Polonia 1 is one of the first

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Polish people, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken * Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin ...

commercial Commercial may refer to: * (adjective for) commerce, a system of voluntary exchange of products and services ** (adjective for) trade, the trading of something of economic value such as goods, services, information or money * a dose of advertising ...

television channels, consisting at first of a network of 12 (and - for a short time - even 13) local TV stations in bigger cities. The station was established by

Sardinia Sardinia ( ; ; ) is the Mediterranean islands#By area, second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, and one of the Regions of Italy, twenty regions of Italy. It is located west of the Italian Peninsula, north of Tunisia an ...

n businessman Nicola Grauso, who shared a connection with

Silvio Berlusconi Silvio Berlusconi ( ; ; 29 September 193612 June 2023) was an Italian Media proprietor, media tycoon and politician who served as the prime minister of Italy in three governments from 1994 to 1995, 2001 to 2006 and 2008 to 2011. He was a mem ...

History

Polonia 1 began broadcasting on air on March 7, 1993 by means of the following TV stations: * (

Szczecin Szczecin ( , , ; ; ; or ) is the capital city, capital and largest city of the West Pomeranian Voivodeship in northwestern Poland. Located near the Baltic Sea and the Poland-Germany border, German border, it is a major port, seaport, the la ...

) * (

Gdynia Gdynia is a city in northern Poland and a seaport on the Baltic Sea coast. With an estimated population of 257,000, it is the List of cities in Poland, 12th-largest city in Poland and the second-largest in the Pomeranian Voivodeship after Gdańsk ...

) (aka PTV Neptun) * PTV Copernicus (

Olsztyn Olsztyn ( , ) is a city on the Łyna River in northern Poland. It is the capital of the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, and is a city with powiat rights, city with county rights. The population of the city was estimated at 169,793 residents Olsz ...

) * (

Bydgoszcz Bydgoszcz is a city in northern Poland and the largest city in the historical region of Kuyavia. Straddling the confluence of the Vistula River and its bank (geography), left-bank tributary, the Brda (river), Brda, the strategic location of Byd ...

) * (

Poznań Poznań ( ) is a city on the Warta, River Warta in west Poland, within the Greater Poland region. The city is an important cultural and business center and one of Poland's most populous regions with many regional customs such as Saint John's ...

) * (

Łódź Łódź is a city in central Poland and a former industrial centre. It is the capital of Łódź Voivodeship, and is located south-west of Warsaw. Łódź has a population of 655,279, making it the country's List of cities and towns in Polan ...

) * (

Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...

) * (

Wrocław Wrocław is a city in southwestern Poland, and the capital of the Lower Silesian Voivodeship. It is the largest city and historical capital of the region of Silesia. It lies on the banks of the Oder River in the Silesian Lowlands of Central Eu ...

) - the first one in the network *

PTV Opole PTV may refer to: Television * PTV (Family Guy), "PTV" (''Family Guy''), a 2005 ''Family Guy'' episode * PTV (PBS), a temporary branding of PBS Kids, used from 1994 to 1999 * PTV (Thailand) or People's Television, a Thailand-based satellite televis ...

(

Opole Opole (; ; ; ) is a city located in southern Poland on the Oder River and the historical capital of Upper Silesia. With a population of approximately 127,387 as of the 2021 census, it is the capital of Opole Voivodeship (province) and the seat of ...

) (aka Telopol) * (

Katowice Katowice (, ) is the capital city of the Silesian Voivodeship in southern Poland and the central city of the Katowice urban area. As of 2021, Katowice has an official population of 286,960, and a resident population estimate of around 315,000. K ...

) * (

Kraków , officially the Royal Capital City of Kraków, is the List of cities and towns in Poland, second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city has a population of 804,237 ...

) * (

Lublin Lublin is List of cities and towns in Poland, the ninth-largest city in Poland and the second-largest city of historical Lesser Poland. It is the capital and the centre of Lublin Voivodeship with a population of 336,339 (December 2021). Lublin i ...

) * (

Kalisz Kalisz () is a city in central Poland, and the second-largest city in the Greater Poland Voivodeship, with 97,905 residents (December 2021). It is the capital city of the Kalisz Region. Situated on the Prosna river in the southeastern part of Gr ...

) - 13th TV station, very short operational The broadcast of common block in each of the station, received daily on

U-matic U-matic, also known as -inch Type E Helical Scan or SMPTE E, is an analog recording videocassette format developed by Sony. First shown as a prototype in October 1969 and introduced commercially in September 1971, it was among the earliest vi ...

tapes, began each day at 16:15 and lasted till midnight. Time was filled with such productions like

Japanese animated films Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

, adventure and detective TV series (such as ''

MacGyver Angus "Mac" MacGyver is the title character and the protagonist in the TV series ''MacGyver''. He is played by Richard Dean Anderson in the MacGyver (1985 TV series), 1985 original series. Lucas Till portrays a younger version of MacGyver in Mac ...

'' and ''

The A-Team ''The A-Team'' is an American Action television, action television series that ran on NBC from January 23, 1983, to March 8, 1987, about a fictional team of former United States Army Special Forces who work as mercenaries while on the run from ...

