The story
Timeline of Polish TV service
1935: The PIT (Państwowy Instytut Telekomunikacyjny - National Telecommunications Institute) starts working together with Polish Radio on establishing the first television service.
1937: Completion of the first black-and-white broadcasting station.
1938: Experimental channel launched, regular programming scheduled for 1941.
1939: All equipment destroyed by the German Army.
1947: PIT resumes work on television broadcasting.
1951: First Polish telecast following the Second World War.
1952: Beginning of regular programming.
1957: Broadcast of the first sports event; a boxing match Skra Warsaw – Gwardia Łódź
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1958: Newscast Dziennik Telewizyjny ("Journal") is founded.
1970: TVP2 is founded.
1971: Start of colour broadcasting (in SECAM).
1989: Introduction of a teletext service.
1989: Dziennik Telewizyjny is replaced by Wiadomości ("News").
1992: Telewizja Polska Spółka Akcyjna comes into existence upon the separation of television and radio public broadcasting by an act of parliament.
1992: TVP Polonia starts test transmissions.
1993: Polskie Radio i Telewizja (Polish Radio and Television) joins the European Broadcasting Union as an active member (regrouping of OIRT and UER).
1994: Beginning of the change over from SECAM to PAL for all channels except TVP1.
1995: Change over from SECAM to PAL was completed as TVP1 moved to this colour standard.
2003: Change of TVP logotype.
2009: New main headquarters building opens in Warsaw.
2013: Analogue terrestrial television is switched-off.
2020: TVP eSzkoła, TVP Kultura 2 and TVP Dokument are founded.
2021: TVP Kobieta is founded.
2022: TVP ABC 2 is founded, replacing TVP eSzkoła.
2022: Alfa TVP is founded, targeting older children.
2023: TVP Info was suspended for a few days and the news operation was restructured (hiatus from 20 to 29 December 2023). TVP3 was on hiatus from 20 to 26 December 2023. TVP Parlament was on hiatus from 20 December 2023 to 8 January 2024. TVP World was on hiatus from 20 December 2023 to 11 March 2024.
2023: Newscast Wiadomości was replaced by 19.30.
History
Pre-war period
The forerunner of television in Poland should be Jan Szczepanik, called the "Polish Edison", who in 1897 patented at the British Patent Office (British patent no. 5031). as the "telectroscope" defined as an "apparatus for reproducing images at a distance using electricity".
In 1929, Stefan Manczarski constructed a mechanical television apparatus based on two synchronously rotating Nipkow disks, on the transmitting and receiving sides. The television signal was transmitted via an electric cable. The device only transmitted a still image. Stefan Manczarski called his invention "a method of television transmission of images via wire and radio."
Experiments were also conducted by a team of scientists and engineers in 1931 at the Polish Radio station in Katowice. Transmitting and receiving equipment according to the JL Baird system using a Nipkow shield. Both mechanical television transmitting and receiving devices were driven by one common engine, ensuring full synchronization of both units. The signal was transmitted by cable within one laboratory. The experimental work was led by Eng. Twardawa.
Only later, work on launching a television station in Poland began in 1935 in Warsaw at the State Telecommunications Institute and Polish Radio. In 1937, an experimental television station began operating on the sixteenth floor of the Prudential skyscraper. Władysław Cetner became the station manager.
In 1937, an audio transmitter was installed, and at the beginning of 1938, a video transmitter. Moreover, in 1938, a 16-meter-high tower structure was built on the roof of the "skyscraper", as it was called, on which a tubular mast for an 11-meter-high transmitting antenna was mounted. The antenna was located 87 m above the ground, which ensured reception of the video signal at a distance of 20 km and audio signal 30 km from the transmitting antenna. Test television broadcasts took place on 5 October 1938 and 26 August 1939 in Warsaw with the participation of Mieczysław Fogg.
It was a mechanical television station broadcasting under the 120-line standard. It carried, among others: a telecine film "Barbara Radziwiłłówna" with Jadwiga Smosarska in the main role, and at that time work on 343-line electronic television was in progress. The development of research on television, which was very advanced (the launch of a permanent service was expected in 1940), was interrupted by the outbreak of World War II.
