4 World V I D E O A G E January 2022 forced solutions. This had been taken by many as a sign that he could veto the bill. If he had signed the bill into law, it could have prompted a diplomatic crisis with the U.S., which has strongly criticized the legislation, as have other allies, including the U.K. and E.U. Theproposed lawwouldhave barred entities from outside the European Economic Area (EEA) from having a majority stake in Polish media, but the only major outlet that would be affected was the American TVN. PiS has, however, denied that the bill was directed against any company, and argues that it is necessary to prevent entities from places such as Russia and China from buying Polish media. PiS Party chairman Jarosław Kaczyński claimed that it would stop “narco-businesses” from buying outlets to “launder dirty money.” Supporters of the bill have also noted that Polish law already theoretically bans media ownership by entities from outside the EEA, and that Discovery has evaded this by owning TVN through a Dutch subsidiary. Film LA’s Production Figures Film LA, the official film office of the city and county of Los Angeles, just released its 15-page 2021 television report. During the 2020-2021 year, Film LA tracked a total of 331 TV series across three platforms — broadcast, cable and streaming—as shown in the chart below. The report also listed the top 10 filming locations in 2021 and compared them to the previous year, as illustrated in the “Jurisdiction” chart. A bill to restrict foreign ownership of Polish media was unexpectedly passed by parliament in December 2021, but vetoed by Poland’s president two weeks later. The proposed law is thought to be aimed at Poland’s largest private broadcaster — U.S.-owned TVN24, whose coverage is often critical of the Polish government. TVN24’s parent company, TVN Grupa Discovery, is owned by Discovery via a firm registered in the Netherlands in order to get around a ban on non-European firms owning more than 49 percent of Polish media companies. The legislation had been dormant since September 2021, after being rejected by the opposition-controlled Senate. But last month it was rapidly pushed through committee by the ruling national-conservative Law and Justice Party (PiS) before being passed in a vote by the lower house, where the Polish government has a majority. The bill had to be signed by Poland’s president, Andrzej Duda, to become law. Duda, an ally of the Polish government, has previously said that takeovers of foreign-owned media groups should take place on market terms and not with NewMedia Law Tried to Ban TVN in Poland (Continued on Page 6) V I S ION F I LMS WELCOMES EVERYONE TO 2022 WE ARE LOOKING FORWARD TO A SUCCESSFUL NEW YEAR! TO KICK IT OFF, HERE ARE SOME OF OUR LATEST RELEASES. PLEASE CONTACT US LISE ROMANOFF: LISE@VISIONFILMS.NET ROBBY AMAR: ROBBY@VISIONFILMS.NET ANDRES SANTOS: ASANTOS@SCREENBRIGHT.NET ADAM WRIGHT: ADAMWRIGHT@VISIONFILMS.NET PLEASE VISIT OUR WEBSITE | WWW.VISIONFILMS.NET
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