Mariusz Walter, one of the founders of TVN and one of the most important figures in the Polish media of the last few decades, has died, the broadcaster announced. The former president of TVN, co-founder and co-owner of the ITI group, was 85 years old.

Mariusz Walter was born on January 4, 1937 in Lviv. At the Silesian University of Technology in Gliwice, where he studied, he started working in a student radio station and from that moment his love for the media developed. Then he found himself at Radio Katowice, the center of Polish Television in Katowice, and in 1963 he moved to Warsaw and started working at TVP in the capital.

In the 1960s and 1970s, Mariusz Walter became one of the most important people for television. He produced, directed and wrote scripts for documentaries and programs. He had an extraordinary talent. His success was the Tournament of Cities adored by viewers, as well as the legendary Studio 2 - many hours of documentaries, live television, and even concerts, such as the unforgettable ABBA band in 1976.

His film The First. The Sixth won the City of Venice Award at the International Radio and Television Festival in Venice in 1971.

He worked at Telewizja Polska until the period of martial law. He left it in 1982. For a while he lectured at the University of Silesia.

A year later, he met Jan Wejchert, a businessman with whom he created over a dozen television stations, including TVN, as well as the first and to this day the largest news television in Poland, and also one of the largest in the world - TVN24.

After the fall of communism, in the 1990s, Mariusz Walter invested by buying the Wisła TV station, which he had in Krakow, from his former colleague. From that moment, the creation of a new TV station began, which was supposed to compete with TVP.

After a long time of creating the studio and building the editorial office, on October 3, 1997, Mariusz Walter's dream came true. At 19.30, Poles watched Fakty on TVN for the first time.

Until 2001, Mariusz Walter was the President of TVN, and he sat on the management board of ITI (the owner of TVN) until 2012, when the Onet portal was sold to the Ringer Axel Springer media concern.

"It is with great sadness that I would like to inform you that Mariusz Walter, a man who co-created free and independent media in Poland, passed away today," Kasia Kieli, head of Warner Bros. Discovery in Poland and TVN announced. As she emphasized, Mariusz Walter "was a visionary, the founder of the TVN station and made it the best television net in this part of Europe".