The judges at the Federal Administrative Court in Bern were able to breathe a sigh of relief twice in the last 14 days. During this time, two of the ten pending appeals against the radio and TV licenses awarded by DETEC at the end of October almost resolved themselves. First, Tele M1 and Tele Alf in the Mittelland region reached an agreement, and on April 1, the change of ownership of Tele Tell in Central Switzerland from AZ Medien to LZ Medien was also completed.
The fact that Peter Wanner's AZ Medien was involved in both cases is hardly a coincidence. Wanner found himself under pressure from three sides at once. After the TV license for Central Switzerland was awarded to newcomer Tele 1 (LZ Medien), the future of his Tele Tell was at least uncertain. And although he had the concessions for Tele M1 and Radio Argovia in the bag, they were disputed by Tele Alf on the one hand and Roger Schawinski's Radio AG on the other. With the agreements in the TV sector, Wanner can now concentrate fully on the dispute with Schawinski. And the latter is unlikely to get involved in out-of-court deals. In any case, his answer to a corresponding question from Werbewoche was clear: "There is no question of withdrawing," the radio pioneer stated. He gave the same answer for the situation at Südostschweiz, where he appealed against the award to Hanspeter Lebrument's Radio Grischa.
Could there be further agreements between radio and TV opponents in the near future? Probably only in one case: of the eight remaining appeals before the Federal Administrative Court, at least one has been suspended - that of Radio One FM against Buzz FM in the Arc Lémanique. However, this has been the case since November 2008, when newcomer Buzz FM relinquished its license just a few days after receiving it and offered it to One FM, which was left empty-handed. One FM suspended its appeal due to the subsequent settlement negotiations. One thing is clear: if One FM wants to continue broadcasting in place of Buzz FM, it must adapt its concept to the Buzz license. This is obviously difficult.
The appeal is also pending in Eastern Switzerland, where Günter Heuberger's Tele Säntis is disputing the license of St. Gallen's Tele Ostschweiz. "There is no withdrawal of the appeal - linked to any deal - in our proceedings," writes Heuberger.
The appeals of Ringier's Radio Energy in Zurich and Christian Heeb's Radio RBB in Basel are still pending. The same applies in the Jura: Radio Lune continues to oppose the license that went to Pierre Steulet's Arc FM, while Steulet also wants a TV license for his Arc TV in addition to his two radio licenses, which is why he has taken legal action against TV licensee Canal Alpha.
No retreat, but there is some movement in Valais. TV station Canal 9/Kanal 9, which has been granted a license for the entire canton and the Chablais, will start its German-language operations in the Upper Valais on 29 June. Roger Brunner has already been chosen as head of the six-strong Upper Valais editorial team, which will start work on May 1. Mr. Brunner has been editor of the Walliser Bote for seven years and was also a presenter at Tele Oberwallis. This is piquant in that Tele Oberwallis and Walliser Bote were involved in the rival project Valais Wallis TV, which lost out to Canal 9 in the concession award. The DETEC decision was accepted and Valais Wallis TV was discontinued. However, Tele Oberwallis continues to broadcast as a television station subject to registration and still hopes to cooperate with Canal 9. Brunner's choice is purely a personnel change and not a signal for a rapprochement between the two previous rivals, says Christian Stärkle, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Tele Oberwallis.
Markus Knöpfli

Different strategies: Canal 9 has not yet reached an agreement with its competitor, while Tele Alf has.

TeleNewsCombi sheds superfluous ballast and separates from Schaffhauser TVBy Markus KnöpfliSince October 18, TeleNewsCombi has been on sale as the first TV offer for 2002 - without Tele 24, of course. But what is even more surprising is that Schaffhauser TV is also no longer included. In addition, "Klopfer", the only joint magazine to date, has been canceled without replacement.
How times change, and so do (marketing) views: Just a year ago, the regional-language Tele 24 was described as the locomotive of the TeleNewsCombi (TNC), but now those involved are relieved that the takeover of Tele 24 in particular has finally allowed them to jettison some annoying ballast.
With the new situation, "the previous mixing of Tele 24's regional language advertising offerings with local and regional advertising offerings will be a thing of the past," triumphs Hanspeter Scholl, Head of TV Sales at the Radiotele clearing office. "The TNC will become a clearly recognizable brand - a unique TV advertising pool with local and regional program offerings."
The recent decision to kick out Schaffhauser TV (SHTV) is described as a further element of the "market shakeout". It has scaled back its program for financial reasons and was no longer able to offer as many spot repeats as TNC guarantees its advertising customers.
TNC presents deeper
Spot prices for next year
"The situation with our customers was no longer sustainable," explains Marcel Geissbühler, member of the Tele Bärn management and responsible for the advertising market at TNC. Added to this was the fact that SHTV was not in a position to pay the six-figure share of "Klopfer", the only joint TNC magazine program to date.
However, the latter is only relevant for this year, as "Klopfer" will be discontinued at the end of this year anyway. "It didn't bring in the ratings we had imagined, and we couldn't find a national sponsor or enough advertising in the broadcasting environment," admits Geissbühler frankly. However, there are no regrets about the attempt, but no follow-up product will be launched for the time being, he says.
Specifically, the TNC is now presenting itself with the following dates and prices: The spots will be broadcast daily on eight regional television stations and repeated between 7 a.m. and 9 p.m., depending on the station. For 2002, the TNC members expect an average of three GRPs (previously 3.8) per block
among 15 to 49-year-olds. Prices in the first half of 2002 ranged between 5130 francs (January) and 7290 francs (March) and are therefore between 2000 and 3000 francs lower than in the first half of 2001.
Schaffhausen TV also budgets for 2002
The lower price cannot be justified by the loss of Tele 24 alone, because according to Geissbühler, the TNC is currently still assuming that Tele 24 viewers will consume Tele Züri in the future. The price reduction therefore has strategic marketing reasons. Apparently with success: According to Hanspeter Scholl, interest in the TNC is much greater than last year; 20 customers have already booked or are about to make contracts for next year.
But what happens to Schaffhausen TV without a commercial connection to the TNC? For one thing, the broadcaster will no longer receive any viewer data. This is because the small SHTV could previously also be surveyed as part of the TNC, but this is no longer possible on its own due to insufficient case numbers. However, SHTV Managing Director Walter Studer is aware that his regional television station could now be forgotten more often in media planning, especially as its broadcasting area is overlapped by Tele Top.
"We're fighting," says Studer. But for how much longer? "We're planning for next year in any case," he replies, not wanting to talk about his sales figures. Just this much: in the last five years, advertising revenue has risen steadily and has even "massively improved" compared to before, only stagnating this year.
Denials from Tele Top and Schaffhauser TV
There have been several reports in the industry that SHTV has knocked on the door of Günter Heuberger, head of Tele Top, for cooperation. This in itself is surprising, as SHTV had been working with Tele Ostschweiz for the last two years and had chosen a strategy against Tele Top by applying for a license extension to Winterthur. However, Studer will neither confirm nor deny the alleged knock on Top's door. All that can be heard from Heuberger is a curt "No comment".