"Not a win-win situation"
Matthias Luchsinger on the loss of MTV to Goldbach Media
Matthias Luchsinger on the loss of MTV to Goldbach MediaCinecom boss Matthias Luchsinger, who lost MTV marketing to Goldbach Media on January 1, is not crying any tears for the music channel.Cinecom has no luck with youth-oriented media: MTV is already leaving Cinecom again.
Matthias Luchsinger: First of all, this statement needs to be put into perspective. With Kino and Close-up magazine, we still have a great deal of expertise in young media. That's why you can't say we have no luck with young media.
What do you think prompted MTV to switch to Goldbach Media?
Luchsinger: We were not prepared to make any financial guarantees to MTV. Especially in these times, it makes no sense to get involved in such risks. It is also not necessarily a sign of partnership thinking to demand overly far-reaching guarantees in such difficult times. In my view, MTV has done far too little for station marketing in Switzerland. The win-win constellation, which is necessary for a collaboration to be attractive at all, is also lost.
Cinecom seems to be struggling to position itself with other media besides cinema: Kult left in October 2001, followed by Radio 105 a year ago and Toaster in February 2002, which was discontinued at the time.
Luchsinger: In 2001, we made the strategic decision to concentrate on our core business, on the marketing of cinema and TV as well as the cinema magazine Close-up. In this context, we also broke away from Radio 105. The decision taken at that time in favor of the core business has already had a positive effect. With a lean organization, we succeeded in achieving a very good result in the cinema sector in 2002. We are also proud of the fact that we were able to keep all the major cinema owners under contract - despite Mediavision, which is competing with us from western Switzerland. We also managed to sign contracts with all the new multiplex cinemas in Switzerland.
On the other hand, Cinecom wants to promote its second core business, TV marketing. With the departure of MTV, TV sales are now shrinking again.
Luchsinger: We only lose 0.5 percent of our total sales with MTV. And we can more than compensate for this with Sat 1. Because we are experiencing very strong growth with Sat 1 - thanks to football and an expansion of the program window. Of course, we are also looking around for new potential TV partners.
Is Cinecom now forced to reduce its TV sales staff?
Luchsinger: No, because we haven't been cooking on a high heat for MTV for the past three or four months.
Interview: Daniel Schifferle
Matthias Luchsinger: First of all, this statement needs to be put into perspective. With Kino and Close-up magazine, we still have a great deal of expertise in young media. That's why you can't say we have no luck with young media.
What do you think prompted MTV to switch to Goldbach Media?
Luchsinger: We were not prepared to make any financial guarantees to MTV. Especially in these times, it makes no sense to get involved in such risks. It is also not necessarily a sign of partnership thinking to demand overly far-reaching guarantees in such difficult times. In my view, MTV has done far too little for station marketing in Switzerland. The win-win constellation, which is necessary for a collaboration to be attractive at all, is also lost.
Cinecom seems to be struggling to position itself with other media besides cinema: Kult left in October 2001, followed by Radio 105 a year ago and Toaster in February 2002, which was discontinued at the time.
Luchsinger: In 2001, we made the strategic decision to concentrate on our core business, on the marketing of cinema and TV as well as the cinema magazine Close-up. In this context, we also broke away from Radio 105. The decision taken at that time in favor of the core business has already had a positive effect. With a lean organization, we succeeded in achieving a very good result in the cinema sector in 2002. We are also proud of the fact that we were able to keep all the major cinema owners under contract - despite Mediavision, which is competing with us from western Switzerland. We also managed to sign contracts with all the new multiplex cinemas in Switzerland.
On the other hand, Cinecom wants to promote its second core business, TV marketing. With the departure of MTV, TV sales are now shrinking again.
Luchsinger: We only lose 0.5 percent of our total sales with MTV. And we can more than compensate for this with Sat 1. Because we are experiencing very strong growth with Sat 1 - thanks to football and an expansion of the program window. Of course, we are also looking around for new potential TV partners.
Is Cinecom now forced to reduce its TV sales staff?
Luchsinger: No, because we haven't been cooking on a high heat for MTV for the past three or four months.
Interview: Daniel Schifferle