Post-war period
Work on Polish Television was resumed in 1947. Work at the National Telecommunications Institute (later the Institute of Telecommunications) was carried out under the supervision of Janusz Groszkowski and Lesław Kędzierski. On 15 December 1951, the exhibition "Radio in the fight for peace and progress" was opened, during which trial television broadcasts with the participation of artists were shown, the daily broadcast of the television programme lasted until 20 January 1952. In 1952 a studio was established at the Ratuszowa 11 street in Warsaw, and the first television programme team was established. The first programme was broadcast on 25 October 1952 at 7:00 p.m. (on the eve of the Sejm elections). Then, a 30-minute montage of artistic forms with the participation of Marta Nowosad, Jerzy Michotek, Witold Gruca and Jan Mroziński was broadcast from the Institute of Telecommunications, which was received on 24 Leningrad receivers located in clubs and community centres. The first announcer was Maria Rosa-Krzyżanowska. Subsequent broadcasts took place on 15 November 1952 (excerpts of Lalka with Nina Andrycz in the main role were shown) and 5 December 1952 (excerpts of The King and the Actor from the Chamber Theatre in Warsaw).
Three months later, on 23 January 1953, a regular broadcast of the Polish television programme was initiated (half an hour once a week). On 22 July 1954, the Experimental Television centre was launched with its own journalistic team. The programme was broadcast from the former bank building at Plac Powstańców Warszawy 7, specially rebuilt and enlarged after war damage to meet the needs of the newly established institution. The centre's programme was initially broadcast once a week on Fridays, from 1 April 1955 - twice (on Tuesdays and Fridays), from 1 November 1955 - three days a week (on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays), and from 1 January 1956 - four days a week (additionally on Sundays). Exceptionally, daily broadcasts took place during the broadcast of the Peace Races and the 5th World Festival of Youth and Students in 1955.
On 30 April 1956, the Warsaw Television centre (Warszawski Ośrodek Telewizyjny) was opened, which provided access to TV programmes to a larger group of viewers. WOT broadcast five days a week. On 1 May 1956, the Television Transmission centre began operation with a transmitting station located in the Palace of Culture and Science and an antenna on the top of the spire at a height of 227 m. The station's range was approximately 55 km.
One-channel period
The real beginning of Polish Television was the creation of the Television programme Team at the Polish Radio on 1 August 1958. Two years later (2 December 1960), the "Polish Radio and Television" Committee was established. From then on, Polish Radio and TVP had equal status. The first head of the Radio Committee (a position equivalent to a minister) was Włodzimierz Sokorski (the heads of the radio and television departments had the rank of deputy ministers). On 1 February 1961, the daily broadcast of the television programme began. At the turn of the 1950s and 1960s, seven TVP regional centres were established (with their own studios) in:
Łódź (22 July 1956) – TVP3 Łódź
Poznań (1 May 1957) – TVP3 Poznań
Katowice (3 December 1957) – TVP3 Katowice
Wrocław (14 December 1962) – TVP3 Wrocław
Gdańsk (10 August 1959) – TVP3 Gdańsk
Szczecin (27 April 1960) – TVP3 Szczecin
Kraków (5 June 1961) – TVP3 Kraków
On 18 July 1969, the Radio and Television centre in Warsaw was opened at Woronicza Street. Large financial outlays were incurred to create it, and the technicians also managed to assemble high-class television equipment.
Two-channel period
On 2 October 1970, the second national television network was officially launched. From the beginning of its existence, TVP2 focused mainly on cultural and entertainment programmes (including Studio 2).
The opening of Poland to the West - characteristic of Gierek's era - allowed Polish television to have access to modern technologies from the free world. The first result of the cooperation was the broadcasting of the first colour programme on 22 July 1971, using the French SECAM system - it was an adaptation of Anton Chekhov's monodrama On the Harm of Tobacco Smoking. Over time, it was the standard adopted in all countries (except Romania) of the Eastern Bloc. Initially, the programme was broadcast in colour once a week, from December 6, 1971, the proceedings of the PZPR congress were broadcast every day in colour (the first cyclical colour broadcasts in Europe were broadcast in 1967), but due to the lack of receivers and their high cost, colour television was not available to most Polish television viewers at that time.
In 1972, after Maciej Szczepański took over the position of president of TVP, approximately 12,000 people lost their jobs at the corporation.
On 1 November 1975, the first terrestrial satellite communication station in Poland was put into operation in Psary-Kąty (Świętokrzyskie Mountains), which significantly expanded TVP's broadcasting capabilities.
