RTSI loses legal dispute with Sergio Savoia

Former Ticino radio presenter Sergio Savoia has won the legal battle with RTSI over his dismissal in August 2001. The District Court as well as the Court of Appeal consider the dismissal to be unjustified.

 Former Ticino radio presenter Sergio Savoia has won the legal battle with RTSI over his dismissal in August 2001. The District Court and now also the Court of Appeal see the dismissal as unjustified. The Court of Appeal ruled that RTSI's allegations against Savoia did not stand up. The latter was accused of excessively visiting porn sites on the Internet during his working hours. Savoia did not deny having clicked on relevant sites, but not to the extent alleged. On the grounds of preparing a satirical-critical Internet broadcast, he had been given access to sites that were blocked for other RTSI employees by a filter. 
Savoia will receive around 55,000 francs in compensation from the RTSI. As the RTSI writes in a statement, the case "has been substantially settled for a long time.
". The 21-page verdict of the Court of Appeal has been taken note of and no comments will be made for reasons of personal privacy. As Sergio Savoia writes in a statement, he is glad that he has also received justice in the second instance. However, the verdict cannot undo all the inconvenience he and his family have suffered as a result of the summary dismissal. Savoia, 44, now works as the executive director of an environmental organization. He also represents the Green Party in the Ticino cantonal parliament.

The dream home builds on the web

Immobilien I Wohntraum-TV, produced by Primetime in Schlieren, is expanding and can now also be seen online.

 
Immobilien I Wohntraum-TV, produced by Primetime in Schlieren, is expanding and can now also be seen online. 
 
With around 200,000 viewers per week, Wohntraum-TV is the most important electronic information platform for people looking for real estate in Switzerland. The 17-minute television magazine is produced by Primetime in Schlieren. The real estate magazine can be seen on the private channels Tele Züri, Tele Top and Tele Südostschweiz. Producer René Schoch has now extended his radius of action. The full-length magazine can now also be seen online at www.wohntraum.tv. Five years after its launch, the latest edition of Wohntraum-TV is now available online as a web video for anyone interested in real estate around the clock and no longer only during the previous off-peak hours on private television. The TV real estate magazine about building, living and life is presented by Bernhard Stotz. The properties presented in the TV magazine are also published on the website of partner homegate.ch. In addition to consumer goods brands, other partners of the magazine include Zürcher Kantonalbank, the Zurich Homeowners Association (HEV), Elektrizitätswerke Kanton Zürich EKZ and the Tages-Anzeiger newspaper. Other media partners include Etzelverlag, which publishes magazines such as Bauen & Wohnen heute and Raum und Wohnen.
The advertisements from the TV magazine are also summarized each month in a Wohntraum-TV-Gazette, which can be downloaded from the Wohntraum-TV website.
The obviously attractive form of real estate presentation on TV is arousing competition. The real estate portal www.homegate.ch has also announced its own TV show on the web for September. However, Homegate is still linked to Wohntraum-TV, as confirmed by Primetime. The newly planned moving presentations on Homegate will be launched in collaboration with Moby Dick Productions. The Homegate TV program will be hosted and produced by Olivier Laube. He previously held the same position at Wohntraum-TV. Laube's Moby Dick Productions will be responsible for marketing Homegate-TV.
This online real estate show is also produced weekly and is intended as an infotainment show about real estate. At seven minutes, it is somewhat shorter, but will also present real estate properties in the form of TV commercials and communicate the latest trends in interior design.
 
Andreas Panzeri

Stopper succeeds Jufer

Research: Net-Metrix’s Internet panel is up and running, and now there’s a change in leadership. Markus Jufer, who has spent the last three and a half years establishing and getting Net-Metrix Tracking—the Internet panel of Net-Metrix AG—up and running, will be joining the Canton of Zurich as project manager for e-government effective the beginning of August.

