New RTVA benefits advertising windows

 
Thanks to Telecontrol RTVG: the Swiss are watching less television but consuming more TV advertisingThe latest analysis of Telecontrol data shows that in 2007 the average Swiss German citizen aged three and over spent 325 minutes or five hours and 25 minutes per month on TV advertising alone. In French-speaking Switzerland, the monthly use of TV advertising increased even more, namely by 40 minutes or 13% to 348 minutes. Nevertheless, it would be wrong to claim that the French-speaking Swiss are more inclined to watch TV advertising, as measured against their total TV consumption, which is 24 minutes higher than in German-speaking Switzerland, the French-speaking Swiss "only" gave TV advertising 7 percent of their time, while the German-speaking Swiss gave it 7.7 percent.A breakdown by age group shows that Swiss-German children aged between 3 and 14 were exposed to 151 minutes of TV advertising per month, 15 to 24-year-olds watched 223 minutes, 25 to 44-year-olds watched 321 minutes per month and 45 to 64-year-olds even consumed 360 minutes of advertising. In French-speaking Switzerland, children up to the age of 14 consume 39 minutes more advertising than their peers in German-speaking Switzerland, while 15 to 24-year-olds in French-speaking Switzerland are exposed to TV advertising for less time, namely 24 minutes less. Among 25 to 44-year-olds, however, advertising consumption is again one minute higher than in German-speaking Switzerland, and among 45 to 64-year-olds it is even 20 minutes higher.
Women watch more advertisingIf we look at advertising usage by gender, there is one thing in common on both sides of the Röstigraben: women watch almost 80 minutes more TV advertising per month than men. This is a clearly disproportionate use of advertising. Although women in both language regions generally watch around 15 percent more television than men, they consume around 25 percent more TV advertising.
The period with the lowest TV advertising consumption is in summer, during the months of July and August. In both language regions, advertising consumption amounted to around 260 minutes per month. Last year's peak was achieved by the French-speaking Swiss, who spent 416 minutes on advertising in December 2007 (almost 14 minutes per day), while TV advertising consumption among the German-speaking Swiss peaked in November. However, it remained well below 400 minutes.
All these figures are the result of an analysis of Telecontrol data carried out by Publica Data (PDAG), a subsidiary of the Mediapulse Group. Using 35 German and French-language station logs, it determined all advertising blocks and other forms of advertising to the second and compared them with the viewer figures. The result: the 35 stations broadcast a total of 29,600 hours of TV advertising in Switzerland in 2007.
As the PDAG has been carrying out this evaluation since 2004, there are further interesting findings - also in terms of media policy: From 2004 to 2006, the number of advertising minutes broadcast was roughly stable at around 28,000 hours. Last year, TV advertising in Switzerland suddenly increased by 1500 hours.
More spot time for SwitzerlandHowever, not all advertising was intended for the Swiss audience. But there has also been an increase in this respect: While only 56% of TV advertising volume was produced for Switzerland in 2005, this figure rose to 72% last year. It is therefore clear that Swiss TV advertising is increasingly blending in with foreign advertising. In contrast, the advertising time broadcast by SRG stations remained essentially stable, as did the volume of Swiss private stations.
According to PDAG, both developments - the generally increased advertising density as well as the volume growth among foreign private broadcasters - are primarily due to the new RTVA, which came into force on April 1, 2007. This gave private broadcasters more advertising freedom, including with regard to interstitial advertising. The fact that this was of little use to Swiss private broadcasters may initially come as a surprise. However, PDAG explains this with the repeat programs of most Swiss regional TVs. These only have short programs and are still not allowed to be interrupted. In short, it was primarily the advertising windows that benefited from the RTVA. As a result, even more advertising francs flowed abroad in 2007.
A PDAG sample in November, when advertising is at its strongest, more precisely in week 46, confirms this finding, at least for German-speaking Switzerland: of the advertising time broadcast for Switzerland by the channels Sat 1, RTL and Pro7 in 2006, interstitial advertising accounted for 16%, while hinge advertising (advertising between two programs) accounted for 84%. In 2007, this ratio was reversed: the proportion of interstitial advertising in the advertising windows rose to 93%, while the proportion of hinged advertising fell to 7%.
 
Markus Knöpfli

 
 
 
 
 
These forms of advertising were examinedFrom the 35 station protocols examined
PublicaData (PDAG) filtered out around 580,000 advertising units that were explicitly intended for the Swiss public. The latter can be divided into four categories: Firstly, classic commercial breaks, which accounted for 86.6 percent of the advertising units broadcast in November 2007 in terms of time. Secondly, permanent advertising programs, such as AutoTV on SF zwei, were included, accounting for 21.5 percent. A third category evaluated is the mostly short sponsorship inserts, such as the sponsorship clock before the SF1 news bulletin (0.2 percent). Special advertising (erotic or single spots on Vox or Sat1) also accounted for 0.2%. Special forms of advertising such as billboards or product placement, on the other hand, are not included. No analysis could be carried out for Ticino.  

Swiss watch less televisionTelevision usage in minutes
decreased significantly in all three parts of the country in 2007. In German-speaking Switzerland, viewing time per capita now stands at 139, 6.7 minutes less than in 2006. In Suisse romande, viewing time fell to 163 (minus seven minutes) and in Svizzera italiana to 173 minutes (also seven minutes less). (mk)