WARSAW (Reuters) – Polish anti-corruption police searched the headquarters of broadcaster Polsat on Thursday as part of an investigation into the licensing of sport broadcasting rights by state-run TVP, a prosecutor’s office spokesperson said.
“There are ongoing activities to secure documents in an investigation … into actions taken to the detriment of TVP, including in connection with granting a sub-licence agreement to Polsat television for the broadcasting sports events,” said Marta Kolendowska-Matejczuk, spokesperson for the District Prosecutor’s Office in Krosno.
Kolendowska-Matejczuk declined to give further details. A Polsat spokesperson had no immediate comment.
News portal Onet reported that the investigation concerned two agreements concluded in 2018 and 2021 between TVP and Polsat, adding that its information had been confirmed by investigators.
According to Onet, TVP gave Polsat a sub-licence to broadcast sports events to which it had previously bought the rights, and in return Polsat gave TVP a sub-licence to broadcast Champions League soccer and the Polish national volleyball team’s matches.
Onet reported that investigators were looking into whether TVP had lost out in the deal.
Reuters was unable to independently verify the details of the sub-licence agreements reported by Onet.
At 1250 GMT, shares of Polsat’s parent company, Cyfrowy Polsat, were down 2.35%, having been up as much as 1.8% earlier in the session.
(Reporting by Anna Wlodarczak-Semczuk, Alan Charlish, Barbara Erling, Mateusz Rabiega; Editing by Jane Merriman and Mark Potter)
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