 
Research The Net-Metrix Internet panel is up and running, and now there is a change of management. Markus Jufer, who has spent the last three and a half years setting up and running Net-Metrix Tracking, the Internet panel of Net-Metrix AG, is moving to the Canton of Zurich at the beginning of August as e-government project manager. The sociologist and business economist will help to implement the canton's e-government strategy, which is currently being consulted on. His previous role as Product Manager Net-Tracking will be taken over on August 4 by Andreas Stopper, who previously worked at the Link market research institute.
Jufer had started to set up the internet panel as part of the SRG research service. With the founding of Net-Metrix, the internet research service of SRG, Wemf and the IT association Simsa, the panel was integrated as part of the joint internet research model. While the two other modules, Net-Metrix-Audit and Net-Metrix-Profile, have been providing data on Internet usage for some time now, the creation of the panel and, above all, the development of the measurement software took longer than expected. However, the panel has been collecting data since March of this year and is currently still being reviewed.
And they will be made available to the market by the beginning of August at the latest, says Net-Metrix CEO Manuel Dähler. An evaluation tool is also available. In addition to the site-centric measurement Net-Metrix-Audit and the online survey Net-Metrix-Profile, the tracking module provides a complete picture of all domains accessed by the approximately 3,000 panelists from their home PCs, according to Dähler. (mk)

The end of a world

Column: The old guard is stepping down, readers are leaving, circulation is dwindling, and ad revenue is plummeting: Is this crisis an opportunity for the global newspaper *Le Monde*? It’s the last one anyway.

 
Column The old-timers are resigning, readers are leaving, the volume is dwindling, the advertisements are dwindling: crisis as an opportunity at Le Monde? It's the last one anyway. Jürg Altwegg on the deep crisis at the prestigious newspaper Le Monde. 
The legend of Robin Hood does not end well. The heroic warrior shoots one last arrow and is buried where he fell to the ground. An employee of the newspaper Le Monde drew Robin Hood. Last May, he emailed a strategy paper from his new bosses in the editorial office and management to the public: 129 jobs were to be cut. Almost a third of the editorial positions will be cut. The hardest hit is culture, which will only have two pages a day. The weekly literary supplement will have to do without two editors and many flat-rate staff. Its size will be reduced from twelve to eight and then four pages. The newspaper, which has already successfully slimmed down, will become even thinner: a thousand pages per year will be cut. The dear competition took it on board and gave it the necessary echo. May was almost as stormy at Le Monde as it was forty years ago, when the course was set for a new company.
General meetings, leaflets, strikes. The employees, usually lone fighters, even took to the streets. Le Monde was not published three times. The editorial team regularly reports on the internal conflict on the Internet and in the newspaper - the Libération article has also been adopted.
A world is coming to an end. The employees now only have a majority on paper in the company, whose structure is extremely complicated, barely manageable and even less controllable. There are many reasons for the crisis: The paper, which has a reputation for arrogance, has angered readers. The long-standing management team has accumulated a huge mountain of debt of around one hundred and fifty million euros with its acquisition strategy. The newspaper is in the red every year. Any other company in this situation would have had to file for bankruptcy or would have been sold.
Two buyers who already have minority stakes are waiting in the wings: The Spanish newspaper El Pais and the magazine publisher Hachette, which is owned by Sarkozy's special interest Arnaud Lagardère. The latter would be a serious blow to independent journalism in France. Lagardère has publicly accused the new editor-in-chief of Monde, Eric Fottorino, of incompetence. The cost-cutting measures would only accelerate the decline. Lagardère (El Pais also repeated the willingness to buy at the stupidest moment) has thus above all incited the editorial team's willingness to compromise.
The latter has now agreed on the strategy paper published by Robin Hood. They are relying on the Internet. Le Monde has the better solution here than Le Figaro and Libération, which are not doing much better. Lemonde.fr has long been in the black thanks to the reputation and expertise of the print editorial team. And perhaps the mixed calculation, which is currently not working out mainly due to the costs of the printed newspaper, will soon be correct.
Conversely, the Internet has freed Le Monde from arrogant autism. Blogs and chats are an exemplary way of exploiting the possibilities of interactivity. For six euros a month, you can read the entire content of the daily newspaper and access 25 articles in the archive. That's the price of four printed editions. However, Le Monde cannot yet be financed with this income from the Internet. Le Monde will only be saved when all subscribers and newsstand buyers of the world newspaper switch to lemonde.fr. Then there will no longer be a printed edition. The paper is already a luxury.
Eric Fottorino can't really imagine that yet. After all, the editor-in-chief is not interested in preservation at any price. He wants to lead Le Monde into the future as a brand. It stands for quality journalism, which all of the country's elites have always followed. But this will not be possible without further rounds of savings. By the beginning of July, many candidates had volunteered for voluntary redundancy thanks to generous severance packages. Even some of the paper's noble feathers and renowned editors. It is the generation of the sixty-eight who can only imagine a newspaper in print. This may be an opportunity for the new concept, but a lot of experience and prestige will be lost.
When Robin Hood informed the public, he chose his pseudonym carefully and as a symbol of the savings plan: The injured hero was supposed to be bled by his cousin. But she cut his artery.
Jürg Altwegg is a correspondent for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
in Geneva.

