 2 million (E450,000). According to Jacek Grochowina, TP EmiTel president, the company will not allow TV Puls's new producer to use the facilities.
So the new old channel will likely not be available on terrestrial TV. The most likely broadcaster of TV Puls is satellite TV company SES Astra. Sources close to the situation claim, however, that SES Astra is also owed substantial amounts by Telewizja Familijna and may prove unwilling to cooperate with TV Puls's new broadcaster.
Antena 1 was selected after numerous attempts to attract a serious foreign investor failed, due to the Franciscan order's refusal to sign away control over the channel's content. Negotiations with companies such as Silvio Berlusconi's Mediaset failed on account of that problem. Marian Terlecki has, however, accepted the Fathers' requirement.
Antena 1 has made two unsuccessful attempts to gain a broadcasting license from the National Broadcasting Council (KRRiTV), one in 1993 (the license was awarded to Polsat) and one in 1996 (which was awarded to TVN and Telewizja Nasza).
"We hold the license and we have to control the content," Father Grzegorz Bartosik, the head of the order's local province, said. Analysts observe that the arrangement is not the one found in most TV stations.
Another problem that the new TV Puls faces is the timing of its re-launch.
"The summer is not the best time (for it) but we have no choice," Terlecki said. He went on to explain that the law allows the KRRiTV to withdraw the license when a station has been off the air for longer than three months.
