Radios boo and pool
Radio marketing Swiss private radio stations have formed new pools. The scene in French-speaking Switzerland is in turmoil.
Radio marketing Swiss private radio stations have formed new pools. The scene in French-speaking Switzerland is in turmoil.
The radio scene in French-speaking Switzerland was relatively quiet for four years. At the time, the Romandie pool was created with Radiotele mediation, a model that included practically all radio stations in the region and even most stations broadcasting from abroad. The customer was free to book only the large agglomerations on the Léman arc or to add other areas of French-speaking Switzerland. Two stations that were not included at the time - Lausanne FM and One FM - found refuge in the cross-lingual Swiss Radio Pool (SRP), but the industry has fallen out, which is why the pieces have had to be put together these days to form a completely new pool mosaic. It is as follows: The radios Rouge FM and Lac as well as the French stations Nostalgie and NRJ, which together covered the Lake Geneva arc and formed the basic module of the previous pool, are splitting off and partly going their separate ways (see below). The two additional modules, which operate under the updated pool name Jura-Plateau-Alpes (JPA), remain behind and almost without a Lake Geneva connection. Their basic module is called JPA City and covers the areas of Fribourg, Neuchâtel and Sion with the stations Fribourg (f), RTN and Rhône. The JPA City plus module, consisting of the Chablais, Fréquence Jura and Jura Bernois stations, can also be booked to reach the Monthey/Montreux, La Chaux-de-Fonds/Porrentruy and Delémont/Bienne areas. All six stations together have a daily reach of around 300,000 people and cost CHF 38.80 gross per second in morning prime time (7 to 8 a.m.).
And the renegades? The station Rouge FM, which covers the entire Lake Geneva basin as far as Chasseron and Payerne, recently acquired a majority stake in Radio Lac and has thus gained some strength in Geneva and Lausanne. However, the two stations are isolated on the French-speaking Swiss scene. The foreign stations Nostalgie, NRJ and Europe 2, on the other hand, some of which broadcast far into French-speaking Switzerland, are now joining forces with SRP members One FM and Lausanne FM to form a pool that can be freely combined. The five stations together reach 310300 Swiss listeners, the price has yet to be announced.
The disagreement behind the new pool constellation in French-speaking Switzerland has political and tariff-related reasons. According to research by Werbewoche, Rouge FM is at the heart of the dispute. The Swiss station is in the hands of Frenchman Hugues De Montfalcon, who recently also acquired a 60 percent stake in Radio Lac. At the same time, Edipresse also increased its stake in Lac from 10 to 25 percent. These expansions have been met with a sour reception in some quarters, partly because Rouge FM does not have a reputation for being particularly fair.
Strange staffing changesThe barrel overflowed when Rouge FM took over half the sales team of Media One Contact a few weeks ago. Media One Contact is the radio management of the stations One FM and Lausanne FM, which have been owned by industry newcomer Antoine De Raemy for two years. It is still unclear whether and how actively Rouge FM has poached Raemy's staff. Montfalcon and also Christophe Rasch, Head of Electronic Media at Edipresse, denied to the Ringier newspaper 24 heures that they had a hand in it. The fact is, however, that all nine people are now active at Rouge FM.
In German-speaking Switzerland, the radio industry is currently less divided, although some stations will also have to reorient themselves in 2007. The biggest upheaval was brought about by the Swiss Radio Pool (SRP), which broke up the previous Pool 2000 this fall by integrating the radio stations BE1 and Basel 1 and now has the two largest stations in Basel and Bern in its portfolio. The SRP German-speaking Switzerland has thus become a pool consisting exclusively of publisher radio stations (see also page 16). The only offside publisher station is Radio Munot, which is not part of any pool.
It remains to be seen what effect this publishing power on the airwaves will have on the advertising income of the other, somewhat scattered radio stations. The Pool 2000 orphans Emme, Beo and Regenbogen are the most exposed. One thing is certain at the moment: Top, Energy Zürich, Sunshine, Central and Ri will continue to offer a 20 percent discount on their own rates if they are booked in addition to at least four other radios. BeO will introduce a similar offer in 2007, and the station will also be able to lean on its big neighbor BE1 and form a local pool with it.
Rottu and Munot are different: they operate independently and do not grant a discount. However, Rottu still belongs to two pools, the tourism pool with BeO, Central and Grischa and the Rhodanic, which connects the German and French-speaking Valais. The situation of Emme, which is apparently still hoping for one or two collaborations, is unclear.