The White House of Dietikon

Real Estate II Irene Jost Culture Art Communications has been looking for new ideas for marketing real estate.

 
Real Estate II Irene Jost Culture Art Communications has been looking for new ideas for marketing real estate. 
From a brownish 1960s building to a gleaming white house with spacious apartment layouts, high-quality materials and an attractive interior: a residential building in Dietikon ZH is being completely renovated by UBS. In line with the new strategy of giving real estate an independent communicative identity, the bright white inspired the Culture Art Communications agency to come up with the "White House" communication idea, which on the one hand fits sociologically: the rental apartments in Dietikon, which are still very inexpensive compared to the city of Zurich, are likely to be a stopover for many people on their way to owning their own home. The "starter apartments for up-and-comers" evoke associations with the White House in Washington. Here, too, decisions are made about the future living space of new immigrants. At the same time, practical aspects can also be communicated in a particularly memorable way. Irene Jost, for example, says: "The White House promotes peace because every apartment has its own washing tower." The White House also lowers the prime rate: significantly lower rents than in Zurich. The Weisses Haus reduces CO2 emissions: the café and dry cleaners are also accessible without a car. The White House also facilitates the naturalization of Germans: Aldi just around the corner.
The advertising for the White House has taken up all these arguments with a wink. The logo is a veritable government emblem - with a gleaming white origami swan as a reference to the nearby Limmat promenade. And the individual topics are dealt with on photographed letter and document sheets, with titles such as "On the state of the nation", "Interior department", "Expansion protocol" or - in the case of the housing price comparison - "Spy report Dietikon vs Zurich".
A comprehensive website, the initial rental dossier, the commercial space flyer and the scaffolding sheets are lively working tools for the marketer Livit, which is marketing the 43 apartments, 45 parking spaces and the commercial space as of November 08 or May 09.
Andreas Panzeri

Very good advertising May

Mediafocus: Compared to the previous year, advertising volume has risen by 8.4 percent to a total of 411,900. The cumulative increase since the beginning of the year is 9.6 percent.

     
 
Mediafocus Compared to the previous year, advertising pressure rose by 8.4% to a total of 411,900. The cumulative increase since the beginning of the year is 9.6%. With an increase of 79.7%, consumer electronics/photos/films recorded one of the strongest growth rates. Telecommunications is also positive with a plus of 17.6%. Another winner is the beverages sector with a plus of 17.6%. In addition, the advertising markets of political campaigns (+148.7%), watches and jewelry (+24.0%) and pharmaceuticals/health (+36.8%) showed a positive development in advertising pressure compared to the same month last year. 
 
 

Cross-media appearance for Anthrazit

Magazine Anthrazit, the magazine for the Internet, mobile devices, and digital life, is strengthening its position as a cross-media platform with a mobile portal that combines a smart web guide, personal website favorites, digital business cards for members, and more.