After a long break in the creation of new television centres, on 12 January 1985, a local television branch in Lublin was established, TVP3 Lublin. On 1 January 1989, Telegazeta was established, the first teletext service in Poland.
Democracy
The socio-political changes at the turn of the 1980s and 1990s also resulted in television reform. In 1987, TVP lost its monopoly on broadcasting television in Poland, when the first private Polish television station, "Ursynat", was established in the Ursynów district of Warsaw. In 1989, another station, Sky Orunia, was established, broadcasting in Gdańsk until 1996, and on 6 February 1990, PTV Echo was established, broadcasting in Wrocław and the surrounding area until 8 March 1995, and then on 5 December 1992 Polsat started broadcasting, which on 5 October 1993 received a licence for terrestrial broadcasting in Poland from the National Broadcasting Council and on 27 January 1994 a license for nationwide commercial television. In the early 1990s, it was decided to completely switch from the SECAM system to the PAL system, in which the two national TVP networks adopted it (later TVP Polonia and TVP the regional stations also switched to this system). On 1 January 1993, together with Polish Radio, TVP became a member of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). At the same time, since the 1990s, many TVP presenters and journalists began to leave public television, moving to commercial television (including Polsat and TVN).
After 1989, TVP news programmes were accused of being subject to political influence depending on who was in power in Poland, as well as being biased and lacking objectivity. In 1997, the first theme channel of public television was launched - Tylko Muzyka, but it ended broadcasting a year later due to formal and legal reasons. In 1998, the official website of Telewizja Polska was created - www.tvp.pl. In 2004, the first edition of the New Year's Eve musical show organised by TVP took place under the name Sylwester z Gwiazdami (New Year's Eve With the Stars). On 24 April 2005, another theme channel - TVP Kultura - started broadcasting. In the following years, Telewizja Polska launched further theme channels (18 November 2006 - TVP Sport; 3 May 2007 - TVP Historia; 6 October 2007 - TVP Info; which replaced TVP3; December 6, 2010 - TVP Seriale; 15 April 2013 - TVP Rozrywka; 1 September 2013 – TVP Regionalna; 15 February 2014 – TVP ABC).
TVP investigated an unidentified television channel in December 2005, which was named TVP Erotyka on satellite decoders, and was not part of the corporation.
In 2008, Telewizja Polska started broadcasting in HD quality, and on 6 August of the same year, TVP HD started broadcasting. On 16 June 2011, the first online theme channel was launched - TVP Parliament. On 1 June 2012, two nationwide networks, TVP1 and TVP2, started broadcasting in HD quality. Polish Television was working on introducing 3D images to its channels. As part of digital terrestrial television and the offers of selected cable and satellite operators, it enables the use of hybrid television using the TVP Hybrid Platform. There were already plans to launch further channels, TVP Nauka, TVP 4K and TVP Muzyka.
Since 1993, the legal status of the broadcaster has been defined by the Broadcasting Act, according to which Telewizja Polska is obliged to implement "a public mission... by offering... various programmes and other services in the field of information, journalism, culture, entertainment, education and sport, characterised by pluralism, impartiality, balance and independence as well as innovation, high quality and integrity of the message."
In 2018, Telewizja Polska started broadcasting, as one of the three largest television stations, in 4K quality under the name TVP 4K. On 17 September 2019, the TVP Wilno channel intended for Poles living in Lithuania began broadcasting. In March 2020, the decision to close educational institutions due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Telewizja Polska initiated the "Szkoła z TVP" project in cooperation with the Ministry of National Education. On 19 November 2020, the TVP Dokument channel began broadcasting, on 8 March 2021 - TVP Kobieta, and in 2022 - TVP Nauka.
2023 takeover
On 19 December 2023, the Sejm passed a resolution on "restoring the legal order and the impartiality and integrity of the public media and the Polish Press Agency" with 244 votes in favour. There were 84 votes against and 16 abstentions. The same day, Minister of Culture Bartłomiej Sienkiewicz dismissed the authorities of public media. The following day saw the termination of TVP Info, TVP 3, and TVP World's programmeming, with the associated broadcasts being instead switched to those of other TVP stations. News programming that would normally air on TVP 1 (Teleexpress, Wiadomości) and TVP 2 (Panorama) was instead replaced by standby sequences of the stations' respective logos.
On 21 December 2023, at 19:30, TVP broadcast its first evening news bulletin by the new team of journalists, under the title 19.30.
From Wikipedia’s article on Telewizja Polska, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4