Cancelled live sports events challenge SRF
Well over 100 hours of live sports per month are currently being cut from SRF's programming due to the coronavirus. This presents those in charge with numerous challenges.
No mercy for sports: The Corona virus has brought almost all sports events and leagues to a standstill within a short time. This has drastic consequences for SRF. The broadcaster shows well over 100 hours of live sports, which will now be eliminated. The consequence: program adjustments every minute. But in live sports in particular, they are used to reacting to cancellations at short notice, says Roland Mägerle, head of SRF Sport and head of SRG's Sport business unit, in the NZZ am Sonntag. "Swiss radio and television has a large selection of feature films, documentaries and self-produced magazine shows. But even this pool will be exhausted in the medium term."
The program will therefore be enriched with specially purchased sports documentaries and special programs, says Mägerle.
At SRF, they are showing an effort to be able to supplement the program in a creative way in the coming weeks and therefore set up the working group "Ersatzprogramm Sport auf SRF zwei" a week ago. "On a programming level, we are addressing the impact of the Corona virus on the world of sports," explains SRF's head of sports.
Like numerous sectors and industries, the coronavirus is also hitting SRF financially. The consequences cannot yet be estimated, but they are likely to be considerable. The cancellations mean that advertising revenues, which are shrinking anyway, and numerous sponsorship revenues will be lost. The costs for the alternative program are an additional burden on the budget.
There does not seem to be any light at the end of the tunnel at the moment. On the contrary: In the course of the next few months, the sports world will have to accept various far-reaching cancellations. At the ice hockey world championships in Zurich and Lausanne, according to NZZ on Sunday be only a matter of time before the cancellation is communicated. According to SonntagsBlick the cancellation of the European Football Championship is also a "done deal" - it will probably be postponed until 2021. Even the Champions League and the Europa League are now said to be seriously discussing cancellation.