 
Magazine Anthrazit, the magazine for Internet, mobile and digital life, is strengthening its position as a cross-media platform with a mobile portal that combines an intelligent web guide, personal favorites for websites, digital business cards for members and much more. GGK was commissioned to publicize the new portal during the Orbit-iEX trade fair and to attract new members. To this end, the agency developed the advertisement, web banners, trade fair stand design and the concept for a member-get-member program at Mühle Tiefenbrunnen.

Embellished balance sheets

Wirtschaftsmagazine Wirz accompanies the relaunch of Bilanz with a cheeky little beard and gel in his hair.

 
Wirtschaftsmagazine Wirz accompanies the relaunch of Bilanz with a cheeky little beard and gel in his hair. 
The 10/08 issue of the business magazine Bilanz at the end of May featured a new look for the first time: with equally subtle but effective adaptations to the signs of the times. Editor-in-chief Dirk Schütz and Ralph Büchi, who is responsible for the magazine as a whole, impressed the readers with a revised magazine architecture, new sections and new journalistic formats. In addition to well-researched stories, this includes regular stories and interviews with the top shots in the Swiss economy.
At Wirz, these stars were seen as the best potential for a visual testimonial that had to work without a lot of words or false promises. "You don't have to explain the balance sheet to anyone," says CD Hanspeter Schweizer. He therefore naturally worked with the format of the now changed title page for the advertisements. It is immediately obvious that it is about the balance sheet because the graphic has incorporated all the important elements of the typography.
The leading Swiss business magazine has given itself a new look and become more "reader-friendly". Translated into the language of advertising, this means "more attractive". This is therefore also the idea behind Wirz's launch campaign: the newly embellished balance sheet is also reflected in the faces of the magazine's protagonists. Deutsche Bank boss Joe Ackermann stands out with his trendy goatee. Federal Councillor Moritz Leuenberger makes an exceptionally relaxed impression with his foulard, sideburns and fashionable glasses. Marcel Ospel, former head of UBS, not only has what it takes to be a documentary star with his well-groomed appearance of a British aristocrat.
Of course, the creative minds at Wirz were unable to work with the real Ospel and Leuenberger for the successful styling. The graphics only used the real faces of the business giants. To this end, the new attributes were tested and photographed on selected physical doubles together with stylist Clifford Lilley and Barbara Grundmann-Roth from Hair & Make-up. Finally, the various images were mixed on the computer.
The aim was not clowning or even denigration. Accordingly, none of the beautified people protested. At the time of going to press for this last advertising week before the vacations, it was not yet known whether Leuenberger actually intends to rub some gel into his hair during his vacation. Instead, we are looking forward to our own new styling, which will be available for the first time on August 21.
NZZOnline has also taken up Wirz's campaign and launched an article about the "misappropriated Federal Councillor". The competitor of Bilanz complained that pictures of celebrities should "always serve information purposes or as an illustration of a fact". Nevertheless, the NZZ showed a certain understanding for the tongue-in-cheek campaign. The online nephew of the old aunt formulated more criticism of last year's campaign for the vote on the 5th IV revision, in which the Swiss Federation of Trade Unions mounted the heads of federal councillors on the bodies of disabled people.
An image campaign will continue in the fall around the balance sheet. Politically correct? We can look forward to it.
Andreas Panzeri

Alufoil Trophy 09

Award There will be another Alufoil Trophy in 2009.

 
Award There will be another Alufoil Trophy in 2009.  
The Trophy awards for manufacturers and users of aluminum foil cover all market segments and product areas. These can be aluminum foil trays, flexible packaging, lids and labels from pharmaceutical to industrial packaging. The Alufoil Trophy is organized by the European Aluminium Association EAFA. It is open to packaging designers, brand owners and retailers as well as foil rollers and converters and manufacturers of flexible packaging and foil containers. The Alufoil Trophy is awarded for aluminium foil-based packaging solutions that stand out in terms of innovation, product protection, convenience, design or environmental protection. New products can be entered regardless of the application. The only requirement is the use of aluminum foil. A further condition is that the packaging must have been launched on the market after January 1, 2007. There is no entry fee. The closing date for entries is October 31, 2008. Further information can be found at (sf)

Advertising for 25 years ad-free zone

Anniversary Zurich's Radio Lora has been broadcasting for 25 years. 25 agencies congratulate it on its birthday with 25 posters.

