For several days, just before 6:50 p.m., the “Wydarzenia” program on the Polsat News channel has been preceded by a several-second board with Telewizja Polsat’s apology. It cannot be watched by the viewers of the program on the station’s main antenna or on the Polsat Box or Polsat Box Go services.
– Telewizja Polsat apologizes to the operator of the Play network – P4 spółka z ograniczoną odpowiedzialnością for actions consisting in broadcasting advertisements for the services of the Plus mobile phone network on the news tickers in the Polsat News channel in a way suggesting that they constitute neutral information, which constituted a violation of the principles of fair competition – says the inscription on the white screen, written in black font.
Polsat lost the court dispute with Play
In 2011, Cyfrowy Polsat, the owner of Telewizja Polsat, bought Polkomtel, the operator of the Plus network, i.e. a competitor of the Play network. Within the Polsat Plus Group, television, the digital platform and the mobile operator closely cooperate. Their services are sold in the same salons, and in June 2021, the company unified its image. Recently, there was also a change in the setting of Polsat News, in which a special Polsat Plus Group font was used.
A competitor of Plus and Polsat Box (Play bought the UPC cable network) for the promotion of this company’s offer on the air of the Polsat News information channel, complained to the court. – The publication you are asking about is the result of a successful court dispute between P4 and Telewizja Polsat. Telewizja Polsat is obliged to publish an apology 14 days before the main edition of Events in Polsat News – informs Wirtualnemedia.pl Ewa Sankowska-Sieniek, head of Play’s press office.
Tomasz Matwiejczuk, director of corporate communications, spokesperson for Telewizja Polsat, does not want to comment on the matter. Cyfrowy Polsat spokeswoman Olga Zomer refers us to the press office of Plus. It does not answer questions on this matter.
Pursuant to the regulation of the National Broadcasting Council, broadcasters must mark content that contains product placement. It can take place in the case of movies, series, sports broadcasts, entertainment programs. It should not appear in news and current affairs programs.
Sometimes, however, it is difficult to assess whether we were dealing with illegal self-promotion or product placement. In September 2022, the National Broadcasting Council imposed 35,000 PLN fines for TVP and Polsat for self-promotion of New Year’s Eve parties. A month ago, this did not discourage the public broadcaster from widely informing about this year’s edition of the event. TVN24 and “Fakty” TVN informed about the premiere of the series “Rod Dragon” on the pay service HBO Max, owned by Warner Bros. discovery.
Polsat News has been publishing information related to the activities of related companies in its strips for a long time. Already during the rule of the Civic Platform, the channel criticized the LTE frequency auction conducted by the then Minister of Administration and Digitization Andrzej Halicki.
According to Nielsen data, in 2022 Polsat News had 1.98 percent. TV market share. In December last year average viewership of the main issue of “Wydarzenia” on the Polsat News channel alone amounted to 269 thousand. people, which gave the station 2.09 percent. market share.
