As the ongoing and chaotic reforms on Telewizja Polska are underway, including the full relaunch of its news department is well underway, history is repeating itself again: the ongoing situation harks back to 1989, when TVP was reformed (just like what is happening now) as the socialist Polish People’s Republic was dissolved in favor of a temporary government which paved the way to the first democratic government under Lech Walesa.
The changes were far-ranging, involving even the PSB’s news service, and specially, its long-running Dziennik Telewizyjny (English: Television Journal), long regarded as a symbol of communist propaganda in the Socialist rule.
The new reforms and management replaced it with Wiadomości, designed as a symbol of the then-new democratic TVP (although some programmes like Panorama had tried to cautiously offer less “propagandistic” news whilst staying in the party’s ideology). Unlike DTV, Wiadomości had professional newsreaders and newscasters as presenters, most of which were inherited from the final years of Dziennik. In fact, a former DTV anchor, Wojciech Reszczyński, was selected to present the first broadcast on 18 November of that year, with the W logo from graphic artist Andrzej Pągowski appearing for the first before uttering these words:
“Good evening, I hope that this program will gain your approbation in the upcoming days. The information contained in this program will be either good or bad, but always true and we count on help and cooperation.”
Thereafter, Wiadomości would TVP’s main newscast, surfing against increased competition from private and local broadcasters, and also increasingly taking accusations of bias toward the ruling government, accusations which would take a dramatic turn under the Beata Szydlo and Mateusz Morawiecki governments.
It also would feature a number of big brand identity changes, with the last one being unveiled in May 2019. That designed featured an aggressive new look and theme music designed by Polish SFX and motion design company Platige Image, with music from EDM producer and soundtrack composer Adam Skorupa. It also featured an in-house set design which mixed AR with immersive mixed reality.
The previous titles, launched in January 2015, featured a soundtrack from Radzimir Dębski, with live instrumentation recorded by the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra in Katowice. These titles were often compared in some other media forums as very similar to the ITV News at Ten titles from 2008.
As part of the reforms, a number of channels were closed in an attempt to work on major programming reforms to these networks. One of the most important was the closure of TVP Info, the broadcaster’s news channel. That channel launched in September 2007 replacing the first incarnation of TVP3, a channel oriented to regionally-focused content; this led to the channel airing regional opt-outs at certain times of the day (including entertainment programming). The channel launched at a shoestring budget, but as the PSB’s intended plan to compete with TVN24, with content including hourly newscasts from Warsaw, plus news and current affairs content produced from other cities, provinces and districts, all inherited from TVP3.
Budget boosts followed from 2008, when the channel got a bigger studio and a more complete schedule of shows, including proper long-form strands, all in response to the arrival of a third competitor, Polsat News; it also became the first TVP channel to produce its daily programming in 16:9 format (initially in a letterbox style) and became a testing ground for new technology. In 2013, the regional opt-outs were moved to a new digital channel, which would become the second incarnation of TVP3 (more on that later); as a result, a new schedule was installed with more opinion programming and current affairs shows, plus new sets and graphics. However, when the PiS government took full control of TVP, things began to shift dramatically, with many news hours being replaced with simulcasts of TVP1 and TVP2 content, plus extended editions of their news and informational programming.
TVP Info’s original branding was designed by French studio Aart Design; the studio designed the original 2007 graphics and also developed new openers and visuals for the big 2008 relaunch. Music was composed by well-known French DJ and producer Jean-Michel Jarre, who supplied TVP Info with a package originally used for a short-lived French cable channel, Match TV.
Then in 2009, an in-house work was accompanied by original music from Polish composer and soundtrack producer Michał Lorenc, which accompanied another schedule boost. Since 2010, all work had been done in-house by TVP graphic designers and artists, with music from one of its main in-house composers and producers Piotr Rubik.
Now to TVP3, which, as previously told, was the regional channel of the PSB. Regional programming had historically being aired as opt-outs on TVP1 and TVP2, but, with the increased competition from private broadcasters, many of these regional centers had launched part-time local channels by the mid-1990s. However, the shortage of time and lack of resources to produce additional programming, led to eleven of these centers to launch a common national block of shows, which would be supplied from TVP HQ in Warsaw, and will allow these regional centers to produce programming aimed at national audiences.
The block, initially aired during daytime and early evenings, launched on September 1994, and soon it would encompass most of the daily schedule of each regional channel. Often known as TVP Regionalna and Twója Regionalna Telewizja, these brands would appear consistently in alternating ways during these blocks of national programming.
By 2000, reforms were made to adopt the TVP3 (Regionalna Trójka) as the sole and common brand for the service, with a common branding; however, in 2002, a big reform was made to allow TVP3 to become a national regionally-focused channel, with a proper national newsroom (Kurier) and a line-up of current affairs shows produced from Warsaw and the regional centers. Documentaries, dubbed series and films, and children’s programming also composed the line-up, which remained focused on news and current affairs up until the arrival of TVP Info.
The service would be revived in 2013 thanks to the digital switchover, which also led to TVP1 and TVP2 dropping the regional opt-outs alongside TVP Info. The service, initially TVP Regionalna, was formatted under the national-local scheme previously used, still with a focus on news and current affairs, but increasingly targeted to regional and local issues.
In 2015, after rebranding back as TVP3, a decentralization plan was tested, involving a fully-local schedule which mixed regional news and current affairs, hourly newscasts, regional lifestyle shows and a mix of nationally-supplied programming which could be repeated up to 3 times a day, every day. The PiS takeover of TVP would led to the plans being dropped and a return to the previous hybrid model of national and local content.
Another channel whose broadcasts were suspended is TVP World. The English-language news channel initially launched in November 2018 as Poland In, coinciding with Poland’s Independence Centennial celebrations, and extended from Poland in English, a website which repurposed TVP news content in English. The channel initially aired for just 6 hours a day, and only aired in streaming worldwide (except in North America). Plans to launch it as a satellite channel were initially proposed and eventually postponed until 2021.
The plans were relaunched later that same year, as plans to relaunch the service as TVP World were made as part of the launch of more speciality channels from the group (TVP Nauka, TVP Dokument and TVP Kobieta), but also as part of a strategy from the PiS TVP management to counter Russian news outlets, specially in border territories with Poland (that led to the launch of TVP Wilno, a channel specially dedicated to the Polish minorities in Lithuania, plus the ongoing and continued support and financing of Belsat, a satellite service oriented to Belarus).
Initially planned for January 2022, the launch was advanced to November 18, due to then-ongoing Belarussian migrant crisis and the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The channel inherited the Poland In staff and technology; however, over time, the service would develop a more structured schedule mixing live news programming, pre-recorded repeats and back half-hours of current affairs, culture and lifestyle programming with a strong Polish (and pro-government indeed) focus.
