Changes to the Polish Broadcasting Act regarding video-on-demand services
As of 1 November 2021, and 1 January 2022, the new regulations regarding video-on-demand (“VOD”) services came into force. The changes mainly affect VOD service providers established in Poland, but not only. The new year ushered in, amongst other things, new rules regarding facilities for the disabled and the obligation to promote European programmes for on-demand providers of audiovisual media services.
The new regulations result from the amendment of the Polish Broadcasting Act (Polish: Ustawa o zmianie ustawy o radiofonii i telewizji, Dz.U. z 2021 r. poz. 1676) implementing into Polish law Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council (EU) 2018/1808 of 14 November 2018 amending Directive 2010/13/EU on the coordination of certain provisions laid down by law, regulation or administrative action in Member States concerning the provision of audiovisual media services. Below we present some key amendments to the Polish Broadcasting Act.
Starting from the beginning, the first changes were introduced to Polish law on 1 November 2021.
New definition and obligation for the VOD service providers to report activity
As of 1 November 2021, the definition of media service has been extended, which means that we will also be dealing with VOD service if it is only part of a given platform, and not the whole platform, as it was until now. The issue of when a VOD service provider qualifies as an entity established in the territory of Poland has also been clarified, which will entail the obligation to notify the National Broadcasting Council (“NBC”) in order to be entered on the list. Failure to notify will result in the possibility of a financial penalty being imposed by the authority.
Information obligation and protection of minors
Additionally, the legislator requires the VOD service providers to comply with a broader obligation to provide information to consumers (e.g. by providing data on the actual beneficiaries of a given provider) and the scope of annual reporting of their activities is extended. There are also new regulations concerning the protection of minors, i.e. the obligation to mark programmes with two symbols (one referring to harmful content, and the other to the type of content) and a broad ban on processing personal data of minors for commercial purposes.
As of 1 January 2022, VOD service providers face further obligations.
Obligation to promote European programmes
Providers of on-demand audiovisual media services are required to ensure at least a 30% share of European works in their catalogues (previously it was 20%), including works produced in the Polish language. Thus, a VOD service provider will have to maintain the relevant percentage in each catalogue made available, and a season of a series will be treated as one programme.
The authority NBC will also assess the “appropriate prominence of these programmes in the catalogue” - which may cause interpretation problems.
Facilities for people with disabilities
VOD service providers in 2022 will have to ensure that at least 5% of the programmes in the catalogue are accessible to people with visual impairments and to people with hearing impairments. This level will be increased in subsequent years until it reaches 30% in 2026. In addition, VOD service providers are required to inform their costumers what broadcasts contain the designated facilities, and moreover to report this information in an annual statement to the NBC.
