Green Paper on the digitisation of radio in Poland sent to the Prime Minister
01.04.2016
To this year’s Activity Report in 2015 the National Broadcasting Council has attached its Green Paper on digitisation of radio in Poland. The document was sent to the Prime Minister as well as the Sejm, Senate and President.
The Green Paper on digitisation of radio in Poland was planned in the
KRRiT Regulatory Strategy for 2014-2016.
Two options have emerged in discussions on the future of digital radio. The first may be called the regulatory option; that is, an option in which the administration and state institutions adopt a plan for digitisation and oversee its implementation. The second – the market option, in which broadcasters themselves find economic justification for the change in technology and determine how it will be introduced. However, in this second case, the need for coordination and acceptance by the state cannot be avoided, albeit only in the area of technological standards and planning digital coverage – wrote Witold Graboś, deputy chairman of the National Broadcasting Council and chairman of the digital radio implementation team, in the document’s introduction.
The Green Paper includes information on the status of analogue radio in Poland and around the world, work completed to date on the digitisation of radio programme distribution and perspectives for growth. In the document, KRRiT also presents recommendations for further work on the development of DAB+ technology.
In December 2015, the Supreme Audit Office (NIK) completed its audit of the circumstances surrounding digital radio technology implementation in Poland. In the document
Information on the audit results – Digitisation of radio in Poland, it was written:
In order to streamline the digitisation process for radio broadcasting, NIK hereby petitions the President of the Committee of Ministers, in cooperation with KRRiT, to undertake urgent work to develop and adopt a national strategy for digitisation of radio in Poland, emphasizing such aspects as the nature and scope of state intervention in the radio broadcasting digitisation process, including a system of potential concessions for market participants, as well as the expected deadline for switch-off of analogue broadcasts and precisely enumerated criteria for such a switch-off.
The existence or lack of a strategy does not change the statutory obligations of KRRiT regarding support of new technologies. The National Broadcasting Council recognizes the need to create a national strategy for digitisation of radio and to prepare an act codifying the process. For several years, the Council has conducted analyses and studies on numerous aspects of digital technology’s implementation and has followed its introduction in Europe and the world. The Green Paper stands as a result of this work, and may serve as the basis for the above-mentioned strategy - summarises Witold Graboś in the document’s introduction.
Green Paper on the digitisation of radio in Poland
