SRG competition: Two new channels in French-speaking Switzerland

New regional television formats from private providers are currently being launched in French-speaking Switzerland. In Vaud and Fribourg, La Télé wants to compete with the SRG stations. La Télé is the result of the merger of the former Vaud regional broadcasters ICI TV, Canal Nord Vaudois and TVRL. The award of the license means that the station, which is mainly supported by Edipresse and the publisher of the Fribourg daily newspaper La Liberté, will go beyond the Vaud region and will also be active in the canton of Fribourg. According to its own information, the station has 800,000 potential viewers in the concession area and thus covers a considerable part of the main broadcasting area of the SRG channels TSR1 and TSR2. In the first phase, the focus is now on convincing the population in Vaud and Fribourg of the benefits of the cross-cantonal channel.
For the time being, 40 employees - including 15 journalists - and CHF 6.4 million are available for the production of the programs. The budgeted income is only 5.5 million. Of this, 3.2 million will come from license fees. The structural deficit is to be reduced in the medium term by increasing advertising income.

Canal 9 wants to break down the language barrier in the Upper Valais
In Valais, the Canal 9 channel is now also broadcasting programs in German for the Upper Valais. The station, which until now has only been anchored in the French-speaking part of the canton, broadcast a half-hour information program in German for the first time today, Monday. The program will include news, a weather report and current affairs pictures without commentary. In two years' time, the program for the Upper Valais should last an hour.
According to the license application, Canal 9 sees itself as a bridge builder between the two parts of the canton. In order to live up to this intention, both the German and French editorial teams are required to cover a topic from the other part of the canton every day.