 
Anniversary Zurich's Radio Lora has been broadcasting for 25 years. 25 agencies congratulate it on its birthday with 25 posters. 
Radio Lora, which emerged from the Zurich Opera House riot in 1981, is 25 years old this year. To mark its birthday, Switzerland's oldest private radio station has come up with a series of projects to make itself known beyond the left-wing alternative circle in the Zurich area. This resulted in a somewhat curious collaboration between the commercial-free radio station and 25 advertising agencies. During this congratulatory tour, all the agencies invited were allowed to design an F-12 poster to their own taste.  
 
Take a look at
the 25 posters.  
 
"The result is overwhelming in every respect," says Radio Lora happily after reviewing the work. One almost blushes at the commitment shown to the small radio station: Countless agencies, photographers, illustrators, picture editors, lithographers and printers have worked for God's wages.
So it all turned out well, and the work of freelance copywriter Anne-Catherine Eigner has paid off. The project began for her on January 18. Since then, many bites and bytes have flowed through the Internet. But now the posters can be seen all over Zurich.
The aim of the campaign is to generate fresh interest in Radio Lora, draw attention to its focus and services, strengthen its presence in the city and attract as much attention as possible. And, of course, to attract new members and donors to the Radio Lora association.
As has just become known, Lora is one of the first radios to have its license renewed by the Uvek.
Even 25 years after its first broadcast, Lora sees itself as a genuine alternative in the media landscape. Radio Lora is the result of a great deal of commitment from everyone involved. After the spontaneous, uncoordinated beginnings, radio operations are now much more structured. The paid positions are distributed among seven employees with different workloads, who together form the operating group. Radio Lora has been an experiment for 25 years, run by around 300 committed people in 20 different languages. The broadcasts are made by "people who have something to say that perhaps cannot be said anywhere else in this form". For the many non-German-speaking people in the greater Zurich area, Radio Lora not only offers a radio home, but also the opportunity to integrate into their host country by working in a radio station. This is why many of Radio Lora's projects (intercultural regulars' table, Babelingo Radio Festival of Multilingualism) are supported by well-known organizations.
After all, Radio Lora is also a springboard - many of those involved later find their way to paid jobs in radio, TV or newspapers.
Andreas Panzeri, Michael Koller
 

Off to the Radio Stone Age

Radio marketing The Publisuisse subsidiary Mediasense did not yet change the radio market as planned.

