Swiss television switches to widescreen

Swiss Television (SF) is increasingly broadcasting and producing in the widescreen format 16:9. Various programs will switch to the new format by the end of August. These are "Schweiz aktuell", "MTV", the "Rundschau", "Meteo" and "glanz&gloria". The new format will also have its soccer premiere during the 2006 World Cup. Viewers who do not yet own an appropriate television set will see the soccer matches with a black upper and lower bar. This has brought Swiss television some criticism. The SonntagsZeitung, for example, said that TV sellers would be pleased with SF's decision, as they would sell more widescreen sets in the run-up to the World Cup. SF, on the other hand, says that the switch to widescreen is based on a so-called follower strategy. This means that the same proportion of programs will be broadcast in widescreen as people already have a 16:9 set. So far, 40 percent in German-speaking Switzerland own a widescreen TV, according to the "Inside SRG SSR" newsletter. SF has so far broadcast only 23 percent of its programs in the increasingly popular 16:9 cinema format. The trend cannot be stopped, however, and the majority of sets sold today are widescreen.