New agreement between the audiovisual industry and SRG

Last Friday, the presidents of the most important audiovisual production associations in Switzerland and SRG Director General Armin Walpen signed an agreement governing cooperation between SRG, its business units and the various players in the field of television production and technical assistance. In the agreement, the parties reaffirm their intention to promote high-quality audiovisual production in Switzerland, to stimulate competition between independent producers of television programs and to promote the diversity of offerings. In particular, the parties have decided to outsource technical production services and the production of so-called turnkey programs by mutual agreement, thereby supporting the audiovisual industry in Switzerland, as SRG announced on Tuesday.
Since 1998, SRG has invested almost CHF 220 million as part of the Pacte de l'audiovisuel. This contribution will be increased by CHF 1.5 million in 2009 and by CHF 500,000 each in 2010 and 2011. This means that the Pacte will have an annual support contribution of CHF 22.3 million in 2011.

The contracting parties
The contracting parties include the Association of Swiss Film and Audiovisual Industries (FTB/ASITIS), the Swissfilm Association (SFA), the Syndicat Suisse Film et Vidéo (SSFV), the Group of Authors, Directors and Producers (GARP) and the Swiss Film Producers' Association (SFP). On the SRG side, these are the SF, TSR, RSI and RTR business units, the TV Productioncenter Zürich and the MSC organizational unit.
The agreement refers to the cooperation required by Art. 17 of the SRG license of 28 November 2007 and supplements Art. 16, 18 and 19, which provide for comparable services for Swiss music and film production.