{"id":196102,"date":"2025-12-17T07:45:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-17T07:45:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/196102\/"},"modified":"2025-12-17T07:45:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-17T07:45:08","slug":"polish-broadcaster-plans-maga-backed-international-tv-channel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/196102\/","title":{"rendered":"Polish broadcaster plans Maga-backed international TV channel"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Poland\u2019s largest right-wing broadcaster is planning an English-language channel it claims will be backed by investors close to Donald Trump\u2019s Maga movement.<\/p>\n

TV Republika is in talks with US and European investors to finance the station to launch next year, its head Tomasz Sakiewicz told the Financial Times. <\/p>\n

An English-language service could fill a gap in continental Europe for news outlets aligned with Maga thinking, Sakiewicz said in an interview. \u201cIn the UK, there\u2019s GB News, but in Germany for example, what do they have?\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

Sakiewicz declined to identify the likely backers of the project but said that some had \u201cmedia experience\u201d and are close to Trump\u2019s Maga movement. He is hoping to conclude negotiations soon. \u201cIt\u2019s not Elon Musk but these investors are well known,\u201d Sakiewicz said. \u201cA lot of people in the conservative world now know about our success and understand that our brand is very good.\u201d<\/p>\n

Republika captured a substantial share of Poland<\/a>\u2019s right-wing viewership when pro-EU Prime Minister Donald Tusk moved to take control of state broadcaster and rival TVP after entering office in 2023. Tusk had accused TVP of operating as a mouthpiece for the former Law and Justice (PiS) government and pledged to restore balanced news coverage.<\/p>\n

Sakiewicz, 57, argued that Tusk made a \u201cbig mistake\u201d with the contested takeover of TVP, which PiS is still challenging in the courts. Tusk \u201chelped us, but not intentionally\u201d by pushing a portion of TVP\u2019s audience towards his station, he said. \u2018\u2018We were very prepared to become the only conservative TV station.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now Poland\u2019s most-watched news channel, Republika\u2019s rise has deepened the polarisation of Polish politics. The station also helped rightwing political newcomer Karol Nawrocki secure a narrow victory for PiS in June\u2019s presidential election. <\/p>\n

Only days before the vote, Republika co-organised and broadcast the first Polish meeting <\/a>of the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), during which Trump\u2019s homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, told the country\u2019s voters to pick Nawrocki and described his pro-EU rival Rafa\u0142 Trzaskowski as \u201can absolute train wreck of a leader\u201d.<\/p>\n

Since taking office, Nawrocki has used his veto powers to block several of Tusk\u2019s government bills, including measures on extending benefits for Ukrainian war refugees and replacing PiS-appointed judges.<\/p>\n

\"ThreeTV Republika\u2019s headquarters in Warsaw \u00a9 Maciek Jazwiecki\/FT<\/p>\n

Among Poland\u2019s news-only channels, TVP Info now ranks third behind another private channel TVN24. Republika, which is often compared to Fox News in the US, attracted 5.5 per cent of Polish television viewing in November, according to figures from the national broadcasting council.<\/p>\n

Sakiewicz, who holds a controlling stake in Republika and is also its editor-in-chief, emerged as a media entrepreneur in the 1990s during Poland\u2019s post-communist transition, when he launched right-wing magazine Gazeta Polska. He co-founded Republika in 2012, but the channel remained marginal while right-wing viewers gravitated to TVP during two terms of PiS rule. <\/p>\n

Sakiewicz said he remained closer politically to PiS than to the far-right Confederation party that entered the Polish parliament in 2019. While PiS has continued to be dominated by its ageing leader Jaros\u0142aw Kaczy\u0144ski, he predicted that Nawrocki, a former historian, could use Poland\u2019s presidency to expand his own power base within the conservative electorate.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have known Nawrocki for 15 years, and I already helped him when he was a young historian because I saw his potential,\u201d Sakiewicz said. \u201cNawrocki is very ambitious, he wants to show he is a very powerful president and create his own new reality around him.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Unlock the White House Watch newsletter for free Your guide to what Trump\u2019s second term means for Washington,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":196103,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[93,61,60,282],"class_list":{"0":"post-196102","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland","11":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=196102"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196102\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/196103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=196102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=196102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=196102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}