20 Minuten now focuses on weather and people on web TV
The online edition of 20 Minuten is following suit and expanding its TV offerings on the web: While the daily program «Blickpunkt» has been available on Blick Online since yesterday, the commuter newspaper is now offering a new weather program online. In addition, a celebrity show is in the works, set to launch in early November. The fact that Blick Online—still the most-visited media site in Switzerland—is now also producing web TV does not seem to worry 20minuten.ch CEO Peter Wälty all that much.
The online edition of 20 Minuten is following suit and expanding its TV offering on the web: While the daily program "Blickpunkt" has been available on Blick Online since yesterday, the commuter newspaper now offers a weather show online. A people program is also in the pipeline and is due to be launched at the beginning of November. Like the existing news programs on 20minuten.ch, the new formats will flicker across the screen in a new multimedia player, which the crew has been working on recently.
The weather show will be hosted by Peter Wick and updated twice a day. The planned people show will feature Swiss celebrities as well as international stars and starlets - so Britney Spears will also appear alongside Baschi. "We rarely have moving images of Swiss celebrities. Then we have to work with virtual animations of photos," explained Peter Wälty, head of the online editorial team, to Werbewoche.
The program will consist of both in-house work and film material from various agencies. "We will certainly send our own team to major national events such as the Miss Switzerland competition," says Wälty. It is not yet clear whether a presenter will lead through the program or whether a voice-over will provide commentary.
A mix of in-house productions and agency material also determines the existing range of web TV programs on 20 Minuten. The newsflash, which 20 Minuten updates three times a day, is produced by the online editorial team itself. Other contributions are bought in from Reuters.
Wälty does not believe that TV programs will replace text articles on his news site in the future: "TV formats are expensive to produce and therefore take longer to produce. But speed is a killer criterion on the Internet," says the online boss. In future, he and his team want to focus primarily on interaction and networking. "Instead of trying to copy traditional television, we want to exploit the possibilities of the Internet: A text contribution can be enriched with a commented 15-second spot, a program can be linked with commentary functions, dossiers or a survey".
The fact that Blick Online, still the most visited media site in Switzerland, is now also doing web TV doesn't seem to worry Wälty too much: "We would basically welcome it if we finally had a real competitor". In terms of orientation and target audience, they are in a similar segment, "but I often find the weighting of Blick Online difficult to understand: Now, on Tuesday lunchtime, the top news item on Blick.ch is 'Hugging banned at US schools'. Meanwhile, we open with 'Bomb alert in Basel', which is somehow more relevant for the reader". The entire relaunch of Blick Online obviously doesn't make too much of an impression on Wälty: "It's very pleasing that Blick has apparently been completely freed of annoying advertising to celebrate the launch. But all in all: a new hose for old wine. What's more, some of it looks familiar from somewhere else."
Wälty is more interested in the competition that will soon be coming from his own company: The Tages-Anzeiger wants to set up an online news network together with the Basler Zeitung and the Berner Zeitung. "If you add up their individual users, you already have a relatively high reach," said Wälty. "However, it remains to be seen how the market will actually behave," said Wälty. He could not yet estimate whether the three sites with the bundled reach would be attractive for the advertising market.
The weather show will be hosted by Peter Wick and updated twice a day. The planned people show will feature Swiss celebrities as well as international stars and starlets - so Britney Spears will also appear alongside Baschi. "We rarely have moving images of Swiss celebrities. Then we have to work with virtual animations of photos," explained Peter Wälty, head of the online editorial team, to Werbewoche.
The program will consist of both in-house work and film material from various agencies. "We will certainly send our own team to major national events such as the Miss Switzerland competition," says Wälty. It is not yet clear whether a presenter will lead through the program or whether a voice-over will provide commentary.
A mix of in-house productions and agency material also determines the existing range of web TV programs on 20 Minuten. The newsflash, which 20 Minuten updates three times a day, is produced by the online editorial team itself. Other contributions are bought in from Reuters.
Wälty does not believe that TV programs will replace text articles on his news site in the future: "TV formats are expensive to produce and therefore take longer to produce. But speed is a killer criterion on the Internet," says the online boss. In future, he and his team want to focus primarily on interaction and networking. "Instead of trying to copy traditional television, we want to exploit the possibilities of the Internet: A text contribution can be enriched with a commented 15-second spot, a program can be linked with commentary functions, dossiers or a survey".
The fact that Blick Online, still the most visited media site in Switzerland, is now also doing web TV doesn't seem to worry Wälty too much: "We would basically welcome it if we finally had a real competitor". In terms of orientation and target audience, they are in a similar segment, "but I often find the weighting of Blick Online difficult to understand: Now, on Tuesday lunchtime, the top news item on Blick.ch is 'Hugging banned at US schools'. Meanwhile, we open with 'Bomb alert in Basel', which is somehow more relevant for the reader". The entire relaunch of Blick Online obviously doesn't make too much of an impression on Wälty: "It's very pleasing that Blick has apparently been completely freed of annoying advertising to celebrate the launch. But all in all: a new hose for old wine. What's more, some of it looks familiar from somewhere else."
Wälty is more interested in the competition that will soon be coming from his own company: The Tages-Anzeiger wants to set up an online news network together with the Basler Zeitung and the Berner Zeitung. "If you add up their individual users, you already have a relatively high reach," said Wälty. "However, it remains to be seen how the market will actually behave," said Wälty. He could not yet estimate whether the three sites with the bundled reach would be attractive for the advertising market.