 
Radio marketing The Publisuisse subsidiary Mediasense did not yet change the radio market as planned. 
July 1 marked one year since SRG marketer Publisuisse entered the radio marketing business - not directly, but through its subsidiary Mediasense, in which the 16 stations of the Swiss Radio Pool (SRP) also hold a 49 percent stake. Bernhard Krättli, who as commercial director at Radio BE1 had long helped shape the radio scene and also commented critically on it, was chosen as managing director. Publisuisse, Krättli and SRP-Radios then stepped up with the claim to put an end to the previous predatory strategy of the marketers Radiotele (PubliGroupe) and IP Multimedia (Goldbach Media) as a weighty third force. The goal, Krättli said at the time, was to capture additional market share for radio as an advertising medium. Mediasense actually set a good example: for the first time, radios had a stake in their joint marketer, which nevertheless waived an exclusive lease. Even more: Krättli promised a uniform agency commission (AC) for all intermediaries, Mediasense included (!), provided they would book the acquired advertising via the Publiplan online booking platform. Publiplan had been made available by Publisuisse as an industry tool to simplify the handling of the radio medium. But today, one year after the market entry of Mediasense, disillusionment is spreading, especially among SRP radio stations. "The performance of Mediasense is not where it should be according to budget planning," states Beat Meyer, CEO of Basler Zeitung Medien, to which SRP Radio Basel 1 belongs. Although Mediasense became number two among radio intermediaries, it remained far behind market leader IP. This is surprising, since the company has SRP in its portfolio. In terms of reach and price per thousand contacts, this is probably the most interesting radio offering for national customers. In fact, however, the SRP is only booked relatively rarely via Mediasense and Publiplan. Which does not mean that demand is low. But market leader IP refuses to book the SRP via Publiplan (see interview with Michi Frank). If a customer nevertheless wants SRP, IP books the corresponding SRP radios individually - and by fax, as in the Stone Age. As a result, the SRP radios are not even doing too badly in terms of earnings at the moment. Some are at least holding their own at the previous year's level.
Financial injection for MediasenseNevertheless, no one is happy because, conversely, Mediasense is limping along: both Publisuisse and SRP-Radios have already had to grant the young start-up its first loans. Andreas Meili, representative of SRP-Radios on the Mediasense board of directors, is placating: "These additional funds are not very high, considering that we want to change market structures with our company that have grown over two decades." There is also "the clear intention among all shareholders to continue Mediasense in order to avoid a marketing monopoly in the medium of radio".
Something else gnaws at the self-confidence of SRP radios: Their company suffered an ideational setback. Instead of the intended market expansion, the trench warfare among the intermediaries became more aggressive. They chase customers away from each other in the best Wild West manner and put the radios under pressure. As is so often the case in this scene, loyalty to rates falls by the wayside. Some customers and agencies have already turned their backs on radio. Philip Hofmann, sales manager of Radio24 and TeleZüri, speaks of an "unsatisfactory and relatively muddled situation in the national advertising market". Only thanks to a focus on the local market and a new, motivated sales crew had it been possible to compensate for the lack of national sales. The managing director of another SRP radio station, however, is in despair: "The radio industry is screwed," he says.
No fear of taboosMediasense is not to blame for the desolate situation. The radio market has been sick for some time. But the market entry of the Publisuisse subsidiary has accentuated the development. Also because of some "construction deficiencies", as even the SRP radios themselves admit. The following main deficiencies are mentioned: The fact that the SRG holds the majority in Mediasense via Publisuisse reduces its acceptance in the market. In addition, the mediation commission granted by Mediasense is too low, making it unattractive for Mediasense competitors to actively mediate the SRP. Furthermore, thanks to Publiplan, Mediasense would gain detailed and, above all, one-sided insight into the booking strategies of its competitors. In short, a company that is set up in this way cannot take on the platform role it was intended to play. Working groups have therefore been formed to address these weaknesses. The fact that the matter is apparently being approached without taboos - even the SRP construct, which excludes various radios, is to be up for discussion - is hopeful. But because of the current licensing phase and the associated uncertainty about the future shape of the radio scene, no upheavals are to be expected at Mediasense for the time being. The uncertain situation is also not at all conducive to the morale of radio operators, but is rather one of the reasons for a lack of tariff compliance.
 
Markus Knöpfli
 
 
 
Thanks to market power, pressure and freespace?since the IP has given the SRP
books directly with the radios, bypassing Mediasense, the customer must pay the higher individual rate and cannot benefit from the pool discount - unless the IP passes the booking on to the customer at the pool price. "In this case, however, the question arises as to how it finances this in the long term. And there are legal questions, since offering below cost prices on a permanent basis can be unfair under the Unfair Competition Act," says Andreas Meili.Several variants of IP's financing model are being heard in the industry: The IP demands the same discount from the SRP radios for individual bookings as for pool bookings. Or it takes the right to book at the lower local rate. In addition, it is structuring the intermediary commission at the radios in such a way that it grows even with increasing sales. There is also talk of free space, which is granted to the IP. If this is not enough, the IP compensates the customer for the lost pool discount with a multiple of TV free space in the advertising windows.
Of course, hardly any radio station admits to its own disloyalty to the tariff. Only one operator admits off the record that it is cowering in order not to spoil things with the all-powerful IP.
You can hear it everywhere, including the agencies: IP is consolidating its leading role in the radio market by offering its customers TV freespace, if they, in turn, would entrust it with the radio volume. (mk)
 
