Polonia 1 is one of the first Polishcommercial 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 Sardinian businessman Nicola Grauso, who shared a connection with Silvio Berlusconi.
History
Polonia 1 began broadcasting on air on March 7, 1993 by means of the following TV stations:
The broadcast of common block in each of the station, received daily on VHS tapes, began each day at 16:15 and lasted till midnight. Time was filled with such productions like Japanese animated films, adventure and detective TV series (such as MacGyver and The A-Team), Argentinian soap operas such as Manuela [es], Maria, 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 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; 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.
Despite not receiving licences, Polonia 1 stations still broadcast, still trying to undermine concession decisions of KRRiT with Supreme Administrative Court of Poland (NSA) - with no effect.
August 29, 1994 was the day when prosecutor's office in Warsaw, Kraków, Opole, Lublin, Poznań and Szczecin (with the support of local anti-terrorist 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 EutelsatSatellite.
September 21, 1994 saw another wave of closing stations - this time in Gdynia, Łódź, Katowice and Olsztyn. Remaining stations in Bydgoszcz and Wrocław - after broadcasting for the next few months, willingly switched off their Transmitters.
Despite earlier announcements, Polonia 1 did not compete in the next licence competition. Nicola Grauso withdrew from Poland. 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 on Saturday nights.