Markus Knöpfli
The radio scene in French-speaking Switzerland was relatively quiet for four years. At the time, the Romandie pool was created with Radiotele mediation, a model that included practically all radio stations in the region and even most stations broadcasting from abroad. The customer was free to book only the large agglomerations on the Léman arc or to add other areas of French-speaking Switzerland. Two stations that were not included at the time - Lausanne FM and One FM - found refuge in the cross-lingual Swiss Radio Pool (SRP), but the industry has fallen out, which is why the pieces have had to be put together these days to form a completely new pool mosaic. It is as follows: The radios Rouge FM and Lac as well as the French stations Nostalgie and NRJ, which together covered the Lake Geneva arc and formed the basic module of the previous pool, are splitting off and partly going their separate ways (see below). The two additional modules, which operate under the updated pool name Jura-Plateau-Alpes (JPA), remain behind and almost without a Lake Geneva connection. Their basic module is called JPA City and covers the areas of Fribourg, Neuchâtel and Sion with the stations Fribourg (f), RTN and Rhône. The JPA City plus module, consisting of the Chablais, Fréquence Jura and Jura Bernois stations, can also be booked to reach the Monthey/Montreux, La Chaux-de-Fonds/Porrentruy and Delémont/Bienne areas. All six stations together have a daily reach of around 300,000 people and cost CHF 38.80 gross per second in morning prime time (7 to 8 a.m.).
And the renegades? The station Rouge FM, which covers the entire Lake Geneva basin as far as Chasseron and Payerne, recently acquired a majority stake in Radio Lac and has thus gained some strength in Geneva and Lausanne. However, the two stations are isolated on the French-speaking Swiss scene. The foreign stations Nostalgie, NRJ and Europe 2, on the other hand, some of which broadcast far into French-speaking Switzerland, are now joining forces with SRP members One FM and Lausanne FM to form a pool that can be freely combined. The five stations together reach 310300 Swiss listeners, the price has yet to be announced.
The disagreement behind the new pool constellation in French-speaking Switzerland has political and tariff-related reasons. According to research by Werbewoche, Rouge FM is at the heart of the dispute. The Swiss station is in the hands of Frenchman Hugues De Montfalcon, who recently also acquired a 60 percent stake in Radio Lac. At the same time, Edipresse also increased its stake in Lac from 10 to 25 percent. These expansions have been met with a sour reception in some quarters, partly because Rouge FM does not have a reputation for being particularly fair.
Strange staffing changesThe barrel overflowed when Rouge FM took over half the sales team of Media One Contact a few weeks ago. Media One Contact is the radio management of the stations One FM and Lausanne FM, which have been owned by industry newcomer Antoine De Raemy for two years. It is still unclear whether and how actively Rouge FM has poached Raemy's staff. Montfalcon and also Christophe Rasch, Head of Electronic Media at Edipresse, denied to the Ringier newspaper 24 heures that they had a hand in it. The fact is, however, that all nine people are now active at Rouge FM.
In German-speaking Switzerland, the radio industry is currently less divided, although some stations will also have to reorient themselves in 2007. The biggest upheaval was brought about by the Swiss Radio Pool (SRP), which broke up the previous Pool 2000 this fall by integrating the radio stations BE1 and Basel 1 and now has the two largest stations in Basel and Bern in its portfolio. The SRP German-speaking Switzerland has thus become a pool consisting exclusively of publisher radio stations (see also page 16). The only offside publisher station is Radio Munot, which is not part of any pool.
It remains to be seen what effect this publishing power on the airwaves will have on the advertising income of the other, somewhat scattered radio stations. The Pool 2000 orphans Emme, Beo and Regenbogen are the most exposed. One thing is certain at the moment: Top, Energy Zürich, Sunshine, Central and Ri will continue to offer a 20 percent discount on their own rates if they are booked in addition to at least four other radios. BeO will introduce a similar offer in 2007, and the station will also be able to lean on its big neighbor BE1 and form a local pool with it.
Rottu and Munot are different: they operate independently and do not grant a discount. However, Rottu still belongs to two pools, the tourism pool with BeO, Central and Grischa and the Rhodanic, which connects the German and French-speaking Valais. The situation of Emme, which is apparently still hoping for one or two collaborations, is unclear.
Markus Knöpfli