''), Argentinian

soap opera A soap opera (also called a daytime drama or soap) is a genre of a long-running radio or television Serial (radio and television), serial, frequently characterized by melodrama, ensemble casts, and sentimentality. The term ''soap opera'' originat ...

s such as ', ''

Maria Maria may refer to: People * Mary, mother of Jesus * Maria (given name), a popular given name in many languages Place names Extraterrestrial * 170 Maria, a Main belt S-type asteroid discovered in 1877 * Lunar maria (plural of ''mare''), large, ...

'', and '' Stellina'', and also movies and documentaries produced by the local communities. Remaining broadcast time was filled with either re-runs of Polonia 1, or stations' own productions. (local news, etc.). There were exceptions from that general rule, as PTV Copernicus broadcast

porn Pornography (colloquially called porn or porno) is sexually suggestive material, such as a picture, video, text, or audio, intended for sexual arousal. Made for consumption by adults, pornographic depictions have evolved from cave paintings ...

movies in the morning hours. Polonia 1 gained huge popularity, becoming Poland's second most viewed TV station in 1994, second only to Poland's national broadcaster

TVP1 TVP1 (TVP Jeden, ''Telewizja Polska 1'', ''Program Pierwszy Telewizji Polskiej'', ''"Jedynka"'') is the main public television channel of Telewizja Polska, TVP (Telewizja Polska S.A.), Poland's national television broadcaster. It was the first Po ...

; this number is, however, questioned by many experts. In the licence competition announced same year, Polonia 1 lost due to exceeding the permissible 33% foreign capital share in the company - all-Poland licence was then assigned to

Polsat Polsat is a Polish free-to-air television channel that was launched on 5 December 1992 by Zygmunt Solorz-Żak. , it is the most watched television channel in Poland with a market share of 11.30% Polsat belongs to Grupa Polsat Plus ( WSE: CP ...

. Also local broadcasting frequencies competitions were lost by Polonia 1, as National Council of Radio Broadcasting and Television (KRRiT) accused stations of the lack of independence from

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

investors. Despite not receiving licences, Polonia 1 stations still broadcast, still trying to undermine concession decisions of

KRRiT The National Broadcasting Council (Polish: ''Krajowa Rada Radiofonii i Telewizji'', KRRiT, lit. ''State Council of Radio and Television'') is the Polish broadcasting regulator, which issues radio and television broadcast licenses, ensures compli ...

with

Supreme Administrative Court of Poland The Supreme Administrative Court of the Republic of Poland ( , NSA ) is the court of last resort in administrative cases e.g. those betweens private citizens (or corporations) and administrative bodies. This court deals with appeals from lower admi ...

(NSA) - with no effect. August 29, 1994 was the day when prosecutor's office in

and

(with the support of local

anti-terrorist Counterterrorism (alternatively spelled: counter-terrorism), also known as anti-terrorism, relates to the practices, military tactics, techniques, and strategies that governments, law enforcement, businesses, and intelligence agencies use to co ...

teams) conducted action of closing Polonia 1 stations, which broadcast on frequencies reserved solely for the usage of Polish military. Broadcasters were accused of direct life endangering. After about 2 weeks following the closure, Polonia 1 started broadcasting via

Eutelsat Eutelsat S.A. is a French satellite operator. Providing coverage over the entire European continent, the Middle East, Africa, Asia and the Americas, it has been the world's third-largest satellite operator in terms of revenues. Its subsidiary E ...

Satellite A satellite or an artificial satellite is an object, typically a spacecraft, placed into orbit around a celestial body. They have a variety of uses, including communication relay, weather forecasting, navigation ( GPS), broadcasting, scient ...

. September 21, 1994 saw another wave of closing stations - this time in

and

. Remaining stations in

and

- after broadcasting for the next few months, willingly switched off their

Transmitter In electronics and telecommunications, a radio transmitter or just transmitter (often abbreviated as XMTR or TX in technical documents) is an electronic device which produces radio waves with an antenna (radio), antenna with the purpose of sig ...

s. Despite earlier announcements, Polonia 1 did not compete in the next licence competition.

Nicola Grauso Nicola may refer to: People * Nicola (name), including a list of people with the given name or, less commonly, the surname **Nicola (artist) or Nicoleta Alexandru, singer who represented Romania at the 2003 Eurovision Song Contest * Nicola people, ...

withdrew from

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

. Polonia 1 was sold to Polcast and now consists of lifestyle programming, teleshopping and pornography movies. Between 1994 and 1997, Polonia 1 was distributed on the Romanian channel

TVR 2 TVR 2 (, spelled out as ''Televiziunea Română 2'', "Romanian Television 2") is the second channel of the public broadcaster TVR. The channel was launched on 2 May 1968, but it was suspended from 20 January 1985, until 19 February 1990. From ...

on Saturday nights.

References

External links

Official site of Polonia 1

Unofficial site of Polonii 1 fans

Page with TV reminiscence articles
{{Television in Poland Television channels in Poland Television channels and stations established in 1993