 
 
SRP: Who's in - and who's outFollowing 15 FM radios.
today belong to the Swiss Radio Pool (SRP): Radio 24, Radio 32, Argovia, Basel 1, Basilisk, BE1, Capital FM, Canal 3, FM1, Grischa, Pilatus, Toxic FM, Zürisee and, in French-speaking Switzerland, the radios Lausanne FM and One FM.In contrast, a total of 20 FM radios remained outside the SRP door, namely Radio 1, BeO, Central, Freiburg/Fribourg, Munot, Rottu, Sunshine, Top and Energy Zürich, which is marketed by IP; in Ticino, Radios 3iii and Fiume Ticino; and in western Switzerland, Radios Chablais, Cité, Fréquence Jura, Jura Bernois, Lac, Meyrin, Rhône, Rouge FM and RTN. (mk)

«We're separating radio from TV»

Michi Frank, CEO of IP Multimedia, explains why he avoids Mediasense—and how he covers the additional costs.

 
Michi Frank, CEO of IP Multimedia, explains why he avoids Mediasense—and how he covers the additional costs. 
WW: One year of Mediasense—what’s your assessment so far? Michi Frank:
Just as we did a year ago, we remain convinced that the SRG should not be responsible for marketing private radio stations, nor does this fall within its core competencies. The SRG should not use license fee revenue to get a company off the ground, but rather to sell the public television stations and their radio sponsorship opportunities. The rest should be left to the private broadcasters. We also wonder why the SRP stations aren’t the owners of Mediasense—after all, their original intention was to establish a marketing firm for the SRP. Do you fear that Mediasense might be cross-subsidized with license fee money? I’m not suggesting that cross-subsidization is taking place. I simply assume that the company cannot operate financially under those conditions. I do not know how or by whom it is actually financed. If SRG/Publisuisse were to co-finance Mediasense or provide services to Mediasense at below-market rates, we would consider that cross-subsidization.
What else do you criticize about the SRP or Mediasense? Nothing—as long as the playing field is level. Of course, we had a different idea: a pool comprising all radio stations, where the client decides for themselves which stations they want to book. Now, the SRP just looks different: certain stations are included, others aren’t.
Is the Mediasense agent commission sufficient? No, it's too low and not in line with market rates.
SRP radio stations say that IP bypasses Mediasense. If a client wants the SRP, they book the SRP radio spots individually. The correct statement is: We do not book through Publiplan, nor will we in the future. Because if we were to use that tool, all of our customers’ raw data would be stored there. We don’t want that. That’s why we prefer to continue booking via fax or email.
In that case, you'll need to make individual bookings. However, the customer will not receive the pool discount. The customer will still be eligible for all discounts, just as they would be with Mediasense.
And who pays the 20 percent difference between the individual rate and the pool price? That's up to IP; I don't want to comment on it further.
Do you ask SRP radio stations for a 20 percent discount on individual bookings? No.
Do you have a revenue-based agent commission with the individual members of the Swiss Radio Pool? We have many revenue-based commission agreements. But these aren't mandatory.
Or do you allow customers to book at the local rate instead of the national rate? No. We are not a local travel agency.
Are you offsetting the discount by offering customers Freespace on TV? No. I categorically deny that. It’s been written about ten times already, but it’s not true. We keep those two things separate. But listen, are you trying to make us out to be the bad guys?
No, I want to highlight what works in the radio market and what doesn’t. Mediasense isn’t working quite right because it has flaws. They want to fix those. Another reason, however, is that IP bypasses Mediasense. That’s your right. The question is, though, how you’re going to pay for it. Because that has consequences for the entire radio market. In any case, nothing is being financed through TV Freespace. We’re handling it ourselves.
How big is your war chest? We don't have a war chest. We do objective planning.
Interview: Markus Knöpfli
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