TV broadcasters demand ban on rewinding for advertising

Catch-up TV has been available in Switzerland for five years and has become established with all network operators - i.e. Swisscom, UPC and others. Viewers can watch any program in the archive for up to seven days retrospectively without having to make recordings. This makes live television less attractive - and commercial breaks less relevant, as they are simply fast-forwarded.

Private TV broadcasters have little joy in the new viewing habits, as their vital advertising slots are becoming less attractive. 15 percent of today's TV viewing is time-shifted, every second advertising block is skipped - in 2014, advertising worth CHF 50 million was ignored, and the trend is rising. If the TV stations do not achieve the performance guarantees agreed with the advertising clients, the commercials have to be broadcast until the guaranteed number of viewers is reached.

Better tariff or ban on winding

As Schweiz am Sonntag writes in its current issue, the archive function is now facing drastic cuts. The legal basis for the function is regulated in the "common tariff 12" (GT 12) of the Suisseimage collecting society - and this expires at the end of the year. Negotiations are currently underway to reorganize the contracts and the private broadcasters are not willing to continue as before. According to 3+ boss Dominik Kaiser, Switzerland is currently the only country in the world where all channels are available in the archive. He demands: Either the network operators must conclude contracts with the broadcasters and purchase the rights at standard international market prices - or the new tariff should prohibit the skipping of advertising. Otherwise, Kaiser believes the existence of private broadcasters is threatened.

Pro7 Sat 1 and the RTL Group also want to stand up for the interests of advertising customers in the negotiations. SRG is also joining the call for fairer contracts: The aim is not a ban on catch-up TV, but fairer tariffs that better compensate for lost revenue, says SRG spokesman Simon Denoth to Schweiz am Sonntag.

With the current tariff model, Swisscom & Co. pay the broadcasters CHF 1.50 per month and user for the use of the 7-day archive. Roger Elsener, Managing Director TV at AZ Medien, agrees that this is far too little to compensate for the loss of advertising. He also demands: Increase the tariff or prevent fast-forwarding. Otherwise, legal action will be taken to clarify whether the function constitutes private copying. Background: The current legal interpretation of the joint tariff assumes that the TV archive is stored by the user - like private recordings on a recorder. Strictly speaking, however, the recordings are stored on the network operator's servers. If the archive function were no longer considered a private copy, the network operators would have to conclude a separate contract with each broadcaster. (hae)